Foreign companies setting up in Japan are much more reliant on the quality of their staff than are Japanese or older companies who’ve been around a long time. This is because they have not yet earned the goodwill and human networks that help them make sales more easily and take the sting out of negotiating solutions to problems. But at the same time, finding high quality, bilingual staff is a huge challenge, and for some companies an insurmountable one.

At first glance, this week’s title may sound a bit incongruous – what does recruiting have to do with space planning? Well, depending on who you talk to, there are many who say that a spacious, modern, and conveniently located office is a great recruiting tool, and that the extra cost incurred in having such an office needs to be offset against the performance benefits of getting better people.

Sometimes life offers us synchronicity, and one such event happened to me a few days ago. I had just finished Part II of this series on calculating just how much space is needed to house your employees, when a client happened to ask me the exact same thing. This client is based overseas, but has a Tokyo office, complete with a local country manager and half a dozen staff. They are planning to ramp up fairly quickly, and want to have an office for 12-15 staff by the end of the year. Currently they are in a serviced office.

The movement of human traffic within Japanese firms having an external customer service and/or sales effort is a study of contrasts. In the morning, after the departmental meetings, the office is a buzz of activity, with sales and service people on the phone to prospective and existing customers. Appointments are being made and customers are happy to get the personal attention.

Today’s column is for employers and managers who are tasked with starting a new operation or rapidly expanding an existing one, and who need to find an office space to cope with the increase in staff. Just how big should the office be? Do you want to load up on extra space while waiting for sales to rise, or try to office-hop to keep up with expansion?

Apart from small companies, the other type of foreign firm that has trouble doing balanced interviewing is the start-up subsidiary or fresh joint venture of a major firm overseas. Not only are these companies hampered by the tyranny of distance, and in particular the remoteness of their HR recruiting professionals, they also have the challenge of cultural differences.

Last week I talked about making sure that, as a hiring manager, you get proper input from the rest of the team of people involved in the hiring process before making a candidate an offer. Besides being good practical advice, it is also important legally. Once you or your company make that job offer to the candidate, you are legally bound to hire the person. Suddenly having one of your internal team members oppose a hiring (which subsequently requires you to withdraw a job offer) opens you up to a lawsuit and claims for compensation. This is especially so if the candidate can prove that they have already resigned from their existing job on the basis of having received your offer. The last thing you want is to have to pay some disappointed candidate’s salary for three months or more while they find a replacement job – not to mention having to deal with their anger over your causing them to put their personal financial security and career at risk.

How many interviews does your company do with a single candidate before making a job offer? In my own firm, we usually have three interviews: one by the screening recruiter in the HR/recruiting team, one by the hiring manager AND the team leader of the specific team that the person might be joining, and one by the division manager. If there is a technology or knowledge component, then there is a fourth interview, or a sub-interview, to assess technical competency and skills.

I often get requests from clients wanting to hire a manager, engineer, or other bilingual or specialized position “yesterday” – meaning that they are in a great hurry and are willing to fill a vacant position with a near fit. While one could say that the art of managing involves making sure that HR resources are available for expansion as required, unfortunately the reality is that both internal budget constrictions and the general paucity of bilingual candidates in the Japanese job market mean that hiring needs and candidate availability are seldom aligned.

Although I usually refrain from making comments about issues related to law, not least of which because I’m not a lawyer, there are some questions that come up over and over, and are clearly relevant to a lot of people. Today’s issue is about what happens to your visa status, or more accurately, your Status of Residence (SOR), if you lose your job. Also, does it matter whether you were fired or left of your own free will?