Caught between an ageing population and a candidate short job market, Japan’s ongoing labour shortage has resulted in escalated recruitment costs and extended time-to-hire for hiring organisations. While Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) could help counter these effects, the market still remains immature and more education is needed to expand on its benefits.
RPO misinformation pervades
These are some of the findings from The Inside Story of Japan, a monthly regional recruitment analysis undertaken by global recruitment expert Hays. Focusing on the specialism of Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO), this month’s analysis found that while RPO is already a go-to solution in mature markets like the U.S., U.K. and Australia, Japan remains an immature market that still requires more education on the subject to reach its full potential.
A promising market
However, Japan’s RPO market has witnessed a good amount of activity from both regional and global buyers and remains a promising region of growth. Currently, the hi-tech and telecom market is the biggest adopter of RPO services in Japan, with success stories coming from IT companies and start-ups looking to expand their operations in the region.
Localised sourcing a big advantage
A major advantage for RPO providers in Japan’s tight labour market would be to focus on sourcing and maintaining a pool of candidates, through either localised sourcing centres or the ability to ideate creative new sourcing channels. Knowing the market and having ability to be bilingual in English and Japanese is another key differentiator, along with an existing presence in the region.
Shane Little, Managing Director of Hays Talent Solutions, commented, “Ageing populations and a candidate-short market have made Japan one of the most complex and difficult recruiting landscapes for employers looking to hire. This has led to an increasing reliance on recruitment agencies, significant challenges for in-house functions and hard-to-reach talent pools. A combination of these factors along with high recruitment costs has led to RPO becoming an increasingly popular solution to Japan’s unique market needs. Continued efforts to educate the market on the extent and capabilities of RPO services could help with the difficulties of the candidate-short market, alleviate some of the in-house challenges and support the country’s booming industries.”
To read the full Inside Story of Recruitment Process Outsourcing in Japan, please click here
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 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 markets across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:
– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% 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