Recruitment: International companies are screaming

and I would not be surprised if there were an informal agreement to suppress market rates

Me neither.

But paying the equivalent of three-months’ salary for a spotty 22-year-old to a recruiter is just offensive to most CEOs.

Then…

In this environment, every employee counts.

I kinda feel like this article is dancing around to avoid making its point. If every employee counts, then CEOs shouldn't turn up their noses at paying for young talent. If they are afraid to get saddled with an under-performing new recruit, then that points to a failure in their recruiting process that they cannot identify and/or train up under-performing recruits.

Reducing the market to the US hire-and-fire model will not work by government fiat.

Where is the evidence to support this claim? Surely many are afraid of the US model, but that doesn't mean it can't work.

Hire older experienced working people looking to change careers. That works in the US. Smart people who are in their late 30's to middle 50's looking to take on something new. They often already have good business sense and manners, they are willing to take new opportunities at a little less entrance pay to start something fresh. End ageism in Japan and start opening doors to older people looking to work hard and make a difference.

I have many friends in the US who have changed careers later in life. Most are doing great in new tech companies, creative work, new areas of management. But none of them could get those new opportunities here because ageism would close the door to their talent and energy.

Seems the same as other countries, Looking for some one with; 20 years education, 10 years experiance who is 22 years old.

The companies are victims of their own practices. In the old days, they used to train their uni grads, including liberal arts majors, to fit their corporate mold... and it worked because they controlled and tailored this critical process. But now they refuse to do that. They would rather cut in-house training costs and divert the saved money into the pockets of their shareholders.

The corporates now want unis, -- grad schools in particular -- to do the specialized vocational training and for the students to foot the bill. And so now the corporates are crying about this system they created for themselves, while raking in the highest profilts in human history! Gimme a break

Well, boo-hoo. So you can't get exactly want you want all the time, eh? That's life.

Many issues with this piece.

What is lacking is not the people, but the talent. In what one Delphi Network member described as the “Japan Rushing Phenomenon”, everyone is suddenly looking for the same smart, bilingual, self-starting staff.

No one is rushing here. In fact, talent is leaving. Build a job market whereby companies mass hire hundreds of 'blank canvases' year and this is the result. Brain-dead 'yes men' & victimised women in the workforce. Japan is stuck in the 1950s.

In this environment, every employee counts. Nobody can afford to drag around an under-performing employee.

Well, has the writer worked in Japan? Or is the entire piece based on a conversation with someone 'familiar with the matter' (ie. purely subjective & anecdotal)? Employees are drones in Japanese firms. Company first, oyajis second, workers somewhere at the bottom.

Japanese multinationals are waking up to the need to upgrade their HR. Dentsu, one of Japan’s most reactionary companies, is suddenly realising it gets most of its revenue from abroad

Dentsu has a 115 year history in Japan. No amount of gaiatsu is ever going to change the way they do things. Nor any old-school Japanese company for that matter.

If Dentsu were smart, they'd keep things at Aegis (UK-based - $6bn acquisition in 2013) the way they've always been. Imposing Japanese corporate culture on foreign entities (in foreign countries) does not work. And vice versa.

Unqualified young people are thrown on the front lines.

It's not only the young people. It's the merry-go-round transfer system in Japan that baffles me to no end. Accountants in marketing, system engineers in HR - the list goes on & on. Let's face it, Japanese companies do not want to hire mid-career professionals. It's going for broke with the 'ground-up' organic approach or nothing.

One member told us about a non-Japanese company that is bleeding its staff because 100% of them are on temporary contracts — these are much cheaper for the company, as it does not have to pay social security. Retention of good staff under these conditions is impossible.

Well, as the saying goes - pay peanuts and you get monkeys. This mantra has been the core of corporate Japan for decades. Sure, the same could be said in most capitalist economies, but Japan has the added weight of a oyaji-dominated corporate world with a 40%+ temp workforce.

Just look at English school in Japan. English teachers often cop a hard time on this website, but let's look at it from a different angle. These schools survive solely by the loopholes they exploit. They rely entirely on workers coming here on working holiday visas & then leaving after their 12 months is up. Wouldn't be in business for 10mins if Japan had a functioning legal system.

The real resentment among CEOs is the lack of ‘cannon fodder’

Wow. Nice to know these CEO's value and respect "their workers."

@wildwest, exactly just sound like they want highly experienced bilingual staff that they can pay at a trainees wage. My wife is bilingual but never shows her skills at her company and only uses Japanese..why? because if she did she`d suddenly be doing twice as much work for the same salary . As the saying goes, if you pay peanuts dont be surprised when you get monkeys.

My wife works for a Japanese company here in the US. She is bilingual. She does a bang up job, but does not have certain certifications and such. She has the incompetent/lazy/burn out barley engrish speaking supervisor who entirely relies on her to do over half of his job. The other half is dealing with headquarters back in Japan -- which he is surprisingly effective at, because he is a lazy @ssh*(( who only wants to work another 7 years and retire, so he tells them to shove it whenever HQ tries to pile on a bunch of useless busywork.

The main boss, though, has lived in the US for decades, recognizes talent, has treated my wife with a great amount of respect, financially rewarded her for her efforts, pushed her to seek further qualifications, and raised the possibility of her going to different countries where the company has offices and projects.

