What is Cocone’s club system to connect through hobbies?

Cocone introduced a club system this spring to promote interaction among employees through their favorite pastimes and hobbies.

A system that will help you build new relationships.

We interviewed Mr. Yamaguchi, the human resources manager in charge of the club system.

What kind of system is the club system specifically?

The company supports the activities of the company-approved clubs by providing membership fees of 6,000 yen per person per half year.
Any content is acceptable. Only things similar to investments are not allowed, but as long as that is cleared, basically anything is acceptable, whether it is cultural or sports-related.
When starting a club, we ask that you first appoint a “president,” “vice-president,” and “treasurer,” and then report on the content and purpose of your activities.
It is of course possible for one person to participate in more than one club.

What was the purpose of the introduction?

This was the result of a significant increase in the number of Cocone employees over the past few years.
If it is the same business unit or project, but other members of the same department or project, we have had a situation where faces and names of other members do not match. I hear that back office staff in particular often have trouble because they do not have many opportunities to interact with other departments.
We felt this was not the way to go, and decided to introduce the system with the aim of making communication within the company more active.

It’s been about six months since the system was introduced. How are your employees responding?

More people than expected said, “We’ve been waiting for you!” We have received many more “I’ve been waiting for this!
I was happy because I originally thought I would not get such a big response back.
At this point in time, there are 10 established clubs with a total of 148 members. As I mentioned earlier, there are many people who belong to more than one club, so the total number of members may be less than this.

Have you noticed any changes within the company through the activities of the club?

I think it takes courage to enter into relationships that have already been established, but I feel that the club system is helping this process. New graduates and new mid-career hires are joining our clubs as soon as possible, and I believe that our initial goal has been fulfilled to some extent.
In addition to the communication aspect, many places in the company are gradually changing.
For example, the library space is now decorated with works by the Model Club.
The touch system for reservation confirmations that we use at Kokonedeli was actually created by the Maker Club, which also develops other in-house IOT tools.

*Cocone’s Deli confirms menu reservations by touching an employee ID card to a special device.

Do you have any ideas on how you would like the system to be further developed or how you would like the associations to be utilized in the future?

I hope to see more and more clubs with a wide variety of activities. Eventually, the ideal situation would be one in which everyone is interested in and able to participate in one thing or another.
As for issues, we created the system quite by hand, so we would like to review the screening criteria and rules a little more. It is not easy to find a company that discloses the details of its association system, so I actually made the current rules based on university clubs (laugh).
I would like to make a few more changes to the group to make it even more suitable for Cocone.

Thank you!

Next, we spoke with representatives of the eSports Club, which currently has the second largest number of members at Cocone, and the Maker Club, which was mentioned earlier by Mr. Yamaguchi.

e-sports club Mr. Yoshikawa

Please provide us with basic information such as frequency of activities, location of activities, and current number of members.

The frequency of our activities varies. Sometimes it is once a month. On the other hand, right before a tournament, members naturally get together after work or on their days off, so the number of practice days increases.
Basically, the main focus is on casual online gatherings from home for practice and socializing. We also hold regular social gatherings using the company cafeteria space so that people who normally play different game titles and do not have the opportunity to practice together can communicate through meals, board games, and other activities.
The number of members is currently 28.

I would like to ask specifically what kind of activities you are currently engaged in.

The main activities that we are engaged in are as follows
Team practice
Convention Viewing
Social events
Participation in business exchanges
Participation in user-sponsored competitions
Participation in official competitions
Many are active in FPS titles, while others are active in MOBA and gaming genres.
The goal is to achieve good results in e-sports leagues for corporate exchange.

I am glad that we started this club! When do you feel happy to have started the club?

I believe that until now, there have been many cases where people have shared common interests but ended up not getting to know the other person in depth.
I am glad that we started this group, because it allows us to share our interests and connect with other members, and it also makes it easier for us to cooperate with each other in our business activities.

Please let us know if you have any future plans.

The goal is to deepen the friendship within the company through e-sports, and to continue the current activities to provide an opportunity to introduce Cocone to the outside world.
We also hope to further increase the variety of game titles in which we are active.

Maker Club Mr.Cho

Please provide us with basic information such as frequency of activities, location of activities, and current number of members.

We usually meet once a week at a place where everyone can meet lightly. We are a voluntary group, so everyone is active when they want to be active.
The number of members is currently 11.

I would like to ask specifically what kind of activities you are currently engaged in.

We have been working to create something unique to Cocone to exhibit at the annual Maker Faire Tokyo. This year, our goal was to create and exhibit a Pokecolo related product, but we unfortunately had to give up the idea because everyone was busy with work.
We are also engaged in various improvement activities to make the things we use in the company easier to use. For example, the Coconedeli touch system mentioned earlier by Mr. Yamaguchi. In response to feedback that the touch sound was not heard well and the response was slow, we modified the entire system to make it easier to use by adding LEDs and increasing the response speed.
Most recently, we designed and created the necessary systems for a drone experience at the August 2 Family Day event.

I am glad that we started this club! When do you feel happy to have started the club?

It is when I see you all engaging in creative activities and creating something with a sense of hobby that is different from your work.
I am also very happy to see the members happily sharing their opinions and working together in a friendly and joyful manner.
I feel that the beauty of the association is that there are moments when you can discover a side of a person that you cannot usually see at work, or a latent ability of a person that you were unaware of.

Please let us know if you have any future plans.

We would like to achieve the goal of presenting our company-like work in Maker Faire Tokyo, which we gave up this year.
I believe that the creative urge to create something is an instinct that all people have at their core. I hope to freely release that instinct in the Maker Club as we work together with our members.
We would also be happy if young people and women could participate more easily.

The club system was introduced in response to a significant increase in the number of employees.

It was impressive not only to promote communication within the company and create a place for new employees who are worried about the new environment, but also to see members working vividly in the joy of sharing what they like.

Cocone will continue to value the relationships with the people we work with, and we will continue to make efforts to further deepen the bonds among our employees.

Please also see this article!

• Magazine SWITCH Interview “Creating a workplace that enriches life” General Manager of the Corporate Design Division Shigeyuki Kashiwakuma
• Magazine SWITCH Interview “Cocone’s professionals who master support” Concierge Team Leader Mana Omura
• A chance to revitalize internal communication. Revival of Cocone’s birthday party!