Nagahama Kisetsu x EIS: Can you ask young people for advice this much?

Asking young people for advice.
It is something anyone can do, yet no one is doing it.
I am higher in my career and higher in social status.
Even if I don't think I'm proud, my empirical rules and past successes unconsciously get in the way.
Nagahama KisetsuNagahama Kisetsu(Nagahama-cho, Ozu City) in Ehime Prefecture is able to stably hire new graduates in a construction industry gasping for labor.
President Shinichi Fukuoka (46) started not by promoting his company, but by helping people understand the industry, and has been working steadily while staying close to young people.
Easy-to-understand language, engaging storytelling, and a wealth of experience in starting a business and nurturing the company and its employees.
He even receives requests for lectures on why a small local company is succeeding in recruitment.
But there is not a shred of complacency.
#Hikidashi memberEIS(Matsuyama City) was hired as a recruitment advisor, and he relies on Representative Yusuke Nishimura (36), who is nearly 10 years his junior.
He continues to step up, starting with updating the recruitment site, and this term he hired a university graduate for the first time.

The coastline from Matsuyama City toward the Sada Misaki Peninsula, the longest and narrowest in Japan.
Nagahama Kisetsu is a two-story building just off the national highway. You can see the pine trees of the beach.
A list of qualifications obtained by employees is posted at the entrance.
It's a lot for 35 employees. It looks like he is bragging that his employees are capable.
President Fukuoka laughed it off.
He said he just posts them at the entrance to make it easier to talk to employees, saying, 'Why don't you get this qualification next?'
But having this many qualified people must be useful for expanding business widely from the neighborhood to the whole country.

The president once heard some frustrating words at a job site in the past.
'If you can only do scaffolding assembly, you can go home now.'
That was before he knew the term 'multi-skilled worker.' He won't let his employees feel that way.
If you hire them, you raise them.

Tuna fishing boat or nuclear power plant?

Local born and raised. He experienced a flashy life running a restaurant in Matsuyama City, but failed and returned home.
He stayed at his wife's parents' house nearby. His American car turned into a battered light car.
Tuna fishing boat or nuclear power plant? He thought this was the only way to turn things around.
Lines like those in the manga 'Minami no Teio'.
But the president goes beyond the manga. He actually started working at the Ikata Nuclear Power Plant, less than 40 minutes by car from Nagahama.

He had friends, but he was a sole proprietor.
He went around nuclear power plants in western Japan and worked as a temporary worker.
He even experienced working with the lid of a nuclear reactor vessel open.
'Many people think that working at a nuclear power plant is dangerous, right?'
But because there is appropriate heavy equipment and strict radiation dose management, he laughs, 'It's more dangerous to trip at a general construction site.'

The turning point in his way of working was the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake.
The accident site at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
About two years after the incident, he was engaged in the work of scaffolding the power plant building with its roof blown off—which was repeatedly shown on TV at the time.
It was a site that would make anyone flinch, but experienced people were in demand, and he made more acquaintances.
On the other hand, because he was a subcontractor of a subcontractor of a subcontractor, his take-home pay at the time was in the 10,000 yen range per day.
There was a rumor, mainly on the internet, that work at the Fukushima nuclear power plant was high-paying, but the reality was completely different.

At this rate, he couldn't see a future. He couldn't protect his friends either.
He made up his mind to start a company.
He spared the cost of asking a scrivener and bought books to teach himself.
He drove his light car loaded with documents and work tools back and forth between Fukushima and Nagahama many times. He went to a notary office in Ehime Prefecture, obtained a construction business license from the prefectural governor, and started his business.

The key to the construction industry is securing human resources

He never says he can't do it.
For sites that urgently need to gather people, he calls out to friends across the country to make it in time.
In 2024, he rushed to the Shika Nuclear Power Plant after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake and also went to the site of the Matsuyama Castle landslide disaster.
Because he does not shy away from highly urgent work, his business performance continued to grow.

Even at the national level, construction investment (total of public and private) has been on an upward trend for the past few years, although it has not reached the peak of the bubble era.
The reasons are frequent disasters, disaster prevention needs such as earthquake resistance, demand for private rebuilding, and rising material and labor costs.

