Our achievements

• 【Company Profile】Global Medical Consulting company with 10 employees

We advised HR department of an headquarters overseas, which manages a Japanese subsidiary, on how to deal with various employee-related issues that arise in the Japanese subsidiary in a way that reduces legal risks and is in line with Japanese laws and customs. For example, we advised HR department of an overseas headquarters, which considered dismissal of an employee due to lack of ability, to understand that in Japan it is difficult to dismiss an employee even if lack of ability is the reason for the dismissal. Subsequently, we proposed an agreed severance between the company and the employee, and the matter was successfully resolved.
We also provided advice on what to keep in mind when interviewing the parties involved, the criteria for recognizing harassment, and the degree of disciplinary action, and also explained the related documentation and precautions to be taken when preparing the relevant documents and notifying the disciplinary action.

• 【Company profile】Global HR service provider with 30 employees

We worked as project managers for a project to take over operations from a service provider of another company, managing the communication hub for all parties involved, scheduling, tasks, and issues, and reviewing documents.
In addition, we continue to review proposals submitted by consultants to clients.

• 【Company profile】Global medical device manufacturer, 50 employees

We replaced HR manager who resigned due to emotional stress, and managed general HR operations and one HR staff member. We performed daily operations such as payroll calculation and mid-career hiring, reported to the overseas headquarters, and provided advice to the president of the Japanese subsidiary on HR and organizational management. Other duties included administering the annual personnel evaluation and pay raise process, facilitating promotion meetings, organizing disciplinary committee meetings, and reviewing work rules and regulations. A key feature of this project was that many employees joined the labor union in comparison to the number of employees due to management policies that did not take into account legal risks in the past, such as forceful retirement encouragement, thus we routinely dealt with the labor union in cooperation with lawyers for each individual case.
After the company settled down, we hired a replacement human resources manager and completed the handover of operations.

• 【Company profile】Japanese manufacturing company with 50 employees

More than 30 years ago, the personnel system of a major Japanese company was introduced as it was, but the company was unable to operate it. As a result, the company was exhausted due to a long-term negative chain of events, such as unnecessarily inflation of managers and unclear personnel evaluations, which caused a significant loss of motivation among mid-level and younger employees.

In order to break through this situation, the president and five employees selected as candidates for the next generation of executives requested us to undertake a drastic reform of the personnel system as project members. The company wanted the basic work to be done by its own employees, so we adopted a method whereby we would lecture the project members on how to proceed and the work to be done at bi-weekly meetings, and the project members would do the actual work. We and the project members worked together for about 8 months to design a role grading system, a personnel evaluation system based on competencies, and a role-based pay system.
The feedback from the survey shows that “now that roles are clearly defined, it is easier to give orders and to train employees.” “Employees who have been slacking off have become more difficult to work with, and the younger employees have become more energetic.”, which shows the new personnel system is proving to be effective. Project members commented, “Just when we thought we were over the mountain, it was all uphill until the very end.” “I think that the distinction between cause and effect, MECE thinking, and other things we learned that we did not use in our daily work will be useful in our work in the future. Above all, I gained a great deal of confidence by finishing the project.”

• 【Company profile】Global IT company with 75 employees

HR department of an overseas headquarters managing a Japanese subsidiary asked us for advice on its policy to strengthen its HR compliance in Japan. We explained the matters that the company should do according to the number of employees in accordance with labor related laws and regulations.

Subsequently, we prepared a schedule of items to be initiated, and provided assistance and advice on the review of employment contracts, preparation of work rules and conclusion of labor-management agreements, record keeping of medical checkups at the time of hiring, recording and evaluation of probationary period performance, and establishment of a harassment counseling system and internal awareness of the harassment.

• 【Company profile】Global back office service provider with 100 employees

At the request of HR manager of a Japanese corporation who has her hands full with daily operations, we provide advice on daily operations in addition to updating work rules due to legal revisions, drafting regulations, advising on retirement encouragement, and preparing a resignation agreement.

• 【Company profile】Global logistics company with 450 employees.

