HUMAN RESOURCES
With an increase in globalisation and the evolution of technology, we saw an even greater demand for speed in business in 2018. This resulted in many job postings for HR departments throughout the year. Actions to secure and develop human resources have become a key to business success. Furthermore, systems for recruiting talent throughout the year have become a hot topic. In light of this, the workload at HR departments has grown ever larger. They became responsible for including the design of remote work systems and other work reform measures and projects. Through this, it has improved employee engagement and initiatives in diversity management among other tasks. Additionally, companies strived to increase the percentage of people with disabilities in their workforces and implemented measures to conform to revisions that were made to laws regarding temporary work and employment contracts. As a result, 2018 saw a trend of companies bolstering the structures of their HR departments.
The Japanese offices of foreign-affiliated companies have been strengthening the recruiting of top-tier HR positions to accommodate business expansion. This includes positions like HR Director or HR Business Partner (HRBP) in order to accommodate business expansion. There was a particularly sharp increase in job postings for HRBPs, as businesses sought to solve challenges found in management. Conditions continued to be favourable in 2018 for start-ups to gain funding. It resulted in many such companies newly appointing HR Directors to manage organisational planning in order to prepare for business expansion. This trend brought about excellent opportunities for ambitious and highly experienced HR professionals to change jobs. Consequently, we assisted with the hiring of an increasing number of HR Directors and HRBPs.
In addition to the requisite levels of HR experience and knowledge, taking on the role of HRBP requires a strong sense for business. The ability to define and propose solutions to management challenges from an HR perspective is also highly valued. The ability to act as a negotiator is also highly valued, as close communication is needed with both management and the workplace. Additionally, advanced English proficiency is highly sought after in foreign-affiliated companies. This function also involves serving as a liaison between Japan and overseas headquarters. For these reasons, the main age bracket for HRBP hires is generally in the 40s as with HR Directors. Though some cases were seen in 2018 of age preferences being more relaxed and people in their 50s being hired for these roles.
2018 also saw increasing demands on HR with regard to M&As. Apart from operational HR tasks, particular care is required after an M&A in achieving integration among people working on the floor of the business. This is to align with upcoming changes in corporate culture and principles. This led to an increase in job postings for HR Directors and HRBPs. It's common in M&As for people leading the integration to be intentionally hired from outside the company. Hence, they can gain talented individuals who can bring about transformation in the company.
With regard to other positions, candidates have had a preference for roles related to talent management, learning & development (L&D) and organisation development (OD). Meanwhile, positions in talent acquisition, HR operations and compensation & benefits were less-favoured by job seekers as talented individuals have been attracted to HRBP positions. We expect these trends to continue in 2019.
The average salary for bilingual HR specialists continues to rise every year, owing to the imbalance between supply and demand in recent years. Many managerial challenges are related to HR issues. Given this, there is an upward trend for companies to increase their hiring budget by 10-20% when recruiting. We expect the imbalance between supply and demand to be further exacerbated going forward, resulting in 17 18 a continued increase in salaries in 2019. It is also likely that counter-offers will become more common. We predict that it will become even more important during the recruiting process to clearly convey the opportunities offered for building a career. In addition, employees should be informed not only about their remuneration, but also about opportunities for promotion and the possibility of relocating abroad.
The demand for HRBP positions remains high in the Kansai region as well.
BUSINESS SUPPORT
Recruitment of secretaries had been mainly on a contract or temporary basis. It was shortly after the financial crisis following the collapse of Lehman Brothers. However, recruitment of regular employees has increased and the ratio to all recruits is approaching levels seen prior to the financial crisis.
The supply of bilingual talent with 15–20 years of secretarial experience is considered to be high. We saw an increasing number of companies wish to fill vacancies with young talent who have potential when such experienced secretaries leave. For this reason, job openings for and the recruitment of experienced secretaries remains low. Meanwhile, the demand is high for strongly motivated applicants with two to three years of secretarial experience. As executive secretaries are often responsible for supporting executives from global headquarters when they visit Japan, so younger, less experienced candidates may not be considered suitable. However, a growing number of companies have come to the conclusion that excellent English proficiency can compensate for a lack of experience. Although many secretaries to non-Japanese executives are competent enough to take charge of interpretation/ translation duties and are paid fairly well, an increasing number of companies tend to lower the requirements with regard to experience and skills so that they can search for and hire applicants to whom a lower pay range would apply.
With regard to interpretation/translation jobs, the recruitment of regular employees has been on the rise. An increasing number of growing businesses are recruiting in-house interpreters/translators, especially among fintech companies. They consider it more cost-efficient to hire in-house interpreters/ translators who are familiar with internal company and technical industry terms. It's because of having to review outsourced translations. Many professionals who work for or are registered with external interpretation/ translation vendor companies wish to pursue a career as an in-house interpreter/translator. Subsequently, candidates moving in-house tend to accept offers with a salary equivalent to that of their previous job.
General administrators are hired predominantly to fill vacancies, and most of them maintain their annual income levels after changing jobs. It's becoming necessary to work with business process outsourcing (BPO) companies as the scale of business expands. But few companies are increasing the number of general administrators within their organisation. Meanwhile, the jobs at listed companies in Japan require a wide range of skills and experience, such as the ability to manage shareholder meetings.
CONTRACT
The majority of openings for secretarial and office management contract positions are due to the need to cover for employees taking maternity/childcare leave. Temporary employment has usually been the primary type of contract employment for these positions. But we have observed a dramatic shift towards temp-to-perm and direct contract employment types. Previously, translation and interpretation positions were commonly filled on a temporary basis. However, given the current sellers’ market conditions for bilingual talent, many candidates for these positions have been successfully securing regular permanent positions from employers.
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