First ever!? Publication of the “Work-Style” Survey covering over 1600 employees in 44 major companies
This data is One JAPAN’s “Weapon”
“Work-Style” has become a social hot word. We see slogans such as, “Let’s reform our work-style,” or operational improvement efforts have been implemented to, “Improve each employee’s work-style to increase productivity.” Many organizations are looking into revising their rules and systems to reform working styles. However, it seems as if management driving these changes do not have a clear understanding of what the actual working-level are thinking, or have evidence to why a reformation is necessary. There is a general impression that the business managers are just excited about having a system reformation and not really validating against the needs of the ones who will be most influenced by it.
One JAPAN conducted a research on this hot topic of work-styles. The raw data gathered through a survey conducted in 2017 on 1604 employees of the millennials generation in the working force from 44 major companies, have been shared with companies who supported the research*. There have been numerous researches conducted on the perception of employees on their work-styles, but why did One JAPAN come to the decision to specifically share the raw data? This is their story.
※Provision free of charge is only available to organizations participating in One JAPAN.
Just in case you are wondering what One JAPAN is…
Before we jump into the actual topic, you may be wondering what One JAPAN is. I’d like to take this opportunity to re-introduce One JAPAN.
One JAPAN is a platform for voluntary groups of young talents in large companies. A little while back, Millennials Times writer, Sakaguchi participated and reported on their event. Their objective is extremely straightforward.
《 Propel innovation from large companies 》
Every member of One JAPAN are fighting the resistance against innovation in his or her respective organizations.
“It this company really going to go on like this? Is Japan’s future really secure?”
This spark of frustration and urgency gravitated together the young forces of various companies to breakthrough the framework of organizations to generate innovation — this was the genesis of, One JAPAN. Powerhouses such as Panasonic, NTT Group, Toyota are participating in this effort.
We interviewed Ikko Kanbara, one of the organizers of One JAPAN, and Toshihiro Setojima, the lead of this work-style survey project, to find out the reason why One JAPAN decided to share the raw data of this research to its participating companies.
This is data with unparalleled purity
Ko: “Countless researches have been conducted on work-style, but what was particular about this research?”
Kanbara: First, I must raise the purity of the data accumulated in the research. The subjects were young workers in the 44 companies participating in One JAPAN, aged 25 to 39. This may not sound very special, but usually these types of researches try to cover a broad range of subjects. Many researches lack consistency in company size, employee status, working formats. However, this research was limited to young, mid-level full-time employees of large companies with more than 10,000 employees. With this kind of criteria, usually researches can only cover a limited number of companies, but this research was conducted on over 1600 subjects crossing over large companies — this is a research of unprecedented scale.
Ko: “That is why the data is so ‘Pure.’”
Kanbara: That’s right. It purely focused on current working employees in the field. This scale of research would not have been possible by anyone but One JAPAN.
Concerns of nursing care needs is spreading amongst the youth, at the same time they seek self-improvement.
Ko: “Were there any gaps between projected hypotheses and the actual research results? “
Kanbara: The research covered thoughts on nursing care, and the results there were unexpected. Subjects were people in their 20s and 30s in the working force, so we expected these people to have little interest in nursing care — we expected nursing care to be more of a pressing issue for people in their 40s and 50s. However, the research revealed that even young workers in their 20s to 30s are worried about nursing care.
Why is this happening? In 2025, all baby-boomers will reach 65 years of age, which will categorize them as the elderly. When this happens, there is a possibility that the millennials generation will have to drive all three responsibilities — working, parenting and nursing care. This could be the major reason behind the concerns reflected in this research. One JAPAN named this burden, the “Triple Shift,” and raised an alarm as an issue that requires a solution.
Another interesting fact found in the results was regarding second or side jobs. We were expecting the motive for people to have a second or side job to be money or networking, but the majority actually answered that it was to up-skill or to step up their career. So it feels like the younger generation have a hunger for improvement or are willing to test themselves in a different environment to their usual job.
