[Series 6] How I Used McKinsey-Style Logic to Revitalize a Desperate Facility with a 60% Turnover Rate [Chapter 6] "You Hired a Good Person"

Author: Ryosuke Kosaka (Ichigo-kai Social Welfare Corporation)
Recipient of the Prime Minister's Commendation and the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare's Commendation for Creating a Comfortable Workplace for Care Staff; Recipient of the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare's Encouragement Award; Recipient of the Grand Prize (No. 1 in Japan) from the Care Work Stability Center

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[Series 5] Chapters 4 & 5: Turning Meetings into a "Place for Making Decisions"

"You Hired a Good Person"

Redesigning recruitment that lacks standards

"If you interview them, you hire them from that day on"

At the end of Chapter 5, I established two pillars for redesigning the organization.

One was labor reform.
The other was recruitment reform.

There are no people. The facility isn't running.
This was the pain the nursing care supervisor taught me.

So, I first went to look at recruitment.
What I saw there was this kind of scene.

The people coming for interviews were from recruitment agencies or were introductions from the Chairman (my father).
My father is a person of thorough altruism.
He sees the good in everyone.
So, even if that person didn't fit Ichigo-kai, or didn't seem capable of care work, he would say, "They're a good person," and bring them in.

How much that person would struggle after joining.
He wasn't looking at that.

My father's altruism is not a sin.
Rather, it came from the same root as his wish in that night's phone call: "I want to manage in a way that values people."
However, kindness without standards hurts the person you welcome the most.

On the Ichigo-kai side, because there were no people, they would only say good things during interviews.
They wouldn't convey the tough or dark parts.

There were no interview record sheets.
There was no document screening either.
If you interviewed them, you hired them from that day on.
There were no standards.

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One day, an employee who had been with us for three months asked to speak with me.
When we went into a private room, the person said quietly,

"During the interview, I was told I could take requested time off as I liked. But in reality, I can't take a single day off properly. It's different from what I was told."

It wasn't a deception.
At the recruitment site, accurate information wasn't being conveyed in the first place.

That person quit at the end of that month.
The way recruitment was broken was exactly the way turnover was broken.

Hiring by saying only good things and not conveying the dark parts.
The person who joins realizes, "This is different from what I was told."

And then, they quit.

Unless we fixed our hiring, no matter how much we improved the workplace, it was like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in the bottom.

Taking control of the hiring gate

I started with four things. First, I created an interview form. And I moved the interview gate from the board chair and facility manager to myself.

Second, I stopped posting on recruitment agencies. That was because the people who came weren't worth the referral fees. Third, I requested job postings from staffing agencies. Fourth, I signed a contract with Indeed.

Create tools, take control of the gate, cut off expensive but ineffective channels, and open up cheap, accessible channels.

The order was clear.

In particular, "moving the gate to myself" was the key.

I first took control of the broken gate where hiring decisions were made by one person on the same day.

An organization rots from the head. So, I tightened the faucet at the head myself.

Furthermore, I introduced document screening. I look before I meet.

Things that were taken for granted elsewhere were missing here.

Not assigning seats

I also rebuilt the interview process itself. When a job seeker arrives, I guide them to the interview room.

At this time, I set one trap.
I do not assign a seat.

The seat closest to the entrance is the lowest-ranking seat. Can they naturally sit in that lowest seat when guided? Just by that, I can tell if they intuitively understand the social norms of seating hierarchy.

People can embellish their answers to questions. They cannot embellish their behavior. I watch instead of asking.

I also changed the content of the interviews. For leadership candidates, I used behavioral interviews. I dig into the situation, actions, and results in order: what was the most difficult experience in their work so far, what was the situation, what was their role, how did they act, and what was the outcome. I translated the fact-based questioning method drilled into me at McKinsey and brought it into nursing care recruitment.

Because "having done it" and "being able to do it" are very different.

The prototype of this interview checklist was something I used for hiring pharmacists at a pharmacy chain. I tweaked it slightly for the nursing care version and copied it.

CKP was effective here as well.

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I added one more mechanism to the interview process.

It was to hand them a moving story.

I would have them read it and ask for their thoughts. Whether they could be moved to tears was also a factor in the hiring decision.

I also asked about the corporate philosophy. The answer to this question reveals the person's values.

I would ask those who said they "empathized" what exactly they empathized with. I would ask those who said they "had doubts" what exactly they were questioning.

People who don't align with the philosophy will suffer after joining. People who do align with it will grow after joining.

Therefore, the interview is not just a place to confirm ability, but also a place to verify values.

I no longer make hiring decisions on the same day.

Explain all the tough parts upfront

What I prioritized most were the "mandatory explanation items." The salary closing and payment dates. Bonuses. Transportation allowance conditions. When paid leave is accrued and carried over. Overtime pay units. Shifts. Night shifts. Working on weekends and holidays.

I make sure to explain all of these during the interview. Once explained, I check them off. I record whether they accept or refuse.

This was the exact opposite of "saying only good things and not mentioning the dark parts."

"You will be required to work 4 to 6 night shifts per month. Depending on shift requirements, it may be 7. Can you agree to this?"
"Yes, that is fine."

"Thank you. Please let me record that on the document."

This exchange prevents future trouble. I told them before they joined. They agreed. There is a record of it.

I eliminate the gap between expectation and reality before they join.

You might think that if you tell them all the tough parts upfront, the job seekers will run away.

People who run away should run away. If you force someone to join who cannot work here for a long time, the person will only suffer.

The people who say "I will do it" even after hearing the tough parts are the ones we truly want to come.

Bowing to those we don't hire

When redesigning our hiring process, there was one other thing I insisted on.
How we treat the people we don't hire.

