Despite growing intentions of firms in Japan to expand their IT contractor workforce, efficiency surrounding employment of such staff remains low, reports global recruitment experts Hays.
“As compared to mature contracting markets in the West where hiring decisions take place in a matter of days, the process in Japan for securing contract talent is significantly lengthier, which sometimes leads to a hefty compromise of projects, especially IT-related ones,” says Michael Craven, Regional Director at Hays Japan.
“In Japan, the bureaucratic nature of the corporate culture is a major obstacle to securing adept IT contractors needed for urgent projects. Hiring managers often prolong the interview process by assessing a contract candidate’s profile as they would a permanent one. Given the ever-evolving nature of IT landscapes, newer technologies may outpace decision making, resulting in the need to readjust the skillsets required of a contract role.”
The skills/roles in demand for IT Contracting in Japan include:
- Project change management
- Business analysts and project reengineering specialists
- Technology audit and governance
- Development, networking infrastructure, and network engineering.
According to Hays, specifically because of the rapid development in the tech space, the risk of delaying hiring decisions is that requirements of both project and skillsets may change midway through the process, resulting in the need to restart entire recruitment cycles.
“For instance, an employer could be looking for skilled talent in Java but due to the progressive nature of IT, this may change three months down the line and they may instead need an individual who is skilled in Python,” adds Michael.
“Employers are therefore urged to speed up the hiring process for contractors as the very nature of contracting is to have someone hit the ground running, especially in the IT sector where businesses should keep pace or risk being left behind.”
Other trends in IT contracting can be viewed below:
- Contract work in Japan continues to have an image problem, one of low paid office clerks, hospitality staff and call centre workers on ‘haken’ contracts that afford them few rights and, often, even less respect.
- However, looking beyond these stereotypes there is a rising trend for highly-skilled staff in the upper levels of industry choosing contracting as a career path, filling gaps that permanent staff cannot. This is particularly apparent in IT contracting.
- With such a wide array of IT contracting positions to be filled, companies are struggling to keep up, and they are finding that their intake of permanent employees is falling short of the skills required.
- One reason behind this deficiency lies in the business culture propensity towards moving employees from department to department.
- In view of the skill shortages in IT locally, many firms have been more open to considering talents from abroad.
- Japanese returnees, in particular, are greatly favoured because of their perfect combination of having global exposure and a rich understanding of local culture and language.
For the full Inside Story report for IT Contracting in Japan, click here.
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Hays, the world’s leading recruiting experts in qualified, professional and skilled people.
About Hays
Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group and is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. 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 30 June 2018 the Group employed 10,978 staff operating from 257 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 markets: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Mainland China, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA