We want to create an environment where each employee can work with their own work style and improve employee engagement.

Thank you very much for joining us today. First of all, please tell us about the background behind the implementation of the Acall.

We began considering the implementation when we relocated our office in November 2021. There were several reasons behind the relocation. First, we wanted to make the work style more flexible and allow each employee to autonomously choose a location that suits their work style. Second, there was a restriction on coming to the office due to COVID-19. Lastly, there was some aspect that there was no need to secure a space for all employees in our company because we have been promoting remote work as part of our work style reform since 2017.

Considering the objective of improving engagement toward our company and revitalizing communication while each employee is working flexibly, we thought it would be necessary for us to support our employees with not only some kinds of technical tools but also systems and other non-technical aspects of the company.

This is when we started looking for tools that could respond to various requests, such as making it possible to see who is working where even if our employees do not see them in person, or standardizing the reception process for visitors during the COVID-19.

The number of companies that are reducing seats in their offices to less than the number of employees are recently increasing, and we believe that that was a difficult decision to make for the company. If you don't mind, please tell us reasons for the decision?

The most important reason is our expectation that remote work increases inevitably, assuming that each employee works autonomously in the most productive location for them. 

Also, If there are their seats in our office, our employees will come to the office even if we set some restrictions on coming to the office due to the COVID-19. We believe that it is inevitable that this would happen because coming to the office for work had been the norm in the past for us.

We decided to reduce our office space with this reason in mind. There is another main reason that if we reduce our office space from 330 square meters to 165  square meters around, we would no longer need to pay rent for about the 165 square meters, and we could make up it by paying for the use of satellite offices, creating an environment where each employee could work in a place that truly suits them best.

The back is a desk (security) area that can be entered with security card authentication, and the front is a shared work area that clients outside the company also can enter. The office gives a sense of connection between each area.

The circular workspace is designed for gatherings. It is equipped with a bar counter with a draft beer server and is utilized for socializing parties for our employees.

Decisive factor is to solve issues in one package
Putting a picture of the employee's face is also an attractive feature.

What were the decisive factors when choosing Acall over other companies' tools?

It is not a prerequisite to come to the office to realize our ideal work style, so we wanted to have an office map to show who is where in the office and then we found Acall. can do this.

The feature of putting a photo of the employees on the map was also very appealing. It would seem inorganic if only names were displayed and would be difficult for people who have transferred from other offices, newly joined our company, and original members to communicate well if employees' faces do not match with their names.

One of the members of the Human Resources & General Affairs Department came to the office every day according to a rotation and started to think that we want to gradually reduce the time taken up by general office duties such as receiving mails and having phone calls. Even if we eliminate extension lines, we still need to respond to our clients when they come to the office, and it can be time consuming to find the person in charge if they are not nearby. We thought it would be nice to have a reception system that can connect directly to the person in charge. There are some solutions that provide each of these functions separately. However, we thought it would be great to be able to use them all in one package.

In terms of penetration in our company, if each tool is separated, education in our company on each tool is required. Even if each tool is SSO (Single Sign-On), it is easier for us to use and can be operated in the same way.

Improved an engagement score on employee engagement survey
Increased sense of belonging and motivation at the same time

What kind of changes have you seen since the implementation of the Acall?

Engagement scores increased after the relocation in 2022 compared to before the relocation in 2021 in our engagement survey. Engagement scores increased and are now one of the highest engagement scores in our group. The items related to sense of belonging and motivation also increased at the same time, which we feel is a certain effect of the office relocation.

In addition to the use of tools such as the Acall and LINE WORKS, which must be connected to the Acall, the provision of smartphones for all employees, the creation of an office layout which stimulates our communication, we believe that putting systems in our company for work environment also contributed to the engagement score mentioned earlier.

Although not necessarily all of these efforts were made possible by the office relocation, our real estate department has been trying to take the lead in these efforts within the group, so we are very happy that we were able to realize a new office style ahead in our group.

We also feel that the barriers between departments, some sectionalism, have disappeared. There are various factors such as our systems, tools, and offices, but we feel that the openness in our company has improved.

About half of the members of the Human Resources & General Affairs Department work remotely. Although we thought that we would not be able to fit in with them without seeing them face to face, we communicate very closely via chat, e-mail, etc., and we have recently learned that we can communicate without meeting in person.

We have noticed that there are some learnings at the office, there is a better way for communicating when working at home, and we have really rethought our work style flexibly.

