Işın Mengenli, Assistant General Manager of Human Resources and Academy at Sompo Japan Sigorta, said that the mission of Sompo Japan Sigorta’s Human Resources department is to establish systems that would equip employees with high performance and increase their loyalty to the company. Mengenli told that they worked on a career architecture project this year, which enabled them to name positions to reflect the job descriptions and create horizontal and vertical career suggestions for all positions.  Adding that Sompo Japan offers a double career architecture option for their employees by allowing them to advance in technical expertise or administrative areas depending on their own choices; and said: “Our employees do not have to manage people to be promoted. They can reach the same level as team managers by developing high level of expertise in their own fields. We have shared this new structure transparently with all our employees over our intranet.”

Mengenli mentioned that inter-departmental transitions were frequent at Sompo Japan Sigorta, adding as follows: “If we believe in the potential of an employee, we can assign them to a unit where they have no experience. Telling our new recruits about this gives them the message that they can shape their careers by their own initiatives, wishes and efforts. This flexibility is particularly important in gaining the loyalty of Y generation. Saying that the major target of human resources managers is to find and retain high quality employees that produce good results by adapting to corporate culture rapidly; Mengenli added: “In this regard, as HR managers, we have tried to take such actions since the beginning of this process. We try to use the recruitment tools that will help us make the best decisions; we scrutinize our interview techniques, observe our target candidate population; and we do not only look at local and sector-related areas but also on global and extra-sectoral fields to find true talents. Our job is not only finding candidates and making job offers.”