We also had applicants fill out a questionnaire.
In it, we included this question:

"Please write a short text of 60 characters or less introducing the charms of Gifu Prefecture to someone from outside the prefecture."

Behind their qualifications and background, their personality, positivity, and writing ability shine through.

And we sent a proper letter to those we did not hire.
It was a letter in the director's name, expressing gratitude for their application, informing them that we would responsibly dispose of the documents entrusted to us, and wishing them and their families good health.
That is the kind of letter it was.

It is a strategy to ensure that those we turn down do not become our enemies.

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At the end of the interview form, I clearly wrote down "our expectations."

Someone who strives to satisfy our residents.
Someone who can take initiative with a sense of responsibility.
Someone who can follow the rules.
Someone who values teamwork with their colleagues.

We weren't just hiring anyone.

I wanted to meet people who resonated with this philosophy.

My father believed in the inherent goodness of people and saw the good in everyone.
That is why he didn't filter anyone out.
What I did was not to deny that kindness.

It was to add a single standard to that kindness.
Whether or not they fit our philosophy.

That one filter is enough.

"You hired good people" from the front lines

I had created the system.
However, the front lines still did not trust headquarters.

As I wrote in Chapter 4, there was a sentiment on the front lines that "headquarters has it easy."
Was headquarters really doing the hiring?
Were they evaluating and hiring correctly?
The front lines were suspicious.

So, at the monthly leader meetings, I made the numbers open.
How many applications we received, how many document screenings we did, how many interviews we conducted, how many people we hired, and how many we passed on.
I showed them everything.

I changed hiring from a black box to something transparent.
When things are visible, suspicion fades.
When you can see
what lies ahead, you feel at ease. You can endure.

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After a while, those words came from the staff on the floor.
In the hallway after a leadership meeting, a veteran caregiver said it casually.

"Takasaka-san, the new person, So-and-so, is good, isn't he? He's reliable."

"Is that so?"

"Before, even if we hired someone, they would quit right away, or people with problems would come in... It's different lately. You've been hiring good people."

Those words hit home.

I might not have been happy just looking at the recruitment numbers.
But when the staff on the floor told me, "You hired good people," the sense of accomplishment was real.
After that, the changes continued even further.

When recruitment changes, the workplace changes.
When the workplace changes, people gather again.

The stories of two staff members best illustrate this.
The first is a facility manager I raised as my successor.
They originally joined the company as a life consultant. They faced their work with sincerity, climbed the career ladder to become a manager of a special nursing home, and have been entrusted as the facility manager to succeed me starting in 2025.

This person came through a staff referral.
A staff member who grew as a result of our changed recruitment process had, in turn, "brought in a good person."

The second is a unit leader.
They previously worked at a conventional special nursing home.
They were exhausted by assembly-line style care and felt, "This isn't care."

At that time, they saw a job posting for Ichigo-kai.
What caught their eye was the phrase, "A project to make residents' dreams come true."

"I want to do this."

With that single-minded determination, they applied.
After joining the company, they gained experience on the floor as a general staff member, and now, as a unit leader, they are implementing the project to make residents' dreams come true in their own unit.

These two have something in common.
They have internalized the corporate philosophy as their own words.

Recruitment is the process of finding people who resonate with the philosophy.
"Can we walk together in the direction this facility is heading?"

That was the only real filter.

New hires don't quit even after three months.
They are still there after six months.
They are still there after a year.

The staff who used to say, "Headquarters seems to have it easy," are now saying,
"Headquarters hired good people."

Distrust of headquarters had flipped into gratitude toward headquarters.

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The numbers, too, proved it later.
In fiscal year 2020, we welcomed 43 new employees.

And for 22 months, the number of people who quit within their first year was zero.

The recruitment cost per person dropped by more than 110,000 yen.

When I tell these numbers to recruiters and executives at other companies, they are usually surprised.

"Zero resignations within the first year for 22 months? What kind of special selection process did you use?"

I didn't do anything special.
I just did it honestly.

I tell them that hard work is hard.
I tell them that night shifts are grueling.

Instead of people who flocked to job postings that only said "a bright and fun workplace," I only welcomed those who said, "I still want to do it."

That alone changed the retention rate.

The "honesty" of recruitment was the first step in preventing turnover.

However, the real sense of accomplishment wasn't in those numbers.
The organization, which used to say only good things, hide the dark parts, and hire people on the spot, changed into an organization that tells them the tough parts first, doesn't assign seats, and bows its head even to those it doesn't hire.

And the people who joined stopped quitting.

Recruitment is not a technique for selecting people.

It was a design to be sincere to the people you meet, even before they join.

Let's organize this one more time.
There are no "special connections" in Ichigokai's recruitment.

We are not "paying high fees to agencies" either.

We only did five things.

Keep the authority for interviews to yourself. Do not assign seats. Tell them all the tough parts first. Write polite replies even to those you didn't hire. Share recruitment numbers with the staff on the floor.

With just this, the staff on the floor started saying, "You hired good people."

Recruitment is the face of the company.

Even before they join, the sincerity of the facility is conveyed.

Honest hiring attracts honest staff.

That cycle built the culture of Ichigokai.

Is the hiring at your facility honest?

As long as you continue hiring by "only saying good things," resignations saying "it's different from what I was told" will continue.

Please tell them about the tough parts first, and only welcome those who say "I will do it" anyway.
It costs no money to change to that kind of hiring.
A single interview sheet and some courage are all you need.

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The anxiety that "if I tell them about the tough parts first, applicants won't come" did not actually happen.

Rather, because I was honest, the people who came saying "I still want to do it" took root properly.

You can change your next hiring starting today.

In the next chapter, I will write about the overall picture of "J-CKP 30," which summarizes the redesign up to this point into a single model.

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▶ Next article: [Series 7] Chapter 7: The True Identity of "J-CKP 30"