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HOME NRI JOURNAL The strategizing of integrated-career women as the foundation of corporate competitiveness

NRI JOURNAL

Innovation magazine that generates hints for the future

クラウドの潮流――進化するクラウド・サービスと変化する企業の意識

The strategizing of integrated-career women as the foundation of corporate competitiveness

Kana Takeda, Global Infrastructure Consulting Department

#Management

Dec. 26, 2016

Until now, working women have been seen as one of two types: career-oriented, or life-oriented. Recently, however, there are more and more women who are balancing marriage, childbirth, and childcare with their own careers, and who are driven to be active in both aspects of their lives. So says Kana Takeda of NRI, who also points out that in a future of increasing constraints due to labor shortages, companies must learn how to properly utilize this demographic to establish new kinds of management and maintain their competitiveness.

“Integrated-career women”

In general, working women tend to be seen as one of two types: career-oriented, or life-oriented. The understanding was that career-oriented women would focus on advancing their careers, and the latter, while still working, would prioritize life events like childbirth and childcare.

But is it really appropriate to categorize working women in these two categories? Of course, there are women on both sides who choose which they would prioritize out of their own volition. However, there are also those who were forced to choose one over the other because their working environment did not allow them to continue doing both.

Regardless of their actual situation, there are without a doubt many women who want to focus on both their careers and their personal lives. And regardless of whether they are aware of it or not, there is now a younger generation of women that has started working with the assumption that they will be able to remain active in both of these aspects of their lives. I call these women, who want to integrate their careers and personal lives, “integrated-career women”

In recent years, many companies have struggled with increasing the ratio of women in management-level positions. Consider the fact that more and more career-oriented women are moving towards the integrated-career path, and it seems that the key to increasing the ratio of women in management-level positions is to maintain a work environment that allows women to continue with their careers until they come to be of management-level age, despite the life events that crop up along the way.
Companies in the future will thus have to introduce measures to adapt to the influx of integrated-career women, in addition to the usual policies, if they want to properly utilize women in their workforce.

 

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Support measures for career women so far

A system for career reconstruction

I began thinking this after I gave birth and started taking care of my children while working at the company, and subsequently experienced some difficulties in my career. My first child was born six years into my work at this company, and my second child nine years in. As such, I went on maternity leave twice, and until recently have been working with shortened work hours.

This is my 12th year at NRI, but with my time off and my shortened work hours, I realized that there had come to be quite a discrepancy between where I should be in terms of my career and my level of skill. Of course, it was my own decision to take maternity leave and work shortened hours, and it was my decision as well to even have children, so this discrepancy was my responsibility. And yet, I realized that such a discrepancy posed a significant hurdle for women like me who wanted to get back into their careers after having children. Up until now, many Japanese companies have worked on the assumption of lifelong employment—that employees will work continuously for the same company. This underlies the provision of opportunity within these companies, with everything from training (including OJT) to the kinds of work given to different employees. In this kind of system, employees returning from maternity leave will have “fallen off the wagon,” so to speak—deviated from the basic career pattern of that company. It takes a significant amount of both mental and physical energy for these women to bring their careers back up to where they are meant to be. People often say that women become less career-oriented after they have children. But perhaps this is because it is so difficult, in the existing system, for women not only to balance their career and personal lives, but to rebuild and continue to advance in their careers after returning to their jobs.

Not just women—A step towards the utilization of diverse personnel

This is not a phenomenon that is limited to women who have had children. It applies also to people who have had to pause their careers for one reason or another, whether it is an illness or having to take care of a family member. As the labor shortage in Japan continues to worsen, companies will need to hire people of various ages and backgrounds, including mid-career recruits. The kind of standardized management that up until now has taken a certain kind of “standard employee” for granted will soon be unable to keep up with the flexibility necessary to adapt in the future. In the coming years, I believe it will be of increasing importance for companies to strategize the incorporation of integrated-career women within their ranks, as a practical measure towards the establishment of progressive new management and training systems. Investment in the utilization of integrated-career women should be considered an investment in a new perspective, one distinctly female- and labor-oriented, that will help give rise to a new management system.

Three kinds of support for the utilization of integrated-career women

What kind of support should companies provide for integrated-career women? I believe the following three kinds of support are necessary: (1) personalized career development based on individual life circumstances, (2) the sharing of information on life circumstances as necessary for the support of individual work and careers, and (3) support to allow people to balance their work with childcare. For concrete examples of this kind of support, we need only look towards the more progressive companies that have these support systems in place (see chart).

Measures to support integrated-career women in progressive companies

Measures to support integrated-career women in progressive companies

The goal of all of these companies is to support people so they are able to build their career within the company even after they have had children. This is completely different from the kind of support provided by companies in the past, in which the goal was for women to continue working, but not as much, and not necessarily to advance their careers. Many companies may think that engaging in these measures will take time, as the examples described above are in the form of policies and mechanisms within the companies. However, the way of thinking that underlies each of the measures in those companies is actually quite simple. Through their policies, these companies are communicating that they are excited for the work these employees are capable of, that they want to support them, and that they want to provide as much support as they possibly can for people who are committed to working for the company.

However, for this to happen, both the managers and the women themselves must learn to be more straightforward about what they want, and eliminate misunderstandings. A manager may think, “she’s busy right now with childcare so I can’t ask her to do this,” or “I’d feel bad asking her to do this right now,” without being aware of how the woman actually feels. On the other hand, a woman might think, “it would be annoying of me to bring up my family circumstances at work,” or “I want to do this, but I’d feel bad if I said I could and ended up not being able to,” without knowing how her manager feels about her situation. Communication to clear up these assumptions and possible misunderstandings is very important. There has to be an assumption that things will change after a life event, and that life circumstances change in general as time goes by. The first step towards maximizing the work performance of employees with various life circumstances is to eliminate assumptions, and engage in regular communication so both sides are aware of the facts.

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