How to boost productivity by broadening choice
When human resources consultant Wendela Elsen thinks about women’s empowerment, she often thinks about men.
“We can train women and empower them, but until we get the same buy-in from men about the value of diversity in the work place, then things are never going to change, particularly in Japan,” she notes.
Elsen, a native of the Netherlands, should know. As the owner of consulting company OpenRabbit, she has been in the Japanese market for eight years, making observations and heroically trying to make small changes from inside companies. Most recently she won a competition that earned her a trip to Deauville, France, for a forum titled “Women’s Forum for the Economy and Society”. Accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers sponsored the contest, which involved writing an essay on “What will women’s empowerment mean for men?” This is a topic about which Elsen has strong opinions.
“If women and men are equal in the work place, then men will have the same options as women,” wrote Elsen in her winning essay. “Then, if men want time off to care for their children or ailing parents, they will have the choice to do so.” These opinions stem from her 20 years of experience in human resources and her recent concentration on diversity issues in the work place, spurred by the inequality in the Japanese work paradigm. The work places of Japan follow very traditional models.
“It’s all about face-time,” Elsen explains. “An employee’s time in the office is rewarded, which essentially makes the evaluation of performance input-based, not output-based.”
According to Elsen’s research, Japanese companies reward employees for time regardless of their efficiency or effectiveness. In European or American companies, rewards are output or merit based. Good work is commended, and efficiency is even further prized no matter where you do the work (at home or in the office). In Japan, however, the idea of face-time is particularly problematic for women, who cannot work 18-hour days, due to other obligations or, simply don’t want to be so single focused.
Elsen’s ideas are backed by a recently released study from the New York-based think tank, the Center for Work-Life Policy, titled, “Off-ramps and On-ramps Japan: Keeping Talented Women on the Road to Success”. The study, sponsored by a number of multinational companies, examines the fact that many women leave the work force for a few years when their children are young, but often want to return to their jobs when their kids are older. Some women attempt to take what the study calls “the scenic route”, using flexible working arrangements to balance heavy family responsibilities and career at the same time.
In Japan, however, the authors of the study note that “Jobs tend to be full-time and workers are expected to be present at their work stations or in their offices. Scenic routes are rarely offered and even less frequently chosen.” Even if the work place allowed for such options as working from home or working fewer hours per day, employees would be ostracised for availing themselves of them.
All of these problems for women make men’s jobs even more challenging, since the social order has proscribed roles for them too.
“Men who voluntarily take time away from the work place are labelled as not committed or even lazy, while it is acceptable for women to off-ramp,” Elsen explains. “At least the women have a choice, even though this is not a fair choice in Japan.”
Dinner with the family is not an option for men since logging on from home and working a bit more after putting the kids to bed, which is a common model in many European and American households and work places, does not count as true commitment expected from men in Japan.
Elsen’s suggestions for solving some of these problems involve change from the top down in organisations. The managers of companies, or departments, should not merely say that they are implementing flextime; they have to be the first people to use the concession. If they suggest a “no overtime” day, then the managers have to be the ones going home on time at the end of the work day. Promotion and salary must become based on output, not on face-time.
“I was at a conference in Tokyo a few months ago where the Japanese men asked the Japanese women in the room to continue their fight and, with that, also help liberate the Japanese men from the demanding work practices,” Elsen adds.
Once flexibility is truly extended to women it will trickle down to the men, so they, as well as women, will be able to have hobbies outside of work. Men in Japanese companies could attend a course in Japanese gardening or join a bowling league, activities normally prohibited by the severe time constraints of their work.
The think-tank study also addresses many of these issues, including the difficulties in Japan when women try to re-enter the work force, as well as the myriad of reasons women choose to off-ramp in the first place, such as lack of fulfilment in their work roles and an inability to see improvement in the future. Women need support from the organisation and positive role models. Lacking either, Japanese women are more often opting to work for multinational firms that have more flexible work styles and don’t apply the distinction between career-track and office ladies.
“We can spend a lot of time on looking at the women, and educating and empowering them, but this will have limited results in Japan,” Elsen says. “If we really want change in the work place, we need to educate the men. A generally flexible work place will benefit people of both genders, and it will benefit the business as well.”
Elsen is quick to add, “Staff engagement is particularly low in Japan. I think the lack of personal choice is the reason for that. Believe it or not, a more flexible work place where people have choices and are rewarded for their output has more engaged employees, which brings better business results.”
Ask any busy person, and he or she will always tell you that they have to be more efficient with every task in order to see things through to completion. The work place is no different, and so reduced and flexible hours will lead to improved efficiency and greater success overall. It might sound counterintuitive, but the statistics prove this to be true.
Staff engagement and improved business results are the watchwords for the future of Japan. Both men and women in today’s society will ultimately benefit from the type of social change Elsen describes and the think-tank study substantiates. And if companies can adopt these models, there’s no telling what successes the future might hold.