Hays, a foreign-affiliated recruitment company, recently conducted a survey on more than 200 IT professionals about the time/money they spend on improving their skills. The results showed that while most professionals did make some effort to up-skill, most did not spend more than one to three hours weekly and 30,000 yen or less annually for upskilling.
[Survey highlights]
- According to the survey, 35% of respondents said that they spend one to three hours weekly on developing their skills, and 28% said that they spend three to five hours weekly. (Fig. 1)
- When asked about how much they spent over the past year for upskilling outside their job, 29% of respondents said 30,000 yen or less and 27% said 30,001 to 50,000 yen.
- As for the most effective learning resources (multiple answers), 98% of respondents chose e-learning, 82% chose books, and 54% chose external training and seminars.
Japan's skill shortage is the most serious in world
According to the 2018 “Hays Global Skills Index”, a joint study that Hays conducted with Oxford Economics across 33 countries and regions, Japan's talent mismatch was the most severe in the world, owing to a significant gap between the skills businesses were looking for and the skills available in the labour market.
Richard Eardley, Managing Director, Hays in Japan, commented on the survey results in context of the skill shortage as follows: "The lack of IT talent, such as AI, big data, and IoT professionals, has become a serious issue for Japan. In a field like IT, where technology progresses so rapidly, it is also essential for professionals to keep updating their skills. But despite these market conditions, the results of our survey reveal that IT talent in Japan may not be eager enough to develop their skills, as most respondents spend only one to three hours weekly and 30,000 yen or less annually for upskilling.”
In Europe and the U.S., a professional’s skill enhancement is properly evaluated by current or new employers and is directly linked to higher salaries. However, in Japan, lifetime employment is still common and skill enhancement is not necessarily reflected in either evaluations or salaries. Workers in Japan are thus more reluctant to upskill themselves. To address the shortage of IT skills, companies should review their evaluation system and focus more on performance and skills.
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About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 31 December 2018 the Group employed 11,700 staff operating from 262 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2018:
– the Group reported net fees of £1.072 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £243.4 million;
– the Group placed around 77,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 244,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 19% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 26% in Germany, 24% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 31% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 58% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 42% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA