[Special Feature: Rethinking Japanese "Work Styles"] Hideki Mizuno: Working Without Moving—The "New Relocation (Remote Relocation)" Project Initiative

The era has come to question the common sense that "relocation equals moving house." In a Japanese society where the labor population is shrinking due to a declining birthrate and aging population, companies must align themselves more than ever with the lifestyles of their employees to remain an employer of choice. In other words, companies are required to sincerely address the improvement of employees' work-life balance and flexibly operate various personnel systems. What form should relocation take in today's work styles? Now that the COVID-19 pandemic has established teleworking as a new way of working, we need to redefine the common sense of relocation.

Our company is commissioned by real estate owners to manage and operate buildings on their behalf. Our business locations are widely spread across major Japanese cities (from Sapporo in the north to Hakata in the south), and in principle, work must be performed on-site where the real estate is located. For business operations, periodic transfers of personnel at each office occur every year, and under the employment rules, employees who receive a relocation order generally cannot refuse it.

The growing change in employee awareness regarding relocation stems from the origins of our company, which was formed in 2014 through the merger of Company A (no relocation) and Company B (with relocation). Employees who joined Company A because they were attracted by the lack of relocation found their employment rules changed to include relocation due to the merger. In the new company formed by the merger, there were many employees from Company A who felt resistance toward relocation. Consequently, in personnel interviews following the merger, various consultations regarding relocation and requests to review company systems surged. The consultations covered a wide range of topics, including childcare, children's education, and caring for elderly parents. On the other hand, other types of consultations were increasing from employees already on relocation from Company B. For example, some did not wish to return to the head office because they had married someone living in the relocation area and their spouse was working there, making it impossible to move.

In response to these various employee requests, we worked to enhance support systems for employees living away from their families. This included generous welfare systems such as company housing during relocation and housing allowances after returning, as well as increasing the number of subsidized trips home to 16 times per year (plus 4 additional times). However, many of the anxieties employees held regarding relocation could not be solved by improving benefits alone.

It was the "New Relocation" project that broke through this status quo.

The catalyst was in fiscal year 2019, when our employees participated in "Eijo College" (a cross-industry exchange project for women in sales—"Eijo"—working in corporations; a project aimed at breaking down the "norms" of companies and industries to create new work styles and sales models through pilot experiments) and won the Grand Prize. Our Eijo team (consisting of six female sales employees) focused on the challenges of traditional relocation based on our company's background. They wondered if the disadvantages of moving could be covered in a different way. Therefore, the Eijo team questioned the industry norm that real estate management can only be handled on-site. They hypothesized that by verifying whether work could be performed from remote locations, it might be possible to carry out duties without relocating (i.e., "New Relocation"). In the actual pilot experiment, to verify to what extent work for properties in Tokyo could be handled from a branch office, members temporarily moved to various branch offices for one to two months to perform their duties while physically distanced from their assigned properties. Although it was a short-term experiment, it proved that a certain percentage of work could be handled remotely. This experiment was highly evaluated on criteria such as: 1) being a challenging initiative that destroys and recreates the norms of sales, and 2) having versatility that transcends the industry.

To elevate the results of this "New Relocation" experiment into our company's personnel system, the "Remote Relocation" project initiative began. A project team was formed by two core members of the Eijo team and the HR department, and they first set goals. The first was to establish "New Relocation" as a formal personnel system within the company in fiscal year 2021. The second was to challenge the common sense in Japanese society that "relocation equals moving house." This project had to be recognized not only by employees but also by customers such as owners and tenants. Otherwise, the business would not be sustainable.

Coincidentally, the COVID-19 pandemic provided a tailwind for achieving these goals. Due to the track record of the pilot experiment conducted before the pandemic, the project attracted attention from multiple media outlets, increasing its external recognition.

In the internal project, pilot experiments continued toward institutionalization. Since the members of the Eijo pilot experiment were all women and none had experience with relocation, we felt it was necessary to get honest opinions on the new system from actual relocated employees.

Furthermore, since our company has employees in various occupations, verification was needed for roles beyond the sales positions tested by the Eijo team. Therefore, we added male employees currently relocated to regional branches to the pilot experiment and expanded the scope of occupations to include not only sales but also architectural technical roles and facility management roles stationed in buildings. A total of nine participants conducted repeated experiments. Based on the verification results, we organized the conditions for using the system, visualized usage patterns, and considered the needs of the users. From fiscal year 2021, we decided to formally introduce it as a personnel system for certain high-priority usage patterns (Figure 1, excerpt from internal briefing materials).

In introducing the "Remote Relocation" project as a personnel system, we defined "Remote Relocation (relocation without moving)" as: "A way of working where an employee who has received a relocation order or is currently relocated can choose to perform work from a remote location (remote work) as one of their work style options."

