Changing workstyle - LINE WORKS https://line-works.com/en The only business chat that connects to LINE "LINE WORKS" Mon, 19 Apr 2021 07:07:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8.4 https://line-works.com/en/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/WORKS_JP.ico Changing workstyle - LINE WORKS https://line-works.com/en 32 32 We carried out employee interviews through LINE WORKS Video call feature. After creating an environment where applicants from diverse backgrounds can participate without spatial constraints, we saw a significant increase in the number of applicants. https://line-works.com/en/cases/shijyonawate-lg/ Tue, 18 Jun 2019 01:00:06 +0000 https://line-works.com/en/?post_type=cases&p=9598

Shijyonawate city, located in Osaka, used LINE WORKS’ video call feature for employee recruitment to provide interview opportunities for applicants in diverse living conditions, such as those who are on childcare, who are working full-time, or long-distance candidates. As a result, the number of applicants has increased significantly, drawing attention from local governments suffering from labor shortages across Japan. We interviewed Mayor Azuma, Arahori and Azuma from the Department of General Affairs to learn about how the interviews were conducted with LINE WORKS, and also how the communication tool was useful for the administrative agency.

Tell us about Shiyonawate City and your individual roles

Mayor Azuma :

Located in the north-eastern side of Osaka Prefecture, Shijonawate takes up a relatively small area of 18㎢, and is home to about 56,000 citizens. Around two-thirds of the city’s area is Mount Ikoma and is rich in green areas; it is also located in 15 minutes distance by subway from Kyobashi station, one of the main stations in Osaka. Taking office in January 2017, I am the mayor of Shijonawate.

 
Mr. Arahori :

I am in charge of hiring and salary related matters in the Department of General Affairs, Human Resources. When we were conducting video interviews in the recruitment process, I was involved in examining various tools, and also introducing and operating LINE WORKS.

 
Mayor Azuma :

Likewise, I am in charge of recruitment, salary, social insurance, healthcare and other related work in the Department of General Affairs, Human Resources. I was one of the interviewers during the video interview process.

We’ve heard that since Mayor Azuma took office, Shijyonawate has focused on introducing IT to administrative services

Mayor Azuma:

We introduced a system that enables citizens to report road defects through LINE@ and conducted employee interviews online, for the first time in Japan, but I do not mean to say that ‘IT is the best.’ Introducing IT was just a result of seeking which was better from a reasonable point of view. And while the premise is to make Shijyonawate a better place through these new initiatives, I do not believe that it has to end here. Shijyonawate will set a precedent by introducing IT and advanced systems, making it easier for other local governments to implement them. So under the belief that Japan as a whole will thrive, we are actively introducing new technologies and systems.

Tell us how you got to conduct employee interviews with LINE WORKS’ video call

Mayor Azuma :

To secure talented personnel we want as many people as possible to apply for the interviews—but recently, the administrative sector has also been suffering from labor shortages. When we were recruiting a deputy mayor in 2017, we tried conducting online interviews through collaboration with a private website specialized for people who want to change jobs, so that people living far away could participate without having to come a long way. This resonated with our city, and as a result we decided to conduct face-to-face interviews and video interviews at the same time for the 2018 summer employee recruitment, introducing new tools for online interviews.

Mr. Arahori :

After reviewing various communication tools for businesses, we decided that LINE WORKS is the best option because it is easy to use due to its similar interface with LINE, a service familiar with the general public, and because its security is guaranteed. One of the reasons for introducing LINE WORKS was because it has catered to our request that we would like to use the service only for a limited amount of time since we only use it for video interviews—in this way, we could cut down operating costs.

Please tell us about the video interview system using LINE WORKS, and some of the measures that were taken to guarantee security

Mr. Arahori :

We gave LINE WORKS accounts to applicants who had wished to have a video interview, via email before the interview. We used account names registered in LINE WORKS for candidate number to prevent personal information from being leaked. Moreover, we had to make sure that applicants would not reach each other through the network, so we used LINE WORKS’ function for access restriction to prevent searches for other accounts in ‘Contacts,’ and strengthened security.

During the interview, we checked identification by asking the candidates to show their driver’s license or verification slip delivered via email on the video call screen, and could carry on with the interview without an issue.

 
Mayor Azuma :

On the day of the interview, we prepared PC, camera, and a projector in designated areas in the city hall, and conducted video interviews by calling the applicants with our PC. As we had carried out test calls with every applicant in advance, there weren’t any problems like screen impairments or network errors, and we could carry out same quality interviews as face-to-face interviews.

An actual video interview
Applicant shown at the screen via video call

What kind of effects did you achieve by conducting video interviews?

