80% of Global companies plan to recruit Mid-Career Workers, 30% plan to recruit more mid-career workers in 2021
Top type of jobs in demand are “IT Engineers”, “Sales”, and “Marketing”
en world Japan K.K. (headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, President: Vijay Deol), one of Japan's largest recruiting firms specializing in global talent, conducted a questionnaire survey on prospects for mid-career recruitment in 2021 of foreign capital companies and global Japanese companies, and 303 companies answered.
Summary of the Survey Results
・ 80% of companies responded that they plan to recruit mid-career workers in 2021, with more than 90% in the “IT/telecommunications” and “Medical/Pharmaceutical industries”.
・ Top reason for recruiting mid-career workers was “filling vacant positions due to resignations” for foreign capital companies and “expanding existing businesses” for Japanese companies.
・ With regards to the number of mid-career workers that they plan to hire, the most common answer was “the same as 2020” at 38%, followed by “recruit more than 2020” at 33%.
・ Top reason for recruiting more mid-career workers in 2021 was “business expansion and higher sales target than 2020” and the top three types of jobs in demand were “IT Engineer”, “Sales”, and “Marketing”.
・ Top reason for recruiting less mid-career workers than 2020 was “no or few openings from resignations/leaves of absence” for foreign capital companies and “future of the economy and business is uncertain” for Japanese companies.
・ 80% of companies “have not changed their stance for mid-career hiring due to the declaration of a state of emergency.”
Comments on the result
Takeshi Kitsunezaki, Vice President, Perm Recruiting Division
In IT/digital and medical fields, where hiring was strong even during the COVID-19 pandemic, the percentage of companies that answered “they plan to recruit mid-career workers” increased this year as well. As companies promote DX, demand for engineers and cybersecurity-related human resources will continue to increase. Even under the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, demand for sales positions to generate revenue for companies is maintaining at a high level. When choosing a company, people who are looking to change jobs evaluate more closely on corporate responses, speed, shift to remote work, and adaptability during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a company to hire top global talent, actively disseminating information on its philosophy and its stance and sending messages that will raise sympathy of candidates will be important.
Detail of the Survey Results
1.80% of companies plan to recruit mid-career workers in 2021, with more than 90% in the “IT/telecommunications” and “medical/pharmaceutical” industries (Fig. 1, Fig. 2, Fig. 3)
When we asked, “Are you planning to recruit mid-career workers in 2021?”, 81% responded, “Yes.” (foreign capital companies: 77%, Japanese companies: 86%) With regards to companies by industry, the percentage of respondents who answered, “they plan to recruit” was high in “IT/telecommunications” (95%) and “Medical/Pharmaceutical/Life Sciences” (91%). (* Excluding industries with 10 or less responses.)
【Fig.1】Are you planning to recruit mid-career workers in 2021?
【Fig. 2】Do you plan to recruit mid-career workers in 2021? (by number of employees)
【Fig. 3】Do you plan to recruit mid-career workers in 2021? (by industry)
2. The top reason for mid-career hiring was “filling vacant positions due to resignations/leave for absence” for foreign capital companies, and “expansion of existing businesses” for Japanese companies (Figs. 4 and 5)
When we asked why they plan to recruit mid-career workers, “filling vacant positions due to resignations” was top reason for foreign capital companies(foreign capital companies: 75%; Japanese companies: 56%), and “expansion of existing businesses” was the most common reason for Japanese companies (foreign capital companies: 53%, Japanese companies: 76%).
Top reason not to recruit mid-career workers was “freezing hiring due to the impact of COVID-19” (foreign capital companies: 47%, Japanese companies: 40%). “There are no vacant positions due to resignations or leave of absence”, “The future of the economy and business is uncertain” and “Scaling down our business due to the impact of COVID-19” also ranked first at 40% for Japanese companies.
【Fig. 4】We asked the companies that responded they plan to recruit mid-career workers in 2021. What are the purposes of recruiting mid-career workers? (multiple answers allowed)
【Fig. 5】We asked companies that answered that they will not recruit mid-career workers in 2021. What are the reasons? (multiple answers allowed)
3. The number of mid-career workers they plan to hire was “equal to 2020”, largest percentage at 38%, followed by “will increase” at 33%. （Fig.6, Fig.7, Fig.8）
When we asked “Do you plan to change the number of mid-career hires in 2021 compared to 2020? The most common answer was “the same as 2020” at 38% (foreign capital companies: 37%, Japanese companies: 39%), followed by “will increase” at 33% (foreign capital companies: 28%; Japanese companies: 37%). Among those that answered, “will Increase”, the percentage of Japanese companies was higher by nine points than that of foreign companies. The most common percentage was “will increase by 20-29%”. (foreign capital companies: 24%, Japanese companies: 26%)
【Fig.6】Compared to 2020, do you plan to change the number of mid-career hires?
【Fig.7】We ask companies that answered they plan to hire more mid-career workers compared to 2020. What percentage do you plan to recruit more of the mid-career workers compared to 2020?
【Fig.8】We asked companies that answered that “they plan to hire less number of mid-career workers compared to 2020.” Compared to 2020, what percentage do you plan to reduce the number of mid-career workers in 2021?
