Cultural and HRM Issues for UK Business Locating a Call Centre in Japan

This article critically evaluates the cultural and HRM issues faced by UK companies when locating a call centre in Japan. It discusses the language and cultural barriers, as well as the HRM challenges such as high attrition rate and increasing client expectations. The article also highlights the benefits of call centre industry in Japan, including health insurance and job security.

International Human
Resource Management
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Critically evaluate cultural and HRM issues for a UK business locating a call centre in Japan.3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
International HRM is defined as procedure of allocating, acquiring and utilising human
resources at global business in order to attain goal and objectives (Abdullah and Zulkifli, 2015).
These has three dimensions such as types of employees, activities of HR and countries of
operations. For managing international HRM, it is very important to consider each and every
activities at global level. Being the IHRM consultant, it is very important for UK companies to
consider cultural as well as HRM issues when locating a call centre operation in Japan. The
culture is different from one place to another which has to be considered by organisation while
operating business in other location. The aim of report is to discuss critically about cultural and
HRM issues for UK business locating a call centre in Japan.
MAIN BODY
Critically evaluate cultural and HRM issues for a UK business locating a call centre in Japan
The culture of every place is different from one another due to which organisation faces
issues and problem to operate their business activities and operation in that place (Albrecht and
et. al., 2015). Before initiating business, it is essential to analyse market and their conditions in
proper manner for positive outcomes. In case of call centre, local language has to be applied in
proper manner so that set goal can be attained. Here, UK business wants to locate call centre in
Japan for which it can face cultural issues.
According to opinion of OAMPI Admin (2020), UK business is planning to outsource
customer support functions to Japanese call centre where they have to consider culture of that
place in terms of economic, lingual and cultural attributes of Japanese. According to World
Bank, economy of Japan is ranked as third largest as well as second developed at global level.
Japan is also regarded as biggest creditor as well as private financial assets that leads to $14.6
trillion which is 13.7% of total assets of world. Out of 500 fortune global company, 62 are
headquarter in Japan. Some of the cultural issue which are faced by UK companies for locating
call centre operations in Japan are as follows:
The Japanese Language- It is very important for organisation to speak Nihongo as
Japanese official language in order to be part of Japanese call centre (What to consider before
outsourcing Japanese call center services, 2020). This language is very famous and lessons of
Nihongo are provided by different educational institutes. There are few multilingual call centre
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that are provided by own Nihongo training. In order to locate call centre at Japan, call centre
representative should be proficient in speaking as well as writing Japanese language to serve
consumers. It is issue which is faced by UK companies, as language spoken in that place is
English which is difficult for people to speak Japanese language. The culture of Japanese present
way of communicating with each other. The individual should know about Nihongo intonation,
basic formalities as well as Japanese greetings. Respective language was constructed in order to
express formality as well as politeness so that they can speak in good manner with people or
customer of Japan.
The Japanese Culture- The employees who work in Japan are stick to company who
have joined organisation after their college until retirement (Brewster and et. al., 2016). Japanese
are regarded as workaholic attitude which represents about that they work at early and leave very
late that is unprofessionalism. Here, Japanese investors wants to view same work ethics for
outsourced employees. When countries workforce represents about high turnover rate then
outsourcing partners uses different type of leadership which helps to motivate them for better
performance. As there is one trends which is unique to Japan where Japanese companies
outsource to other countries then they hire citizen of Japan. This leads them to get advantages of
low cost as well as wages in outsourcing.
Therefore, it is very important for Japan to consider language, culture and economy
before outsourcing call centre business for Japanese people (Cascio, 2015). The representation
should be able to possess Japanese custom as well as language. In this way, these are major
issues which are faced by UK companies when locating their call centre services at Japan
market.
Apart from this, there are different ways to serve customer of Japan which are described
below:
Wholehearted Care for Everyone- Call centre service is focused on word Omotenashi
which is part of Japanese service (8 insightful lessons from Customer Service in Japan, 2019).
