Companies are having a tough time competing for talent as the country is in the midst of its lowest unemployment rate in 26 years. But wooing younger workers with the expectation that they will put in long hours, abide by a top-down disciplinary hierarchy and be happy with a reward system based on loyalty and seniority won’t cut it.
While the traditional ways are still the norm, according to human resources experts, this is changing. “Companies had created a system that rates you on hours worked, and that’s how you got ahead in the corporate world,” says Yoshie Komuro, head of Work-Life Balance Inc, which advises the government on labor reforms. “Now it’s becoming a question of how you can produce results with limited resources in Japan.”