RECRUIT 2023.04.18

The sum of individual growth leads to ASNOVA's growth - A close look at KATARUVA, Part 2

Following the first meeting, the second "KATARUVA (KATARUVA)" was held. Representatives from all divisions participated in the two-day, one-night training camp, which discussed three different themes. This time, I will tell you about the state of the second time!

Text・Photo: Mayo Kasakawa

INDEX

PROIFILE

About KATARUVA=ASNOVA's "Place to Talk About Tomorrow"

Meeting face-to-face, away from normal work and daily routines. And respecting each person's values, regardless of age, career, or position. Combining these elements, KATARUVA is a place where new value can be created through participation from all departments.

This time, the workshop took the form of a training camp, with participants split into three groups and making presentations on the content that each group had come up with for each topic.

About the camp

[Implementation period] February 16 to February 17, 2023

[Location] Kyoto City, Kyoto

【Agenda】

<Day 1>

Theme 1: "The future of the qualification support system"

Theme 2: "To reduce employee turnover"

<<Day 2>>

Theme 3 "How to Promote wedge binding type scaffold to the General Public"

Theme 1: "The future of the qualification support system"

On the first day, the first theme was a workshop on the future of the "Qualification Acquisition Support System," a system that encourages employees to obtain qualifications and gives them a bonus for passing if they do. This system exists, but it has not been widely adopted within the company. Since it existed before the establishment of our company's purpose and personnel system "ASNOVA WAY," isn't it time to reconsider its contents? We decided to take up this theme this time.

What is the "ASNOVA WAY" personnel system?

At ASNOVA, we create places of tomorrow in society with the power of "Kasetsu". This is our purpose.

It is our desire to create hypotheses, verify them, and work to solve problems for our customers and society, thereby providing new value to society. Tomorrow is what today is, and when tomorrow becomes today.

"Creating places of tomorrow" means "continuously creating new value."

What does ASNOVA consider "growth"?

ASNOVA's growth is the sum of each individual's growth, and unless employees grow, ASNOVA will not grow.

Therefore, we provide employees with "opportunities" for education and growth. Growth must be achieved by employees themselves, by utilizing the company's systems.

Creating systems that allow employees to grow is essential for a company, so we held a workshop focusing on the keyword "growth."

[Workshop Agenda]

-What exactly does "growth" mean?

-What personnel systems and policies have you experienced so far?

-What are the HR policies that lead to “growth”?

[Example of opinion]

"Reading has become a habit, and my bookshelf is looking really cool!"

"I felt like I had grown through conversations with my juniors."

"How about a one-week networking event with other companies or departments?"

"If there is an overseas training program, I would like to go!"

What's important is to create a system that allows each employee to develop their skills and to create a place where they can properly utilize those skills. To achieve this, we need to take steps to make each employee realize that they are an essential part of the company's growth.

Love your customers, love your business partners, love your colleagues, love your company, enjoy your work, and have a fun day. It would be wonderful to find a job and environment like that. I'm looking forward to seeing the personnel system updated so that people think, "If there's a system like this, I'll give it a try!"

Theme 2: "Reducing employee turnover"

The second topic on the first day was turnover rate. Recently, the construction industry as a whole has been criticized for its labor shortage and aging workforce. In this situation, it is important to develop and secure excellent human resources in order to grow a company quickly.

In this training camp, we focused on our equipment management department on these issues and exchanged opinions.

* Equipment Management Department: The department that oversees ASNOVA Equipment Center, which has 19 bases nationwide.

[Workshop Agenda]

・ What can you imagine the reason for equipment management department 's resignation?

・What kind of efforts are effective to make equipment center comfortable?

We exchanged opinions along four axes: "human relationships," "working conditions," "job content," and "personal circumstances."

What are the possible reasons for leaving?

Relationships
The number of people at the center is small, so communication is difficult.

There seems to be little interaction with other departments

・Working conditions
The daily work is colder and hotter than I imagined.

Work load per person due to labor shortage

There are few female employees per center, so women feel lonely.

・Business content
The work content is different from what I had imagined.

・Personal circumstances
Family transfer or caregiving

[Proposed measures]

・It would be much easier to work if there was a roof over even just some of the areas!