Although the payroll and social insurance procedures were handled by two people, the manager of HP Operations and his staff, there was no payroll manual in place and no one knew how to do payroll except these two people. HR director asked us to do something about it because he wanted to pay this month’s salary. We analyzed past payroll results, staff emails, and payroll documents to clarify the payroll process and logic, and performed payroll calculations and payroll transfers for the month. We then created payroll manuals and performed day-to-day operations as a interim manager of HR Operations, eventually we handed over to the successor HR operation manager.

• 【Company Profile】Global staffing agency with 900 employees

HR staff was responding to an urgent inspection by the Labor Standards Inspection Office, but the company was concerned about the preparation of documents required for the investigation, documents to be presented, and explanations to the Labor Standards Inspection Officer, so we attended the investigation and provided explanations to the Labor Standards Inspection Officer on the company’s behalf.

Subsequently, we gave instructions to HR staff to work on concluding a labor-management agreement etc., which were lacking in accordance with the labor standards inspector’s corrective action order, as well as preparing reports and explanation materials. As a result, the investigation was completed in two months.

• 【Company Profile】Global medical consulting company with 1,500 employees

Whenever an employee asked for consultation about harassment, HR staff reconciled the problem based on their personal relationships, and not only did they not investigate, but they did not keep a record of the consultation, which led to a number of secondary incidents. The newly hired HR director, sensing a crisis in this situation, asked us to take over the case. While handling the entire process from employee consultation, investigation of harassment, and resolution, we prepared a manual describing the procedures for harassment consultation and report writing, as well as a template for investigation reports, and provided training on handling harassment to HR staff in charge of the case.

• 【Company Profile】Global staffing service provider with 2,500 employees.

• Organizational Development

As a consultant for HR department, I supported various HR operations that could not be handled by the company’s own HR staffs alone.

We held regular meetings with managers in charge of organizational issues and manager development to review action plans. We also provided advice on the development of a compliance training program to change the behavior of managers who lack awareness of harassment and a sense of urgency.

• HR Operations

We prepared materials explaining social insurance premiums, income tax structure, and year-end adjustments for non-Japanese speaking employees.

We visualized the application process, analyzed bottlenecks, and optimized the process in order to prevent untimely applications.

We instructed HR staff on how to write a process flow so that they can identify issues and make improvements in their own work processes.

We conducted a major review of the work rules, which had been created for each employment type and lacked consistency, and simultaneously revised work rule in accordance with amendments of labor-related laws and regulations.

• Recruitments

The employment contracts, which had been formatted differently depending on the type of job, were reviewed and unified into one employment contract format as a company.

• 【Company Profile】Global staffing service provider with 2,500 employees.

We identified items to be managed by HRIS and created a flowchart of HR operations in order to migrate HR data, which had been stored in the payroll system and Excel, to the newly introduced HRIS.

• 【Company Profile】Global pharmaceutical company with 5,000 employees

The Japanese subsidiary had outsourced its payroll calculation to a global payroll vendor under instructions from its home country, but due to numerous payroll calculation errors, the amount of money transferred each month was incorrect, and many incorrect payments of inhabitant tax were occurring, causing major problems within the company. The problem had been occurring since the introduction of the payroll outsourcing, but it had not improved over time, and the client asked us to investigate the problem, as it was assumed that there was a problem with the payroll logic at the time of introduction. We worked with the employee to deal with the monthly payroll errors, while at the same time verifying the various documents and payroll logic at the time of implementation, and conducted interviews with the global payroll vendor’s staff. As a result of the investigation, it was determined that the main cause was that the global payroll vendor’s payroll staff did not have a proper understanding of Japanese payroll and there was a lack of communication between the two parties.  Both sides were stubborn due to cultural differences, but after repeated discussions and mutual efforts, they came to an agreement that they would “contact the staff in charge at the Japanese subsidiary without fear if something was unknown or unclear,” and that “the Japanese staff would speak carefully so that people who are not native Japanese speakers could understand. We also took measures such as holding regular sharing meetings and inviting a staff of a global payroll vendor to Japan to hold a study session.