Developing and Securing Talent with Required Capabilities: "The Right Person for the Right Job" #98

For a company to continue to exist, it must consistently achieve its purposes and goals.
Management is the function that effectively utilizes the management resources available for that purpose.

Management resources are referred to as people, goods, money, information, and so on.
Among these, the importance of the first one, people—that is, human resources—is increasing.

Conventional human resources were mostly conservative, routine, precedent-based, or back-office support activities that focused solely on operational tasks such as labor and legal systems and manuals.

In the first place, as long as employees belong to a company, they should have the motivation to contribute to achieving its purposes and goals.
However, the methodology for realizing this differs for each individual.
Also, their respective abilities are not uniform, and each has both strengths and weaknesses.
Therefore, management is required to optimize individual abilities to achieve the company's purposes and goals.
I think management is like fitting together many different shapes of management resources to complete a large puzzle.

There is a term related to personnel placement in companies: "the right person for the right job."
The right person for the right jobmeans"identifying an individual's aptitude and abilities and placing them in a suitable position (role/task) accordingly."In fact, this is written in "The Book of Five Rings," authored by the renowned master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi, which is also considered applicable to corporate management.

In it, as one of the mindsets that a samurai should value, it is stated that "a general leading individual samurai must place talent in the right positions."

As an analogy for this, it shows how Japanese carpenters, who understand the characteristics of various types of wood, use different woods according to the characteristics of the building.
Although it is just wood, its characteristics vary.
For example, cypress or chestnut, which are rot-resistant and highly durable, are used for the foundation; cedar, with its beautiful grain and gentle texture, is used for parts of the interior pillars; and tough pine is used for beams that support the weight of the roof or the second floor and above.

Since people can fully demonstrate their abilities when placed in the right job, I think productivity will naturally increase.
However, if you implement "the right person for the right job" exactly as it is, some departments will have more people than necessary, while others will face personnel shortages.

As a result, contrary to the principle, there is a possibility that personnel will be assigned from departments with many people to departments with shortages, even if it does not match their abilities.
Also, there is a possibility that there are some people for whom there is no suitable position within the company in the first place.

What should be done in such cases?
For example, reskilling.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry defines it as "acquiring (or having others acquire) the necessary skills to take on a new job or to adapt to significant changes in the skills required for one's current job."

Also, if there is no talent suitable for a position within the company, you will have to look outside the company.
However, the current situation is that this does not always go as planned, as the shortage of human resources has become a serious problem.
Recently, it seems that some companies are implementing recurrent education, where they have employees learn the required skills at external educational institutions while remaining employed by the company.

Regarding the future of "the right person for the right job," the reality is that it does not always go as a company wishes.
I think we have no choice but to work on securing and developing the right talent through various measures and responses.
To that end, companies need to prioritize and promote strategic HRM (Human Resource Management) that leads transformation from the perspectives of both talent and organization.