Mayor Azuma :

29 people applied for the 2017 summer office staff recruitment; but for the 2018 summer recruitment where we carried out video interviews, 213 people applied, and we could feel its effectiveness by the seven-fold increase in the number of applicants. I think we were able to provide a more accessible environment for people to apply.

 
Mr. Arahori :

It would be great burden for people living far away to spend time and money to take an interview multiple times; and it’s not easy for those on childcare or working full-time to schedule job interviews. In the past, there was an applicant who had to give up on the interview because her child suddenly had fever. Hearing from applicants after the interview, we realized that many of them would have given up applying if the interview were not conducted online.

Mayor Azuma :

Many people took interviews in their own homes, but there were applicants who took interviews in a car, park and school. We realized that people from diverse backgrounds applied for the position. We believe that the significant increase in the number of applicants is a result of providing opportunities for applicants without spatial constraints.

 

How would you like to use LINE WORKS for job interviews in the future?

Mr. Arahori :

In 2018 winter employee recruitment, we conducted video interviews not only for office workers but also for professionals—and because a lot of people applied at that time as well, we plan to continue conducting video interviews. Our city advocates “The most convenient local government to apply for in Japan” on our website, and we will continue to spread the convenience of video interviews. I hope more people will be interested and send applications.

 

Labor shortage is a common concern for all administrative organizations, so local governments from various regions interested in our attempts are commissioning us for inspections and lectures. Video interviews can be conducted in any region, but I believe that it would be especially useful for local governments located far away from the city center. Since it would be cumbersome for them to come a long way to our city, we are considering using the video interview method to have inspections online.

 

Mayor Azuma :

The duration time for video interviews is designated by the city—but in the future we would like to respond flexibly to applicants’ requests for the duration of interviews in order to eliminate constraints not only in terms space, but also in time.

In what ways do you believe that pioneering attempts like adopting LINE WORKS will help Shijonawate?

 
 
 

For administrative tasks dealing with confidential information, we use a separate network from the Internet; but if we overhaul communication infrastructure in the future so that we can connect to the Internet securely, I believe that we will be able to utilize chatting tools like LINE WORKS among staff. I often go on business trips outside the city, and I think that work efficiency will be significantly improved if I can sign or approve documents outdoors. The fundamental role of the staff is to listen to the citizens and solve with imagination and creativity the problems to which viable solutions do not exist.

 

For civil servants, increasing the efficiency of daily work to ensure enough time to talk with the citizens is “Work Style Reformation” itself, and as a means to achieve this goal we would like to reduce overtime and conduct telework. If IT tools serve as an effective means to get to this goal, we will continue to actively incorporate them.

 

 

 

※All details, affiliations, and positions specified were gathered at the time of interview.

]]> Since we can confirm ‘finishing touches’ of the construction site with photos, it is possible to issue accurate work instruction without visiting the workplace. By efficienating workflow, we managed 25% more cases in the peak season than the last year, and ultimately led us to improve our achievement record https://line-works.com/en/cases/kishuburo/ Fri, 18 Jan 2019 04:56:47 +0000 https://line-works.com/en/?post_type=cases&p=5205 Based in Hirakata-shi, Osaka-hu, Kishuburo Co., Ltd. is housing company in which focuses on remodeling and maintenance of the houses. The strength of this company is that housing professionals, with more than ten years of experience in construction, are directly participating in sales and construction works. Kishuburo introduced LINE WORKS to their company in order for flawless communication to be held between sales-construction workers and sales-office employees. We interviewed Representative Director Kohara Mitsuo, and Kunihiro Yukiyo about problems they encountered before introducing LINE WORKS to their company and improvements made after the introduction.

Tell us about your company and individual roles

Mr. Kohara：

Our company mainly deals with remodeling and maintenance of the houses. We had converted into a corporation in 2004, and next year will be our 50th anniversary if we sum up the individual business years. We have total of 14 employees, 10 from sales-construction staffs and 4 from office workers. Since we are remodeling company, in which mainly focuses on construction, it is general that employees who form an estimation are also in charge of construction. Although I am the Representative Director of this company, I am also involved in overall working processes, from Sales to Construction works.

 

Ms. Kunihiro：

I am in charge of Sales business. Specifically, I am in charge of re-writing the estimates, which are initially written by other Sales employees or writing various documents down on PC.

What were the issues before the introduction of LINE WORKS?

Mr. Kohara：

Starting from one specific period, the core idea of construction within industry has changed from constructing new building to remodeling. Unlike constructing new building, remodeling requires considerable experience. As major companies are also taking part in remodeling industry, it has become impossible to survive from the industry with its similar tactic. In order to survive under such circumstance, it was important mission for us to enhance our work performance by working efficiently while providing quality service.

 

Even within the industry, the response rate has become faster than before. Take construction fee as an example, what used to be changed every five-year is now change each year. This indicates that we cannot survive this year with the same way as last year.

