As a new fiscal year begins, the issue of employee turnover has some companies pushing "bonding" opportunities on new hires.  

Banking on in-company networks as one way to prevent resignations amid a labor shortage is also meant to contend with the rise of proxy services that will quit on an employee's behalf, something that has made it easier for young workers to job hop.

One such "analog" experience involved a “mini four-wheel drive” race at the Yokohama headquarters of Robert Bosch GmBH's Japanese subsidiary. The German auto parts manufacturer's April 1 induction ceremony involved about 70 new employees who participated in the race divided into teams to build their own machines.

Using the items they had won in a game with the company president, they repeatedly tried out their machines and made adjustments.

Once the cars were completed, they faced off in speed and design.

The company changed its initiation ceremony to an event format in 2017.

The aim is to strengthen unity by having executives and new employees work together.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when such an event was not held, the turnover rate within three years of joining the company increased.

Chinami Shiyama, 49, recruitment manager of the human resources department, said, “They can show their true selves from their first day at the company, which strengthens the bond among their peers.”

A new employee Yoichiro Tamada, 24, said, “If I have a problem, I can talk about it openly with the friends I made at the initiation ceremony.”

The company’s induction ceremony was supported by Undokaiya, a Tokyo-based event company that produces "undokai," or an athletic festival, mainly for companies.

Its founder, Takaaki Yoneji, said he wanted to improve companies’ working environments through sports and decided to propose holding athletic festivals similar to a school's sports day that many are familiar with.

In 2024, Yoneji’s company produced 253 events including athletic festivals, over the course of the year.

There was even an athletic event where the Tokyo Dome was rented out and 20,000 people gathered, he said.

Recently, Yoneji has been hearing from participants that they “feel relieved.”

For many of the younger employees who spent the pandemic as students, online interaction is the norm.

Yoneji feels that through events such as athletic festivals they were able to find their place and feel "needed" by the company.

There was an employee who decided not to quit after participating in a sports event, Yoneji said.

"When it comes to measures against employee turnover, there is a tendency to ‘curry favor’ by enhancing benefits and other measures. But I think that more thought needs to be given to how to make employees happy within the organization," Yoneji said.

At Itochu Corp., a major general trading company, new employees generally live in dormitories.

Typically, companies set up their employees in rented company housing.

However, Itochu insists on using company dormitories because it wants them to “strengthen the ‘vertical, horizontal and diagonal’ ties within the company,” according to a representative.

In the newly built women’s dormitory, young employees pass through the living room on their way to their rooms to make it easier for them to interact with each other.

A 23-year-old female employee said, “I sometimes get talked to by my peers when I am cooking in the shared kitchen.”

She added, “It’s the first step in forming a network within the company.”

A company representative said, “By building relationships with people, including senior employees, from a young age in the dormitories, they will become reassuring advisers in the future.”

The representative also said, “It also serves as a foundation for women's success and motivates them to work for the company for a long time.” 

RESIGNATIONS ARE EXPENSIVE

Human resources company en Japan Inc. has distributed its “HR OnBoard” system since 2017 to gauge the emotional state of new employees by having them answer simple questions online.

"Do you get used to the rules?” and “Is your supervisor easy to talk to?” are among them.

The company has obtained data from more than 9,000 entities and used it to identify the hidden risks of employee turnover. 

In analyzing past cases, it found that the three main causes of employee turnover were “gaps,” “human relationships” and "workload capacity.” Recently, “gaps” have been the most common reason for concerns among employees.

According to a representative, "In the midst of a labor shortage, companies are so eager to secure human resources that they are only giving explanations that are convenient for their own companies.”

In addition, many young employees say that the more seniority-based large companies are, the longer it takes for employees to reach positions of responsibility, making it difficult for them to realize their own growth.

The representative said that one solution for companies is to show employees “what the company aims to become in the future.” 

"There is freedom of choice and that leaving a job is not in itself a bad thing," the rep said, but also noted a company can see a maximum loss of 6.4 million yen ($42,800) if an employee leaves after six months of employment.

The rep said, "If a small mismatch causes a worker to leave the company, it is a negative for both the company and the employee. Eliminating even a small amount of such mismatches will lead to an improvement in the economy."

According to the labor ministry, 38.4 percent of individuals who graduated from high school in March 2021 had left their job within three years, up 1.4 percentage points from the prior year.

Similarly, the figure for those who graduated from college that same March was 34.9 percent, a 2.6-point increase from the year before.

This is the highest percentage logged for college graduates in the last 15 years.

(This article was written by Kantaro Katashima and Hiroshi Nakano.)