With students now active in this year’s job-hunting season, many companies are trying to attract excellent human resources with worker-friendly workplaces, such as those with less overtime and allowance for more days off.
The employment market has been favourable for students, and companies are at a disadvantage when it comes to securing capable students if the firms’ work is seen as too hard on employees.
New measures have also been spurred by the suicide of a new recruit at major advertising agency Dentsu Inc. due to excessive overtime, which has raised students’ awareness of companies’ work styles.
“The era of long working hours with low productivity is over,” an employee in charge of personnel affairs of major financial firm Orix Corp. told about 100 students at its corporate information session in Tokyo in late April.
At the event, the company described the work style reforms it launched in April. The efforts include a system in which up to ¥50,000 is paid as an incentive to employees who take paid leave for five consecutive days or more, as well as regular work hours per day decreasing by 20 minutes to seven hours.
The amount of overtime hours and the number of days off are now essential factors for students when they decide which company to join.
Since the job-hunting season started in March for students who are expected to graduate in the spring of 2018, employment information websites – such as Rikunabi and Mynavi, which are often used by students – have posted a wide range of corporate data, including the average overtime hours and days off at each firm.
On the “career +” (kyaritasu) website run by employment information provider Disco Inc., about 16,000 companies are registered and about 1,800 have posted average overtime hours.
A senior private university student, 22, who references these websites said: “The websites have made it easier to compare companies’ workplace environments and working conditions. Even if it’s an industry I want to enter, I won’t prioritize it if there’s a lot of overtime.”
Working conditions key
According to a recent survey by job information provider Mynavi Corp. that asked university students about what kind of companies they do not want to join, companies where employees “cannot take days off and vacations” accounted for 25.7 per cent, up from 15 per cent in the previous survey for those who entered the workforce in 2001.
“A lot of overtime” was chosen by 14.5 per cent of respondents, up from 2.9 per cent in the previous survey. Meanwhile, 21.6 per cent chose “the work is boring,” down from 34 per cent.
These results indicate current university students are focusing more on holidays and overtime than the actual work duties.
Many of the students currently in job-hunting activities were freshmen or sophomores when the issue of “burakku baito” (black part-time jobs) – in which part-time workers are forced to work under severe conditions – became a social problem.
Therefore, they are highly aware of working environments, which is believed to influence the tendency of students to attach more importance to overwork and days off.
Sharp drop in Dentsu’s popularity
In a survey asking university students which company they want to join, Dentsu plummeted to 23rd place from the top place the previous year. The survey was conducted through March by job hunting information website Minnano Shushoku Katsudo Nikki (Everyone’s job hunting diary), operated by Rakuten Inc.
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. ranked 143rd, down from 59th, after its employees’ long overtime hours came to light.
In contrast, Ajinomoto Co., which has made efforts to shorten working hours, ranked seventh, up from 15th.
Companies used to be cautious about disclosing their working conditions, but they began to reveal data as students increased their awareness and the government started to urge companies to disclose overtime hours and the numbers of days off employees can take.
“Work style reforms promoted by the government and the Dentsu problem have had a significant impact,” personnel consultant Yohei Tsunemi said. “If companies don’t disclose their overtime hours, students will suspect they’re concealing harsh working conditions.
