Businesses aim to nurture workforce capable of creating new value

In the 100-year-life era, the phase of life where one remains a part of the active workforce may grow longer as healthy life expectancy increases. In an age like this, it is necessary to develop an environment where one can take ownership of their career and is able to choose their own work style, taking advantage of such options as having a side business, second job, or changing jobs instead of remaining in a traditional career path where one works for the same employer for their entire professional life.

The arrival of such an age has prompted the government to promote recurrent education for workers so that they can both work and learn at the same time. 

“Anyone from new graduates to middle-aged and elderly workers will be increasingly required to update their skills accordingly while learning new things at their respective stages,” Noumura said.

Source of value creation

Still, businesses need skilled individuals if they want to achieve innovation goals. Some companies have introduced measures to stimulate workers’ motivation to learn and reward them for learning.

Following its performance evaluation reform, Hitachi Ltd. in 2019 consolidated three in-house training entities into one and created a spin-off company. Hitachi is focused on developing individuals who can lead digital transformation strategies.

In an age when technology advances discontinuously and revolutionary innovation can result from a fusion of totally different things, there are growing movements and expectations to seek employees who bring in new types of value to the company by giving them varied experiences in and outside the company.

On the other hand, individuals’ attitudes toward organizations are changing. There is a growing demographic who, in addition to seeking employers who duly reward them for their work, seek to acquire skills that are widely needed in society rather than just the skillsets that are only useful to a specific company.