THE GOOD COMPANY
—On Becoming the Company of Choice Today, a Conversation between Ridgelinez and Tokyo Century

I first met Mr. Baba at a table discussion in a symposium last year. When we met on another occasion, I became aware of the employee message board hanging in his office, which gave me the impression he cares strongly about his employees.

I see Mr. Baba values dialogue with his employees and he listens carefully to their voices while managing the company with them. I feel his approach has a lot in common with Ridgelinez’s people-centered approach to change. Ridgelinez is a comprehensive professional firm that places a lot of importance on working with clients in pursuit of their transformation, starting with people at the center of that change. This is based on our understanding that people represent the most important aspect of corporate transformation.

 For me, well-being means feeling physically and mentally healthy, which leads to the understanding that being able to work with vitality is at the core of well-being. That’s why I feel employee well-being is an essential element for every company initiative.

 I agree. People have different views of well-being. Some people experience well-being when they are fully engaged in rewarding work, while others find it through enjoying quality time with their families, achieving a good work-life balance.

 I also feel that activating the entire organization requires working with employees to build the organization. I’m a D&I promotion leader, and the mere presence of diverse human resources doesn’t mean that the full benefits of diversity are being realized. So it’s very important to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable speaking up and working together with vigor.

 I think the reason many respondents recognize the concept of well-being, without having the opportunity to actually experience it, is that the concept is relatively new. It’s defined broadly and interpreted differently from one person to the next, so if you’re not regularly thinking about what well-being means to you personally, it may be difficult to clearly answer “Yes” to: “Are you genuinely experiencing well-being?”

Our company has included an item called “Action Taking” in our employee engagement survey to confirm whether the company has been able to translate employee feedback into action. The key here is that the company accepts the scores and then states what associated actions will be taken. I believe turning employee feedback into action and making sure that employees know about it will lead to higher engagement and well-being.

In other words, they must establish environments where employees can pursue careers aligned with their personal aspirations, and both management and employees must be committed to career development. The world is rapidly changing, and skill requirements are rapidly evolving too. So I think it’s important for employees to become autonomous or independent, and able to demonstrate their abilities in any environment, rather than seeing that place as something the company defines and gives them.

The feeling of having a place to belong, and being a part of this organization, will also provide physical and mental health benefits, which in turn will improve one’s well-being. So companies and their employees should work together to foster a corporate climate by both disseminating measures and information and increasing opportunities for dialogue. As Tokyo Century promotes HRX, I believe corporate value will be enhanced through management that places its human resources, including employees, at the core of transformation.