How to Overcome New Employee Training During the Pandemic? [Digitan Reprint Commemorative Feature]

*This interview commemorates the reprint of the book "Digitan: Digital Marketing Vocabulary - 365 Key Terms to Grasp Visually " (published by Shoeisha). We spoke with Yuta Yasuda of Dentsu Digital Inc.'s Business Strategy Office, who distributed "Digitan" to all new employees, about the challenges of new employee training during the pandemic and the insights gained.

<Table of Contents>
▼Switched all planned content to fully remote by February
Supporting New Employees' Mental Well-being! What is Dentsu Digital Inc.'s "Morning Meeting" Initiative?
▼The two remaining challenges and the "hybrid training" combining remote and in-person elements

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Switched all scheduled content to fully remote by February

―How did companies approach new employee training during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, amid office attendance restrictions? This time, we hear from Mr. Yasuda of the Business Strategy Office at Dentsu Digital Inc. Have you been in HR for a long time?

Yasuda: No, I worked as a digital advertising consultant for some time after joining the company. After transferring directly to the advertising business division in 2018, I took on a role focused primarily on new employee development and training. I officially moved to the HR department in 2019, where I handle onboarding for all new and mid-career hires, plus some training for managers and general employees. I moved to the Business Strategy Office in 2021, but this was merely a functional transfer; my role remains unchanged.

―2020 presented a situation completely different from previous years. Seeing the situation in early spring, how did you decide to respond regarding new employee training?

Yasuda: By the end of February, when remote work began, we anticipated that "COVID-19 would not be under control by April." Therefore, we promptly proposed a "full remote" approach internally and switched all content originally planned for in-person gatherings to remote delivery.

―With such limited time, preparing for full remote must have been extremely challenging. What difficulties did you encounter?

Yasuda: The team planning the training faced the greatest challenges. They had to rethink content, revise orders with training providers, negotiate cancellations for sessions impossible to switch to remote, and handle countless additional tasks.

We also thoroughly debated fundamental questions like "Should we even hold the orientation ceremony?" and "If we have them work from home, how do we handle lending out PCs and smartphones?" Since there was no precedent or experience, even among executive management, for not holding an orientation ceremony or not gathering new hires, we first had to consider how to approach gathering them and how to assess the risks if we did gather them.

Since gathering in person was immediately ruled out as an option, the question became how to handle the provision of PCs and smartphones. Our corporate department handled this with exceptional cooperation and speed, so distribution was only delayed by a few days, and no major issues arose.

―What challenges did you face with fully remote training?

Yasuda: We decided early on that "we just have to do it without gathering," so we implemented everything feasible remotely. However, was it perfect? No. There were definitely things that didn't fully come across because it was remote, and areas where follow-up was insufficient.

For example, when assigning individuals to departments, we try to understand each person's requests and interests and match them with the needs of the field and company policy. However, our company has a wide range of business areas, and since we primarily hire for general positions, we can't always fully accommodate everyone's preferences. In such cases, face-to-face interaction allows for individual follow-up, but remotely, it's difficult to gauge each person's level of enthusiasm.

Of course, even remotely, we listened to concerns whenever someone felt dissatisfied. That said, compared to in-person interactions, I still feel there are many areas for improvement.

Support New Employees' Well-being! What is Dentsu Digital Inc.'s "Morning Meeting" Initiative?

―During the training period, what did you prioritize most, Mr. Yasuda?

Yasuda: They've just become working adults, yet their office is a desk right in front of their home. Naturally, feelings of loneliness, uncertainty about what others are doing, and worries about whether they can properly absorb knowledge become significant.

Therefore, I constantly made it a point to absorb and understand as much as possible what the new employees were thinking and feeling.

―What specific initiatives did you take?

Yasuda: One example was implementing "morning meetings." We divided 109 new employees into about 20 groups, assigning one HR representative to each group. Then, we set up a daily morning session for each group to discuss their members' situations. I personally took charge of one group.

While the operation of the morning meetings was left to each group and their assigned HR representative, the underlying focus was on checking in on each other's physical well-being and building a strong community within each group. We particularly emphasized fostering mutual understanding.

Beyond the morning meetings, we also clarified knowledge-based "goals" more explicitly than before. As a result, everyone passed the Web Analytics Specialist exam, which covers the absolute fundamentals of digital marketing. Incidentally, we distributed the 'Digital Marketing Handbook' to everyone, which I believe was helpful. There simply wasn't another book that broke things down so thoroughly, with illustrations and explanations accessible even to complete beginners.

