Steering Through a Changing Recruitment Space

Scott Miyaki, First Vice President and Recruiting Manager, American Savings Bank

Scott Miyaki is a seasoned HR professional who has dealt with every facet of human resources during his 10 years in the industry. His recruitment career began at a headhunting firm in Tokyo. Following this, Mayaki served as the corporate recruiter and senior recruiter of a local Hawaiian bank for five years and spent another year transforming a local manufacturing company’s recruiting department by building processes, programs, and manuals beyond their conventional paper applications and Excel spreadsheets. Currently, Mayaki is the talent acquisition manager at American Savings Bank, dealing with the entire bank’s recruitment, from entry-level to executive-level positions.

In an interview with HR Tech Outlook, Miyaki highlights how the recruiting industry is transforming in the wake of hybrid work culture and technological advancements. He shares insights into his personal initiatives on employee engagement and retention.

How do you perceive the changes in the industry over the years, especially with the hybrid work culture?

People are willing to apply to jobs that are not a complete match for them, unlike a few years ago. According to studies, most people, especially women, required the job profile to be a perfect match, but now they are getting out of their comfort zone and trying out new things that help them grow professionally and personally.

In tandem, recruiters need to ensure that employees are educated if it is their first time in a domain. For instance, when a person comes into banking for the first time, they need training on compliance issues and other banking regulations to avoid penalties. In some cases, certain previous job experiences can be useful even if from an unrelated industry. A former call center employee would be welltrained in efficiently handling disturbed employees and perseverant to identify their issues, which can come in handy in banking as well. However, employers are also raising their bar in terms of hiring people. Instead of hiring 100 similar skilled people to fill 100 roles, they are now focusing on hiring fewer highly skilled employees.

"Balancing company requirements with employee needs is extremely important to build a healthy work culture. The company’s stability and longevity should be a priority but listening to employees’ concerns and addressing them is critical in retaining talent "

Another significant change is the transition from analog to digital. Like how banking has transformed from brickand- mortar branches to mobile banking applications, technological advancements are all set to transform the recruitment space as well. Robotics, automation, artificial intelligence, ChatGPT, and everything associated with them can significantly improve recruitment, retention, and customer interaction in any industry.

How do employers empower employees to handle such changes?

Continuous learning is a part of most companies’ employee retention and engagement strategies. But most of the time it is confined to just educating employees on doing their job. Most employees need more than that to help them grow and develop their skills. Professional and personal development classes that help improve employees’ personality, emotional intelligence, and their skills can help them be more receptive and work faster. Providing enough resources to help employees grow beyond their job role is a crucial part of employee retention.

At American Savings Bank, we offer robust training programs, internship programs, and leadership development programs. The sessions depend on the employee’s job level, for instance, the training programs differ for a person who has leadership experience and wants to move to the next level than for a person who is trained to be a leader for the first time. We also offer training through LinkedIn Learning, so employees can pay for the e-learning modules and get certificates. The goal is to create strong leaders and better employees and not limit their potential to one company or job role.

As a concluding note, what would be your piece of advice to your peers?

Balancing company requirements with employee needs is extremely important to build a healthy work culture. The company’s stability and longevity should be a priority but listening to employees’ concerns and addressing them is critical in retaining talent.

For instance, when everyone was accustomed to working from home but companies wanted employees back in the office to improve engagement and collaboration, we took a neutral approach. The basic rule was compulsory work from the office but whenever an employee is equipped with a personal matter, be it a doctor’s appointment, family engagement, or even a cable repair at home, they have the liberty to work from home. The standing assumption is you come in, but if something happens and you need to go, we’ll take care of that.

Taking the middle ground is not easy, but very important to retain people and meet company rules simultaneously.

Artificial Intelligence

Robotics