Episode #566: How To Influence Engagement In Japan

APAC always ranks low in global engagement surveys. At the very bottom of the APAC calculation sits Japan. Part of the reasons are language and cultural. The translations from English can sometimes be off the mark and lead the Japanese to score lower. I always recommend carefully checking the translations to try to tighten them up and make the meanings clearer.

Other hurdles can be cultural. One question often asked is “would you recommend the company to your family and friends as a place to work”. This is a straightforward question in most countries, but not in Japan.

The sense of responsibility and accountability here is high and those taking the survey will answer this question with a low score. It isn’t because they don’t like the company, but they are risk averse. They worry if they recommend the company, their family or friends may complain to them and quit the company because it is not a match. Alternatively, they worry the company will complain to them about the person they recommended. They see no upside here and so the best course of action is to score low on this question.

There is hope, though, to see those scores go up. They may never reach the zenith of your Brazilian or Indian colleagues, who always seem to shoot the lights out when answering these engagement surveys. There are three leverage points for gaining greater engagement amongst employees.

1. Relationship With the Supervisor
This is obvious as it covers one of the most high contact relationships inside the company and, as we say, we don’t quit companies – we quit bosses. Has the leader made clear the purpose of the business? This is often assumed to be understood, so there is no conversation on this point. Let’s not assume anything and make it clear. The goals and objectives are critical to the organisation’s success, so let’s make sure we keep repeating what they are.

The leader’s job is to understand how the staff feel about their work and the company, and the only way to do that is through conversation. Sounds simple except that time is so limited and we are all cutting corners and being “efficient” with our time, which means not a lot of opportunity to ask staff about how they are feeling.

Taking orders from the boss makes for a dull day and a dull work environment. Not many people want to be micro-managed that way. As the leader, we need to give people direction and the freedom to decide how to achieve the goals.

2. Confidence In Senior Leadership
Business is a cutthroat struggle for survival. In the days of sail, everyone entrusted their lives to the skill, knowledge and experience of the captain to deliver them safely to their destination. In 1834, my ancestors sailed for months across the raging seas from Bristol to Tasmania. Luckily they made it or I wouldn’t be here writing this blog. Today, our sailing ships have been replaced with company formats to make sure our job security and therefore our livelihoods are protected and made safe.

Do the big bosses walk the talk about the values they promulgate? Are they communicating changes and constantly reinforcing the purpose? Do we feel like cogs in the wheel as the organisation grinds out shareholder value and enriches the bosses? Or do we feel valued as a priority in the success of the enterprise? Are they competent enough to make sure the company can survive and even better prosper so that we have career opportunities to grow and flourish? If the answers to these fundamental questions are not positive, then our people will not be engaged and, in fact, may be actively seeking greener pastures.

3. Pride in the Organisation
In Japan, when people think about joining a company or changing companies, their spouse, parents, in-laws and grandparents will all have opinions about the decision. This becomes even more important as a consideration when we are talking about foreign enterprises. The gold standard are the biggest, safest Japanese companies, then comes the less big, but still safe middle size Japanese companies and bringing up the rear are the foreign companies.

Knowing this, as leaders we have to work hard to make sure everyone is motivated and proud to work in our organisation. Purpose has to be stressed over and over to smooth out the bumps which confront every company. The public persona pf the company has to be one of a good citizen adding value to Japan.

Japanese staff are very focused on their relationship with customers and the company has to respect that. Foreign based CFOs come up with crazy ideas which destroy that trust. A common idea is that if we have a 100% no defect rate, we will make less profit than if we tolerated a 3% defect rate, so let’s go for the money. This is abhorrent to Japanese staff and is a huge demotivator. The MVP (Minimum Viable Product) idea may be popular in Silicon Valley ,but it doesn’t have a place in Japan because the buyers expect it to work perfectly and completely from the get go.

Japan is different in many ways and engagement of employees is certainly one area of prominence. We can improve the engagement scores, if we know what we are doing and can consistently execute on the basics.