The wall is a labor shortage.
Conversely, if you can gather people, there is a chance to win.
He started by rooting himself in the local area. He tried asking local high schools for job openings. It started with gaining the trust of teachers.
'I will definitely raise them properly.'
Of course, he also proceeded to 'whiten' the internal company structure, which President Fukuoka said was 'super black' at the time.

First of all, young people have never thought about infrastructure.
Before letting them know about his company, he gave a presentation on how important construction and civil engineering are, and approached high school students without pretense.
'What happens if the roads disappear?'
'It would be terrible if the dam broke, right?'
'What if the electricity stops?'
He makes them understand that there are people who build and maintain these things.
Instead of saying 'You don't even know that?', he thoroughly stayed close to them.
Then, students started to rumor that the story of that company is interesting.
As a result, he has been able to hire new graduates for seven consecutive years.

However, he felt he had hit a ceiling.
That's when he met Representative Nishimura, who develops human resources-related businesses.
President Fukuoka 'fell in love' with him at an event.
It was an intuition that this person was good.
Communication started online in July 2023, and they signed a contract a month later.
They met in person a year and a half later. He didn't feel that he was younger.
Rather than an advisor, he is a mentor.
He throws his own ideas at him and gets theoretical backing.
Whether his empirical rules are correct, and how they are received by young people.

He tries them out when talking to students, school teachers, parents, etc.
He chews up the expressions and concepts he learned from Representative Nishimura into his own words and speaks.
He feels that the way they look at him has changed.

During the renewal of the recruitment site, he was told many times, 'That's lame.'
Now it has reached a level where people in the same industry say, 'Can I copy that?'

He participated in a joint briefing session last year.
Just before that, he set up a mock booth in his company's conference room and had Representative Nishimura listen to a rehearsal of the company explanation online.
'If you look back calmly, it's like an idiot, isn't it? (laughs)'
President Fukuoka is always giving his all.

Asking interns for advice too

Only 4-5 people actually came to the booth.
But one of the university students among them came for an internship for the first time.
He immediately consulted Representative Nishimura. How should I treat them?
The answer was to ask the intern for advice.
'Please ask them how to get young people to come in the future.'
As told, he worked out a strategy for recruitment with the intern.
The strategy worked, and three high school students joined the company. The student himself also joined this spring.
If you calculate backward from the number of people who came to the joint briefing, it's a threatening batting average.

Ask a young mentor, and get advice from students. And involve them.
According to Representative Nishimura, 'President Fukuoka has been continuing to try and error.'
He keeps searching for how to convey it so that it resonates.
He keeps appealing that it is a company where dreams come true if you work hard.

Even though he was successful in recruitment, there was a time when several people left at once.
From then on, he put even more effort into employee training.
Representative Nishimura backs him up here too.

To be able to properly recall the faces of his employees, he puts everyone's face photo on their LINE icon.
He holds money seminars within the company, and everyone learns how to deal with money.
He sends postcards to employees' parents once a year, and continues the filial piety allowance.

Even if a mismatch occurs after joining the company, he responds with all his might.
There was a time when an employee who should have been good at computers said, 'I'm not good at PC work.'
Although surprised, he talked to them thoroughly.
He says they transferred to an affiliated company and are now working energetically by utilizing their strengths.
He treats each and every one of them like a parent, like a homeroom teacher.

The basic way of thinking and polite attitude do not change. However, he has no hesitation in updating his expressions.
That's why he can listen to people younger than him honestly.
The source of his listening ability is his conviction.

The Nagahama area has a significant population decline. The development of the company will surely lead to a contribution to his hometown. He also has a strong desire to bring back some liveliness.

The other day, he held a 'problem-solving meeting' with all employees participating.
He had them imagine 10 years from now.
'My department is on the X floor of our own building...' many employees answered.
'Oh, I wasn't wrong, I thought.'
President Fukuoka puffed out his chest while looking shy.

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This time it was 'Nagahama Kisetsu x EIS'.

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