Corporate Governance Script

The recruitment and appointment of new employees Procedures and practices in Japan
&Malaysia

Good morning. I'm Nur Liyana Fatin bt Yussof and you're watching Malaysia Today. Today we'll
be talking about The Recruitment and Appointment of New Employees.

Human capital is an important asset of the company to create competitive advantage in the
industry. Good recruitment will give value to the business units of the company and minimise
human capital costs. In Malaysia, we have our own procedures and practices for the recruitment
and appointment new employees. Different countries have applied various sets of recruitment
and appointment practices based on their culture and laws. In early February, BBC news
reported that Japan has the world's third-largest economy and now it is a source of global capital.
Therefore, its role in the international community is considerable.

To better understand this forum well talk with Prof XXX, who is _________________; as well
as Prof YYY, who is ____________________. Finally, for a perspective from a
___________________, well also have Prof ZZZ on our show. Were going to start with our
first guess, Prof XXX.

Moderator: Can you tell us about the procedures involved in making recruitment in Malaysia?

Panel I: Recruitment process is rigorous and although it may vary in different countries
depending on local law and practice, Malaysian companies always focus only on
job-related skills and experience to ensure the selection is fair and transparent for
all candidates. There are a few procedures includes; by specifying position and
advertisement. This stage means line managers specify requirements for a
particular position, including job-specific responsibilities, competencies and
academic qualifications, as well as any other relevant information and HR creates
advertisements that are posted on the website. Candidates apply online, and the
company confirms receipt of applications by e-mail. Next, an initial selection by
HR evaluates applications and reviews candidates who have registered with the
company previously. Profiles matching the requirements of the advertised position
are chosen for the next step. The third step is an interview the candidates,
candidates participate in an initial interview, either in a video conference, or on
the phone, or face to face. The company thoroughly trains the recruiters and all
employees involved in recruitment to select candidates objectively and in line
with companies recruitment principles. Short-listed candidates are called in for a
more in-depth discussion, during which the hiring manager assesses technical
competencies required for the job. Companies then inform applicants whether or
not they have been successful within a reasonable time frame. Once the applicants
 are successful the company will offer the job and appoint the candidates to the
suitable position.

Moderator: Thank you for your explanation, Prof XXX. How about in Japan, Prof YYY? Can
you briefly explain the procedures of new employees recruitment in Japan?

Panel II: The Japanese school year begins in April and ends in March, Japanese companies
have found simultaneously hiring these March graduates to join the company in
April. Normally, they will start their recruitment in the middle of their third year
which is October by a series of promoting events. At the beginning of October, a
number of university career centres start offering job-hunting guidance seminars
to students and companies came on campus and talked in general terms about
working for companies. After that, a number of jobs hunting sites such as Riku
Navi open and alumni recruiters would visit their former class seminars and clubs
to attract students. Third-year students send in applications before February and
attend company information sessions. By the start of their 4th year, the human
resource department would select the qualified applicants to have testing and
interviews with them. Job offers can be made up to a year before jobs commence
and the official letter would be given 6 months before job commences. This is the
general process of Japanese companies. However, some international Japanese
companies such as Toshiba and Toyota have complex process compared to SME.
They will interview shortlisted applicants in each country first and the final
shortlisted candidates will only be invited to visit their working environment in
Japan to have a final interview.

Moderator: Thank you, Prof YYY. Both of you give us a brief framework about the
recruitment procedure in both countries. Prof ZZZ, based on your years
experience in researching on Japanese corporate culture, can you tell us about the
differences in Japanese companies recruitment compared to Malaysia?

Panel III: Sure, Japans recruitment process is quite strict compared to other countries
recruitment processes including Malaysias. Japanese companies take a long time
to come to a conclusion on hiring employees. They first want to collect data,
consult experts and then go through the whole screening process before they
actually hire an employee. While going through this process, they also expect to
build up a relationship with their future employee because they expect their
employees to work for them until their retirement. While in Malaysia, they only
spend weeks or month to come to a conclusion to hire new employees. Although
more efficient but it also has the risks to recruit the wrong person into the wrong
place. Another remarkable part is that they often search for employees who have
general knowledge. When they search for new employees, they often do not
 mention exact job descriptions. They want their new employees to be able to work
in any kind of position except high positions. So people who are specialised in a
specific field often do not use these skills when they apply for a job. In contrast,
Malaysian companies seek for new employees subjected to availability of the
position. Malaysian HR always finds employees based on the job requirements to
ensure appropriate hiring.

