Hitachi has adopted the BULATS Writing Test as the company's official personnel appraisal program. Michihiro Hirai, their employee trainer, tells why they've chosen BULATS. 

“Through my experiences as Director of HIFL (Hitachi Institute of Foreign Languages) and also as a liaison between overseas customers and factory engineers before that, I have come to acutely realize not only that English is essential to our growth as a global enterprise, but its active skills (speaking and writing) rather than passive skills (reading and listening) are what our employees need to improve most. 

My recent research at HIFL has shown that, at least among Japanese businesspersons, active skills do not correlate strongly enough with passive skills and hence they should be addressed with a specifically focused approach.  

This should include test and evaluation as well as training: different yardsticks should be employed to measure different skills.  

Before I took the office at HIFL, the company had already been using an off-the-shelf passive skill test and an in-house speaking test as measures for the employees' English abilities. During my tenure at HIFL, I evaluated a number of English qualification tests which led to the recommendation of the BULATS Writing Test to the company's management. 

What we needed was a reliable writing test relevant to our business environments.  

As an avid English learner myself, I have taken a number of English proficiency tests available in Japan and thus have acquired a good grasp of them. In terms of validity (relevance to the company's business), reliability, and world-renowned authority of Cambridge University, I selected the BULATS Writing Test and conducted an evaluation it on our employees in cooperation with the British Council.” 

Substantiated by research and actual data, Mr. Hirai’s proposal led to the adoption of BULATS Writing Test as the company's official personnel appraisal program.