HR Glossary
This page provides a slightly dry explanation of terms related to human resources systems. Please make use of it for designing your personnel system.
1. Professional qualification grade
A grade built on the premise that the ability to do a job can be defined. Salaries are determined based on this grade. However, it is often designed regardless of what roles and responsibilities are taken in the organization, or what kind of work is done. In addition, the definition of what is called ability is ambiguous, making it a breeding ground for arbitrary evaluation. Therefore, there are employees with various abilities in the same grade.
2. Professional qualification system
Compensation system based on professional qualification grade. A modification of the seniority system. A system favored by those who believe that competence can be measured. The seniority system is purely based on age and is clear, but the skill qualification system has ambiguous standards, so promotions and treatment conditions are determined by the boss.
3. Job grade
A grading system based on job content. In the case of a functional organization, if the organization is properly designed, the resulting job duties are clearly defined, and grades are designed based on the job definitions. However, Japanese companies have traditionally been good at communal organizational management, and there is no concept of job duties. is done.
4. HR evaluation system
A mechanism for raising the evaluation of your favorite subordinates. Therefore, the evaluation criteria are as abstract as possible, and they are expressions that can be judged in any way. In general, there are items such as ability, attitude, and achievements, but the standards for each are ambiguous. A person who is more capable than his boss is never seen as having a good attitude by his boss. As a result, people who are less capable than their superiors always get good evaluations, and in the long run, the company's vitality is killed.
5. Japanese performance-based approach
A system for managing work based on goals. A system that expects great results, including personal growth, through proactive management of one's own work. A boss needs to have a perspective of developing subordinates, but it is generally understood that it is simply a mechanism for evaluating subordinates. In many cases, the opposite phenomenon is occurring, such as imposing goals and lowering the evaluation of employees who did not achieve them, leading to a loss of motivation. The cause is that the boss himself does not understand the "duties and work" that are the premise of the goal, and is not able to explain it to his subordinates.
6. Duties
Basic elements of organization. If it is a functional organization, it is a principle that this is the starting point, whether it is strategy or personnel. Just an abomination to those unfamiliar with functional organization. They are accustomed to communal organizational management, and they like "the duties are ever-changing, and the motivation of the person himself can make it as big as possible". This real intention is "I can evaluate it according to the intention of my boss." It is also said that "there is no honor in the profession", but this truth is also "the employee is the honor".
7. Japanese recruiting system
Recruitment of new graduates from schools is common. The image of human resources that the company seeks is abstract and general, so the criteria for selection are also general. Especially for well-known companies, because there are many applicants, it is the same as the university entrance examination, and the entrance is narrow, creating a complicated and strange system. However, most of the systems are second-hand from the outside, and few are based on their own standards. In the post-employment evaluation, you can confidently produce "humans with no ability" and be calm.
8. Job-based HR system
It is a word that appeared in contrast to the "membership-type personnel system." Remote work has spread due to the corona crisis, and the evaluation based on the conventional personnel system has stopped functioning, and it is spreading rapidly. It can be said that the flaws in the current evaluation system have been exposed as superiors cannot evaluate their subordinates due to remote work. The personnel systems of many Japanese companies are built on the basis of employee-specific elements (age, gender, ability, attitude, etc.), but this is a problem from the perspective of the fairness of personnel systems. . A fair evaluation of employees is only possible when the "jobs" (roles and duties) required of employees as an organization are clearly stipulated as criteria. Evaluation is based on the specified "job", and is never arbitrary based on ambiguous criteria such as the employee's ability and attitude. If we aim to treat employees fairly, the personnel system should be based on "jobs" in the first place, and there is no need to call it a "job-based personnel system." Similarly, if a "membership-type personnel system" aims to treat employees fairly, the standard should be "jobs."
9. Objective management system
A system for managing work based on goals. A system that expects great results, including personal growth, through proactive management of one's own work. A boss needs to have a perspective of developing subordinates, but it is generally understood that it is simply a mechanism for evaluating subordinates. In many cases, the opposite phenomenon is occurring, such as imposing goals and lowering the evaluation of employees who did not achieve them, leading to a loss of motivation. The cause is that the boss himself does not understand the "duties and work" that are the premise of the goal, and is not able to explain it to his subordinates.
10. Diversity
Translated as “diversity,” the concept has suddenly surfaced in recent years as globalization is being called out. The content of diversity is wide-ranging, including men and women, generations, mid-career hires, and people with disabilities. In many companies, when introducing various measures, it is used like a pillow saying, "Our company emphasizes diversity." However, in most cases, since the true intention is to have a climate that is consistent with the conventional, uniform atmosphere, it ends with a daimoku. Originally a word that combines diversity and inclusion. The key is to say that it “includes” or “accepts” diversity. It is a concept opposite to Aun no Breath, and requires a careful explanation for each decision and action. Many companies now have various systems for women's active participation, but whether or not they can be used depends on the awareness of managers. If the boss is in a state of mind that says, "It's a nuisance to take childcare leave," there will be no subordinates who use the system. It's a convenient word for a company that says it's aiming to become a global company, while leaving managers (in many cases, but not only) in mind. It seems reasonable to omit inclusions and get by.
11. Competencies
A concept that has been touted since the latter half of the 1990s when the performance-based system began to be seen as a problem. The concept was originally developed for business by a company called McBer based on the research results of Professor McClelland of Harvard University, and is said to be ``behavioral characteristics of high-performing employees''. As a result, the behavioral characteristics have been modeled and used as evaluation criteria to evaluate employees, and have been incorporated into the personnel evaluation system. In North America, it has attracted attention as a fresh concept that opens a hole in the job-centered HR philosophy. In Japan, it was introduced as an alternative to the performance-based system, but it ended up just replacing the same "skills" that already existed with katakana. It was a convenient concept for traditional HR people, but no one could explain the clear difference. The starting point for McClelland's research is work. Without the concept of job, there is no definition of high performance. Identified behavioral traits are defined as being specific to the job. However, in Japan, people do not understand this point. A comical phenomenon in which the concept of destroying the old is used to revive the old. It's a concept that seems obsolete, but I still see it from time to time.