 

Meantime, there were issues with sharing information since the salesperson could not stay in the same construction site all day and could only visit maximum of five construction sites if needed. Customers often had to wait for the salesperson, who were not reachable while working at the construction site. Although the customers make phone calls, they still had to wait quite amount of time to be connected to the salesperson. Even with the note like ‘I want someone to come as soon as possible’, there were times when salesperson could not answer the message in a prompt manner. In order to find the salesperson who is available for immediate contact or the salesperson who can visit the place right away, we had to call each of them whenever needed. Because it was impossible to find out where each salesperson was located, we had to call each individual.

What was the decisive reason that drove you to turn to LINE WORKS?​

Mr. Kohara：

In our company, we encourage all the Salesperson to take photos before and after the construction. When we were busy, and therefore, had to visit a number of construction sites in a day, it was found to be confusing when the photos taken at the various construction sites with 2G phones do not match with the customer information. We also felt the limitation with using 2G phone to either hold prompt communication or make quick responses. While feeling so, one of our customers introduced LINE WORKS to us.

 

The most decisive point of LINE WORKS introduction was that most of our employees have been already using LINE as personal communication tool. If personal matter is mixed up with business matter, there may be issues regarding information management. However, LINE WORKS prevents such issues by providing business accounts which are distinguished from their personal accounts.

How exactly LINE WORKS is being used?​

Ms. Kunihiro：

The most used situation is when we make responses to emergencies, such as water leakage and drain clogging. Especially, we receive a lot of inquiries about frozen pipes during winter time. Before introducing LINE WORKS, the employee who answered the customer phone call had to desperately find a Salesperson who can solve the emergency. After the introduction, however, we can now send customer address along with detailed situation explanation to the group chatting room, where entire Salesperson have jointed. Just by sending messages like ‘Can anyone go?’, we can immediately find available Salesperson to handle the situation.

 

Mr. Kohara：

Up until now, we have delivered the information such as customer requests, shipping information, and event information through bylaws. After introducing LINE WORKS, however, it became very convenient to notify all the employees. Also, there are employees whom we get to encounter only once a week, but even in such situation, we can communicate with them in detail.

 

We are utilizing Calendar function when writing daily work log. There is no difference in terms of its function to manage overall schedules by posting construction or customer meeting dates in advance. We, furthermore, use to adjust the schedules, such as change the presumably written schedule hours to the hours that actually took, and add types of works that employees have done.

 

That is, what once was pre-conditioned schedule in the morning transformed into employees’ daily work log at night. It is easy to see the works done on that day and it is also convenient for future reference. Hand-written work log was often omitted within the day. But, it is now possible to check the log whenever and wherever needed.

 

What kind of changes took place following the use of LINE WORKS?​

Mr. Kohara：

LINE WORKS is very attractive tool in terms of allowing us to check the schedule everywhere. This applies to all the employees, but as we start utilizing LINE WORKS within our workplace, I believe that we all gained notion of time management. Everyone, including myself, can now use time efficiently. Schedule management function as well as Timer function also prevent works from being left out.

 

Ms. Kunihiro：

Before LINE WORKS was introduced, I wrote employees’ schedule simply on a paper chart in the office. By introducing LINE WORKS, we are also digitalized. It became possible to reduce the cost of ‘writing’ as well as paper. Also, it is possible to make immediate contact to the specific employee, as we can find out the current location of them in detail.

Mr. Kohara：

What I felt particularly effective in terms of communication is when confirming ‘finishing touches’ of the construction sites. Visiting all the construction sites is nearly impossible to do so. However, since site managers send photos through LINE WORKS chatting, it is now possible to acknowledge the details of the construction sites without making actual visits.

 

There were times when I could not make judgements on the situation and issue the work instructions accordingly if I was not present on the site. But, now I can instantly make judgements on the issue and deliver the instructions. Because I can also issue instructions immediately in case of any emergencies or problems, the overall working process became much favorable than before. It was impossible to do so in the past. As we reduced the amount of time wasted, we can now spend more time focusing on Sales activities, such as prospect customer development, consultation, and post-sales support. We can easily share messages through chatting room, and ‘completed’ message can now be sent after the work has done. We are deeply feeling that the style of work has changed.

 

It may sound exaggerated, but I believe that with the help of LINE WORKS, we could survive from the hardships that we faced at the end of the last year. Starting from the end of the last year, the entire construction industry became relatively busy. Specifically, the work has increased 125% more in December than the last year. Thanks to LINE WORKS, we could successfully handle all the chances given by reducing the wasted time. After the introduction, our achievement record has definitely improved than last year.

 

 

※ All details, affiliations, and positions specified were gathered at the time of interview.

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