Decades ago, I worked as a recruiting specialist at HQ of Hitachi Cable, a traditional manufacturing company of over 4 billion US $ revenue. I quitted a commercial bank (my first working experience) after 3 months because of a bad working environment such as sexual harassment and then I was hired by Hitachi Cable. When starting my HR career at a factory in a local city, I was not professional at all, always complaining about the company but several years later, I was assigned recruiting specialist and transferred to the HQ. I could no longer continue to complain but started to consider the company’s selling points to attract over a thousand candidates every year. Through these activities, I rediscovered the company’s strong points and willingly devoted myself to the busy job. It was the time for me to realize,“ The world looks different if you change your viewpoint.”
The general manager of HR allowed 4 HR managers and staff other than himself to participate in the
interviews of final candidates- I was the most junior staff in the team. Right after a final interview, each of us were to disclose 5-sliding-scale evaluations for interviewed candidates and
started heated discussion to decide which candidate we should hire.
After listening to each member’s opinion, the head of HR made a final decision. The point was while he made his decisions primarily based on the majority rule but he also paid attention
to minority opinions. I sometimes raised objections to the majority decisions since I was confident that I knew more about the candidates through the series of interviews before the final
one. There was a number of times when my proposal was accepted against the majority. Those days were the happiest days for me to work.
I believe applying majority rule for the hiring process is one of the most effective ways to acquire
best fit talent for the company. There is, however, a necessary condition in which the majority rule works well; The final decision maker trusts and respects all his members. Under a manager
who thinks he is the one man band, controlling just by the authority, people hesitate to offer freely their opinions and majority decision is nothing but just following the leader’s taste.
My boss at the time was a true strong leader who could make, when necessary, tough decisions by himself. He was a man of justice and had passion to help his members grow as business professionals and good citizens. He already retired as managing director but has been my most admirable boss in life.