・It would be fun if there was a rotation where roles were swapped!

・I think it is necessary to have opportunities to communicate with people from other departments and locations.

・It would be nice if there was a catered lunch box for lunch.

・Automating center operations through mechanization

・ I want to make a model Equipment Center!

-Isn't there a need for a job title such as "trainer" to educate new employees and develop management candidates?

・If there is a job category called "trainer" in the center, you can work with peace of mind even as you advance in your career or get older.

In order to build teamwork, it is important to have an open atmosphere where people can easily ask about things they don't understand.

One of the opinions expressed was that by creating a new career such as “trainer,” people would be given more responsibility from an early stage, which could lead to increased motivation. In addition, it may be attractive that even if a person suffers a back injury or ages, he/she may be able to make use of his/her own experience and develop a new career. As the nature of work itself has changed since the Corona disaster, we believe that it will be necessary to create an environment in which individuals can demonstrate their abilities regardless of their location.

Theme 3 "How to Promote wedge binding type scaffold to the General Public"

On the second day, the final theme of the camp was "How to spread wedge binding type scaffold to the general public."

There are various issues such as "it takes a long time to sign a contract" and "I want to rent right now but I can't" as a Scaffolding Rental Business issue. It's also true that many people don't know much about scaffolding.

However, scaffolding is necessary as a social infrastructure. In addition, the use cases of scaffolding are expanding beyond construction sites. Under such circumstances, in order to develop a new customer base, we expressed various opinions according to the theme.

Why is scaffolding not recognized by the general public?

Individuals don't have a chance to use it...

We don't really care about scaffolding in our daily lives...

I don't really have any information and I don't know much about it...

[Workshop Agenda]
- Why is scaffolding not recognized by "individuals" and "other industries"?

- How can we solve the problem that scaffolding is not recognized by "individuals" and "other industries"?

[Proposed measures]

・ Actively hold events such as "Assembly experience using scaffolding at the center!"

・Provide examples that will let people know, "There's a way to use it like this!"

・ Collaboration projects such as "scaffolding ✕○○"

・ We want to disseminate our contribution to society, including the history of scaffolding.

Despite making a lot of visible things, it is also true that it has not penetrated the general public compared to other industries. scaffolding is used not only for renovation work and painting work for houses, condominiums, buildings, etc., but also for events (booths, stages, etc.), school corporations (use at school festivals), and recently DIY use. We're expanding the possibilities.

The characteristics of "wedge binding type scaffold" are that it can be freely combined, temporarily installed, and easy to work on, and it is a major factor that is beginning to be used outside of construction sites in modern society.

We will continue to explore the potential of scaffolding and continue to work to raise awareness of "scaffolding" and "industry".

We asked the three facilitators for the three themes for their thoughts!

Theme1 Director Administration Department General Manager Kato

This was my first time participating in the program, and I was also allowed to serve as a facilitator, and even though I thought I was communicating the personnel system as a Administration Department in charge, I felt that it would not penetrate. I would like people to know about the system in such a place. I would like to continue to create a place where I can actively communicate with my employees.

Theme 2 Equipment Management Department Senior Manager West Exit

To be honest, I had no idea what to expect before I participated, but I'm glad I participated because I had the opportunity to talk to people I don't normally come into contact with.
I was able to interact with people I had never met in person, only communicated with them through chat, and get to know their personalities better, so I'm glad I participated and it was fun.

Theme 3 : Sales Department, Nagoya Sales Office, Sales Manager, Fukuzawa

I was a bit nervous about participating as a facilitator, but everyone was very positive, proactive and cooperative.

Solutions tend to be found only in certain departments or certain employees, but on the other hand, it can be hard to come up with unusual ideas, so I felt it was good to gather a large number of people and have a variety of people give their opinions. I learned a lot by participating in this event and feeling everyone's enthusiasm.

The training camp is not held online or in a conference room, but rather is a fresh setting where each individual can proactively express their opinions, and the combination of various factors that ultimately creates ASNOVA's unique value.
I'm really looking forward to seeing which members from each department will gather at the next KATARUVA and what topics they will have lively discussions on. Be sure to check out the next report!