New Zealand and Costa Rica are calling....

Now, this has been a long time coming. She's worked her fair share of OL jobs in Japan and since coming to the states. But at least in the US, Japan Inc is maturing.

The useless old men at the tops of these piles earn a fortune, high salaries and huge bonuses, but they resent the idea of paying a decent wage to someone who knows what they are doing. Welcome to Japan's labour market.

No one is rushing here. In fact, talent is leaving

Sighclops,

I think the blurb isn't referring to people coming to Japan but bi-lingual already here. In the past J-Inc barely gave them the time of day & foreign businesses here have always tried to find & attract these people.

However of late more J-companies are waking up(after 3decades) that hey people who can speak a couple languages might be useful, so now foreign businesses are having a harder time finding & keeping bi-lingual, at least that's my read on it

And I hadn't heard of this mysterious Delphi Network so looked them up, turns out the writer of this blurb runs the thing, come on JT you should have let us know that instead of hiding behind Eurobiz!!

Anyway this group is a bunch of CEOs & academics etc, think tank of sorts, some stuff on their homepage is perhaps interesting, some of it much less so.

But hey nice to know they are all for getting good staff on the cheap & even better without having to pay any benefits.....nice....perhaps not!

Dentsu actually wants to retain control of the “new” Dentsu, it has to find global managers

This article screams xenophobia, what's wrong with hiring a foreigner if Japanese are not upto par?

Most of the (non-founder) CEOs I encounter are utterly clueless.

A mate of mine worked for Dentsu. Foreigners seemed to be on one year contracts exclusively. I'm guessing they've been finding it harder to get decent people given the average pay and average working conditions.

Read the last paragraph.... the writer basically says the U.S. "hire and fire", system won't work.... and that with profits rising they have the means to pay for a Euro style system. And what does that mean? Come on.... outside of Germany, the rest of Europe is barely getting by. The overall Euro unemployment rate is over 10%. Try getting a job in Italy, France or Spain... you'd have better luck winning the lottery. I'd be willing to bet companies over there would love to trash their Euro style employment system and institute a "hire and fire" one. Bottom line to me, "hire and fire" is the most efficient system because it quickly rewards the hard and smart workers and gets rid of the slackers. Also look at the number of Billionaires worldwide by country.... Japan has 24... Australia has 27. Think about it... why?

Was following your comment until this came up. What loophole are you talking about? I was agreeing with you regarding the merry-go-round approach and the fewer opportunity for mid-life career change (if that were true) but what does that have to do with english schools and eikaiwa teachers?

There's plenty of talent, but a HUGE lack of bilingual talent. No international Japanese want to work in Japan because the US (and pretty much everywhere else) offers better opportunities, more cultural diversity, better work/life balance, and better pay. Who would want to work in a male-dominated society where college grads make under 3,000,000 yen a year and often pull over 70 hours a week (half of that from pure facetime)?

The problem in Japan is not a decade-long problem, but a generation problem. Until they raise salaries, have better working environments, and stop saying that "in Japan it's different", things will never change and they'll always have a shortage.

Many comments here are aimed at Japanese companies, and Japan Inc. that's fine, but this was about non-Japanese companies trying to find talent to staff their offices in Japan.

I am a recent grad and a consultant on assignment to Japan (with an American salary), I think there are some obvious setbacks for Japan. I am trying to onboard another non-Japanese friend to my company and the first response is that to be a local hire their Japanese must be business level. OK, that's fine, but now why would this technically savvy recent graduate degree holder want to bend over backwards to get to business level Japanese? Where does a westerner become "business level in Japanese" before joining a Japanese firm? At a baito?! There are very limited bilingual westerners (in their early 20s), and this practice is just shooting ourselves in the foot when it comes to hiring those that aren't raised reading kanji, but would love to work in Japan.

Here's where I think the global and multinationals fail in Japan: Lower pay than the first-world market Expectation to be nearly fluent in both Japanese and English The likelihood of being rotated to an undesired/unrelated department Working ungodly hours (at my office 19:00 is early)

If I am a bilingual Japanese new grad, if I want to work for any non-Japanese company, I am going to apply for every visa outside of Japan and go where the working conditions are better (and that's what many do once they study abroad and realize Europe and America have 8 hour days and can actually use vacation days)

As a non-Japanese new grad, if I want to work for a non-Japanese company, unless my country has lower salaries than Japan, it's better to stay home. Anyone hired below manager or director level does NOT receive that sweet expat package with a housing allowance. Grass is greener in the West in my opinion. There has to be another reason to come here as a 22 year old (relationship, passion for Japan, hobbies like martial arts, world travel interest).

Yep article aside, Japans labour market & work life are both seriously screwed up & have been for 3decades..........

As I have often said Japan needs to re-invent EVERTHING work/life( J-style restoration!) related in order to have chance to get out of its current funk which has been happening big time for 2 decades easy

But alas we get nothing, we see these little ideas that often target symptoms rather than problems which in the end do next to nothing in the big picture.

If your young, Japan in my opinion is NOT the place you want to start working, or even after you have been working for a bit, IF you do come, make sure its for 1-2yrs max any longer & you may well damage your future prospects, I wish it were not true, but certainly seems that way to me.