A clear vision beyond passion
Kanbara: It’s easy to say, “Let’s innovate through One JAPAN!” However, to actually make this happen, you need people, products, money and more importantly, time. Innovation doesn’t happen overnight. That is why it is important to continuously penetrate the necessity of innovation, and we decided that a research, which collectively communicates individual voices, is one way to do that. It’s important to communicate the real voices of the young mid-level workers using an objective framework.
The research provided an opportunity to raise awareness of One JAPAN, but it also provided valuable information to us, One JAPAN as well. We realized that the results provide guidance and evidence for our own future activities. It indicates where we currently are, and provides a vision of where we need to be.
Ko: “I read through results of work-style surveys conducted by the government and various companies in preparation of this interview. It feels like there is a deep gap in mindset between those who are 39 and over vs those who are younger. It’s notably different.”
Setojima: That may be true. There is a big gap in mindset towards side-jobs and innovation between the older generation, the generation where life-long employment was the norm, and the younger generation. I think this research was very valuable as it helped uncover the mindset of the millennials generation about how they think and what they expect from organizations.
This data is our “weapon.”
Kanbara: I showed the research results to an acquaintance who works at a think-tank, and he was wondering how much budget we had and which company conducted the survey. When I told him that we did it ourselves voluntarily, he was utterly surprised. It felt good, or rather awesome to think that One JAPAN was able to conduct a research of that quality driven by our passion and commitment (chuckles). We have manufacturers, think-tanks, media and advertising agencies participating in One JAPAN. If we pull our forces together, although each input may be small, it can turn into something great. I will be even happier if we can take this survey further and turn it into the next action unique to One JAPAN.
Kanbara: This survey can also be used as evidence when the younger workers get a chance to speak up. You can’t negotiate or make policy proposals unless you have evidence. Members in One JAPAN are participating to seize strategic opportunities that will generate commercially successful business, get media coverage and eventually influence the world. It’s been a great feeling to be able to prove the impact of One JAPAN working collectively together through this research.
Inquiries for companies made us realize the value of our data.
Ko: “I have heard that the raw data of the research will be published so that the users can edit the data according to their needs. Was this the plan from the start?”
Setojima: This research was conducted in February 2017. We didn’t plan to publish the full data at that time. However, once the research started rolling, we got many inquiries from the participating companies asking for the data of their company so they can understand what their employees are thinking. We then were able to acknowledge the potential of our data. That’s why we thought it would be important to provide the data as openly as possible to propel further innovation out the open.
Ko: “So that was the trigger for you to realize the value of this data.”
From One JAPAN’s weapon to everyone’s weapon.
Ko: “Lastly, how do you want people to leverage this data? Do you have a vision?”
Kanbara: This research is a crystallization of the voices of over 1600 employees of the 44 large-scale companies participating in One JAPAN. This may not exactly be “Big Data,” but I know that new insights can be mined from researches of this scale. I hope this will help users uncover new insights.
Setojima: The data shared is unprocessed raw data. We hope this data can become the driving force behind not just ours, but various efforts. It should be maximized as evidence to validate activities and proposals.
Ko: “I see what you mean by making it a “weapon” for everyone.”
Afterthoughts of the author
This public debate on “Work-Style Reform” was triggered a while ago, by the death of a young lady in advertising, coincidently, the industry I work in. Her SNS posts screaming for help was picked up by media, and I recall it was only then when society started to focus on this issue.
Now many organizations are questioning the way they operate and work. Things that used to be swept under the carpet is now in the open and the environment is changing.
The raw data of this research conducted by One JAPAN has now been made public. I hope that this data will be used to ensure correct change driven by the voices of the field. As Mr. Setojima mentioned, this data enabled us to see our true selves as well. This may be the most powerful weapon we have to fight for our own future.
This research may become our hope, our guidepost for a better tomorrow.
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One Japan “Work-Style” Survey
Contact the below for any inquiries regarding access or use of the research results
≪Contact≫ onejapan@gmail.com
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Translated by Chiaki Kobayashi