Moderator: Oh, we realised that there is really a difference between Malaysia and Japan in
their recruitment process. How about the practices of recruitment and
appointment of new employees in both Malaysia and Japan?

Panel I: Human resources management is the backbone of the organisation because they
are a responsibility to recruit the new employees to the organisation. Malaysian
HRs practice of an organisation can say is influenced by the British colonisation.
There are divided into two mainstreams, such as British oriented values and
ethnic oriented values. HRM practice who adopt Western practice emphasis on
human development and optimal productivity. Due to the mismatch of work value
which leads to high hiring failure so the HRM are putting more effort on selecting
the candidates to work with the organisation. In addition, HRM activities includes
recruitment and selection, salary and compensation, training and development,
fringe system and performance appraisal system. However, an organisation in
Malaysia implemented ethnic oriented put less attention on hiring practices and
retain talented cadres. HRM in Malaysia employs new staff from a newspaper
advertisement. Malaysia organisation focuses on the average and good
performances which give the medium and high degrees of variance in a pay
increase. While for the fringe benefits, Malaysian company only provide the basic
fringe benefit as per statutory requirement. When after the staff being recruited to
the Malaysia organisation, the training and development are only provided when
it is a job specific training. Besides, the employers only send the employees to
public training institution which is open to all types of companies. While for the
promotion and career advancement that Malaysian organisation adopts the most
traditional concept of career management with the relatively stronger element of
seniority influencing promotion decision.
Moderator: How about the practices of recruitment and appointment of new employees in
Japan?

Panel II: Oh, let me sharing about the practices of recruitment first. Generally, the
recruitment of new employees in Japanese companies is the responsibility of
Human Resource Director or line managers. The most common practices of
recruitment of new employees in Japan is that the Japanese companies are
obviously focusing on long-term employment and recruit the future employees
based on their personal qualities without reference to particular work tasks or set
of skills. Potential employees are selected based on the education they have
received, their characters and general background. Preferences are given priority
to the university graduates, especially graduates from prestigious universities will
hire as core employees. Next, let me shares about the practices of appointment.
Under Japanese company culture, the appointment of new employees in a private
company is under the employers decision while the Japanese public companies
are practising the appointment of new employees through the implementations of
the merit system. Consequently, there will be a recruitment examination of
national public employees under this system and the successful applicants will be
appointed as the new employees. The main purpose of this recruitment
examination under merit system is aimed to ensure the fairness in the appointment
of new employees in a public company.

Moderator: As the Japanese recruitment and appointment practices sound good, can it be
receptive to Malaysia companies?

Panel III: Oh, it cant as it is not suitable.

Moderator: I see, why companies in Malaysia not receptive to the Japanese recruitment
practices then?

Panel III: The reason perhaps lies in its limited applicability in the Malaysian environment.
Japan with its homogeneous workforce does not have to deal with the multiplicity
of races, religions and languages. In addition, women in Malaysia seem to push
for equality with men more intensively than their counterparts in Japan. Besides,
the increase in teleworking opportunities will provide greater job flexibility, thus
encouraging more women to join the labour force. Thus, recruitment practices of
companies in Malaysia have to look out more for objectivity where different
people could compete on the same footing. Japanese management practices,
which are designed for the male-dominated working environment, have limited
applicability as far as this is concerned. However, if consideration is given to
certain factors that counteract the application of Japanese recruitment practices in
 Malaysia, Japanese recruitment techniques with slight modifications can be
successfully introduced in Malaysia. The transference of Japanese recruitment
practices must be undertaken with endurance and consideration and in accordance
with the mainstream of the basic cultural values of the local population.

