Harnessing Benesse's Deep Expertise to Address Staffing and Development Challenges in Elderly Care

"care hint" — Born from the Reality of the Care Industry

Could you start by telling us about your business and your respective roles?

Mr. Uehara:Our company operates more than 350 private senior care facilities across Japan, and alongside elderly care, we are involved in several other welfare-related businesses. I serve as the head of the "care hint" service, overseeing the overall operation and leading content development.

Mr. Yoshino:I lead the customer success function, handling client relationships as my primary responsibility, alongside customer acquisition and everything related to the platform.

What was the background behind launching "care hint," your e-learning service for care providers?

Mr. Uehara:The direct trigger was winning first prize in a business contest within the Benesse Group. The idea itself grew out of challenges I had been aware of in the care industry for a long time.

Through years of experience in care recruitment and workforce development, I had repeatedly witnessed a damaging cycle: staff shortages make proper training impossible, which in turn leads to poor retention. I had always wanted to do something about the situation in which people entering the care industry were leaving before they ever had the chance to discover how rewarding the work could be.

The thought that this problem might be addressed through a business venture became the starting point for "care hint."

What would you say is the appeal of working in care?

Mr. Uehara:Our company's philosophy is "Deeply accompanying each person's individuality," and I believe the appeal of care lies in the privilege of engaging with the unique life stories, backgrounds, and aspirations of each individual, and in being a steady companion through that journey.

Care is not a series of fixed tasks to execute; it is a highly professional discipline that requires thoughtfully understanding how a person wants to live and providing support that honors those wishes.

In the process of supporting an individual's way of life, in collaboration with the person, their family, and a multidisciplinary team, there is both professional fulfillment and real depth.

Choosing learningBOX as a Partner That Would Walk Alongside Them

What led you to choose e-learning as your delivery method?

Mr. Uehara:Care facilities operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and many staff in home-visit services go directly to and from their assignments without coming into the office. Gathering all staff in one place for training is genuinely difficult. Some providers end up running the same training multiple times just to accommodate staff who were unable to attend.

Given this reality, e-learning, which staff can access anytime, from anywhere, seemed like the clear answer.

How did you come across learningBOX, and what were your key requirements when searching for a system?

Mr. Uehara:We were introduced to it by another company within the Benesse Group. A critical requirement was that email addresses not be mandatory for user registration.

Many care workers do not have a personal email address, and requiring one can become a significant barrier to adoption, both in obtaining the address and in managing accounts.

It was equally important that the platform be easy enough for our primary audience, predominantly users in their forties and fifties, to watch videos comfortably without being intimidated by the technology.

What ultimately convinced you to choose learningBOX?

Mr. Uehara:The single biggest factor was how quickly the learningBOX team understood our business and the quality of their proposals. Because this was a new venture, we had not yet fully defined our operational model or worked through all of our feature requirements. But they listened carefully, helped us clarify the challenges together, and came back with concrete suggestions such as "this kind of setup might work well for you," which gave us the confidence to place our trust in them.

Responsive Support and Flexible Development

Looking back from the decision to adopt learningBOX through to going live, which stage was the most demanding?

Mr. Yoshino:On the system side, we did not run into any major obstacles after deciding to proceed. The greater challenge, given that this was a new service, was taking the time to think through the service design and the user experience: how our clients would operate the platform day to day, and how to make sense of the many features learningBOX offered in that context.

Throughout this process, one thing we were determined to avoid was giving care providers the impression that the platform might be too complex for them to use effectively.

What have you found to be the most useful or convenient aspects of learningBOX?

Mr. Uehara:The breadth of features, above all. Because this is a new service, we need to respond to client feedback quickly, and the fact that every feature we need is already there is genuinely impressive.

How would you assess the sales and support from learningBOX?

Mr. Yoshino:Account additions are processed the same day or by the following day, which allows us to operate without any unnecessary delays. Whenever we have a question, we always receive a prompt answer.

When we want to adjust how a feature works, because it is a SaaS product, there is no need for us to handle development ourselves — we can describe what we are trying to achieve and discuss whether it is feasible (N1 Development). That flexibility is enormously reassuring.

Designing "Clear and Concise"

What are the distinguishing features of "care hint," and what did you focus on most carefully in developing the content?

