Blogs and Articles from Third Way Forum Membrs
Jun 30, 2022
Discussion#2 The Tenkin (The Relocation Practice in Japan)
Blogs from The Third Way Working Group
- The people whom we are trying to save are those corporate employees who have to relocate to places against their wish due to the one-sided will of their companies.
- They are often given no clear explanation of why and no chance to negotiate or reach mutual agreement.
- The majority of Japanese employees still put up with this practice due to their mindset of “It is how it is and how it has always been done.” and “I need to be loyal and obedient.”.
- However, due to the growing bargaining power of talent, younger talented employees are no longer putting up with this one-sided relocation order from their companies and they would rather quit and go to another company. They also have a stronger sense of entitlement to their working conditions and are quick to leave if asked to relocate to somewhere they don’t want to.
- Japanese companies must realize that they can manage business better and improve people’s moral if they stop the traditional Tenkin practice, that is, one-sidedly forcing people to work in locations regardless their individual wishes.
- We propose a new relocation practice for Japanese companies as below. These 6 steps are more or less taken in global companies. We believe there is no reason why Japanese companies can not do the same.
1. Explain a clear purpose of relocation, i.e. why this person is requested to work for this remote team.
2. Explain why the physical move is necessary. Why not remotely?
3. Take the person’s family situation into consideration and discuss any inconvenience and potential challenges to the family
4. Ensure that this is a good career move for the person and explain how.
5. Provide other options in case this one does not work. (Respect the person’s right to say No)
6. Incentivize the move with additional benefits such as special allowances, increased bonus and/or social causes (SDGs-related activities) etc
- If companies take the above steps, nobody will go to different locations against their will and they will be motivated to perform well in the new locations.
- Japanese company management may argue that some forcible relocation is necessary in order to fill all the positions in all the locations and they keep counting on the blind loyalty of Japanese employees to suck up unlucky appointments as a part of their service and accept some years of self-sacrifice and family sufferings. It is, however, absolutely old-fashioned and more and more Japanese can not accept such a logic against human rights and the basic right of pursuit of happiness. Such companies will surely keep losing good talent and will never prevail.
- Companies should do their best to utilize local talent as much possible and to recruit more foreigners to fill the talent shortage. There are still foreigners who find it beneficial for them to come, work and live in Japan. If you provide attractive package, adequate support and training as well as diverse & inclusive work environment, they should be able to recruit more foreign workers.
- If everybody has their own reason why they work in this location, reasons may be new experience for career progress, good package, family hometown, adventure in Japan etc, nobody will be working in a location simply because of the one-sided will of their employer.
- As the Japanese word for relocation “Tenkin” is associated with the traditional company relocation practice, we should use a different Japanese term to call the new and more globally-aligned relocation practice mentioned above, something like Job Rotation?
- They are often given no clear explanation of why and no chance to negotiate or reach mutual agreement.
- The majority of Japanese employees still put up with this practice due to their mindset of “It is how it is and how it has always been done.” and “I need to be loyal and obedient.”.
- However, due to the growing bargaining power of talent, younger talented employees are no longer putting up with this one-sided relocation order from their companies and they would rather quit and go to another company. They also have a stronger sense of entitlement to their working conditions and are quick to leave if asked to relocate to somewhere they don’t want to.
- Japanese companies must realize that they can manage business better and improve people’s moral if they stop the traditional Tenkin practice, that is, one-sidedly forcing people to work in locations regardless their individual wishes.
- We propose a new relocation practice for Japanese companies as below. These 6 steps are more or less taken in global companies. We believe there is no reason why Japanese companies can not do the same.
1. Explain a clear purpose of relocation, i.e. why this person is requested to work for this remote team.
2. Explain why the physical move is necessary. Why not remotely?
3. Take the person’s family situation into consideration and discuss any inconvenience and potential challenges to the family
4. Ensure that this is a good career move for the person and explain how.
5. Provide other options in case this one does not work. (Respect the person’s right to say No)
6. Incentivize the move with additional benefits such as special allowances, increased bonus and/or social causes (SDGs-related activities) etc
- If companies take the above steps, nobody will go to different locations against their will and they will be motivated to perform well in the new locations.
- Japanese company management may argue that some forcible relocation is necessary in order to fill all the positions in all the locations and they keep counting on the blind loyalty of Japanese employees to suck up unlucky appointments as a part of their service and accept some years of self-sacrifice and family sufferings. It is, however, absolutely old-fashioned and more and more Japanese can not accept such a logic against human rights and the basic right of pursuit of happiness. Such companies will surely keep losing good talent and will never prevail.
- Companies should do their best to utilize local talent as much possible and to recruit more foreigners to fill the talent shortage. There are still foreigners who find it beneficial for them to come, work and live in Japan. If you provide attractive package, adequate support and training as well as diverse & inclusive work environment, they should be able to recruit more foreign workers.
- If everybody has their own reason why they work in this location, reasons may be new experience for career progress, good package, family hometown, adventure in Japan etc, nobody will be working in a location simply because of the one-sided will of their employer.
- As the Japanese word for relocation “Tenkin” is associated with the traditional company relocation practice, we should use a different Japanese term to call the new and more globally-aligned relocation practice mentioned above, something like Job Rotation?
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