Employee education being reconsidered: What are its effects? March 22nd 7:10pm
When it comes to training craftsmen, years of training are the norm. That idea may be old.
Now that the Japanese economy is said to be reaching a major turning point, there is a growing movement to review and put more emphasis on "employee education."
We took a closer look at various employee training sites and their backgrounds.
(Economy Department reporter Yumie Sano / Kofu Bureau reporter Kaisei Shimizu / Saturday Watch 9 Yukiyo Nagano and Soichiro Inoue)
Training “in front of customers”
"I have more responsibility, but it's becoming more rewarding,"
says a man in his 20s who is aiming to become a sushi chef with a nervous look on his face. He is in his third year at the company.
The place for employee training, so to speak, is a standing sushi restaurant with 20 seats in Ginza, Tokyo.
Business hours are from 4pm to 10pm.
Three young employees stand at the counter and serve sushi under the guidance of their master.
Previously, 10 years of training was required! ?
The store will open in April.
It was opened by a company that operates high-end sushi restaurants with the aim of preventing young employees from leaving the company.
It is said that a sushi chef requires 10 years of training.
The first position given to you is ``chasing''.
Students learn the basics of being a craftsman through physically demanding work such as cleaning the kitchen and store, and washing dishes.
After learning how to cook fried and grilled foods, they are allowed to make sushi.
However, due to the length of their training, there is no end to the number of people leaving the company, and although about 10 people joined the company in 2021 with the aim of becoming sushi chefs, it is said that about half of them quit within a year.
It is said that motivation has increased through initiatives that provide opportunities for young employees to take on challenges and give them responsibility and develop them.
Akifumi Sakagami, Global Executive Chef, Ginza Onodera
: ``When will I be able to hold the fish, when will I be allowed to touch the fish?'' I struggle, and I lose young people with potential. I want to prevent this as early as possible.”
Nigiri is 1/3 the price
The ingredients served at the stand-up sushi restaurant are the same as those used at the high-end restaurant operated by this company in Ginza.
However, the price of the nigiri is about one-third of that at a high-end store.
Even in late February, when we interviewed them, customers were coming in one after another.
By directly observing and listening to the reactions of customers who eat the sushi they have made, young employees are expected to be able to become ``full-fledged'' sushi chefs in a shorter period of time than their previous training.
Young employee (23 years old)
``I serve food that I have prepared myself to customers, so I am very happy when they say it's delicious, and when the customers say that the nigiri is not good, I sometimes ask for guidance from them, so I'm really happy with what they get. A lot"
Major restaurant chains also focus on
The major restaurant chain, which operates approximately 730 stores nationwide, has been training its employees to learn cooking techniques for the past six years.
At the facility located at the company's headquarters in Kyoto, employees from young employees to store managers come from all over the country to learn cooking methods backed by scientific theory.
Through classroom lectures and hands-on training, students will learn about the importance of ``fragrant oil,'' which imparts the aroma of aromatic vegetables to the oil, and how to cook at a temperature that prevents the ingredients from releasing a lot of water and causing them to harden.
Last year, we started strengthening training on the science of deliciousness.
Lately, I've been focusing on heat cooking.
This restaurant chain currently offers around 70 different types of items.
Our specialty is that our chefs prepare and serve food after receiving orders from customers.
However, in the past, customers complained that the quality of the food was inconsistent because they relied on the chef's rules of thumb.
Through this training, we aim to provide high-quality food at every store.
A manager who took the training said
, ``If you make a dish with an understanding of cooking theory or without, the outcome of the dish will be completely different.I feel that my skills have greatly increased through the training.''
Human resource development that gradually produces results
Since starting this initiative in 2018, a total of more than 60,000 employees have undergone training.
Sales at all stores exceeded the same month last year for 25 consecutive months, and the company believes that the training efforts are beginning to bear fruit.
Osho Food Service CEO Naoto Watanabe
: ``Developing human resources is not easy, and it took a long time.As I continued training, I gradually improved, and one store was two stores, one person and two people. As the food gradually becomes more delicious, the customers respond well to it."
This year's spring labor agreement resulted in an average wage increase of 11.5% per employee, including base increases and regular wage increases.
This is the highest level ever, far exceeding the union's demands.
Through continuous human resource development, we aim to create a cycle of expanding sales and giving back to our employees, creating a structure that allows us to grow.