Mr. Uehara:We put an enormous amount of thought into the scripts. With nearly 30 years of experience in the care business, we were able to pack in a great deal of knowledge and real-world examples that only a company like ours could offer. And the other guiding principle was to keep everything as clear and concise as possible.

Mr. Yoshino:Our overriding aim was to lower the barrier to simply pressing play. We set a standard of two to three minutes per video. Getting learners to start watching in the first place is, in our view, the most important thing.

Mr. Uehara:For the care technique videos, we used six cameras to capture every angle without any blind spots, close-ups of the hands, body movements, the feet, and weight shifts. We also incorporated animations and other elements to make the videos genuinely engaging to watch.

Which content has resonated most strongly with users?

Mr. Uehara:The statutory training videos, which address topics with overwhelming demand, have received particularly strong praise for their clarity. The fact that our content is grounded in real examples from within our own organization also makes it easy for viewers to connect with.

In addition, the exam preparation videos for the Certified Care Worker qualification and the Care Manager qualification have proven very popular.

Being There When Care Gets Hard

What is the story behind the name "care hint"?

Mr. Uehara:In care work, the right approach shifts constantly, shaped by each person's physical and mental state and their family's wishes. Rather than prescribing a single correct answer, we wanted to be a resource practitioners could turn to in moments of uncertainty: something that quietly offers "here's one way to look at it" or "this might be worth trying." That spirit is what the name captures.

Could you tell us about the mascot character "Hinti"?

Mr. Uehara:Hinti is modelled on a squirrel. We think of squirrels as tireless, industrious little creatures. We wanted a character that felt warm and approachable, one that people would naturally take to.

What kinds of feedback have you received from learners?

Mr. Yoshino:The most common comments are things like "the key points come through clearly, even in a short video" and "the visuals make it genuinely easy to watch." People also appreciate that the content is designed to prompt reflection, rather than simply delivering information in a one-directional way.

Mr. Uehara:What surprised us most is that we have never once received a question from a learner about how to use the platform. Managers do ask occasionally, but learners consistently call it "intuitive," "easy to get around," and "easy to search" — which tells us that going with learningBOX's clean, simple interface was absolutely the right call.

What Care × E-Learning Can Really Do

What results have you seen since introducing learningBOX?

Mr. Uehara:"care hint" is genuinely making a difference to how efficiently our clients handle training.

The feedback we hear most often is that they no longer have to build materials from scratch or figure out a new approach each time a session comes around. Being able to handle everything online, including report submission, and having attendance records visible at a glance, so managers can immediately see who has completed their training, are both things people consistently mention.

Have you noticed any other changes beyond the direct outcomes?

Mr. Uehara:One comment from a frontline worker has really stayed with me. She said: "I'm 50, and most of my colleagues are younger. I was still finding my feet, and I couldn't bring myself to keep senior staff back late just because I had questions. Without 'care hint,' I think the anxiety would have completely overwhelmed me." Hearing something like that makes it all feel worthwhile.

Mr. Yoshino:We're also seeing it used more and more in hiring and development. When candidates, especially those with no care experience, are shown some of the videos during interviews as a glimpse of the training they would receive, the reaction is often very positive.

We also hear of managers recommending specific videos to individual team members during one-on-ones.

It has become part of the employee benefits offering, part of ongoing development, and in some organizations it's being linked to HR performance systems, it's creating genuinely positive change.

Did working with learningBOX give you any new perspectives?

Mr. Uehara:Honestly, I had wondered at first whether care techniques and e-learning were really a natural fit. Having actually used it, I'm now convinced they are.

When you understand not just the "how" but the "why" behind something, you're able to adapt it, and that's exactly what good care requires.

Mr. Yoshino:There's an assumption built into everything we do: nobody retains everything from a single viewing. A system that makes it easy to go back and watch again is just the logical response to that. The freedom to learn whenever and wherever you want is something we believe in more strongly than ever.

More Content, Stronger Features

Please share your outlook for the future.

Mr. Uehara:We'll keep growing the content library while staying close to what our clients tell us they need. Multilingual support comes up a lot, and we're working toward making content available in English, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Chinese, and Burmese.

Mr. Yoshino:We're also excited about what AI can do. If it can take some of the administrative weight off care workers, the ways people use the platform day to day will only expand from here.

Thank you very much for your valuable insights!