Understanding the challenges of hiring in Japan

 
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This post orignially appeared on Linkedin; https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/understanding-challenges-hiring-japan/
With almost 20 years of experience in or on Japan, I am often asked about the challenges of hiring in Japan.
Some basic points to consider when hiring in Japan include;
  • The % of ‘active’ candidates is very small – your talent acquisition strategy should reflect this.
  • Passive talent acquisition strategies (e.g. job ad) will usually yield poor results.
  • Bilingual talent pool is a tiny proportion of the total.
  • Easy to ‘over-value’ English communication skills, even though the role may be 99% domestically focused in Japan.
  • Japanese talent can often be very humble around the value they can bring to a role – you need to be able to dig deep and elicit achievements.
  • Dont use the same talent acquisition strategy in Japan that is being used across APAC (or even globally) - that will likely be a lot less effective in Japan.
  • Relatively narrow requirements of local hiring managers – the selection criteria & bias will likely be different to yours.
  • Long-term candidate relationships are of greater importance to be able to reach the highest performing ‘elite’ talent directly, or via referral.
  • hiring in Japan is relatively expensive – both in terms of time, strategy & resources to hire, and with respect to having employees.
Etc....
Which points do you find most surprising when hiring in Japan?
Of course, many of these can be overcome, with some thought and consideration.
Feel free to contact me directly to discuss further on hiring in Japan and the wider Asia Pacific region.
#recruitment #recruiting #talentacquisition #humanresources #HR #TA #talent #hiring #Asia #Japan #APAC #Csuite #Strategy #RPO #Process #hiringinJapan
 
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At Elite Group Asia we have a unique advantage to increase the ROI of the talent acquisition strategy of our clients in the Asia Pacific region. Please see further detail here; www.elitegroup-asia.com or reach out to me directly via LinkedIn to discuss further how we can improve the ROI in your TA strategy: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilelite