I thought the company implementing Self-Career Dock is more than that.

 When you take a training course to become a career consultant  in Japan, you learn about the effectiveness of the Self-Career Dock system and acquire the skills to passionately explain its value. However, it's still hard to say that the concept is widely recognized. According to the 2023 Basic Survey on Human Resource Development by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, only 41.7% of companies have introduced the system. In reality, public awareness seems to be lower. Even if the system is introduced into companies, it may be not being used.

The other day, I had the rare opportunity to hear from an HR representatives at a certain company that is actively implementing the Self-Career Dock system. Many career consultants may be able to guess the company name, but here I’ll just refer to it as “a certain company.”

It’s a retail company with around 4,000 employees. Currently, it has 10 in-house career consultants who conduct career interviews based on employees’ age milestones (25, 30, 40, and 50 years old). While some companies have a “Career Consulting Office” in place but it is a problem for them that most workers use the system, this company has institutionalized the system quite thoroughly—it’s impressive.

But what’s impressive isn’t just the implementation of the Self-Career Dock.
What surprised me even more was the range of additional human resource development initiatives.

Career development initiatives implemented by the company include:

• Courses at Globis Management School

• Branding and marketing training

• A subscription service for digital skills development

• Support for obtaining qualifications and learning languages (covering 70 types)

• The Self-Career Dock system

As you can see, the Self-Career Dock is just one of many comprehensive human resource development initiatives. The fact that they offer such a rich programs to laborers shows how proactive the company is about talent development and skill-building.

One of the questions posed to the HR representative was, “After introducing the Self-Career Dock and other programs, what concrete changes have you seen in your employees?”

According to the HR rep, “The word ‘career’ has started to appear naturally in everyday conversations among employees.”
That may actually be quite a significant change.

I often conduct employee interviews myself, and during those sessions, I try to understand their thoughts about their careers. But the truth is, when you suddenly ask someone, “What about your career?” many people aren’t sure how to respond. A common answer is, “I’m just doing my best at my current job,” which isn’t necessarily wrong—but it often lacks a medium- to long-term perspective, and they’re not thinking beyond their present role.

Perhaps unless there’s a structure that persistently keeps asking, “So, what are you going to do with your career?” people won’t be able to truly reflect on it.

That’s what I realized after hearing from that company’s HR representative.