Why Dentsu Inc.'s "Company-Wide" Organizational Development Drives Growth: How Its Expanding "Recruitment Branding" Service Directly Leads to Corporate Transformation

※This article is an edited version of content originally published on November 19, 2025, in "Japan Innovation Review."

As more companies place "promoting human capital management" at the forefront of their transformation efforts, "recruitment branding"—enhancing recruitment capabilities by strengthening the communication of a company's appeal—is gaining attention. Particularly, the younger generation known as "Generation Z" will be the ones supporting companies in 10 or 20 years, making the acquisition of top talent an urgent priority.

Dentsu Inc.'s "Recruitment Branding Experts," a specialized recruitment support team launched in February 2024, is now receiving numerous inquiries from companies that have placed recruitment activities at the core of their transformation efforts.Notably, many consultations come directly not only from HR departments but also from executive members like CHROs, CEOs, and COOs. We spoke with the team's leaders—Mihoko Nishii, Shun Iwabe, and Kento Masuda—about why recruitment branding is essential for corporate transformation, their initiatives and results, and future prospects.

Supporting over 90 companies within the first year and a half

──Dentsu Inc.'s "Recruitment Branding Experts" is a consulting team supporting corporate recruitment. What led to the team's formation?

Iwabe: A major reason was the rapidly increasing demand from companies. In just about a year and a half since our launch in February 2024, we've already supported the recruitment activities of over 90 companies. As the job market increasingly favors job seekers, we've seen a growing shift within Dentsu Inc.'s core brand communication services toward projects specifically aimed at recruitment.

Beyond HR, we've received numerous inquiries from various departments—including PR and management—across different companies. This made establishing a dedicated organization an urgent priority.

Another background factor is the perspective of internal talent development and utilization. The recruitment domain holds a wealth of knowledge applicable across industries and business models, making it an ideal arena for our young planners to thrive. The team currently consists of 33 members, including young professionals from their first to fifth year at the company. We particularly believe that their firsthand experience and intuitive understanding gained from actively participating as job seekers themselves will be invaluable, especially for new graduate recruitment.

──I understand Dentsu Inc. had been involved in recruitment support even before this team was formed. What was the original starting point?

Nishii: It started around 2011 when Dentsu Inc.'s own recruitment support was handled by the Dentsu Youth Research Department "Wakamon"*. We then packaged that support into a highly versatile format and began offering it to clients around 2014.

*A creative unit that researches the realities of young people, primarily high school and university students, and explores ways to build better relationships between youth and society.

The background to Dentsu Inc.'s own recruitment branding efforts included the impact of the Lehman Shock, which made it harder for advertising agencies to be among the companies job seekers aspired to work for. Management also felt a strong sense of crisis that Dentsu Inc.'s presence in the recruitment market might be relatively weakening.

Driven by the sense of urgency that "we must properly re-engage with recruitment," Dentsu shifted from a defensive to an offensive recruitment strategy. This involved implementing various measures, such as participating in job-hunting events (something they had never done before) and launching a recruitment website.

Achieving Optimal Matching Through People-Centric Marketing

──Why is recruitment branding important now?

Masuda: In a nutshell, it benefits both companies and students. For companies, amid declining student numbers and intensifying recruitment competition, branding serves as the "foundation" for strategies like using recruitment agencies or direct scouting. It helps solidify the company image and effectively communicate its appeal.

For students, a clear corporate image motivates participation in information sessions and internships, deepening their understanding of the company. It allows them to envision their future career more concretely, making it easier to judge whether a company is a good fit for them.

Nishii: The significant shift in Generation Z's attitudes toward job hunting and career formation is a major factor. When I job hunted about 15 years ago, it was common to apply to 70-80 companies and undergo selection processes at around 20. Today's students, however, apply to fewer than 10 companies on average.

Because the information they gather for job hunting is often limited to fields they are interested in or already know about, their career options become quite narrow. Consequently, many students end their job search without encountering companies they should have met.

Therefore, if companies effectively communicate their unique value and corporate culture through recruitment branding, more appropriate matching becomes possible. For students, this opens opportunities to discover companies they previously didn't know about, increasing their chances of finding a good fit.

──What are the key features of the recruitment branding that Dentsu Inc. undertakes? Is it primarily leveraging Dentsu Inc.'s unique advertising and marketing expertise and knowledge?

Iwabe: Yes, a major feature is directly applying Dentsu Inc.'s marketing philosophy to recruitment activities. In particular, we leverage Dentsu Inc.'s unique perspective of "people-centric marketing."

The key is how closely we can align with the perspective of our target job seekers. To deeply understand them, we regularly conduct large-scale surveys. Furthermore, we utilize existing marketing frameworks to accurately grasp who the target candidates companies want to hire are, and what they are thinking as they job hunt.

How can companies get job seekers to recognize them, develop interest, and ultimately choose them as an employer? While designing key touchpoints and communicating value at each phase is standard in marketing, Dentsu Inc. adds job seeker insights to this approach. This enables the design of initiatives that generate deeper resonance.

Nishii: Dentsu Inc.'s unique advantage lies in our ability to provide end-to-end support—from strategy formulation and creative development to initiative design/execution, advertising operations, and effectiveness verification—and further contribute to building self-sustaining organizations.