This is not to provide great service but performing in passionate as well as earnestly manner. It is
very important for Japanese customer service to attend call with equal heart as well as haly
greeting and help all people with enthusiastically as well as sincerely. If UK companies locate
their call centre business in Japan then they have to greet customers in proper manner for
attainment of positive manner.
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Reputation is Everything- Japanese does not carry risk appetite and standout through
trustworthy (Clark and et. al., 2016). People love to perform business when they feel trustworthy
about brand as well as faith in solving problems. It is very important for call centre to provide
high quality services to their consumers and solve problems in best effective manner for positive
outcomes.
On other hand, HRM is defined as strategic approach for effective management of people
in organisation in order to attain competitive advantage at marketplace. This is mainly designed
for maximizing performance of employees in providing of services to employer's strategic
objectives. This is the process of planning, organising, staffing right people at right time. While
locating business in other place, different types of problems are faced by them. In context of UK
companies which are locating their call centre business in Japan market faces some HRM issues
as well as gain benefits are described here.
Call centre sector is regarded as most powerful industry that contributes majority of
economies of Asian countries such as India, China, Malaysia. According to report published
through leading group, total spend of call centre is USD 350 billion. There are some HRM issues
which are faced by UK business to locate their call centre business in Japan market which are
mentioned below:
High Attrition Rate- Call centre industry suffers from high attrition rate where trained
and experienced person leave business (Collings, Wood and Szamosi, 2018). As there are few
people who are required to ensure proper execution of activities and work in an effective and
efficient manner. This lead business to hire more employees that resulted into rise in cost of
recruiting, training, hiring and developing new employees. UK companies want to locate
business of call centre in Japan market where they required local people who possess good
knowledge and experience for better work performance.
Increasing Client Expectations- It is very difficult to provide satisfaction to employees
as their expectations are very high which is unable for company to meet it (Delery and Roumpi,
2017). There is rise in social media channels which leads to increase business competition and
made situation worse. The customer of Japan want high quality services which is difficult for UK
companies to carry same in their business. For example, customer of Impact Call Centre prefer
premium quality services for their people so that they feel happy and satisfaction.
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Lower Employee Engagement- In case of call centres they are unable to make their
employee excited as well as involve them in work. This is stressful and repetitive nature work
which leads call centre to fail in engaging their employees in proper manner. This is the major
issue of HRM that impact business and their activities and operations.
Health Issues- Call centre work are usually carried out night time where working during
such shifts leads to cause different health problems like RLS, stress, insomnia, hypertension that
make work timetable debatable (12 MAJOR CHALLENGES FACED BY THE CALL CENTER
INDUSTRY, 2020). It is also issue of HRM that impact people and their health in negative
manner. The people who are working at call centre leads to face many problems due to which
their health are impacted.
Therefore, these above are major issue of HRM that impact call centre industry. They
have to take care of such aspects in effective manner for attainment of goal and objectives.
According to view of Chiara Terzuolo (2020), there are some pros of call centre industry
at Japan market. They are described below:
Health Insurance- Company situated at Japan provide proper health insurance to their
work force (Gallardo-Gallardo and et. al., 2015). They does not bother about from where people
have arise but focus on giving proper medical treatment to them. The coverage amount depends
on type of policy followed by business which is for small fee or free of cost and not worrying
about ¥30,000 charges for five minutes. Also companies in Japan focus on their employees to
take participation in annual health check. Call centre also provide same benefits of HRM to their
employees so that they can work in diligent manner.
Commuting Allowance- It is also the benefits provided by Japanese company to their
people who have spend their maximum working life in Japan whereas other countries does not
cover computing expenses of staffs. As standard 40 minute cost of commute leads to ¥20,000 per
month which is provided to full time as well as part time employees. Passes of commute is valid
for all types of train lines used by employees for their work. In case of call centre business, they
provide employees with proper benefits to motivate them.