―You mentioned mutual understanding among team members was emphasized during morning meetings. What specific activities did you conduct?

Yasuda: For example, in the "Yasuda Team" I led, we started each morning meeting with "Good morning, everyone." After that, we held discussions on various set themes and took turns giving self-introductions.

One slightly unusual activity was creating a "Passion Map," which visualizes your personal interests and preferences. As you build your Passion Map, you start to see your own "unbreakable stories" emerge. When other morning meeting members pointed out things like, "What does this mean?" it helped us gain new perspectives on ourselves that we hadn't noticed before.

As a result, I believe we gained a deeper mutual understanding, such as realizing "This person has strong convictions about this topic" or "This is why they're in the digital marketing world."

Deepening our mutual understanding daily through these morning meetings likely contributed to enhancing each individual's psychological safety in subsequent communications.

Mr. Yasuda's "Preference Map." This visualization of each person's hobbies, preferences, and thoughts about work played a role in energizing communication among team members.

―What approaches did you take to invigorate online discussions and communication?

Yasuda: Our department originally handled some "organizational development" work, so we had accumulated know-how on energizing discussions. Therefore, HR staff, including myself, initiated communication using icebreakers from regular training sessions or built relationships through team-building workshops. From the perspective of getting to know each other, this included delving deeper into interests during self-introductions. We deliberately made it mandatory for "everyone to ask questions."

―What effects do you recognize the morning meetings having?

Yasuda: When speaking with new hires after training, many mentioned, "Since our morning meeting group members weren't assigned to the same department, we could share our worries and complaints." This reaffirmed the importance of building such relationships and communities right at the start of the organizational journey.

―What arrangements were made regarding office attendance after assignment?

Yasuda: We leave it to the assigned departments. The necessity of coming into the office is judged based on the nature of the work, and while it varies by period, the overall attendance rate at Dentsu Digital Inc. is kept below 20%.

―Dentsu Digital Inc. already had a mentor and sub-mentor system for new employee training. How does the "Morning Meeting" relate to this mentor system?

Yasuda: Our mentors and sub-mentors aren't direct superiors or subordinates; they're more like "big brothers or sisters" in a diagonal relationship. The system aims to deepen understanding of Dentsu Digital Inc.'s culture and build internal networks through real-life meetings and various conversations. Every year, we divide new hires into multiple teams and ask mentors and sub-mentors to manage those teams, but adjustments were needed during the pandemic.

Mentors and sub-mentors were originally scheduled to be assigned to each group starting in April. This was postponed temporarily, and for a period, members from the HR department took on mentor-like roles during the aforementioned "morning meetings." In other words, the groups themselves were formed as in previous years, but the HR department managed them from April to May. Starting in June, the baton was passed to the mentors and sub-mentors.

The new hires from 2020 underwent "area assignment" in mid-May, after which training primarily focused on their assigned areas. However, the team community and the mentor/sub-mentor system continued beyond that point.

The company as a whole recognized, even before the pandemic, that having relationships where employees could casually talk with peers from the same hiring cohort and other age groups, separate from their assigned departments, was extremely important.

―Did you gain any know-how that could be useful even after the pandemic?

Y asuda: We accumulated know-how for remote communication. This time, we sourced a lot of training information externally. Examples include icebreakers unique to online settings (different from face-to-face), the importance of showing your face as much as possible, and reacting to the other person's talk, such as nodding. The list of specific examples is endless. I believe thoroughly building up each of these elements is especially necessary for online communication.

The Two Remaining Challenges and the "Hybrid Training" Model Combining Remote and In-Person

―After experiencing training for the first time during the pandemic, were there any challenges that remained?

Yasuda: Two points. First, can one truly develop a "professional mindset" while continuously working from home? There's no daily commute, no regular business card exchanges, and fewer in-person meetings with diverse team members. In such an environment, acquiring skills for actual business negotiations—or even more fundamental aspects like etiquette—remains a simple yet profoundly challenging task.

The second challenge is how to help people feel the "scale" of their work. With remote work, tasks are mostly completed within a small, familiar group, often with the same members. This inevitably leads to people perceiving their work scope as very limited.

