Pandemic Drives Nomura to Send Fresh Grads to Call Centers
Nomura will be sending its newly hired graduates straight to call centers in an unprecedented move to address social distancing measures that have limited physical exchanges.
Almost all of its 350 newly hired graduates join in April will work at its call center in their first year, according to a «Reuters» report citing unnamed sources.
Nomura's retail business currently houses a 7,000-strong sales team to serve one of the world’s largest pools of household savings.
Channel Diversification
The shift compares to the traditional sales model known as «shoe-leather» sales culture whereby Japanese corporates have been instilled with strict discipline to constantly go out, meet customers and sell products.
Unsurprisingly, Nomura is diversifying channels beyond just phone sales to include strengthening of its online services, where its brokerage business loss the top spot by the number of accounts to Japanese rival SBI Holdings for the first time ever in March this year.
According to Nomura chief executive Kentaro Okuda in a separate report, Nomura’s retail revenue in April slipped 20 percent compared to the average of the first three months of 2020.
