“The global human resource market in the covid-19 era”

Mr. Vijay Deol,
President & Representative Director
en world Japan

Introduction

en world Japan specializes in the recruitment and dispatch of high-class bilingual human resources using their database and network. They also concentrate their resources and findings on the retention of new joiners in the company. Porters asked Mr. Deol about the changes brought about by the corona pandemic, the company’s training of consultants and the future of human resource market.

Q: Your company focuses on retention of new joiners to the company. What kind of support do you offer to the new joiners as part of the retention efforts?

A: After a consultant joins our company, we offer support and advice towards maintaining a good relationship with clients and candidates. This is done at least for the first few months after joining but ideally, it’s a long-term support. We utilize the aptitude test and skill development tools provided to us by our parent company, training etcetera. 

We also conduct a follow-up survey on candidates after their meeting with our consultants. In addition to giving feedback on work performance, when a consultant leaves our company, we collect data on the reason for their leaving and use it as a reference to improve our consulting and matching capabilities.

Secondly, the public relations team conducts research on markets, and we provide this data to our clients. If this information is utilized correctly, it can influence recruitment, retention, and talent management process. We also give candidates free access to our white papers.

Q: How has your business changed due to the pandemic?

A: Many companies froze their hiring processes and that had a negative impact on our businesses. However, Japan’s shortage of human resources remains unchanged. Companies with business models that do not require employees to go to the office or factories and those that expanded their business during the pandemic such as Rakuten, Amazon, and Netflix, continued to increase the number of their employees. As a result, our business quickly recovered after the first month of the pandemic.

Another big change was in the way we work. The number of companies that allow flexible working environment such as remote working style have increased dramatically, and our company is one of them. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were already planning to switch to remote working style and had the system in place. 

Therefore, it wasn’t difficult to switch to work-from-home. We also have a CRM system and an RPO system which can be accessed remotely and have the necessary IT security policy.

We also made it possible for employees to hold meetings using Microsoft Teams and other means. Training, onboarding, new employees training and interviews are also done online. In the past it was rare to make hiring decision before meeting a candidate face to face, but now it is a common practice.

Q: How do you train your consultants?

A: For the ones with no prior recruitment experience, they join as associate consultant and first learn about the market. They get the support of a consultant who do the 360° recruitment and may accompany the consultant to meetings to gain the necessary knowledge and experience. 

There are also candidate advisors who specialize in candidate follow-ups and assist with conducting searches.

Q: Japan is experiencing the challenge of declining workforce due to the aging society; how do you think this will impact on your business?

A: Our company is focusing on supporting the participation of women in the workforce. More women are taking up active roles as managers and other senior roles and this gives access to a new workforce. Increasing the workforce from overseas and maintaining the elderly but skilled workers in the workforce will help to fight this challenge.

However, this will probably not fill the gap in the declining workforce. As a result, our market needs will continue to grow in the sense that the value of talent acquisition will increase. Our business units will work together to find synergies. We are also considering launching new services cultivated from our experience, know-how, network, candidates and data and aim for further business expansion.

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