4. Top reason for recruiting more mid-career workers was “Goals for business expansion and sales targets are higher than 2020.” Top types of jobs that they plan to recruit more are “IT engineers,” “sales,” and “marketing.”（Fig.9, Fig.10）
When asked why, companies that responded “will increase the number of mid-career workers compared to 2020”, top reason was “The goals for business expansion and sales targets are higher in 2021 than in 2020.” (foreign capital companies: 56%, Japanese companies: 63%)
In addition, when asked about types of jobs they plan to recruit more, “Technology/Engineer (IT /Web/Communication related)” ranked first (foreign capital companies: 41%; Japanese companies: 65%), “Sales / MR” ranked second,(foreign capital companies: 44%, Japanese companies: 50%), and “Marketing /Planning/Public relations” ranked third (foreign capital companies: 35%, Japanese companies: 35%).
【Fig.9】We asked companies that answered they plan to recruit more mid-career workers compared to 2020: What are the reasons? (Multiple answers allowed)
▼Open-ended comments from companies that answered “plan to recruit more mid-career workers in 2021”
・Japan is nominated as a priority market for new growth strategies (foreign capital company, IT/telecommunications, with 1,000 to 5,000 employees)
・ Organizational expansion due to strong performance (foreign capital company, IT/telecommunications, with 100 to 300 employees)
・ Increase in No of people retired (foreign capital company, manufacturing/Industrial/autos, with 300 to 1,000 employees)
・ Need more talented people due to higher business standards (Japanese company, IT/telecommunications, with 300 to 1,000 employees)
・ To promote new development (Japanese company, Manufacturing/Industrial, Autos, with less than 100 employees)
・ To scale up research work (Japanese company, Medical/Pharmaceuticals, Life science, with less than 100 employees)
【Fig.10】Which types of jobs do you plan to recruit more of mid-career workers? (Multiple answers allowed）
5. Top reason for recruiting less number of mid-career workers at foreign capital companies was “No or few vacant positions due to resignations/leaves of absence” and “ Uncertain future of the economy and business “ for Japanese companies (Fig. 11)
When asked why, companies that responded “they plan to recruit less number of mid-career workers compared to 2020”, the top reason of foreign companies was “No or few vacant positions due to resignations or leave of absence” (foreign capital companies: 48%, Japanese companies: 7%) “Hiring minimum people as future of economy and business is uncertain “ for Japanese companies (foreign capital companies: 39%, Japanese companies: 53%).
【Fig.11】We asked companies that answered “they plan recruit less number of mid-career workers compared to 2020” What are their reasons? (Multiple answers allowed)
▼Open-ended comments from companies that answered “they plan to recruit less mid-career workers in 2021”
・ Restricting hiring and filling a vacant position requires regional or global approvals. (foreign capital company, Manufacturing/Industrial /Autos, with 300 to 1,000 employees)
・ Only hiring people for new department or replacement (foreign capital company, Retail/Consumer goods, with 1,000 to 5,000 employees)
・ Currently, instructed not to actively increase the number of staff in the Japanese branch offices. We will consider hiring at the request of customers (foreign capital company, Manufacturing/Industry /Autos, with less than 100 employees）
6. 80% of companies have not changed their stance in mid-career hiring due to the declaration of a state of emergency (Fig. 12)
When we asked “Have you changed your stance on mid-career hiring due to the second declaration of a state of emergency issued in January 2021? 82% answered that “they have not changed”. (foreign capital companies: 84%, Japanese companies: 79%)
The most common response among companies that changed their stance was “Slowing down the screening speed” for foreign capital companies. (Foreign capital companies: 7%, Japanese companies 1%); “Changed face-to-face interview to online interview” for Japanese companies (foreign capital companies: 2%, Japanese companies: 11%).
【Fig.12】 Have you changed your stance of mid-career hiring due to the second declaration of a status of emergency issued in the Tokyo metropolitan area in January 2021?
▼ Open-ended comment on mid-career recruitment status under the declaration of a state of emergency
・Since the declaration of a state of emergency in 2020, in principle, we conduct online-interviews for all, except for the final interviews. (foreign capital company, medical/pharmaceutical/life sciences, no change in hiring)
・ Although timing of providing offers was temporarily delayed, we proceed with our selection process without any changes. (foreign capital company, medical/pharmaceutical/life science, slowed down the speed of screening candidates)
・ We are already prepared with our system/response since the previous declaration of a state of emergency (Japanese company, Manufacturing /Industrial /Automotive, no change in hiring)
・ As we conduct all hiring processes remotely and thus do not have much impact. (Japanese company, manufacturing/industrial/Autos, no change in hiring)
・ As we dispatch engineers and all depends on the status of project where our engineer are onsite, we temporarily stopped all hiring. (Japanese company, IT/ telecommunications, temporarily stopped all mid-career hires)
・ We have more strict standards for hiring. (Japanese company, Media/Publishing/Advertising, started to reexamine our future hiring plan)
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[Outline of the survey]
Survey method: Online survey
Area: Japan
Number of valid answers: 303 companies
Period: January 15-21, 2021
Respondent attribute: Foreign capital companies 52%, Japanese companies 48%
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About en world Japan (https://www.enworld.com/)
en world Japan is a recruiting firm established in 1999 specializing in global human resources with offices in four countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We specialize in supporting Foreign Capital Companies and global Japanese companies in recruiting human resources for middle to high level positions. We help companies with recruitment and job seekers with career changes from every angle by staffing full-time workers, contract professionals, and executive human resources and providing recruitment process outsourcing solutions.
Contact information for inquiries about this news release
en world Japan K.K. PR representative
Email : enworld-pr@enworld.com
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