E-LEARNING FOR NEW GRADUATE EMPLOYEES
Another Function of e-Learning for New Graduate Employees of Japanese
and Korean Companies
Jiro Usugami
Department of Economics, Oita University, 700 Dannoharu, Oita City, 870-1192, Japan
Keywords: New graduate employee, human capital development, employee retention, pre-entry training program.
Abstract: Japanese companies tend to consider that e-learning is important for a reason other than human capital
development in new graduate employee training and development programs, namely for improving
employee retention. Two remarkable features of the Japanese employment system are the seasonally
scheduled hiring of new graduates and company commitment to the T&D programs for new graduate
employees before and after their official hiring. Today, large- and medium-sized Japanese companies make
their offers to candidates nearly one year prior to their graduation from university or college. Many of these
companies also provide various T&D programs, including e-learning, for the potential new graduate
employees until their graduation. We call these “pre-entry training” programs. They are distinguished from
internship programs in that pre-entry training programs are provided only for those students who are due to
be officially hired the next fiscal year. Besides Japanese companies, a number of foreign companies in
Japan and some Korean companies provide pre-entry training programs that utilize e-learning. This study
examines, based on case studies, the hypothesis that e-learning in the pre-entry training programs for new
graduate employees has the function of retention as well as human capital development.
1 INTRODUCTION
Many Japanese companies utilize e-learning in the
training and development programs for new
graduate employees, before and after their official
hiring.
New graduate hiring is done seasonally in Japan.
Large- and medium-sized companies make their
offers to candidates nearly one year prior to their
graduation from university or college. During this
long period until graduation, many of these
companies provide various T&D programs,
including e-learning, for the potential new graduate
employees, which we call “pre-entry training”
programs. They are distinguished from internship
programs in that pre-entry training programs are
provided only for those students who are due to be
officially hired the next fiscal year.
Besides Japanese companies, a number of
foreign companies in Japan and some Korean
companies also provide pre-entry training programs
that utilize e-learning.
This study examines the hypothesis that e-
learning in the pre-entry training programs has the
function of retaining potential new graduate
employees as well as developing human capital,
based on case studies.
In Japan and Korea, there is intense competition
among companies hiring new graduates, which
makes employee retention a critical issue. Japanese
companies need to retain potential new graduate
employees for about one year prior to official hiring,
and tend to consider that e-learning in the pre-entry
training programs is an effective retention strategy.
This study comprises the following chapters.
Chapter 2 provides an overview of the new graduate
hiring schedule in Japan and typical e-learning
menus in the pre-entry training programs. Chapter 3
presents a theoretical model and hypothesis on the
function of e-learning in the pre-entry training
programs. Chapter 4 analyzes the objectives of
companies utilizing e-learning in the pre-entry
training programs for potential new graduate
employees, based on case studies. Chapter 5
provides conclusions.
357
Usugami J. (2008).
E-LEARNING FOR NEW GRADUATE EMPLOYEES - Another Function of e-Learning for New Graduate Employees of Japanese and Korean
Companies.
In Proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business, pages 357-361
DOI: 10.5220/0001906203570361
Copyright
c
 SciTePress

2 HIRING SCHEDULE &
E-LEARNING
Large- and medium-sized Japanese companies tend
to hire a certain number of new graduates every
April when the new fiscal year begins. By the time
they are officially hired, many of these new graduate
employees have experienced a variety of e-learning
courses provided by the companies.
This chapter presents an overview of the new
graduate hiring schedule in Japan and typical e-
learning menus in the pre-entry training programs.
2.1 New Graduate Hiring Schedule in
Japan
The new graduate hiring season starts more than one
year prior to graduation. Students graduate in March
and the Japanese fiscal and academic year begins in
April. Hiring tends to be scheduled as follows.
First, from October to December, many Japanese
companies announce their new graduate recruiting to
students in their third year of university or college.
From December to March of the following year, job
fairs are held in several big cities in Japan.
Companies also provide career guidance and
conduct on-campus recruiting. From January to
April, written tests and job interviews are conducted
for candidates in their last year of school.
From April to June, companies select the new
graduate employees for the next fiscal year, and
make their offers to the candidates. During a period
of about six months from October of the students’
last year to March when they graduate, many of
these companies provide pre-entry training programs
that include e-learning courses, events, classroom
instruction, camp training, and on-the-job training
for those students who are due to be officially hired
after graduation. According to a survey conducted
by the Institute of Labor Administration, over 60%
of large- and medium-sized companies provided pre-
entry training programs in 2005.