Before the pandemic, you might have overheard a senior colleague discussing high-level matters near your desk. Even just hearing a colleague next to you say on the phone, "Can I pitch this to the executives?" or "About that conversation with the president the other day..." gave you a sense of the broader scope of your work.

But now, it's a style where you just work day-to-day at your computer, handling tasks within the scope of what's requested. With people unable to meet in person, how to broaden the "new employee's perspective" is also a major challenge.

―When did you first recognize this challenge? Did you implement any specific countermeasures?

Yasuda: When talking with new hires, I sometimes heard concerns like, "Just staring at the management screen doesn't feel fulfilling." When I responded, "But look at what A-san is doing in the same environment," citing examples of colleagues handling broader responsibilities, they often replied, "I hadn't considered approaching it that way." That's when I truly realized, "This is a problem we need to solve."

However, finding effective solutions is quite challenging. During the training period, we certainly arranged time with senior colleagues from various departments and provided as much information as possible about how "Dentsu Digital Inc. has a broad scope of work and diverse tasks." But since they hadn't been assigned to their departments yet, it was difficult for them to truly internalize this as something personally relevant. Perhaps we need to provide another opportunity to input information about "the breadth of work at Dentsu Digital Inc." once they've been assigned and have a better understanding of their own responsibilities.

―Regarding information sharing among employees, Dentsu Digital Inc. seems quite proactive, with initiatives like the digital advertising information sharing session "Knowledge4" and building its own online education video platform "DD ACADEMY." Yet, the challenges mentioned above remain significant, don't they?

Yasuda: Yes, of course, these information-sharing initiatives are beneficial. DD ACADEMY, in particular, has been archived as "videos you can watch anytime," making it very useful during the pandemic. Viewership has increased significantly, and the content library is expanding.

However, even if new employees hear about various jobs through DD ACADEMY, it's still someone "on the other side of the screen" speaking. To put it bluntly, it might feel like watching a YouTuber, thinking, "Oh, there are people doing amazing things." I think it's inherently difficult for people to internalize that and feel it's personally relevant.

―I see. In that context, what kinds of challenges or difficulties do new employees often feel?

Yasuda: I sense a common challenge among new hires: "It's hard to imagine how others will react to what I share." When we who were physically present at the office shared something during work, even remotely, we could imagine the real-life reactions of those we faced. But new hires, who progress discussions solely remotely without ever meeting in person, rarely experience those genuine reactions.

Currently, new employees spend much of their time absorbing information. However, the "confidence" they should gain from communicating what they've learned is harder to build because they can't gauge the reactions of various people.

Furthermore, their communication circle becomes limited, primarily consisting of managers and trainers. If they happen to clash with these specific individuals, it can feel like they won't get along with the entire company. Normally, if they were in the office and saw 300-400 people on the floor, they might think, "I just don't click with two out of 300." But when they only interact with the same few people, that perspective is hard to maintain.

―That's a very difficult challenge. I imagine many companies face the same issue as Dentsu Digital Inc. How should they address it?

Yasuda: One solution is valuing "communities unrelated to direct work," such as mentors, sub-mentors, or HR. It's crucial to build systems that foster relationships where employees always have someone they can easily talk to—whether about their thoughts or concerns—within internal communities separate from their work. We plan to focus even more on this this fiscal year.

Additionally, I believe the company needs to consider other measures going forward, such as support from superiors to broaden career paths and the establishment of career counselors.

―Building on the lessons of 2020, what initiatives are you planning for 2021?

Yasuda: Over the past year, we've gained a much clearer understanding of what works better online versus in person. Therefore, I believe the key challenge for 2021 is how to enrich our "hybrid training" programs. This means combining remote and in-person elements.

Beyond mechanisms for building deeper relationships, we need to effectively deliver experiences that require in-person, sensory engagement. We aim to provide opportunities for new hires to imagine the stance, culture, and atmosphere of Dentsu Digital Inc.'s senior members actually working on the front lines.

However, the fundamental reality that remote work will remain the base for 2021 is unlikely to change. How can we help employees genuinely feel the company's culture and atmosphere in an environment where they aren't physically on the floor? This challenge isn't limited to new hires; it applies equally to onboarding mid-career hires and providing training to existing employees. I want to give this serious thought between now and April.

304 pages, ¥1,680 + tax, ISBN: 978-4-7981-6069-6