Director and Executive Officer, Head of the Corporate Planning Division
Mr. Manabu Kamiyama
Manager, Staff Strategy Section, Planning and Management Department, Corporate Planning Division
Ms. Marie Fukuzaki
Services Used
SMS Connect (MailSMS Feature)
――Could you tell us about Brave’s business operations?
Mr. Manabu Kamiyama (hereinafter referred to as Kamiyama): Our company, established in 2011 and now in its 15th fiscal year, is a staffing agency specializing primarily in the so-called “medical sector”—specifically, healthcare, social welfare, and nursing care. We currently have approximately 230,000 registered staff members and operate 35 branch offices throughout Japan.
――Could you tell us about the work you both are responsible for?
Kamiyama: I am the head of the Corporate Planning Division. In the staffing industry, this corresponds to the customer acquisition side of the business. I am responsible for business and management strategies—including job postings and media selection—which are closely related to corporate planning.
Ms. Marie Fukuzaki (hereinafter referred to as Fukuzaki): I am in charge of recruiting temporary staff. Every month, I post job listings on various media outlets and work to improve our conversion rate by monitoring the number of applicants we receive. In addition, our BPO center in Nagasaki serves as a contact center that handles job applications from across the country, and I am also working to strengthen our relationship with that facility.
――What is the process from job posting to temporary staffing?
Kamiyama: We post job listings in various media outlets. When job seekers see the listings and apply, their information is sent to our contact center in Nagasaki, where we handle the initial response. We then forward the staff information to the branch office, which matches the candidates with client companies, leading to their placement and start of work. That’s the process we follow.
――What are the key characteristics of the medical staffing industry?
Kamiyama: Even though we generally refer to it as “temporary staffing,” the characteristics vary depending on the sector, and that’s what makes it interesting. Broadly speaking, I think it can be divided into industries that match based on job openings and those that match based on job seekers.
Matching based on job openings is common in fields such as on-site labor, logistics, and manufacturing. This model involves staffing agencies assigning workers to fill vacancies.
For specialized positions, including those in the medical field, the model is closer to that of a recruitment agency: the staffing agency searches for clients that match the job seeker’s desired location, job type, and conditions.
――It’s a business model that revolves around job seekers, isn’t it?
Kamiyama: In that sense, the key is how to attract job seekers, so it’s important to have a wide range of channels through which to reach them.
――Please tell us about the communication tools you use when interacting with job seekers and temporary staff.
Kamiyama: We use a combination of phone calls, email, LINE, and SMS (Short Message Service) — sometimes switching between them and sometimes using them all at the same time. First, we try to call job seekers who have submitted applications, but these days, it’s often hard to get through. To begin with, phone calls aren’t always the best communication tool for the current generation. Figuring out how to reach them is the key to this business, and that’s where SMS comes in.
――So you send a text message to people who can't answer the phone, right?
Kamiyama: When I receive an SMS, I can tell what the call I just received was about. We also have a policy of sending both regular emails and SMS messages. This is because we believe it’s important to increase our points of contact with job seekers.
――Do you ever send targeted text messages to temporary staff members?
Fukuzaki: Of course there is.When I absolutely have to get in touch with someone, and neither LINE nor email is being checked, SMS is ultimately the most reliable tool. Depending on the project, there are times when I need to recruit people urgently, and in those cases, SMS is more effective than email. Notifications are sent even to those who didn’t answer the phone, so they can call me back later. Since we can send bulk SMS messages from our CRM to people who meet specific criteria, I’ve really come to realize how effective this is in terms of both time and cost.
――What other ways are there to use SMS?
Kamiyama: This is also a common occurrence in the staffing industry—it’s not uncommon for registered temporary staff to become inactive. We receive thousands of applications every month from across the country, but we can’t place every single one of them in a job.Sometimes, the timing just doesn’t work out because the client’s openings have already been filled. However, even if we can’t match them right now, there’s still a possibility we’ll be able to in the future. This group represents an asset for us, so we reach out to them through various channels to ask, “Are you looking for work right now?” In the industry, this is known as “reactivation,” and we also utilize SMS for this purpose.
――In that case, would it involve introducing specific projects, or would it be a more casual approach?
Kamiyama: There are both scenarios. For individual job openings, the job listings are posted on the Brave website, so we include the URL and reach out by saying, “We have this job opening—would you be interested?” In other cases, there are areas and branches where we’re having trouble attracting staff, so we send out mass emails or text messages asking, “Are you currently looking for work?” If we receive a reply, we follow up to confirm their current employment status and preferred conditions before proceeding with the matching process.
――What kind of system do you use to manage data on your temporary staff?