We heard that efficiency has decreased since COVID-19, but my personal feeling is that efficiency has increased. We are now proactively aware of the place and the time for maximizing our performance. Coming to the office can be counterproductive when we want to concentrate on our work alone, and incidental communication tends to be more active in the office. We believe that people are thinking flexibly more in terms of how to schedule their work at a time and place that suits them.

This is not an incidental way, something like, "Next time I come to the office, I want to talk with that person about various things, so let's go closer with him/her.”, but we are creating opportunities to talk with other team members in an incidental way even in the seat reservation system of the Acall. We think that the office layout which is designed to make it easy to talk is also a factor and ideas are generated through casual chat and communication. Since we did not place a president office, the president and employees have become really close.

Plus, there is a big management will to reform the company, and they also say, "Let's do it!”,to areas where it would be difficult to get approval in a typical company. We think that the entire sense of unity in our company, which is "Let's change things, we can change”, is also linked to engagement score.

What is your favorite part of the Acall personally?

I like the employees’’ photos setting among the settings. I think that you may not be able to match an employee's face with their name sometimes when you newly join a company. However, I think having a picture of their face in the Acall makes it easier to fit in with the company. The design is cute as well and I like it very much.

In terms of system design, I don't think that a system like this is not made entirely custom-made, but we were able to combine what the Acall can do and prepared as what we originally envisioned. The operation process itself was relatively easy and very user-friendly. The support we received from the customer success team made it easy to design the system.

What did you pay attention to in terms of penetration in your company?

First of all, we consciously get people to experience the service and feel that, "Oh, this is great and convenient.” We had a support menu organized by Acall Inc., and we arranged the manual we received as a model according to our company rules, and shared for our employees how to operate it while having them actually operate the PCs and smartphones.

At the beginning of the implementation, some members were a bit confused about how to use a new tool, but once they understood how to operate it, there were very few inquiries. Check in is really easy as well because all you have to do is scan the QR code with your smartphone.Even though six new members have transferred to the team recently, we have not received any inquiries about the Acall, and I think it is an intuitive and easy-to-understand tool. 

It is important to put systems in place in addition of tool utilization and office creation
Systems are determined with the bottom-up and established step by step

Five guiding principles based on our management vision

Lastly, could you tell us about systems in your company?

In 2017, we started reforming the work style of the entire group. Prior to that, we had a work from home system that allowed employees to work remotely up to four times in a month, but it was not very widespread in our company because it required an application by the previous month and the work location was limited to their home only.

The main reason why work style has changed rapidly was due to the behavioral changes in COVID-19, and now we have flexible hours from 5:00 am to 22:00 pm with super-flex which eliminates core hours. During that time period, even if there is a day when you work an hour in a day, you can adjust by working more on different days. For example, you can work from 5:00 am to 7:00 am in the morning and then work again after sending your children off to preschool or school, which is a very useful system for parents raising children. Paid leave that can be used hourly is also well received.

Compared to the past, more people want to return to work after giving birth. In part, the system has spread to male employees who have seen employees who have given birth have taken the initiative in utilizing systems and the work style with more flexibility. 

Currently, what we are putting the most effort into is to raise employee awareness for fulfilling our management vision. In this vision project, five guiding principles based on the management vision "Nurture the town from its people." have been set forth and we embody in our daily work.

We are working on vision projects for an annual span. The first phase is to "guiding principles creation based on our management vision" and we have been remodeling the project with the theme of "establishment" since the second phase, and we are currently in the fourth phase of the project.

We worked on issues including a selection of words while repeatedly holding workshops among members so that the process would be bottom-up rather than top-down in the first phase of "guiding principles creation".

We have been working on the theme of "establishment” from the second phase to the current fourth phase. If you make some principles and end up with them by just making it, people will end up with "the project was created and it was changed without understanding it well”. We think that it is very important to take time to establish the principles for employees to naturally take the actions based on the principles. We are creating a system that encourages actions by discussing and raising awareness of how to act in response to the five guiding principles on a department or small team basis, as well as by creating incentives and other measures.

By doing so, people say, “that action is important," or "that person is wonderful," and by doing this on a single platform that everyone can see, we are creating a culture in which people praise each other for taking actions based on our guiding principles. We are working on establishing this to make it a common practice in our company.

If the tool utilization and the office creation are the tangible element, the system is the intangible element. We believe that it is not enough to have one or the other, but rather it is important to create an environment for both the tangible and intangible elements prepared.

It is wonderful that your employees are developing efficient ways for their work on their own and involving others in the process. We are striving to increase the number of companies that can offer a working environment in that way. Therefore, we deeply sympathize with your story. Thank you very much for your valuable talk today!