Then, on the first business day in April of the
new fiscal year, initiation ceremonies are held and
new graduates are officially hired.
2.2 Typical e-Learning Menus
E-learning in the pre-entry training programs has a
variety of menus. Large enterprises tend to develop
their own e-learning courses. Typical menus of
outsourced e-learning are language education
(English, Chinese, etc.), PC skills development
(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.), business skills
development (bookkeeping, marketing, etc.), and
business etiquette and communication (business
greeting protocol, telephone etiquette, etc.). There
are also orientation programs that include company
overviews and support programs for acquiring
business certificates.
3 MODEL AND HYPOTHESIS
What is the function of e-learning in the pre-entry
training programs for new graduate employees?
Many large- and medium-sized Japanese
companies provide Off-JT programs such as class
instruction, role-play training and camp training
after officially hiring new graduates. On the other
hand, in the pre-entry training programs, e-learning
tends to be easier to provide since the trainees are
still attending university or college at various
locations including overseas. Therefore, companies
recognize the effectiveness of e-learning.
This chapter presents a theoretical model and
hypothesis on the function of e-learning in the pre-
entry training programs.
3.1 Theoretical Model
The principal objective of e-learning is human
capital development. According to Becker (1975),
the major idea underlying human capital theory is
that an individual’s performance is determined by
his/her stock of knowledge and productive skills.
Applying this theory to the case of new graduate
employees, those who have accumulated some stock
of knowledge and skills by the time they are
officially hired would demonstrate good work
performance from the outset. In addition, providing
Off-JT programs after their hiring would be efficient
and performance on the job would be high.
Figure 1 shows a basic human capital
development model. Dotted and solid lines indicate,
respectively, the performance of new graduate
employees who experienced Off-JT after being hired,
and those who experienced only OJT.
Figure 2 is a human capital development model
for a case in which pre-entry training programs are
provided. The broken line indicates the performance
of new graduate employees who experienced pre-
entry training before being hired and OJT afterwards.
The movement of the dotted line indicates that pre-
entry training shortens the time for Off-JT programs
after hiring and improves its efficiency.
This model suggests that companies could
accelerate the human capital development of new
ICE-B 2008 - International Conference on e-Business
358

graduate employees, improve the efficiency of T&D
programs for them, and gain high performance
sooner by making e-learning programs available to
all trainees wherever they are located. However, the
model does not refer to the relationship between e-
learning and employee retention.
Performance
Off-JT
OJT
Time
u
→ Officially hired
Figure 1: Basic Human Capital Development.
P Pre & Off-JT
Pre & OJT
←
T
Pre-entry training → Officially hired
Figure 2: Pre-Entry T. & Human Capital Development.
3.2 Hypothesis
With today’s expanded menus and contents for new
graduate employees, e-learning has become an easy
tool for developing the human capital of students
who are due to start working after graduation.
However, we believe that there is another reason
why Japanese and Korean companies are utilizing e-
learning in the pre-entry training programs, besides
human capital development and improving the
efficiency of T&D programs (Figure 3). We provide
a hypothesis for our analyses.
New function of E-learning
E-learning HRD
Retention
Figure 3: New Function of E-learning.
Hypothesis: Companies recognize that e-learning in
the pre-entry training programs is
important for retaining potential new
graduate employees as well as
accelerating human capital development
and improving the efficiency of T&D
programs for them.
4 ANALYSES
What are the actual objectives of the companies that
utilize e-learning in the pre-entry training programs?
Usugami (2006) conducted a survey in 2005 and
found that Japanese and Korean companies of 137
samples aimed to maintain the motivation of
potential new graduate employees, improve their
interpersonal skills and retain them by providing
pre-entry training programs that include e-learning.
Hanada & GaiaX (2008) conducted a survey for
companies that provided pre-entry training programs
including SNS (Social Networking Service) in 2008.
They reported that of those that replied, 24
companies recognized the prime importance of
retaining potential new graduate employees, easing
their anxiety, and building their interpersonal skills
by providing activities for them until their
graduation. Furthermore, Hanada & GaiaX revealed
that these companies adopted SNS in the pre-entry
training programs in order to build the interpersonal
skills of potential new graduate employees, retain
them, and maintain their motivation.
This chapter provides three case studies and
discusses the company’s recognition of the function
of e-learning in the pre-entry training programs.
4.1 Case Study 1
Case 1 is a large Japanese insurance company. They
adopted e-learning in their six-month pre-entry
training programs in October 2006. In their e-
learning program, potential new graduate employees
are given individual pages and provided with
compulsory and optional menus.
