We caught up with Wantedly Inc. founder and CEO Akiko Naka to talk about how the company is reshaping the way people and teams connect in today’s work landscape. Rather than focusing on job titles and salaries, Wantedly promotes a more human approach—where individuals discover companies based on shared missions, culture, and the drive to grow together. Read more from an excerpt of our interview below.
In your view, how do Japan’s unique cultural perspectives on work and employment influence its current job market dynamics, especially in comparison to trends in other developed nations?
Historically, Japanese workers have been heavily protected by law, resulting in a very low turnover within companies. Once a person is hired, it is difficult for a company to let that person go even if they see a reason for doing so. On the other hand, there are countries like the U.S. where the work culture is very different, and the turnover is much higher. Both sides have their positive and negative sides, but for Japan, it seems that a shift towards higher labor liquidity (migration from declining industries to rising industries) might be the way to go when faced with the labor shortage and a declining population. Some industries such as the manufacturing or construction industry are struggling with recruitment due to these issues, whilst other industries such as the tech industry are rising. The U.S. on the other hand has a growing population and is therefore experiencing the opposite.
Being a prominent female entrepreneur, what are your thoughts on the future of the labor market regarding diversity and inclusion?
Diversity in Japan often means something else compared to Western countries, although this is also changing. When talking about diversity between men and women, it needs to be facilitated from the governmental side and the corporate side, and we are now seeing a change in the number of nurseries and childcare centers creating opportunities for women to pursue their careers while still having children. With the low birth rates on top of the aging and decreasing population, it has become vital to diversify and enable women to not only have part-time or lower roles in businesses but really take part in the workforce at the same level as men. Because of these changes, younger men have become much more involved in their children’s upbringing, also making society more equal. Due to the changes, we are experiencing a growing number of women entrepreneurs even looking to go public. I see huge improvements when it comes to women’s roles in the workforce, and I believe we will experience a big change in the coming years that will spread through different industries.
What specific SNS-based systems and features does your company use to optimize recruitment and employee engagement?
When we first launched, we were heavily based on Facebook as an app, but have evolved into our own social networking platform with users being able to create profiles, add work and education history, and much more. Companies are also able to sign up, add their employees, post information and expose their business to the users, even look for talent among the users. It is sort of a mini corporate site and has become a content generation engine where users and companies are connecting. It is said that content is the king for the digital generation.
Another tool we are trying to utilize is of course AI. With the internet being full of so much information that it is impossible to consume it all, so the matching technology has become more important than ever. Utilizing AI tools has become the new way of finding jobs in contrast to the filter and search approach that was the norm.