Both the company and its employees need to have international awareness in order to develop nursing care business overseas

Q.Why did your company decide to take on interns? What did you aim to achieve?

From the outset, we have planned to develop our nursing care business by not only focusing on local community-based business limited to the domestic market, but also to expand our nursing care business into the overseas market. Last year we established a joint venture company in Myanmar and we are considering other projects including the establishment of a nursing care facility in Hawaii. We aim to further develop our nursing care business in the future and make our company operation the global standard. However, we still do not have enough staff with an interest in the overseas market, so we decided to apply for this internship program.

We were very surprised to know that we could make proposals including multiple regression analysis and new business!

Q.What kind of internship did you run? What difficulties did you face and how did you resolve them?

Our interns conducted overseas market research, researched information ranging from the macro-economic environment and made presentations in the development of our nursing care business in their home countries. In addition, as a result of the market research and proposals made by our two interns in regard to Singapore, we have introduced a nursing care curriculum for the Japanese school that we will establish in the future, and we have collected much more detailed information than we anticipated. The interns participate in a daily review with their supervisor and weekly review with their manager in order to that they perform work in a productive manner without waste. Normally, I conduct a final direct onsite investigation and determine whether or not it is useful for business. However, due to the numerous important results produces by our interns, it appears that we will be able to make a determination on entering a market with on the ground knowledge much earlier than scheduled. This has truly made a great difference. I very much wish to maintain our connection with our interns even after the internship.

Motivating junior employees, reducing overtime through rationalization and feeling closer to other countries.

Q.Comparing before and after the internship, what effects did it have on you, your employees, or your organization?

Our interns were absolutely brilliant and produced many outcomes. To be honest, I initially did not think that they would be this talented. I basically thought that it would be a good opportunity for our staff to meet some foreign nationals. Their performance was fabulous. They performed their work in an accurate and speedy manner and were very creative and adaptable. We already had some young Japanese employees of the same generation in the company and the interns without a doubt provided great motivation. They efficiently prepared reports with tens of pages in only three to four days, even though English and Japanese are not their native languages. Furthermore, they finished their work within the regular working hours at 18:00, naturally reducing overtime throughout the company. I really feel that they made the work environment a more vibrant place. And as they were the first foreign nationals to work at the company, I think that some employees were a bit apprehensive, but after sitting and working next to each other and sharing private conversations, the other employees and myself began to feel less distance between Japan and countries outside Japan. This has been an unexpected, but a fantastic result for the company that has now made us seriously consider hiring foreign staff.