70% of employees say their company’s evaluation system is flawed or non-existent

Survey conducted by Robert Walters Japan

On June 8, specialist professional recruitment firm Robert Walters Japan announced the results of a survey on workplace evaluation systems conducted among company employees working in Japanese and foreign-affiliated companies in Japan.

70% say their company’s evaluation system is either flawed or non-existent

These days, more companies in Japan are shifting their employee evaluation systems from a seniority-based system to a performance-based or skills-based system. About 30% of respondents answered that their company has an evaluation system that ties compensation to their performance and skills. On the other hand, 45% said that while their company does have an evaluation system in place, it is not well managed and 25% said that their company does not even have a system in place.

Over half of employees dissatisfied with evaluation system said they were “unclear”

Satisfaction with employee evaluation systems were almost equally split with 49% of respondents expressing satisfaction, and the remaining 51% expressing dissatisfaction. Among company employees who answered that their company adopts a performance-based evaluation system, 88% were overall satisfied with how they are assessed at work. On the other hand, 68% of respondents who answered that their company’s system is not well managed were dissatisfied with how they were being evaluated.

When we look at the factors that contribute to employee satisfaction, the most common reasons were: “evaluation is tied to compensation” (51%), “evaluation is not based on personal preferences” (43%), and “processes such as hard work and effort are valued” (39%). Conversely, those who were dissatisfied with their company’s evaluation system cited reasons such as the “evaluation criteria are unclear” (63%), “evaluation is not tied to compensation” (46%), and “processes such as hard work and effort are not valued” (40%).

Apart from performance, “manager’s preferences” had the most influence on evaluation

In addition to performance and skills, other factors that impact evaluation were “manager’s preferences” (59%), “academic background” (31%), and "gender differences" (30%) for employees of foreign companies. Among those working for Japanese companies, the top three factors that impacted evaluation besides performance were “manager’s preferences” (72%), “gender differences” (56%), and “academic background” (40%). For each of the factors, a higher percentage of employees from Japanese companies responded that it had an impact on how they were evaluated compared to employees from foreign-affiliated companies. This suggests that there is a higher tendency in Japanese companies for factors other than abilities to influence how employees are evaluated.

(Survey period: 24 - 31 March 2022, Target: Company employees registered with Robert Walters Japan and living in Japan n=709)

Press Release(PDF)

About Robert Walters Japan:

Established in London, United Kingdom, in 1985, Robert Walters is a specialist recruitment consultancy with operations in 32 countries around the world. Robert Walters Japan established its Tokyo office in 2000 and Osaka office in 2007.  For over 20 years, we've been a driving force in the Japanese bilingual recruitment market, providing high quality candidates for our clients and access to the best jobs. Our consultants are experts in their respective industries and work in teams to provide recruitment consultation services across a wide range of industries and job categories.