Kamiyama: We use a cloud-based system called PORTERS STAFFING* for our recruitment services. It’s what you might call a CRM tool. By using Acreet’s MailSMS feature, PORTERS STAFFING integrates with Acreet’s SMS Connect, allowing us to easily send SMS messages directly from the email composition screen in our regular CRM tool.
*PORTERS STAFFING: https://www.porters.jp/
――Brave introduced SMS in 2019. How were you using it back then?
Kamiyama: We used it as one of the tools to reach job seekers. With email or phone calls, it was often difficult to find a good time to contact them, or we wouldn’t get a response, but SMS was quite effective as a communication tool because people actually read the messages, so we found it very useful. At the time, we sent them through Acrit’s management dashboard.
――What prompted you to start using the MailSMS feature, which was added in 2022?
Fukuzaki: It’s simply more convenient that way. The main reason is that we can send SMS messages directly from PORTERS STAFFING. Before that, SMS Connect wasn’t integrated with PORTERS STAFFING, so we had to open separate screens.
――That sounds really convenient.
Fukuzaki: One of the appealing features of the core CRM system for staffing agencies is that it allows you to segment and sort job conditions in great detail. So, when a new job opening comes in, you can seamlessly sort by the relevant areas and job types that match that opening and send emails or text messages to all selected candidates at once.
――In that case, do you send both emails and text messages?
Fukuzaki: Both. For those who don’t have an email address, access is limited to SMS, but some people receive both. As for how we use them, the process is to first send a mass email to everyone, and if the response isn’t very good, we use SMS as the next step.
――Is there a difference in response rates between email and SMS?
Fukuzaki: I think SMS probably gets a higher response rate. People who aren't in a B2B environment are using email less and less these days.
――Now that you’ve actually added the MailSMS feature and tried using it, what are your thoughts?
Fukuzaki: The biggest advantage is that you can send messages directly from the CRM tool you already use, so there’s no need to learn any new procedures. I think the seamless integration—truly just a single click—is the best part. I’ve really noticed that the quality of our work has improved as we’ve learned to make full use of the CRM’s features.
Kamiyama: To be honest, we can’t ignore the cost benefits either. I feel that we’re achieving a good return on investment by leveraging tools like SMS to re-engage existing users. As you know, the healthcare and nursing care labor market is currently very much a seller’s market. To attract new registrants, we need to place ads in media outlets and encourage people to sign up for our service through those ads. However, due to the labor shortage, the cost per new registrant—from placing an ad to securing a new user—has been rising year after year.Since new registrants are slow to come in, and given that hundreds of thousands of people are already using Brave’s services, it makes perfect sense to focus on helping these existing users thrive. I believe SMS is essential for increasing the success rate of this outreach effort.
――What does Brave-sama consider most important when communicating with staff members?
Kamiyama: That’s right. I believe that reducing staff turnover is an important part of my job, and I think daily communication and follow-ups with staff members are key to achieving that. Since the healthcare and welfare fields rely heavily on heart-to-heart connections, I focus on conveying my enthusiasm. I’ve come to realize that SMS is an indispensable tool for maintaining those connections, because staff members are sure to see the messages.
――Are there any specific strategies you use to re-engage inactive staff members?
Fukuzaki: One thing that’s often overlooked is that the messages we send via email or MailSMS tend to become formulaic. Since the act of sending the message itself often becomes the goal, we make a point of carefully crafting the content and conducting A/B tests to analyze whether it was effective—this is part of our PDCA cycle.
――Please tell us why you chose Acrit for your SMS delivery service.
Kamiyama: When we were looking to implement the system, we considered about four or five companies. We ultimately chose Acrit because, while their pricing aligned with our budget, the main reasons were that they’re a Japanese SMS originator—which gave us peace of mind—and their extensive experience allows them to be flexible with custom development. I’m in business discussions with various companies myself, and I find myself unconsciously promoting it, saying, “It’s a really great system!” (laughs)
――Are there any challenges you face in operating MailSMS?
Kamiyama: Nothing in particular. Acrit handled the integration with PORTERS STAFFING, so as things stand, there’s nothing for us to do. Since there haven’t been any issues, we haven’t even had a reason to use the support desk (laughs).
――Brave has been using our SMS service since 2019 and implemented MailSMS as an additional feature in 2022. By integrating it with the CRM tool “PORTERS STAFFING,” they have expanded the scope of their SMS usage. It was a pleasure to speak with them again and learn that they are truly seeing the benefits of MailSMS.
Thank you very much for your time today.
Founded in 2011, the company operates a staffing service specializing in the medical field. It has approximately 230,000 registered staff members (as of April 2025) and operates 35 branches throughout Japan.The company joined the Mynavi Group in 2019. Guided by the vision “Everything Starts with People,” it provides “the creation of new value” through the connection between people and companies via high-quality staffing services, thereby contributing to social development through job creation.
