Employee introduction10 Building a training system to suit the long-term vision of SMK
K.Y.
Joined as mid-career hire in 2024
Human Resources Dept.Recruiting, Training Sec.in charge of training and development
Background
What sort of job did you have before you joined SMK?
My previous job was in a company providing cloud services to support marketing, and my main roles were in hiring newly graduated staff, raising training proposals, and being the leader of operations. In my role hiring new graduates, I was involved in developing hiring strategies, dealing with interviews, and following up on those who had been provisionally hired.
Why did you change jobs, and what made you choose SMK?
Along with my job recruiting people, I also provided support to employees after they joined the company. With the approach that people are the most changeable forms of capital in a company, I started to get very interested in the process of the employees and the company growing together. It provided an opportunity for me to rethink my own career. Just when I thought that I would like to be involved in developing a system in which the company and its employees can continually grow in line with their shared passions and values, I felt like I wanted to take on a challenge at a company where such a system had not been completely implemented, or where they were thinking of changing what they had in place, and these thoughts lead me to decide to change jobs.
I placed the most importance on whether the work was close to what I wanted to do when I was looking for a new job, and I also looked at the company vision and message from the CEO.
A point I felt was important was whether the philosophy and values of the company matched with my own.
I chose SMK for two reasons. The first was being able to do the work I wanted to do. SMK has history and it has a properly developed training system, but the heads of the company expressed the feeling that it was time to make a transition, so changes needed to be made. I was excited about making modifications to the finely tuned training system to make it more suited to SMK.
The second was the global aspect. There are many employees working at the branches overseas, and there are also people from a variety of countries working at head office. I wanted to be involved in the efforts to get results together with members from such a variety of backgrounds.
Work
Compared to your last company, how is the ease of working here?
My initial feeling was how nice the people were. There are quite a few employees that have come from other companies, so there is a good understanding of the status of this type of employee when they join the company, and there is no shortage of support when it is needed. It is a bottom-up type of culture here, so you are not fobbed off as having no company experience if you have something you want to do. Rather, they will examine it and you will get advice. And there is further motivation because they let you really take charge if the issue is taken up.
Tell us about your job.
I am responsible for the planning and running of training across the entire company and promoting policies for career development. More concretely, I look into the types of people and skills the company will need to achieve its long-term vision and put those results into my training materials. And I don't just stay penned up in my own department. I get direct feedback from employees via questionnaires to the various departments, compare what the departments need against what the company needs to grow, then do my planning and implementation. I also have discussions with training organizations outside the company about what our issues are and what kind of results we want and get them to provide us with training programs. I also get our employees to be instructors at times too. Because there is no one correct answer and the results of training are hard to observe, I go through a lot of trial and error to attempt to provide the necessary value for SMK.
Tell us about when you experience a feeling of job satisfaction.
I have spent half of my business career working in the area of human resources. I get satisfaction from seeing employees do their jobs. In particular, when I see someone who I have known since they joined the company go on the grow in the company, start getting results, and earn the trust of the people around them, inside and outside the company, I look upon them as someone to depend upon, and this makes me very happy as well.
The growth of a person is achieved through a variety of elements, for example the work they do, the system of the company, their relationships with superiors and colleagues, so the part I play is very small.
However, on the other hand, I believe that it is possible that my tiny contribution may be the trigger for achievement.
I want to direct my efforts to offer value that means that employees are successful in their jobs and to be there to support them so that as many employees can grow as possible.
Vision
Describe your dreams and goals.
The career I am aiming for is in the human resource development and organization development area, and I want to be someone to depend upon in the company. A more immediate aim is to create an educational system from the ground up, then include the re-skilling policies that match the company so that the company is responsive to the changes in society. In the future, I want to sort through the data on human resources that the company has so that it can be made useful and to be an effective human resource myself. I still lack the required knowledge and skills to achieve these aims, but I have the will to go out and learn more about what interests me.
MESSAGE
What is message for all those students out there jobhunting?
Changing jobs is something that requires bravery, and you may be unsure about it. You should seriously consider what is most important to you, and if you find a company that fits with that, you should take the leap. SMK is an interesting workplace where everyone can take on new challenges. I am looking forward to working together with a group of people who have a vision for the future.
A day in my work life
