Recently, in Japan, Hitachi has announced that it will expand job-type employment and introduce it in earnest, which has become a hot topic. Taking this opportunity, I often see the news which handles the difference between job-type and membership-type work styles.
I will omit the difference between job type and membership type because there is a lot of information from others. When I worked at a Japanese company, I experienced that the company introduced job types to some departments based on the membership type. And I’m working at a foreign-affiliated company which adopts a job type. From my experience,
I often think that there is something more important than the employment form, and I would like to share two points among them.
Skill set that works
In my opinion, the required skill is like T-shaped or π-shaped skill sets, regardless of membership type or job type.
In the membership type, the job content is considered to be a general job, and it is true that you cannot reject a job under the contract and you have to carry out various things, but my actual experience is that people who are actually active are rarely forced to perform various duties. If you produce output and exert strong power in the work that you want to do, the department wants you, and the department manager also tries to secure you by various means not to hold on. In order to avoid such a situation, companies often introduce a rotation system according to company regulations, but in reality, it is often the case that they return you to the original department after rotation.
In the case of the job type, the duties are limited and it becomes a profession, but I feel that there are not so many members who are recognized for their talents and work only their own limited duties. Except when you can demonstrate your talent, you have your own area of expertise, you have an antenna for other things, and more or less the attitude of supporting the surroundings of your area of work. It goes without saying that they are welcomed by members within the project. For example, in a foreign-affiliated company, employees are sometimes fired with the abolition of the department. But even then, people who have smooth cooperation with other departments are often transferred to other departments and remain.
Although it is said to be a membership type, people who have areas of specialty are strong, and in the job type, people who have an antenna outside of their area of specialty are strong. I think the probability of getting the job they want to do will increase.
Evaluation system
I think that what is more important than this skill is the evaluation system of the company. Differences in membership-type and job-type employment forms are often compared, but it seems that the importance of the evaluation system has not been talked about much.
You usually hear that the rating of the membership type is determined by the length of service, and the job type is determined by the market value of the business. Regardless of whether it is a membership type or a job type, I strongly feel that if a proper evaluation system is not set up, an employment is just a name. For example, like the conventional membership type evaluation, it is not an evaluation system that is clearly understood and not concretely quantified like evaluated from the viewpoint of the boss. I think the worst is the relative evaluation within the company. Even if you achieve 100% of the results,because of members who have achieved more than that, you can not receive 100% evaluation.
In addition, it is often mentioned as a disadvantage that if it is a job type, you will only work your own work and you will not help each other, but it seems that it depends on the evaluation system. For example, establishing a system to help each other would be one of them.
Conversely, even if it is a membership type that has been used for a long time, each department is in silo, there are many departments and employees who can not help the work unless it leads to the number of their own department. Even in the same company, I often couldn’t show the materials from another department because my department is a rival.
Whether it is a job type or a membership type, if the evaluation axis is not correct, the company will not be able to obtain loyalty to the company of employees, and the employees will not be properly evaluated and will leave the company.
Conclusion
I think it’s good to put words first to image, but it’s not easy to immediately change the culture that is rooted in Japanese companies, especially large companies. It is important to understand exactly what the company wants from employees and what kind of evaluation system they have, without being confused by the terms membership type and job type.
How is it?
Thank you and good luck to your work life.