Trends in Human Resources Management Systems

Section 4

Long-term employment practices are generally supported by both employers and employees at present, and will be supported by many employers, although with partial modifications. However, the number of regular employees placed under long-term employment is expected to decrease for some time to come.
Human resources management systems for regular employees are becoming increasingly individualized and diverse. There is a trend developing where differential promotion is starting at an earlier stage, screening, therefore, is expected to become more stringent in the future. Due to the importance of personnel evaluation systems in performance-based systems, it is important to gain the assent of workers by clarifying evaluation criteria and enhancing disclosure systems.
Enhancing evaluation and treatment of non-regular employees, including conversion to regular employees, will also contribute to business. This is achieved through maintaining or improving motivation for working among non-regular employees and making greater use of their abilities.

Awareness of Long-Term Employment Practices
Surveys of employer attitudes toward the so-called lifetime employment indicates that "scheduled to continue as a rule" and "partial modification unavoidable" accounted for more than half of the total, which is roughly at the same level as in 1999 (Figure 44).
Workers also appear to be supporting long-term employment practices, although the level of support is slightly low among young workers (Figure 45). It should be noted, however, that the number of regular employees placed under long-term employment practices is decreasing as a result of harsh economic conditions, and is expected to continue decreasing for some time.

Recruitment and Job Change
In order to deal with tougher competition between companies and the faster pace of change in business conditions, there has been an increase in the hiring of mid-career workers, who are capable to contribute to business immediately, as corporate human resources strategy. Although many companies favor the recruitment of new graduates, hiring of mid-career personnel is expected to continue to increase in the future (Figure 46). Furthermore, more companies are using a diverse measures of recruitment, such as year-round recruitment, hiring by job type, trial employment, hiring for a designated place of work, etc. On the workers' side, the rate of changing job is on the rise among young workers, reflecting diversification of workers' attitudes toward job (Figure 47).

Personnel Allocation and Promotion
In an aging and academic background-oriented society, there is a general shortage of managerial posts, resulting in reduced promotion opportunities for workers in their professional careers. In order to heighten the sense of competition among workers under these circumstances, differences in promotion are starting at earlier stages of employment and screening is expected to become even more stringent (Figure 48).
Companies' needs for a diverse workforce combined with the workers' attitudes and reduced opportunities for promotion, have led toward diversification of personnel allocation systems, through the introduction of specialist systems, etc. In addition, an increasing number of companies, mostly large ones, are introducing self-application systems, in-house staff recruitment systems, etc., that emphasize worker autonomy and enhance their motivation for working. In 2002 the self-application system was implemented in 16.2% of companies (79.7% for companies with 5,000 employees or more), while in-house staff recruitment systems were used by 3.4% of companies (57.7% for companies with 5,000 employees or more).
Furthermore, as performance-based wage and treatment systems are introduced, gaining the assent of employees with regard to the personnel evaluation system becomes even more important due to the increased weight that performance evaluations have in determining wages and other aspects of worker treatment under such systems. The challenges associated with personnel evaluation systems lie with the evaluation methods and criteria, training of evaluators, etc., and therefore clarification of evaluation criteria and enhancement of disclosure systems are important (Table 49).

Short-time Working Regular Employee System
As types of employment diversify for non-regular employees, some companies are introducing the short-time hour regular employee system, which is a type of employment lying between full-time regular and part-time non-regular employment. This system allows individuals to select working styles that suit their lifestyle. Only 4.3% of companies had introduced such systems for those who are not engage in child-care or nursing care, while 20.0% stated that they might consider introducing in the future.

Human Resources Management System that Allows Non-Regular Employees to Exert Their Abilities
The number of non-regular employees is expected to increase quantitatively as well as qualitatively, in the future. In order to improve their productivity, the challenge will be to stimulate their motivation for working and to get more satisfaction by enhancing worker evaluation and treatment.
Part-timers prefer personnel systems that feature "treatment based on ability", and "opportunities to receive education and training", followed by "opportunities to be converted to regular employee". On the other hand, "difficulties in conversion to a regular employee" ranked high among the causes of dissatisfaction and unease cited by non-regular employees.
Survey results of non-regular employees show that the degree of satisfaction of part-time workers regarding evaluation and treatment tended to be higher in cases where there were conversion systems to regular employees or within non-regular employees, support for self-development, or training systems (Table 50). This indicates that enhancement of conversion systems as well as education and training systems are key factors in increasing the degree of satisfaction and motivation for working among non-regular employees.
Enhancing the evaluation and treatment of non-regular employees, including systems for converting to regular employees, will also contribute to business by maintaining or improving motivation for working among non-regular employees and making greater use of their abilities.

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