Case Study - Watami Co., Ltd.
Since its founding in 1984, the Watami Group has been operating restaurants, home delivery, agriculture, and environmental businesses under the group slogan "Let's become the group that receives the most 'thank yous' on the planet," and by expanding the Watami Model (a circular sixth-sector industry model that utilizes renewable energy), the Group aims to build a sustainable society.
We believe that each employee achieving their own dreams and goals will lead to the growth of the company, and in recent years we have been using online learning platforms to provide career support tailored to each employee.
We spoke to Takagi, Yahagi, and Suzuki from the Human Resources Development Headquarters/Education Department about the behind-the-scenes system that supports human resource development at the Watami Group.
*Department names are as of the time of the interview in March 2023.
Since our founding, we have valued that each employee continues to pursue their dreams and goals, receives "thank yous" in the process, and grows as a person.
As we aim to achieve our medium-term management plan, we believe it is important for each employee to grow as we continue to take on various business challenges.
As we considered the growth of each employee, we realized that our education system was insufficient.
We have traditionally held group training sessions, but when there are a large number of participants, the training tends to be general in nature, and we were unable to address the skills that each employee wanted to acquire, so we did not have a system in place to ensure that everyone was satisfied.
The first was to create an environment where employees could learn online remotely . In the past two years, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become important to find ways to provide training and watch videos online, but we were able to make thorough preparations.
The second is to provide timely information on messages from the president and company developments.
The message from the CEO is the backbone of our company, and because there are many opportunities and frequency of information transmission, multiple media were scattered within the company, such as group newsletters and video letters, and outside the company, such as SNS. After introducing SmartSkill Campus, these pathways were organized on one site, so we were able to quickly communicate the company's movements to employees.
In addition, with an emphasis on the growth of each employee, we operate the SmartSkill Campus under the website name "GROW."
Watami Group's Human Resource Development
What do you consider important when developing human resources?
Background of SmartSkill Campus
What challenges did you face when implementing SmartSkill Campus?
What points did you focus on when selecting a vendor?
The first is the rich lineup of content. There was a request to incorporate as many training courses as possible to acquire basic knowledge and skills within the company, and when we identified what skills were needed to advance from general employee to store manager, section manager, and department manager, we felt that it was good that various items were covered in easy-to-understand videos.
The second reason is that the implementation costs were low. We were originally using a system from another company, but the problem was that the implementation costs would be high if we were to load your company's (REVIC Global) content via that company's system. By implementing SmartSkill Campus, we were able to get everything we needed, from a multi-functional learning management system to a wide range of content, all within our budget.
The third point is the quick response and friendly support. There are things that can and cannot be done for anything, but they will give you a quick answer after carefully thinking about it. Also, when we first started using the service, we had many requests, but it was very helpful that the environment was easy to consult with us.
How to use SmartSkill Campus
How are you using SmartSkill Campus?
What feedback have you received from employees about "GROW"?
Over the past two years, awareness of "GROW" has increased among employees. I think the biggest achievement is that an atmosphere has taken root where if something happens, you can look for it here.
Every week I transcribe the message from the president and summarize it into an easy-to-read format, and because employees are so interested in it, my motivation as the person in charge is completely different.
Last year you customized your homepage. What thoughts went into that?
As awareness of "GROW" has increased, we wanted to make the site more employee-friendly, so we started customizing it . We had heard that it was difficult to find where things were, so we tried to solve that problem by making it easier to understand. Specifically, because the viewing environment differs depending on the age group, we designed the site to be easy to view on both PC and smartphone . We feel that this also sent a message to our employees that we are committed to "GROW."
About REVIC Global's solutions
Please tell us what you appreciate about REVIC Global's support structure and systems.
In terms of the support system, the quick response and friendly support that I mentioned earlier are the best. I'm also satisfied with the monthly usage report.
On the system side, it has a function for questionnaires and assignment submission. When sending out information such as a message from the president, we can check the reaction of each employee, so it is also useful for measuring the effectiveness of the system.
With regard to personnel transfers, we support the career paths of our employees by conducting career interviews once a year to ascertain what they want to do in the next five years, and also allowing employees to apply for the department they would like to go to through our free agent system.
In the employee handbook, employees are asked to write down a five-year plan for how they would like to be in each of the six pillars of work, family, hobbies, wealth, education, and health.
We picture ourselves in five years' time, clearly identify the gap between that and the present, and then work backwards to figure out what we can do today to close that gap. Managers also focus on communication so that they can become people who can guide their subordinates while supporting their dreams and goals.
We conduct an employee survey of all employees once every six months, but we were finding that satisfaction with the question, "Is the in-house training comprehensive and contributing to your personal growth?" was not increasing very much.
With many employees wanting to study on their own, we were looking for ways to improve the learning environment so that we could prepare them in some way, and that's how we came across your company (REVIC Global).
Please tell us what you would like to achieve with "GROW" in the future.
To better support the growth of each employee, we would like to make it possible to link it to promotions, demotions, and transfers to other departments. For employees who want to aim for a certain position in the future or want to work in a certain department next, we would like them to be able to see what skills they need and how they should learn them by looking at "GROW."
Another thing I want to do is to communicate messages from the CEO and company activities to employees with even greater speed. I hope that by sharing new company initiatives one after another, employees will feel energized and be able to see the company's future and their own careers in sync. In the future, we will also be able to create an app*, so I'm looking forward to that as well.
*Released in April 2023
Watami Co., Ltd.
Career support to help each employee realize their dreams and goals
Company Name
Watami Co., Ltd.
Industry
Retail (food and beverage services)
Number of people
Approximately 3,000 people
assignment
Creating a learning environment that matches each student's career
Providing information on messages from the president and company trends
