'Totally broken': CEO behind Indeed, Glassdoor talks the future of job hunting

Japanese staffing and internet firm Recruit Holdings, one of Japan’s biggest and most laid-back companies, was well positioned for the work-from-home shift and transition to a post-COVID future, said Chief Executive Officer Hisayuki Idekoba.

The “ground-up type of culture” at Japan’s fifth-biggest company, where employees are judged on their ability to deliver results rather than time spent in the office or sitting in meetings, was an asset during the pandemic, according to Idekoba, 46, who became the youngest CEO in the Nikkei 225 Index when he took over in April.

“We’re relatively flexible and we were OK to have changes all the time,” Idekoba said in a recent interview at Recruit’s Tokyo headquarters. “This office, probably we have 10% or less employees here.”

Read more: U.S. job openings rise to record, underscore hiring difficulties

The bulk of Recruit’s business is matching people with jobs; it owns Indeed, the world’s biggest employment portal, as well as Glassdoor, the salary and employer-review website. Recruit is also arguably Japan’s biggest web company, with top portals for real estate, restaurant bookings, travel and used cars. Recruit, with about 47,000 employees, had sales of 2.3 trillion yen ($21 billion) in the latest fiscal year through March.

The pandemic also made it clear that the process of matching people to jobs is “totally broken,” Idekoba said.

“We know the fact that billions and billions of people are applying for jobs, and 90%, 95% of people are not hearing back anything from employers,” Idekoba said. Employers have no incentive to contact failed applicants once they fill their positions, he said. “That’s why we’re working on solving these problems.”

Read more: Job openings jump to fresh record high of 9.3 million

While Idekoba’s predecessor Masumi Minegishi, now Recruit’s chairman, spoke about the equal importance of Recruit’s two main businesses — consumer portals and human resources — the new CEO is more focused on the jobs and staffing units, which in the latest year made up about 70% of revenue.

The other major area of investment will be in technology, he said. Boosting the ability of Recruit’s consumer and jobs portals to share more data is a key goal.

“What I am thinking is how I can reorganize, redesign everything with more of a technology-based, platform-based business,” Idekoba said. “I’m thinking about the depth and breadth of data. This person is checking this job for 20 minutes and rejected. When we think about the data from each job seeker, I believe we have bigger data than anybody else.”