PERSONNEL CONSULTANT MANPOWER (THAILAND) CO., LTD.

Our company was founded in Bangkok in 1994. For 30 years, we have been supporting Japanese companies in Thailand with one clear mission: "helping Japanese professionals succeed here, in Thailand." Today, we work with around 10,000 Japanese-affiliated companies across the country. We have six main business pillars.
Our main focus is recruitment in Thailand, where about 80% of our clients are Japanese companies. In addition to that, we also provide interpreter and translator staffing, serviced office operations, seminar services, and since 2021, we've expanded into placing highly skilled talents to Japan.We're a team of about 100 people, made up of around 15 Japanese and 80 Thai staff. With "people," "language," and "education" as our core strengths, we aim to provide well-rounded support to Japanese companies operating in Thailand.

Before adopting PORTERS, we had been managing operations on an in-house system for many years.
We originally started with an Access database, then spent about four and a half years from around 2010 building a custom system. However, as time passed, the system became increasingly outdated and no longer aligned with how we actually worked day to day. It became clear that building in-house was no longer practical, and so we began searching globally for a more flexible cloud-based system.

The biggest deciding factor for us was multilingual support. Since the majority of our staff are Thai, having full English support alongside Japanese was a critical advantage when compared to other options. Our Thai team uses the system daily, so eliminating any language barrier wasn’t just a preference, but it was essential.

The trustworthiness and track record of a Japanese company was also an important consideration. When operating overseas, system support infrastructure and reliability are paramount. PORTERS met our needs perfectly as a Japanese-made product with global capabilities.

A major turning point in our operations came around 2021, when we began consolidating all data into PORTERS. Previously, each division managed its own data across spreadsheets and other various tools. We established a rule that "any work not entered into PORTERS would not count toward performance evaluations," quickly establishing consistent, company-wide data entry practices. The biggest impact came from building a unified structure across all divisions. Not just recruitment but also staffing and serviced offices use PORTERS.

By leveraging the company-linked hierarchies within the deal management features, we have full visibility into which services each client uses across the organization. This was only possible because of the platform's high customization flexibility, and today, the range of applications has expanded to the point where it supports nearly all aspects of our operations. Our approach to data utilization has also evolved significantly.

Previously, much of the input was unstructured, often entered through memo fields even where numerical data was intended, leading to poor data quality. By redesigning our data fields, we enabled accurate lead source analysis, revenue management, and bottleneck analysis across processes, all supporting data-driven decision-making.

In terms of efficiency, tasks that were previously manual, such as sending resumes and generating employment condition confirmations, have been automated using PORTERS' document generation features such as Smart Documents, significantly improving overall productivity and reducing administrative workload.

We have invested a lot of effort into improving our matching accuracy.
One of the key changes was revising the job-type matching logic, so that not only exact matches but also related job categories are also displayed when searching for candidates. This has made a big difference, especially for less experienced team members, as it helps them spot suitable candidates more easily.

We also standardized how we evaluate things such as language proficiency levels, which previously depended on individual consultants’ subjective judgment. Since Japanese and English skills are especially important in Thailand, having clear and consistent criteria has made a real difference.

A major breakthrough for us has been being able to clearly see the lead time from when a candidate registers to when they become actively engaged. Previously, we had no way of measuring the actual process. With PORTERS, we can now track it as a clear metric. We have set a goal of reducing this lead time from five days to one, and have been working since last year on improving both workflows and system configurations.

This kind of initiative wouldn't have been possible without having a proper KPI framework in place within PORTERS. Another big impact has been how "making numbers visible" changed the mindset across the team. By creating a system where data could easily be tracked and reviewed, the idea that "if it's not entered, it doesn't count" naturally took hold. Of course, there will always be a few people who don't follow the process, but once the data was visible, more and more team members started entering information on their own.

One pleasant surprise was how flexible the system turned out to be.
It quickly expanded into areas we never anticipated, such as managing serviced office clients and staffing operations. By making the most of its customization options and tailoring it to our needs, it feels like we have built an environment that fits our business almost perfectly.

The most effective approach was identifying key people within each department.
We focused on mid-level staff who showed interest in the system and worked closely with them to drive adoption from the ground up. We repeatedly went through the process of finding someone who seemed open to it, walking them through directly, and building momentum from there. We also treated the first three months after adoption as a “feedback period,” where we actively gathered input from the field. If something felt difficult to use, we focused on improving the workflow or adjusting the system. After the three-month mark, we shifted gears and started analysing problems together whenever concerns were raised.

The number one feature for us is the high level of customizability.

That's really where PORTERS stands out. Despite being a system designed for the recruitment and staffing industries, it's flexible enough to be applied as a CRM and SFA system for other types of businesses as well. When we first adopted it, we never imagined it could handle things like our serviced office operations. Another big strength is how deeply it understands the HR industry. When building our job board, we were able to get a lot of useful insight from PORTERS. Because the system is designed with real knowledge of the recruitment workflow, it covers the smaller, day-to-day finer operational needs that other systems often miss.

Some companies may be using in-house systems, but no matter how well they're built, they tend to struggle as business needs evolve. A cloud system like PORTERS, with its flexibility, makes it much easier to adapt over time. When it comes to adoption, the most important thing is to clearly explain to the organization why the change is necessary. There will be resistance, especially from long-tenured staff. So, it helps to approach it step by step. Identifying the key people who can support the change internally and rolling it out in stages can make a big difference.

It's important not to expect to master the system right away. In our case, there were many unused features until we began our full-scale utilization in 2021. The process of continuously refining and growing the system to fit your company is what matters most. From the very beginning, we felt it was far more user-friendly than our in-house system. And by continuing to build on that with the right customizations, it naturally evolves into something that really fits your organization.

Compared to Japan, Thailand's HR industry still has room for growth.
We expect demand for specialized recruitment and staffing services to expand going forward, and we plan to strengthen industry-specific services in areas such as IT, retail, services, and food & beverage. At the same time, we'll continue expanding our staffing business. With more companies shifting toward direct hiring, we are strengthening the operation of our food & beverage-specialized job board. Being able to adapt our business model to match what clients need is one of our key strengths.