President Watanabe
: ``Even if we don't increase the number of people in the future due to a labor shortage, if each person working now grows, productivity will increase and customer satisfaction will increase due to improved quality of food.'' We want to evolve and develop our human resource development system even more than we currently do, and move forward with creating stores with a high level of customer satisfaction, rather than just expanding stores.”
The cost of human resource development has been kept low
Human resource development efforts by these companies.
It has been pointed out that since the 1990s, amidst the economic downturn, many Japanese companies have reduced their spending on human resources.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's ``Analysis of the Labor Economy (2018 Edition),'' the proportion of OFF-JT expenses such as off-the-job training for companies in Japan's GDP was 0.1% from 2010 to 2014.
This is a low level compared to
2.08% in the US,
1.78% in France,
1.2% in Germany, and 1.06% in the UK.
There are concerns that workers will not be able to sufficiently accumulate skills and knowledge, which will hinder improvements in labor productivity in the long term.
After that, the cost of human resource development by companies is expected to increase, due in part to labor shortages.
In the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Basic Survey on Skills Development in FY2020, business operators cited reasons such as "not enough people to instruct" and "lack of time" as problems related to human resource development.
Experts point out that as society undergoes rapid changes such as severe labor shortages and digitalization, the importance of human resource development is being reconsidered in order to increase productivity.
Professor Hisashi Yamada, Hosei University Graduate School of Management
: ``In the past, investing in fixed assets such as machinery and factories led to corporate and economic growth, but that is no longer the case. Brands and know-how need to be invested in people. I think that investment in human resources is the key for companies to grow because they are not born yet."
“Three-up” as a community-wide effort
Local governments are also beginning to take steps to support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises by developing human resources.
Last November, Yamanashi Prefecture launched a community-wide initiative to improve the skills of people working at small and medium-sized businesses within the prefecture.
We have set up courses on three themes: business management, digital technology, and communication skills.
Participation is 5,500 yen per person.
There will be a total of 15 courses from January to March.
On the 7th of last month, I interviewed a lecture given by a small and medium-sized business consultant.
Approximately 20 people participated.
We talked about important points regarding communication in the workplace, such as ``communicating with others yourself'' and ``first empathizing with the other person's point of view.''
He explained that if employees can communicate closely with each other, new ideas and products will be more easily generated.
A manufacturer in Ichikawamisato-cho, Yamanashi Prefecture, which makes gift bags and other products, has about 300 employees and has four employees participating in this initiative.
The company has a long history dating back 136 years, and up until now, employee education has mainly been carried out in the form of senior employees passing on their knowledge and experience to younger juniors.
However, in recent years, the environment surrounding companies has changed rapidly.
They were concerned about whether the company and its employees could grow with just their past experience and know-how, and felt that there was a limit to what they could do on their own.
Daisuke Kitita, an employee who participated in a course to learn digital technology, said that he would like to consult within the company and work on improving the efficiency of office work and automating the factory.
In addition, the course content not only allowed them to learn about the latest DX, but they also said that their awareness increased through interaction with employees from other companies.
Hiroyuki Endo
, Director, Marui: ``In an era where it is extremely difficult for small and medium-sized enterprises to make profits, knowledge is the basis for constantly creating products with new value and increasing profits.'' In the future, I would like to request that a more specialized curriculum be implemented in order to improve the efficiency of manufacturing and administrative work."
Yamanashi Prefecture aims to encourage the growth of local small and medium-sized enterprises by improving the skills of human resources working there, which in turn will lead to higher wages.
In the future, he hopes to increase the number of specialized courses.
Yamanashi Prefecture Labor Policy Human Resources Development Division Manager Takae Kobayashi
: ``I think there are many small and medium-sized enterprises, and it is difficult for some companies to improve their skills on their own.Although this initiative is still in its infancy, it is possible to increase profits by improving skills. We want to increase wages, which we call ``three-up'', more and more.We want to create a region where working people can live financially secure and stable lives.''
Economic Department reporter
Yumie Sano Joined
the agency in 2016
After working at the Aomori Bureau and Mutsu Branch, she is currently at her current position.
Kofu bureau reporter
Kaisei Shimizu Joined
the bureau in 2020
After working in prefectural government and economics, he is currently in charge of reporting on Mt. Fuji at the Fujiyoshida bureau.
Saturday Watch 9
Yukiyo Nagano Joined
the station in 2011
After working in the economic department of the Gifu bureau and Kagoshima bureau, she is currently at her current position.
Saturday Watch 9 Director
Soichiro Inoue
In charge of “Saturday Watch 9” from April 2022