YOU might find your new year’s resolutions fading even faster than usual if you sign on the dotted line at Canon (UK). Socialising with your new corporate chums and waist-busting lunches with company directors are a high priority in the Japanese multinational that prides itself on its company philosophy: kyosei.

Caroline Price, the HR operations manager, says community spirit is essential to the identity of Canon and its employees. “Kyosei translates as ‘living and working together for the common good’. We have lots of policies and procedures in place, as you have to have these days, but we like to employ people with nous,” she says. “We want people who want to make a difference.”

Difference in corporate culture is always relative — renegades who might rock the boat are not usually welcome. Glen Mason, a marketing manager who joined the company as a graduate trainee, says that Canon hires people “in a similar mould” but corporate harmony takes more than a golfing club and social committee.

“Canon is a large organisation and is very consultative. The Japanese culture likes everyone to buy into an idea, which can be frustrating because it takes a long time to get things agreed. On the upside,” he says, “implementation is then smoother.”

Perks and innovative HR practices combine to boost the feelgood factor. Contrary to stereotypes about Japanese business culture, Price says that Canon “tries not to be hierarchical”. The boss’s door is literally always open — Canon’s HQ is entirely open plan.

“Canon has an open culture,” Price says. “Every director has ‘back-to-the-floor days’ when they work alongside people in different roles in their division. There is also a birthday forum, when every member of staff who’s had a birthday in the past month is invited to have lunch with one of the directors.”

Canon’s 2,000 UK staff are also entitled to take an additional eight hours off over June, July and August to make the most of the longer, and hopefully warmer, summer days. Not to mention the best-price policy on Canon’s electronic goods, which means up to 30 per cent off for staff. Mason himself owns three cameras despite admitting that he’s not a particularly keen photographer. Unsurprisingly, he is more enthusiastic when he recalls winning tickets for Euro 2004 in Portugual. Tickets to Canon-supplied events, including Uefa Champions League football games, are raffled off to staff, so it’s not only the champagne quaffers in marketing who benefit.

The bad news for outsiders looking to join the party is that Canon UK recruited only two graduate trainees last year and prefers to promote staff internally and talent spot via existing staff, offering a £1,000 bonus per successful introduction. Mason says he didn’t expect to spend more than 18 months in his first job but still “looks forward to work every morning after seven years”.

“When I got itchy feet, the company recognised that and gave me a new challenge. Canon is a ‘you can’ organisation,” Mason says, acknowledging the cheesiness of mentioning the company’s chirpy advertising slogan. “If you want to progress here there is nothing you can’t do.”

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If you think you can, or would like to try, visit: www.canon.co.uk

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