Vol.51 – How Internet and Social Media is Changing Recruiting in Japan

Japan has been behind western countries in which use of Internet and social media is already popular in recruiting and job hunting. For example, although companies have career pages in their website, concept of online resume such as LinkedIn profile is still unknown in general, and it is very recently that companies started to leverage social media such as Twitter in marketing as mentioned in the previous article Vol.48 – 2011 Japan’s First Year of Social Media / SNS.




However, as introduced in an online article of Nikkei.com, a leading online website managed by a Japanese leading business media, some Japanese companies started to strategically implement social media in recruiting.



1. What is the background of implementing social media in recruiting in Japan?






1) Job seeker: Find gap between expectation and reality



As much as 30% of new graduates who started working leave in the first 3 years, even thought they are the people who managed to find a job upon graduation in an extremely tough labour market. This is a shocking fact in Japan where lifetime employment had been the social norm for many years.



The reason for such people leaving the company is that they feel the reality they face in the workplace after joining the company is somewhat different from what they expected.



2) Employer: Recruiting is stuck in a rut



Companies have been trying to be creative in recruiting such as implementing internship which is still not so popular in Japan and asking unique questions in the interview; however, soon the how-to books about overcoming such screening process will be available in the book stores and all job seekers will give the same answers written in the book. Therefore, the companies will not be able to truly understand candidates.



2. How a few Japanese companies started to strategically implement the Internet and social media in recruiting?






1) Interacting and engaging online



Major Japanese IT companies including as SoftBank and Cyber Agent started to leverage social media such as Twitter and Facebook in recruiting last year. They would have online conversation with job seekers.



For example, to a question “what kind of tasks are assigned to people who started working in your company?” they would answer “there are a few hard working people who are successful in wining many contracts. There are even some staff members who start giving services to our customers only after they started working in the shop floor.” These kinds of conversation which are quite common in recruiting seminars are done online.



This trend is now spreading to companies of other industries as well.



2) Implementing webinars



For example, a company that plan and provide wedding ceremony and party services started to leverage Ustream and Twitter in implementing webinars to new graduate job seekers. They already gave 3 webinars since 2010 autumn in which the CEO, general manager of the wedding ceremony venue and young employees participated to convey how it is motivating and challenging to work in the company. Total of 400 job seekers accessed the webinar real time. In addition the recorded video was viwered approximately 6500 times.



3. What are benefits of implementing IT and social media in recruiting?






1) For employers






(1) Minimize mismatch



By holding webinar before face-to-face seminar, companies can deliver information about themselves to as many job seekers as possible with relatively low cost, and this ultimately leads to minimizing mismatch. This would help them to deliver better information (quality and quantity) to many job seekers, which help job seekers to better understand the companies. As a result, it is more probable that only the job seekers who are truly interested in their company attend their live seminar and apply.



(2) Attract innovative and social candidates



Use of social media in recruiting acts as the first screening process in attracting and recruiting innovative and social candidates. Use of social media in marketing and other settings is becoming inevitable for companies and they would want to recruit innovative and social candidates to meet such needs.



By leveraging social media in recruiting, they would be able to recruit candidates who leverage social media daily to proactively attend webinar, who are more likely to meet their needs. Recruiting such candidates would be the foundation in creating new business that is necessary for companies to grow.



2) For job seekers



In general, they would find it more comfortable to ask questions online in contrast to in a real offline seminar where they are surrounded by many job seekers they do not know. And because they would find it easier to ask questions online and thus be more open, they would be able to obtain more information that is truly meaningful for them to find an employer that meet their needs.



When candidates become proactive in asking questions online, companies will be able to better understand candidates. This also leads to minimizing mismatch.



4. Future of use of social media in recruiting in Japan






1) Use of social media in recruiting is likely to popularize in Japan



It goes without saying that use of social media in recruiting would become more popular Japan as well from the trend mentioned above. This also aligns with the fact that 2011 is said to be the first year of SNS in Japan, as mentioned in the previous article Vol.48 – 2011 Japan’s First Year of Social Media / SNS. Indeed, a leading job hunting agency in Japan named 2011 as “the first year of job hunting leveraging social media for interactive communication online”.



2) Companies will face challenges as well



Increased exposure online means increased risks. As companies get more questions online from job seekers, it is more likely that they overreach and cover loopholes with ease, and that they only answer to positive questions and neglect negative ones. Such actions would give negative impression to potential candidates. Companies need to be authentic and open.



In addition, in online world in which anonymity is often allowed unlike offline world, there are risks such as spam and posting with malicious motives increase.



Furthermore, companies may find it difficult to evaluate potential candidates who are proactive in asking good questions face-to-face. There are some comments from hiring managers that they do want to recruit candidates who are social online but they do not want to recruit candidates who are not social offline, not being to interact and ask questions face-to-face.





References:-

Goodbye to Recruiting Stuck in a Rut and Disappointing Job Hunting – How the Internet is Used Today (in Japanese)

http://www.nikkei.com/tech/ssbiz/article/g=96958A9C93819696E3E4E2E2858DE3E4E2E0E0E2E3E3E2E2E2E2E2E2;dg=1;p=9694E0E1E2E5E0E2E3E2E3E3E4EB