Compulsory menus are comprised of certificate
acquisition courses such as security trading and
financial planning, PC skills development courses
such as Excel and PowerPoint, TOEIC courses,
management overview, and business etiquette.
Trainees who tend to lag behind are encouraged by
emails from Human Resource Development staff. As
an optional menu, video courses are provided for
about 300 subjects. The most popular subjects
among trainees are business communication, team
building, time management, and marketing.
The company in Case 1 indicated that the
objectives of adopting e-learning were to retain
potential new graduate employees, average out their
E-LEARNING FOR NEW GRADUATE EMPLOYEES - Another Function of e-Learning for New Graduate Employees of
Japanese and Korean Companies
359

knowledge and skills, develop human capital, and
improve the efficiency of T&D programs after
officially hiring them.
4.2 Case Study 2
Case 2 is a large Japanese service company that
regards employee retention as an important issue. In
July 2007, they adopted SNS for potential new
graduate employees.
The company is building a specific community
in the SNS, and provides CEO messages, overviews
of management and group companies, and a variety
of information. In addition, recruiters and young
employees join the community as advisers.
This company adopted SNS in order to retain
potential new graduate employees. They are asked to
post their opinions about events held for them on the
community board. The company utilizes their
opinions for the next new graduate recruiting and
pre-entry training programs.
4.3 Case Study 3
Case 3 is a large Korean manufacturing company.
As in Japan, there is seasonally scheduled hiring of
new graduates in Korea also. Large- and medium-
sized companies tend to make their offers to
candidates three to six months prior to their
graduation from university or college. The period
until official hiring is shorter than that in Japan, but
the competition between Korean companies is just as
intense, and potential new graduate employee
retention is a critical issue.
According to an interview survey that we
conducted in February 2008, this company provides
e-learning courses, events, and mentoring in the pre-
entry training programs for potential new graduate
employees. Their e-learning menus comprise
orientation and PC skills development in
programming. The contents of orientation include
overviews of management philosophy, company
history, business model, and products and services.
The company in Case 3 mentioned that they
recognized e-learning as an effective means of
retaining potential new graduate employees,
developing their basic business skills, and improving
the efficiency of T&D programs for them (Table 1).
Table 1: Functions of E-learning (Case 3).
E-
learning
Mentoring Events
Maintenance of
motivation
✓ ✓
Improvement of
retention
✓ ✓ ✓
Interpersonal
skills
✓ ✓
Elimination of
job mismatching
Reduction of
early job hopping
✓ ✓
Basic business
skills
✓ ✓
Professional
business skills
Efficiency of
T&D programs
✓ ✓
✓ = Effective
Note: Interview results of Case 3
4.4 Discussion
E-learning is utilized as a tool to develop the human
capital of employees and improve the efficiency of
T&D programs for them.
In fact, the companies of the three case studies
recognize that e-learning is important for developing
the human capital of potential new graduate
employees and improving the efficiency of T&D
programs for them. Besides these known functions,
the case studies show that Japanese and Korean
companies expect e-learning to help improve
employee retention when hiring new graduates. This
feature was demonstrated by the survey of Hanada
& GaiaX.
Japanese and Korean companies make their
offers more than a few months prior to students’
graduation amid intense competition to hire new
graduates, and provide pre-entry training programs
until officially hiring them. As a result, companies
tend to focus on e-learning’s function of retaining
potential new graduate employees, besides the
conventional functions of maintaining their
motivation, developing their basic business skills,
and improving the efficiency of T&D programs for
them.
5 CONCLUSIONS
This study examined the hypothesis that e-learning
in the T&D programs for potential new graduate
employees has the function of retention as well as
ICE-B 2008 - International Conference on e-Business
360

human capital development, based on the recent
survey and case studies.
Many Japanese companies and some Korean
companies provide T&D programs that include e-
learning for potential new graduate employees prior
to official hiring. These are known as pre-entry
training programs. Today, e-learning has numerous
menus and contents and is an easy means of
providing pre-entry training programs to potential
new graduate employees who are located in various
places including overseas.
E-learning has been utilized for human capital
development. We investigated another reason why
companies adopt e-learning in their pre-entry
training programs, based on the recent survey and
three case studies. We found that companies tend to
consider that e-learning in the pre-entry training
programs is important for retaining potential new
graduate employees as well as accelerating human
capital development and improving the efficiency of
T&D programs for them.
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