Improved Graduate Training for Continuous Organizational Improvement
Hiroya Uga
Design Team, UI Developer
On April 1 we welcomed 26 graduate recruits to our company, then on May 18, after 7 weeks of training, they were successfully assigned to internal teams. As a member of the Graduate Training Preparation Committee since 2017, I've been involved in the evolution and management of graduate training. In this column, based on my involvement in the training, I'll give my thoughts on human asset* development.
- * Since I believe that our staff are our company's greatest weapon and are thus an irreplaceable asset, we always refer to employees as “human assets” when we discuss human resource development theory.
Ongoing Human Resource Development
Regarding graduate training at Mitsue-Links, for most lectures, our employees act as instructors, with those who run a session beginning their preparations six months in advance. In-house, we have specialists in various fields such as planning, direction, UI design, UI development, quality control, web analytics, audiovisual production etc., however, not all are experienced in human asset development. Therefore, to provide quality graduate training, it's necessary to train the instructors who'll then guide the newly entered human assets.
Two lecturers provide training to new graduatesAs part of the graduate training program, one experienced lead lecturer oversees at least one other inexperienced assistant lecturer. The experienced lead lecturer improves the skills of the assistant lecturer/s during the six-month preparation period. Instructors also learn about “teaching”, so even experienced tutors can further improve their skills. With the sufficient preparation period and planning activities, we expect skills improvement for all concerned parties.
If a preparation period is too short, support materials may not be updated, and lectures may contain outdated information. As a result, in the fast-changing tech industry in which we operate, content will become stale and of little practical use. If the situation arises where there is a deterioration of training quality, human asset development will become stagnant, which, in turn, will directly lead to a drop in the technical strength of our whole company. Conversely, if we nurture trainers on an ongoing basis, in addition to the benefits for graduate training, we achieve overall human asset development, which then leads to the growth of our entire company.
As colleagues who provide instruction also have their regular work tasks, a burden is imposed on them; while this isn't easy to manage, in terms of human asset development it creates great cost-effectiveness. With graduate training, the more effort that the lecturers make the better the graduates respond - this will affect both the success of the graduates personally as well as their teams after assignment.
For 2019's graduate training, for which the Committee has already commenced preparations, some of this year's graduates may be lining up as instructors.
In Closing
As a means of raising productivity, even if various tools are prepared and workflows are reviewed, I believe that there's nothing better than robust human asset development. In addition to our commitment to graduate training, we run a monthly in-house skill-sharing event named “Tech Lounge”, furthermore various departments conduct daily study sessions. If we train our instructors on a regular basis, this benefits not only graduates joining our company but rather the total flows of human asset development and is an important pillar the maintenance of our high service quality.
Lastly, a message for anyone interested in joining Mitsue-Links in the future. At MLC we believe in education with passion, so we aim to regularly advance the skills and knowledge of our human assets. If you're interested in our philosophy, please feel free to apply for a position with us.
Senior colleagues giving practical guidance.