Deeply understanding targets to increase applicant volume, quality, and conversion rates

──Dentsu Inc.'s "Recruitment Branding" reportedly achieves results like increasing applicant volume, improving applicant quality, and enhancing conversion rates. What specific actions are taken?

Iwabe: Regarding applicant volume, a common challenge for B2B companies is insufficient brand recognition, leading to a lack of applicants and an inability to build a talent pool large enough to meet hiring targets.

Regarding quality, companies with sufficient applicant volume (quantity) often struggle to attract their specific target candidates. They hear feedback from the field that "the quality of talent is declining." This issue is commonly seen in large corporations experiencing stable growth.

Regarding conversion rates, companies ranked fourth, fifth, or lower in their industry often face the challenge where candidates accept interviews but over half decline job offers after receiving them.

Regarding solutions: For volume, Dentsu Inc.'s core expertise in advertising, communications, and PR can drive improvement. Here, "what to communicate" becomes crucial. We first clearly define the value the company should convey, then create compelling creative that resonates with the target audience.

As an example, consider a B2B comprehensive parts manufacturer with near-zero brand awareness. Our strategy involved implementing on-campus advertising and PR.

Their target was science students, but from the job seeker's perspective, science students have very little free time. Many students spend their entire day commuting between their lab, part-time job, and home, making it difficult to participate in long-term internships or company information sessions.

We hypothesized that instead of expecting them to come to events, it would be more effective to intercept them along their natural paths. Based on this, we created lab visit tools to proactively engage at universities and took over campus advertising spaces like cafeteria tray mats to boost awareness. This resulted in over a 20% increase in recognition within six months.

Regarding quality, changing the message you convey is effective. A common example is altering the key message on your recruitment site to one that differentiates your company from competitors. This attracts a different audience, creating a distinct talent pool.

Regarding the final conversion rate, changing the mindset of those involved in recruitment is effective. Clearly communicate to interviewers and recruiters: "Our company has these specific challenges regarding recruitment. Therefore, we want to convey this message and hire this type of talent." Alternatively, involve stakeholders by having them think about it and translate their insights into messaging.

──In the recruitment branding process, from strategy formulation to effectiveness verification, where does Dentsu Inc.'s strength shine most?

Nishii: The step preceding strategy formulation: "Deeply understanding the target audience." Dentsu Inc. possesses vast amounts of data on job seekers. By leveraging and analyzing this data, we can rapidly design communication strategies.

A key large-scale survey is our annual "Generation Z Job Seekers Survey." Beyond this, we can also conduct quick surveys leveraging our network with university students. Based on these surveys and analyses, as mentioned earlier, we develop a unified recruitment brand image from the job seeker's perspective.

Another distinctive feature is "strategy formulation to broaden the reach." Dentsu Inc. possesses vast data on recruitment activities across all industries. We objectively identify competitors in recruitment not only within the same industry but also from the employer perspective. Furthermore, we establish unique strategies for our clients, including selecting contact points tailored to the target audience and communicating appropriately, encompassing the breadth of communication initiatives.

Corporate transformation and talent transformation should be undertaken together

──It's been about a year and a half since the team was formed. Have you seen any changes in corporate mindset?

Nishii: Executives' awareness of recruitment challenges is growing year by year. Corporate transformation and talent transformation should be undertaken together. If you aim to transform the company for the next 10 or 20 years, you must also transform your talent. To enhance corporate value and acquire the talent that will support the company's future, more companies are recognizing recruitment as a critical management issue and are increasingly committed to company-wide recruitment branding.We're also seeing more direct consultations from CEOs and key business leaders like COOs, CMOs, and CHROs.

──How do you respond to these corporate needs? Also, what personal challenges do you aim to take on in future developments?

Iwabe: The purpose of recruitment activities is to acquire talent that will drive the company's growth. If a company aims for sustainable growth and transformation, it must develop a strategy to hire talent that fits its vision. When strengthening recruitment, it is crucial that not only the HR department but also management and business units work together as one, making it a "company-wide" effort. We see this as our mission.Rather than just saying, "We hired good people this year," I want to commit to building a company that continues to be chosen 10 or 20 years from now.

Furthermore, mere recruitment alone does not drive corporate growth. We must build a system that supports employees throughout their entire journey: post-hire development and retention, reskilling, and even career formation after departure. Only then can we truly support corporate transformation.

Masuda: Thanks to our clients, we've had the privilege of supporting numerous recruitment branding initiatives. Going forward, we aim to focus our support on the PDCA cycle: evaluating the effectiveness of recruitment branding projects based on the results of actual branding measures implemented.

As the number of students continues to decline, efficiently recruiting talent that fits our company and can shape its future will become increasingly important. This requires working backward from this year's recruitment results to evaluate each initiative and implement improvements for the next year.

Through PDCA, we aim to continue providing support that elicits feedback like, "I'm glad I met such a great student," or "I'm glad I found such a great company."

──Finally, a question for Mr. Nishii. Many companies likely think recruitment branding takes time and can be postponed. What would you like to convey to such companies?

Nishii: I want to emphasize that recruitment is a crucial initiative that drives corporate transformation. I've seen company representatives who thought recruitment branding was a distant concern only to face irreversible consequences two or three years later.

The effects of recruitment branding don't appear in a single year; they show up two or three years down the line. Like corporate transformation, it requires a medium-to-long-term commitment. If you sense trouble brewing, I urge you to start your efforts tomorrow.

(JBpress)