Job Security- This is applicable for all full time workers as it is difficult for Japanese
business to fire staff without any clear cause. There is very important for Japanese society to
provide job security to their employees. In case of call centre, they also provide security to their
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working force for attainment of positive outcomes. As UK companies are locating call centre in
Japan market so it is very essential to consider job security for their working force.
Mastering Customer Service- This is very important to master customer service for all
employees working in an organisation for better outcomes (Guest, 2017). The customer service
plays great role in call centre industry which leads them to create satisfaction to them. This is the
best practices of HRM in business for their work force for attainment of better results. Japanese
call centre should focus on providing of highly customer services to them so that they can make
their people happy and satisfied.
Taxes- It is very difficult for individual to pay taxes by themselves. In this case,
employees working in Japan get benefits in terms of taxes as they are paid by their company
where they are working (Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood, 2015). The employees who perform
work as call centre representative should be polite to their HR so that they can pay taxes on their
behalf without any default. It is the benefits of HRM practices which is obtained by employees.
Therefore, these are the major benefits of HRM that are gained by employees working in
call centre of Japan operated by UK companies. It is essential to consider such aspects in proper
manner for positive results. Thus, above represents that different culture and HRM issues faced
by UK companies that need to be considered when locating call centre operation in Japan.
People are regarded as important business resource of organisation as they are liable to
carry out operations and activities. It is the responsibility of enterprise to manage their people
and provide them with satisfaction and encourage them for motivation. Each and every people
working in an organisation should be managed by business in effective manner for achievement
of goal and objectives. People are managed by providing proper training, development,
orientation programmes and so on. In addition to this, they are managed by taking proper
feedback, improving it and others.
International organisational strategies are defined as collection of actions which are
considered by company intends in taking to attain or achieve long terms goal and objectives
(Nolan and Garavan, 2016). It is very important for business to make international organisational
strategies so that they can carry out their activities and operation at global level without any
difficulty. Management of people as business resource is integral to international organisational
strategies which guide them for attainment of stated objectives. For running of business in
successful manner, it is important to consider different types of international strategies such as
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Multi-domestic, global, transnational and international. Depending upon nature and types of
business, strategy should be adopted in appropriate manner.
Multi-domestic is defined as those strategy where domestic business expand their
activities and operations in multiple location for positive results (Shen and Benson, 2016). This
is essential for business to consider factors which are important for running enterprise in several
locations. For example, there are many call centre in UK which are operating business in several
locations. Global strategy is defined as those which are formed at international level. They are
opposite of multinational companies as they offer high quality services for maximisation of goal
and objectives to reduce costs. Transnational strategies are those which possess characteristics of
multinational as well as global firm. This aims in maximising local responsiveness but gaining
benefits from global integration. Similarly, international strategy are those which focus on low
integration as well as low responsiveness. Such type of strategy is also called exporting strategy
where services and products are made in home country and send to customers of all over world.
After analysing of different strategies, it has concluded that call centre can adopt all types
of strategies for their business depending upon their nature, type and size of business (Wilton,
2016). It is also important for call centre to analyse requirement of their consumer and
accordingly provide them with services. Here, UK companies are locating their call centre
business in Japan market, so they should consider each and every aspects for better results. This
assist in management of people as business resource integral to international organisational
strategies for better results. It is also essential to manage each and every activities and operation
of business for better results. Managing people is regarded as important aspects of business to
form integrated part of organisation and attain objective and goal with help of forming strategy.
CONCLUSION
From the report, it has concluded that locating business in different place leads to creates
difficult for organisation as they have to face both cultural as well as HRM issues. UK
companies are expanding their call centre business in Japan so they have to consider each and
every aspects to conduct their activities and operations in effective manner. The main issue faced
by them is due to difference in language and following of various culture. This leads difficulty in
carrying business activities and operations for positive outcomes. In context of HRM issues, it
includes high attrition rates, health issues, lower employee engagement and so on. It is
significant to analyse market and requirement of consumer while providing services to them.
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