We also reorganized the objectives of the system from the perspectives of both the employee and the company. From the employee's perspective, the main goal is the realization of work-life balance. From the company's perspective, we added not only the reduction of turnover and relocation costs but also operational efficiency and improved customer satisfaction. We believed that by pursuing the benefits for the company, users of the system would be able to use it without feeling like a burden to others.

This initiative won the Grand Prix for fiscal year 2020 in the Mitsubishi Estate Group's internal award system, which annually recognizes various daily business activities that contribute to enhancing corporate brand power.

The most significant effect after introducing the "Remote Relocation" system is the ability to prevent employee resignations. When circumstances arise that make physical commuting difficult—such as nursing care or a spouse's relocation—we can now retain employees who previously would have had no choice but to resign. To date, six employees have used the "Remote Relocation" system. Furthermore, even in cases where a "Remote Relocation" application is not approved, the application itself serves as a catalyst for the HR department and the individual to discuss other solutions before the employee decides to resign.

Additionally, while the "Remote Relocation" system was institutionalized by picking up employee voices from the bottom up rather than top-down, this process itself has served as a message that our company emphasizes employee work-life balance. In fact, in an internal engagement survey, satisfaction regarding the workplace being easy to work in compared to other companies was very high. In recent years, the number of mid-career hires has also increased, and we increasingly hear from such members that they decided to apply because they were attracted to our company's stance on work-style reform.

Currently, the actual duration of use for the "Remote Relocation" system is often less than one year. This is because employees who use the system during the fiscal year typically end their use of the "Remote Work" system during the periodic transfers every April, moving to their new department and switching to regular work. There are still many challenges to using remote work continuously for a long period of more than a year, and the reality is that it currently serves as a bridge until the April periodic transfers.

In the future, to make the "Remote Relocation" system available to anyone for long periods, we need further evolution in the network environment, such as stable systems, the electronification of seal-stamping tasks for paper documents, form management, and the web-based transition of internal and external meetings (considering the current situation where meetings are returning to in-person formats despite the increase during the pandemic). Simultaneously, we need to increase the number of system users and listen to the opinions of not only the users but also the colleagues, supervisors, and customers who support them, reviewing the operation of the system as appropriate.

Relocation affects not only work content and workplace relationships but also employees' families and individual community activities. Therefore, the impact on an employee's life is very large. However, as is well known, relocation also has many benefits. There are career-building advantages gained through traditional relocation involving moving, and in terms of life, one can gain experiences that enrich life by being in a new environment. Furthermore, the importance of people meeting in person and communicating while working will likely remain unchanged now and in the future.

The "Remote Relocation" system is intended to coexist with the benefits of traditional relocation and is by no means a rejection of relocation. For companies that must realize business continuity while accommodating the increasing variety of individual circumstances and work styles, it is positioned as one of the diverse work style options that can be offered to employees.

The "Remote Relocation" system is one measure for moving away from "membership-style employment," a traditional Japanese employment practice.

Factors that affect the quality of work-life balance include "place of work" and "work content." The "Remote Relocation" system is a system where the company supports this "place of work." Traditionally, the "place of work" was decided by the company, but in the future, we will transition to an era where employees can choose where they live and work. I believe the "Remote Relocation" system will be one of the systems adapted to that era.

Being able to choose a "place of work" means that employees are also tested on whether they are independent individuals and whether they have the "employability" to be hired by a company even remotely. The transformation necessary for this is naturally required of employees as well as companies. As the number of employees performing remote work in various forms increases, including those using the "Remote Relocation" system, it is necessary to acquire the "abilities" needed to proceed with work smoothly. If an employee who mistakes the use of the system for a right uses the "Remote Relocation" system, troubles may occur with colleagues, supervisors, or customers, making it impossible to continue using the system. Ultimately, they would be shooting themselves in the foot.

Even without using the system, if employees performing remote work do not take care of communication with employees who are not working remotely, remote work itself will not be realized. To adapt to the transformation, one must be aware that the necessary "abilities" include comprehensive human skills, such as the ability to master various business tools so as not to drop the quality of work even from a distance, the ability to proceed while cooperating with surrounding members, and the communication skills to cover the quantity and quality of on-site work and relationships.

Furthermore, in the future, the shift toward "job-based employment" may accelerate in various companies within Japan, changing to an era where employees choose their work. Even in that case, employees will need to demonstrate to the company their ability to be hired for a specific job.

Allowing employees to continue living in their desired locations to improve their quality of life, and allowing employees to choose their own work, will bring them closer to the concept of well-being: "a state of complete physical and social fulfillment." If the realization of well-being leads to high performance in work, it will be a good state for both the company and the employee. Realizing well-being is a corporate mission toward human capital management, and the benefits it brings to companies and society as a whole are immeasurable.

I hope that the "Remote Relocation" system will serve as a catalyst for not only our company but as many Japanese companies as possible to rethink traditional employment practices.