Moderator: So, the Japanese recruitment process cannot be applied in Malaysia so, could you
give one example of a company that has been implementing one of the best
recruitment programs in Malaysia?

Panel I: Yes sure. Maybank has been titled the award for the best recruitment innovation
for creatively improving upon its existing hiring processes, services, user
satisfaction and effectiveness. Maybank has come out with the slightly different
recruitment process. Besides, the company won the gold award in Human
Resources regional Asia Recruitment Award 2015, held in Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia. The company was recognised specifically for innovation within its
graduate recruitment program titled Maybank Go Ahead Challenge (MGAC).
MGAC was designed to unearth talents beyond academic excellence and to
provide students with an idea of a how a real business environment is. As
nowadays it is hard to find people that have high capabilities to learn at the
workplace. So, they believe that this program helps them to find the right
individuals that fit their criteria to sustain the future growth. The MGAC is
unique for various reasons, including offering the highest cash prize in the market,
having a diverse range of candidates, and being a fully online program to cater to
the new Gen Y. In addition, through these channels, this program continues to
appeal strongly to the public in attracting talents, especially amongst the
graduates.

Moderator: From your explanation just now, no wonder Japans economy is surprisingly
strong growth, they have a good system in recruitment and appointment new
employees. Can you provide some real-life cases about the practice of recruitment
and appointment in Japan to make us have a better understanding?

Panel II: Yes, there is a number of Japanese companies conducting effective and awesome
recruitment and appointment practice. For example, Sony Corporation, a Japanese
multinational corporation which ranked 113th on the 2016 list of Fortune Global
500, has also established a Global Internship Program. This program welcomes
university students from Europe, North America the United States, China and
India, among others. Sony is conducting recruiting presentation at universities,
graduate schools and research facilities around the world, as well as for groups of
overseas students studying in Japan, seeking to attract a wide variety of top talent
who is suitable for Sony culture. In the fiscal year 2011, Sony also sent new
 domestic recruits to undertake a temporary assignment to Sony EMCS in
Malaysia for them to develop a global perspective and after that, assign them into
right position followed by their abilities. Sonys recruitment system has major
changes compared to traditional practices such as university recommendations
and they prefer to recruit candidates with a global mindset now.

Moderator: Recruitment process will affect the company performance as well as the countrys
economic and currently, there are some issues about the recruitment and
appointment of new employees in Japanese companies as well as in Malaysia
also. Do you have any idea on it?

Panel III: As for now, Malaysias employers face the challenges of skill and talent shortage
when recruiting new employees. In 2017, according to Hays Asia Salary Guide
stated that 97% of employers in Malaysia are facing the problem to find the
talented person they require. The director of Hay Asia, Christine Wright adviced
that employers shall provide sufficient training and development to the staff.
However, around 79% of Malaysian such as more people will rather choose to
move countries for the secure of right job. Published journal from Malaysian
public sector also revealed that Malaysian Public Service Commission (PSC) has
initiated innovations in its recruitment practice to attract more non-Malay job
seekers to alter the ethnic imbalance in the civil service.

Moderator: It looks like a serious issues required to be solved. How about in Japan?

Panel III: In Japan, the most concerned issues are that the Japanese companies are now
facing a difficulty in retaining high competence local management candidates
over the long term in this high competitive labour market. Those high competence
employees are missing out the opportunities for company to appoint them to a
higher position in a management post before they left the company. Servay titled
Challenges in hiring and retaining talent in multinational companies in Japan
found that this phenomenon happened may due to the fact that the talented
candidates have access to a wide range of job opportunities and this is why
companies need to have policies aligned with their employees career path and the
goal of stabilizing the business development.

Moderator: Thank you, Prof ZZZ.

As we bring our The Recruitment And Appointment of New Employees Forum to a close, we
once again thank you for allowing us to be here this morning and hope that this forum has given
you a much clearer understanding of every country have their own procedures and practices for
the recruitment and appointment new employees depends on their culture and laws. Thank you
and good morning! Bye

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