How we work with growing Japanese companies

The challenge

The company was growing fast through repeated acquisitions, and its HR foundations had not kept up. HR consisted only of recruiting and labor administration.

• Each business had its own strategy, so company-wide HR priorities were unclear
• Levels and roles for managers and above were not defined
• Roles and career paths below management were unclear
• HR data and labor administration depended on individual people

What we did

• HR strategy and HR business partnering: CHRO-level practitioners worked with the leadership team and each business head to set company-wide HR priorities.
• Job levels and pay: defined roles by layer and job family, and set pay levels based on market research.
• HR infrastructure: consolidated HR databases and automated workflows with AI, wrote labor administration manuals, and helped build and staff the HR team.
• Post-acquisition integration: integrated HR frameworks across group companies during reorganization, and designed employee communication.

What changed

• Leadership and HR now share the same multi-year HR priorities, by business and company-wide
• An HR framework that can scale with further growth is in place
• Previously scattered HR databases have been consolidated, making HR operations more productive

The challenge

The company was scaling toward an IPO without an HR department. It could not tell where its organizational problems were, or who was at risk of leaving. The request started as an HR framework redesign, and grew into building the HR function itself.

What we did

• HR strategy and mission, vision and values: put the HR strategy into words and supported the company's work on its mission, vision and values.
• Skill definitions by job family: designed a common structure across many job families, drafted definitions, and finalized them with each job family owner.
• Performance review and pay: from design principles down to the detail of rating thresholds.
• Manager development: training for all managers, followed by three months of one-on-one coaching from two former CHROs.
• AI-coached goal setting: introduced ASHR's AI goal-setting tool and trained all employees to link company strategy to team and individual goals.

What changed

• An HR function now runs end to end, from strategy and values to frameworks and day-to-day operation
• Each job family has a clear picture of the people it needs
• Managers have the practical skills to run their teams
• Company strategy and individual goals are connected across the company