CHAPTER 2 | Recruiting

15

Attracting the Talent We Want to Hire
Common wisdom in Japan says that the quality of the talent aA January 2022 survey of all our new graduate candidates

company hires determines its future five to ten years ahead.

with conditional offers to join the Group this year showed

Among the four areas of recruiting, development, systems

their decision to accept our offer was the result of theirand corporate culture, we invest the most in recruiting. Link

sympathy with our philosophy and a high level of engagement.

and Motivation has been hiring mid-career employees since it

Recruiting activities are important from the perspective of

was established in April 2000, but as our business expanded,motivating current employees. They are also an opportunity

we also took the unusual step of hiring new university

for dialogue with applicants on their and our visions for thegraduates as early as April 2002 and have continued to dofuture. At the Link and Motivation Group, many employees

so every year since.

are closely involved in various aspects of recruiting.

Securing capable talent is the sine qua non of recruiting,

Employees tell applicants in their own words their thoughts

but we also emphasize engagement (mutual understandingon the future of society and the Company, which becomesand affinity), particularly an applicant’s degree of sympathy

a pledge to the applicants. This in turn spurs current

with our philosophy. We are an organization that has come

employees’ motivation to live up to that pledge. Then, thetogether to realize a mission. Unless prospective employees

newly hired employees tell the next round of applicants theirare sympathetic with our mission, we cannot expect them tothoughts on the future of the Company. This self-perpetuating

perform at their best, no matter how talented they may be.

system has become entrenched as the culture of theAs such, recruiting is key to increasing our core organizational

Link and Motivation Group, and it is a driving force behind themetric of employee engagement, in the sense that it isGroup’s high level of engagement.

management at the initial point of entry.
16

CHAPTER 2 | Recruiting
01 Attracting the Talent We Want to Hire
New Graduate Recruiting Process

Example: Link and Motivation Inc.

Formation of Candidate GroupInternshipTopForum

Internship“SPiRAL”
Managerinterview

Event forIT engineers

100 people

that serves as an entryway to the company is critical. Based on the idea

(Understanding the company, motivation,
self-reflection support)

Internship“JAMP”

In creating organizations with high employee engagement, recruitment

Selection
Selection support by Entry Manager“RiSE”

Director
interview

Attracting the Talent We Want, Rather Than
Choosing from People Who Want to Work for Us

Finalinterview(GroupPresident)

that recruiting capabilities will support the company’s future
10 years from now, we approach recruiting with the stance ofattracting the talent we want, rather than choosing from people
who want to work for us. Given that no one in the labor market has
experience in our original technology of Motivation Engineering, we havefocused in particular on recruiting new graduates.

120 people

135 people

Number of employees involved in the recruiting process

We conduct recruiting with the commitment of the wholecompany, from upper management to the youngest employees.
The idea is not to put people into the company, but to put thecompany into applicants. On that basis, we each try to give applicants

Recruiting event where heads of each company
speak to applicantsa broad understanding of the Group, including its philosophy, strategies,

Top Forum

businesses, work roles, human resources and systems.
Number ofparticipantsin 2021

1,273

Conducting recruiting as a Group-wide endeavor has enabled us tobuild strong recruiting capabilities. For current employees, it is also anopportunity to take a fresh look at their day-to-day work and increase
their motivation.

At this event, the presidents of Group companies gather
to talk about their company’s philosophy and business.
Participants can also talk to current employees.

17CHAPTER 2 | Recruiting
02 Recruiting That Creates High Engagement

Focusing on Increasing Engagement to Enable
Recruiting United by a Common Philosophy

Results of 2021 Entry Management (EM) Survey

To create high employee engagement after joining the company, we

Position of Priority Factor “Philosophy” by Company

focus on high engagement in recruiting. And to maintain that highExpectation

engagement, we place top priority on sympathy with our philosophy

ICE BLOCK (Weakness)

INK BLOT

9 companies
IDLE LINE

0 companies

0 companies

Satisfaction

0 companies

as early as the recruitment stage because of the importance we place

INTER LINK (Strength)

Note: Results for 9 companies that recruit new graduates

on connection with our philosophy.
At the Link and Motivation Group, we measure the degree of mutual
affinity between companies and applicants in recruiting activities basedon the Entry Management (EM) Survey, a diagnostic tool that canquantify the degree of mutual commitment between companies andapplicants. The results of the 2021 EM Survey are shown to the left.
At all Group companies, “philosophy” falls under the category of

Number of New Graduates Hiredstrength, indicating that employees are sympathetic with the Group’s
philosophy when they join the company.

100128144142

We hired 93 new graduates in 2021, which was down from theprevious year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but plan to hire 144 newgraduates in 2022.

9302019

2020

2021

2022

18

Reference
Other Metrics for Recruiting

Devoting Time and Money to Recruit
Highly Engaged, Capable Talent

New University Graduate Recruiting

As mentioned on previous pages, we are committed to quality in recruiting, so we

2019

2020

2021

Recruitment costs1(thousand yen)

476,797443,973355,000

Average length oftime to fill vacant
position2 (days)

58.7

72.1

56.1

Number of hires3(people)Cost per hire4(thousand yen)because we believe that human capital is an investment, not a cost, and that belief
extends beyond the recruiting process.
The Link and Motivation Group’s recruitment costs are shown on the left. The

Mid-Career Employee Recruiting
Recruitment costs1(thousand yen)emphasize devoting time and money to recruit capable human resources. That ismajority consists of personnel expenses for new university graduate recruiting andthe operating expenses of Link-i Inc., a Group company that conducts new graduate

2019

2020

2021

156,841

200,514180,085565342placement. The time and money we invest is substantial.
Overall recruitment costs for new university graduates have decreased as a resultof holding fewer real-world events, transitioning them to online events due to theimpact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cost per hire has risen because the Organizational
2,800

3,783

4,287

1. Total recruiting-related costs recorded in the relevant fiscal year.
2. Total number of days required to hire employees who joined the Group in therelevant fiscal year. Calculated based on the number of days from theapplication date to the offer acceptance date. Recruiting of mid-career
applicants is not calculated because some Group companies hire throughout
the year.
3. Total number of employees who joined the Group in the relevant fiscal year.
4. Calculated by dividing recruiting costs for the relevant fiscal year by thenumber of hires. Recruitment costs for new university graduates are notcalculated because the amount invested in the relevant fiscal year is notdirectly linked to the number of hires.

Development Division is ramping up hiring of capable mid-career applicants for
consultant and IT engineer positions.

19