Four-day work plan

Several media reported that Hitachi will introduce a new Human Resource policy in 2022. It will make its employees to allocate their monthly working time more freely. As a result, s/he can increase working hour from 8 to 10 from Monday to Thursday, and s/he can take a holiday in Friday. At first, 15 thousand employees who are working at the headquarter will be able to apply this new policy. In addition, their salary will be the same.

Hitachi is one of the biggest and famous Japanese companies in Japan. Thus, its impact will be big. Also, there are several suggestions from this initiative. First of all, as Hitachi mentioned, the company tries to define employees’ salary by not working time but their outcomes. We think that this is a good indication for not only the Japanese companies but also entire Japanese society.

This is because Japanese labor standards act is based on the manufacturing industry. In other words, employees’ working hours define their salary. Of course, it worked few decades ago. At that time, Japan was industrializing and many people were working in factories there. However, new technologies including the Internet and Artificial Intelligence have changed our society drastically and rapidly. As a result, intangible assets become more valuable than before. Also, to maximize organization’s potential, each company is getting to understand the importance of huma capital. However, to maximize our potential is easier said than done.

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