For a business built on increasing flexibility, the company that operates the Dr. Stretch outlets stretches the selection of supervisors to new limits.
Nobitel Inc., headquartered in Tokyo, which operates dedicated stretching studios and a hotel, allows staff members to “elect” their supervisors.
Other corporations provide workers with unique opportunities to pick their preferred superiors under this “reverse nomination” framework.
Similar mechanisms are increasingly being seen across Japan, as the careers of company workers can be significantly affected by their supervisors’ personalities.
The situation is likened to the ubiquitous “gacha” vending machines in the Asian nation, since getting a good boss seems to be a matter of luck like turning the handle for a prize.
Nobitel, which operates 270 flexibility exercise studios under its specialized Dr. Stretch brand in and outside Japan, launched its general election mechanism in 2016. A total of 13 area managers oversee these establishments individually.
The latest general election on May 21 aimed to select a new area manager.
Passing the preliminary performance evaluation and the presentation in front of management, four contenders vied for the post at the site. More than 1,000 employees cast ballots for their favorite manager candidates via smartphones.
The top choice among the staff was Rui Takagi, 29, head of the exercise studio within the Yokohama Porta commercial complex.
Takagi was particularly admired by Ryota Tsuge, the general manager of the company’s department responsible for Dr. Stretch’s operations.
“Though still young, he has a proven track record and is well-liked as a store chief,” Tsuge said.
BRAINCHILD OF COMPANY PRESIDENT
The proposal for the general election reportedly became a reality 10 or so years earlier. It was initially suggested by company President Masahiro Kurokawa.
Kurokawa, 54, explained that another system had already been instituted immediately after the corporation’s founding, in which staff at respective branches select their stores’ managers.
Seeing its business expand dramatically around 2015, Nobitel introduced a new performance review at the recommendation of an executive who had recently transferred from another company.
Managers and employees had one-on-one interviews for performance evaluations under the newly introduced setup.
But Kurokawa still was not content that supervisors had to spend considerable time for deciding how much their subordinates were contributing to the enterprise.
Kurokawa thus compared randomly selected employee performance evaluations with the findings from his staff interviews. The aim was to see whether the human resources assessment had been carried out properly.
“My conclusion at the time was that every evaluation was influenced, at least to some degree, by superiors’ likes and dislikes of their subordinates,” recalled Kurokawa.
EMPLOYEES UNDER PRESSURE FROM BOSSES
Kurokawa again took a closer look at the occupational environment of his company and discovered that senior officials were improperly forming “factions.”
Ominous signs of this practice were beginning to emerge in worker assignments: staffers were more worried about their bosses’ moods than their customers, as managers were, in particular, in charge of decisions regarding employee evaluations and human resources.
“To my eyes, supervisors seemed to be inappropriately exerting pressure on their junior workers through salary evaluations and personnel allocation authority for controlling them,” Kurokawa said, looking back.
With a range of challenges in mind, Kurokawa suspended the inception of the new review system.
Kurokawa then quickly shifted focus to the general election, so employees’ wages are determined not by their superiors’ appraisal but by sales, customer satisfaction levels and other objective key performance indicators.
This, in turn, enabled managers to concentrate on more critical roles, such as setting goals for their stores, considering unconventional projects and developing company-wide strategies.
The transparency in personnel assessment and shuffling has helped Nobitel rid its deep-rooted excessive tendency among staff members to behave in line with pleasing their supervisors.
“No one currently pays any attention to me either, but I deem it as rather healthy,” Kurokawa said with a smile.
INCOMPATIBILITY WITH SUPERVISORS
Young workers’ failure to get along with senior members is, among other issues, problematic in particular for enterprises plagued by serious labor shortages, as such employees often quickly quit their companies.
A labor ministry survey revealed that as high as 35 percent of new college and university graduates finishing their education in March 2021 quit their jobs within three years of entering corporations.
Another study was conducted in 2024 by the Ben Navi search site for lawyers and legal offices specializing in labor trouble. It asked a total of 1,656 men and women in their 20s to 50s about their “complaints about their bosses.”
The results of the research by the website operated by Asiro Inc. showed that no less than 66.7 percent of respondents said they had considered leaving their company due to their supervisor. Of these, 39.7 percent said they had actually quit or changed jobs.
Employers seeking to reduce their worker turnover are turning to the distinctive reverse nomination tactic, allowing subordinates to check and select higher-ranking company officials on their own.
Among those employers is building structural design firm Sakura Kozo, which is based in Sapporo.
Staffers at the enterprise’s structural design department annually refer to an 80-plus-page “super important” manual for the “supervisor selection system.”
They classify the personal characteristics of those in managerial positions–inclusive of their personalities, abilities, strengths and weaknesses–into three categories, similar to a school report card.
Seven section chiefs in the department are each evaluated by their 15 subordinates annually, so workers can be deployed to the section of their choice.
For example, employees working under Chief A this year can move to another section to team with Chief B in the next fiscal year at their own request.
The policy was instituted after a talented young employee quit Sakura Kozo while blaming a poor relationship with a supervisor.
BENEFICIAL FOR BOTH SIDES
Sakura Kozo initiated its superior selection framework in 2020 to prevent a recurrence of the “boss gacha” tragedy. Two sectional heads have reportedly been rejected by their subordinates to date.
Asked how unpopular senior officials can maintain their motivation, a Sakura Kozo representative insisted that even superiors benefit from the system.
“Section chiefs are engineers who remain committed to nonmanagerial tasks,” said the company representative. “Staff members understand the drawbacks, choose their preferred bosses accordingly, and now assist their selected section heads more actively than before.”
The company turnover rate was 11.3 percent in 2018 but fell to 0.9 percent in 2023.
Heisei Corp. in Numazu, Shizuoka Prefecture, has likewise featured the “chief leader” system, which refers to department heads, since its establishment in 1989. The concept is to “decide my boss on my own.”
Around 20 chief leaders are elected once a year by employees of their departments, while both rookies and managers each have a single vote in the same way.
“Losing the staff’s trust may mean that leaders are replaced in one year,” said a representative from the construction firm’s general affairs department.
Superiors, colleagues and subordinates of relevant departments are expected to examine one another from their diverse standpoints for the company’s biannual personnel review.
The so-called “360-degree assessment” gimmick is said to ensure that certain workers’ results are not heavily influenced by the relationships with their bosses.
Akagi Nyugyo Co., a famed maker of the high-profile GariGari Kun ice pop in Fukaya, Saitama Prefecture, close to the capital, began having its employees annually evaluate their supervisors’ performances 15 years ago.
Submitted alongside subordinates’ career planning forms, the review on superiors is intended to collect direct, honest feedback from workers about the top officials at business headquarters, departments, divisions and sections.
The ultimate purpose of the system is securing fairness in assessment.
The dedicated supervisor evaluation sheet consists of 15 items, including communications skills, instruction clarity and appropriateness of their support and advice.
It is submitted without screening by the supervisors and read exclusively by the president, senior managing directors or personnel management staff.
The “straightforward review” by subordinates is believed to create a sense of tension among senior officials in managerial posts, leading to enhanced communication between them.
AloJapan.com