As the globalization of businesses accelerates, Softbank is aiming to improve employees' English proficiency.
Softbank announced that it is giving a cash reward to workers who get top marks in an English-proficiency test for non-native speakers, known as TOEIC, or Test of English for International Communications. A mark above 900 -- on a scale from 10 to 990 -- will make the grade. Those who score 800 or higher will get 300,000 yen.
So far, of the roughly 17,000 group employees, about 4.7% have scored more than 800 points. Softbank wishes to push this up to 17%.
Source: Nihon no Jinjibu
© Japan Today
10 Comments
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Haiku_Dan
This is all well and good, but TOEIC doesn't really measure communicative or spoken competency. That said, anything over 700 is good and will hopefully provide motivation to improve spoken fluency.
Urqinchina
How about cash incentives to learn Japanese ?!!!
danone19
Learners are earners. The better your Japanese is, the more money you will make. Japanese companies aren't going to provide cash incentives for their workforce to improve their Japanese.
oikawa
This article doesn't make sense does it? If they score over 900 they "make the grade", whatever that means, but if they score over 800 they get 300,000, so which is it, 800 or 900?
Fadamor
Oikawa, I guess they mean that 900+ counts as "top marks", but Softbank pays out if you get to 800+
badmigraine
Does Softbank provide English lessons or subsidize employee study of it? Or just cash rewards for people who test highly?
timtak
It is about time the Japanese developed their own test of English.
oikawa
Fadamor, exactly, it doesn't make sense. Being given 300,000yen sounds like a cash reward to me!
timtak, what do you mean? A test of Japlish? TOEIC and Ekien were developed in Japan.
Mark_McCracken
Why not create specific measurable performance objectives for each position or department. Yes, you'd need to hire someone to measure performance gap, but it seems like a more efficient use of funds than trying to use the TOEIC to indirectly measure speaking ability.
badmigraine
These days isn't BULATS supposed to be a better test of real or functional English than TOIEC?