Rapid employee growth without neglecting individuals

Sugahara: SHIFT has been growing rapidly, and people from the outside tend to think, “They’re hiring a lot of people, so they’re not paying attention to each individual, are they?” But in reality, it’s the opposite. We drill down to the individual level and focus on each and every employee.  

Doizumi: This is reflected in the evaluation meetings, isn’t it?  

Sugahara: Yes, exactly. Every six months, we spend about six weeks, or three months out of every year, talking with each person and discussing their “working style and future” with their supervisor.

I spend about 100 hours doing these meetings.  

We ask everyone about their desired annual salary in five years, and sometimes it looks like they won’t be able to reach that with their current growth curve.

In such cases, we would discuss the challenges and either change their assignment to one that would allow the person to have a shining career or readjust the goal in dialogue with the employee.

We have been doing this since around 2017 when Mr. Doizumi was here.  

Doizumi: Why go to such lengths? 

Sugahara: Population decline looms over Japan, and companies must increase their competitiveness through digital transformation.

However, the population of IT engineers, who are the key players in this process, is overwhelmingly insufficient.

Currently, there are about 1 million, but we need to increase the number to about 1.6 million in the near future.  

To achieve this, we need to increase the number of engineers who feel fulfilled in their work, are proud of it, and can develop their careers.

We also need to create an environment where new graduates and people from other industries without tech experience are willing to take on the challenge.  

SHIFT is taking the lead among IT companies in creating such an environment, and I would like to contribute to increasing the IT population in Japan by spreading it throughout the world.  

Eliminate all factors that reduce motivation

Doizumi: Companies tend to seek people who are self-propelled, but I believe that there are only a few people who are equipped with an engine to begin with.

I think it is important for the organization to consciously create motivation and measures to raise motivation. 

Sugahara: That’s right. I think personal emotions and motivations can affect work results and even quantitative data.

Because of that, there should be a dialogue between the employee and their manager, taking action to reach the goal or changing the goal itself. 

While this is the foundation of SHIFT’s approach, we also try to identify all the reasons why productivity might be lowered.

If employees have any questions, we try to do whatever we can to help them as an organization. 

For example, we could help prepare a mortgage with the best interest rate, consult a lawyer if there is a legal problem, find a doctor if there is a medical problem, and so on.

We are trying to create a situation where people can consult with SHIFT without worrying. 

Doizumi: That’s amazing. Recently, some companies have started to pay more attention to this issue, but usually, HR departments don’t get involved in anything other than company business.

It’s surprising to see a company taking such comprehensive measures to address private concerns. 

Sugahara: We want to create an environment where employees can concentrate on their work by eliminating all the things that cause them distress. The most important thing is for them to enjoy their work.  

Doizumi: I think it’s more important to eliminate factors that prevent people from working even though they want to, rather than theorizing about various personnel systems. I feel that this SHIFT mindset is very essential. 

Sugahara: As our CEO, Masaru Tange, often says, a company is “a means to enjoy life.” If you have a problem, don’t worry about it alone; consult with the company immediately.

We want employees to be able to solve their problems quickly, enjoy their work, and spend their leisure time and daily life positively.  

The “science” of individual growth

Doizumi: As an organization grows and its business becomes more complex, the people who work there and their values become more diverse.

It becomes more difficult to engage with employees on an individual level. 

Sugahara: That’s right. And it’s why we want to make a “science” of individual growth.

We want to break down the three elements of motivation, colleagues, and salary, and get to a place where we can provide what is important to each person to fulfill their needs. That kind of information is packed into Hitolog at SHIFT.  

Doizumi: That is right at the heart of human capital management, maximizing the value of each individual.  

Sugahara: At SHIFT, we express the value of human capital with a simple formula: number of people x individual value x years = LTV.

We are currently trying to break down the KPIs connected to each parameter to see if we can find correlations. 

Doizumi: One of our businesses is aptitude testing and, naturally, we have accumulated all kinds of data. We are beginning to analyze this data and provide relevant services to our corporate clients. 

For example, if we could understand the trends in employee performance, we could use this to maximize the value of each individual. 

Sugahara: Yes, yes. We want to master this kind of people analytics and respond appropriately to each individual, no matter how large the organization becomes. 

Doizumi: What’s amazing is that SHIFT does it all in-house without consulting or using external sales tools (laughs).

I think it’s very hard to quantitatively measure HR policies and their results without external support. 

Sugahara: It’s easy to say that HR strategies and business strategies should be linked, but difficult to do. But I think it is really important.  

Doizumi: Generally speaking, investment in people is often put on the back burner as an “adjustment” part of the overall budget.  

Sugahara: 100 million yen to buy things or 100 million yen for training.

It is difficult to explain the benefits of training when choosing between the two, isn’t it? At SHIFT, we create an equation to explain this.  

A simple example is Top Gun, our in-house career development system. It is a type of certification, but if you pass it, it is directly related to sales because it is reflected in the unit price you receive from customers.

Therefore, we return that amount as compensation to the fullest extent.  

At SHIFT, for any investment in human capital, even for company sports days, we set KPI targets such as participation rate and satisfaction.

We repeatedly test hypotheses to see how much those figures will increase, along with the cost-effectiveness. 

We also adhere to an absolute policy of not compromising. We are trying to create a company that acts as a social infrastructure, so fairness and a long-term perspective are essential.

We are making decisions about personnel policies with an eye on the future, not current profits. 

Doizumi: SHIFT’s management policy is really unwavering.  

Sugahara: The basic spirit of SHIFT’s management is that “people are at the center,” and I think that SHIFT is trying to combine this with “science” in a way that is unique to SHIFT.

If we can create a science, we would like many companies to use it. This will lead to more happy employees, and companies will grow, which is something I couldn’t be happier about! 

––– Thanks again to Mr. Doizumi, who not only supported SHIFT during its growth period but also shared insights from both internal and external perspectives in this conversation!  

We will continue to invite CHROs to discuss what we, as HR professionals, can do for the future of Japan in subsequent volumes of this series. We are considering themes such as culture, diversity, people analytics, and leadership. Please stay tuned.  

(Note: The contents of this article and the affiliations of the interviewees are as of the time of the interview.)