We are interviewing on the theme of annual income.
Some companies have raised their wages significantly while there are many urgent voices such as "Wages will not rise for decades" and "I am wondering if I should change jobs".
How on earth?
We interviewed thoroughly.
(Good morning Japan Jun Okamoto / Naofumi Okamoto)
The voice received
First of all, I would like to introduce a number of opinions regarding "annual income" that we received.
<40s / Tokyo / Single / Annual salary 1 million yen>
"I want to make the annual salary about 4
million yen
, but there is no change even if I try to digitize it to the company, and even if I write it on SNS, it does not improve at all. I'm wondering if I should change jobs or get results here because my salary will not rise even if I try to get it. "
<30s / Shizuoka Prefecture / Single / Annual income in the 5 million yen range>
" Government inflation target If this is achieved, I am worried that wages will follow suit. Companies are worried that they will save internal reserves that take into account rising inflation prices in case of unforeseen circumstances. Even though it is inflationary, wages do not rise, even if it rises, it does not move slowly, I do not feel like that. "
<Teen or younger / Tokyo / Single / Annual income of less than 1 million yen>
" Currently a college student, but news and surrounding workers Looking at the not seem like there is much to satisfy money. Although distribution also it is important to have a look at the various ways materials, recently has become a large internal reserves of the company, feel like not increased as a salary. "
< Teens and younger / Kanagawa / Parents / Annual salary less than 1 million yen>
"I am a student, but every time I see news about Japan's economic downturn, I get vague anxiety. The starting salary is lower than in the developed countries of Tokyo, and my older acquaintance said that he was in the second year of working life and the salary was in the low 100,000 yen range. Looking at the current recruitment guidelines for companies, it was 4 million yen. I wonder if even the platform is quite expensive. "
What is the actual situation of wage increases for companies?
Many people were worried about their annual income, which did not rise.
Then, what is the actual situation of the wage increase of companies? Looking at the results of a questionnaire conducted by a private research company on more than 9,700 companies in August this year, the result is surprising.
More than 70% of the companies raised their wages this spring.
The breakdown was 76.6% for large companies and 69.2% for SMEs.
However, as for the "wage increase rate", less than 3% accounted for 50.7%, which is more than half.
In addition, more and more companies have covered these wage increases with lump-sum payments such as bonuses rather than base-ups and regular salary increases.
It seems that even if the wages are raised in terms of form, it is not at a level where it can be felt.
<30s / Tokyo / Married couple (without children) / Annual income in the 5 million yen range>
"The increase in basic salary is several thousand yen / month. There is no choice but to cut down. The amount of work will increase steadily, but the income will not increase. "
Circumstances where wage increases cannot be maintained
On the other hand, experts point out that there are circumstances in which wage increases cannot be maintained on the corporate side.
Shinichiro Kobayashi, Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting
"Since wages are fixed costs, once they are raised, they cannot be lowered. Under these circumstances, if the company is not confident that the company's business performance will continue to be good in the future, labor costs will be reduced. Japanese companies that have experienced the Lehman shock and the Great East Japan Earthquake in the past still have this sense of caution. "
Find hints for success stories!
How can we realize a wage increase that is accompanied by the feeling of employees?
When I interviewed, I heard from a construction service company that has greatly increased its average annual income in the last 10 years.
Headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, this company has more than 200 employees.
As the amount of work increases, he thought that he could not secure excellent human resources unless he guaranteed wages commensurate with his work.
Therefore, the company set a goal of increasing the average annual income of employees by 30% in 2012 and made it known to all employees.
We have set up a new department called the "Data Utilization Promotion Office" to create a database of all the daily work volume of employees so that all employees can view it.
As a result, employees have become more aware of efficient working styles.
Specifically, we halved the meeting time and omitted the materials that we had created for our customers.
Make effective use of travel time on business trips to do what you can.
All of these efforts were invented by employees.
These efforts have increased productivity, and in a few years, ordinary income has more than quadrupled.
The floating costs are reflected in the salary, and it is said that the target annual income increase of 30% is being achieved soon.
A person in charge at this company said, "I think the key to success is sharing with all employees how to raise salaries and linking what they have done with evaluation."
"Wages can be raised by digitizing operations"
Experts familiar with human resources management and labor economics say that even if you are not a company with a rising performance, these efforts can raise wages.
Professor Hiroshi Ono, Hitotsubashi University Business School
"It is most important to" improve productivity "and" eliminate waste ", which is a cost. By digitizing operations, waste can be eliminated and production can be achieved. You can also improve your productivity. Even if you don't go to digitalization, by understanding who is doing what kind of work, you can understand the waste of work and it may lead to a wage increase. "
Can small businesses do it?
However, this kind of initiative can only be done by a large company, and is it possible for a small and medium-sized company that has a small number of employees?
In fact, there were a series of similar points in the voices received.
<40s / couple (with children) / annual income in the 5 million yen range>
"Since it is a small and medium-sized manufacturing industry, it is difficult to raise monthly income. There is no labor union and the position of office workers is weak. However, I am dissatisfied with the relative evaluation. ”
<30s / Mie Prefecture / Couple (without children) / Annual income in the 7 million yen range>
“ I work for a micro enterprise, can I maintain my current annual income? eventually go up to or anxiety. income up, management's I think the anxiety and do not soon feel "
<20s / Okayama Prefecture / Single / annual income 2,000,000 yen>
but" profits of large companies is high, the story small and medium-sized companies too much I don't ask. I want to hear why there is a difference here. "
“Of course, it is premised on improving business performance”
I asked that question to a consultant specializing in SMEs.
Koji Yamamoto has been a consultant for small and medium-sized enterprises for 20 years.
So far, I have consulted with more than 500 companies.
Mr. Yamamoto also says that raising wages is naturally premised on improving business performance.
However, he said that the key "improvement in productivity" should be possible even for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Representative Koji Yamamoto, Japanese Business Management Laboratory
"Small and medium-sized enterprises do not have a management system, and there are many places where employees are doing different things because there are no business rules, but there is room for review, but with a vision and strategy Anyone should be able to work on it regardless of the scale of the business or the current performance, as long as the evaluation is solid. "
What to do then.
I have summarized the points that Mr. Yamamoto points out.
Three points to “improve productivity”
<1 Establish a clear vision to enrich employees and customers>
→ What kind of company will you aim for in 10 years?
For example, we set a numerical target to increase sales from 1 billion yen to 3 billion yen.
Easy-to-understand messages such as "No. 1 in the industry" and "No. 1 popular employment for new graduates" are actually important.
<2 Decide the path and create a strategy>
→
Create a strategy
to achieve specific goals such as new product development, marketing to increase customers, reduction of wasteful work, etc.
<3 Create evaluation criteria for employees to execute strategies>
→ Quantify each person's goals and link them with evaluations for achieving the goals and raising wages.
"Important awareness of considering labor costs as an" investment ""
Although it takes several years for companies to actually carry out such efforts, most of them have raised wages.
Shinichiro Kobayashi of Mitsubishi UFJ Research & Consulting also said, "In order to increase productivity, it is necessary to invest in computerization and equipment, but it is important whether labor costs can be considered as investments rather than just fixed costs. The key point is whether or not we can make the decision to divert the funds we have to these investments, "he said.
This time, we were able to interview some companies.
I think that these efforts may not be applicable depending on the type of business, the size of the company, and the situation in which it is located.
How about at your company?
Please use the submission form below.
https://forms.nhk.or.jp/q/OLPBS8UH
I would like to continue to cover.