Labor Practice and Diversity

Development of Human Resources

Basic ideas and policies

The Showa Denko Group deems it important to globally employ human resources and develop them into individuals who can demonstrate their abilities for the entire Group, so that it can globally expand its business and innovate each of its businesses and technologies.

Training system

Showa Denko annually provides individual employees with the training that is suitable for their current roles and expected careers based on a level-specific training system that focuses on business literacy and career development. We also offer correspondence courses and e-learning programs to support employees’ self-development. In addition, we have a program to develop business and corporate reform leaders, in which candidates for the Showa Denko Group’s future top management receive training in a step-by-step manner. Specifically, we have been offering the Management Leader Course (MLC) as a selective training course for assistant departmental managers and section managers since 2001, and the Rising Stars Initiatives (RSI) as a selective training course for acting section managers since 2015. Moreover, in 2019, we launched the Showa Denko Global Executive Development Program (SGED) for the globalization of human resources, in which excellent human resources selected from Group companies in Japan and abroad receive education as the next generation of business executives. We are also proactively globalizing Japanese human resources. Specifically, we provide them with opportunities to conduct research or acquire an MBA at overseas universities, receive practical training at overseas subsidiaries to become facilitators for the globalization of our organizations in Japan, receive training before being transferred to our bases outside Japan, and obtain language training with financial support.

Personnel system

Personnel system Showa Denko is operating a personnel system that values growth and development. Known as the “MB-OJT system,” it incorporates OJT elements into the conventional management-by-objectives (MBO) framework. In the face-to-face discussion between employees and their supervisors called “commu-cussion,” employees and supervisors develop a shared understanding of the employee’s targets and performance appraisals and discuss what has and what has not been achieved as well as what lessons were learned for the future. This helps individual employees to achieve self-growth and development.

Materiality KPIs and results

By 2030:

(1)Increase the number of participants in MLC and RSI training for the next generation of leaders in Japan to at least 20 annually (*MLC and RSI training will be provided alternately each year)
(2)Increase the percentage of non-Japanese participants in the Group’s managerial human resource development program to that equivalent to the Group’s overseas sales ratio (at least 200 people over a decade from 2020 to 2029)
(3)Achieve a proportion of female managers that is 10% of the total number of managers (section managers and those in higher positions) in Japan (on an unconsolidated basis)

1. Human resource development (in Japan)

In 2019, a total of 612 employees (of Group companies in Japan) participated in the level-specific training on business literacy and career development and SGED, RSI and other collective training. The average number of hours spent by each participant in the training amounted to 30.3 hours.

TOPICSLaunching the fourth round of RSI training in September 2019

Camping on an uninhabited island for RSI training

We launched the fourth round of RSI training in September 2019, in which 20 employees selected from acting section managers and those in equivalent positions participated. As the first (kickoff) session of the training, which lasted about eight months, participants went to a two-night, three-day team-building camp on an uninhabited island located in Suo-Oshima Town in Yamaguchi Prefecture. Subsequent sessions comprise an MBA program in which the participants learn about management strategies and marketing research, work on specific themes in four teams, and finally make presentations to the management team.

2. Development of excellent non-Japanese human resources

We will introduce a global and fair personnel system and disclose the number of employees promoted under it. We will also continue implementing the newly launched SGED. Among 13 members selected as participants in the first round of the training (from March 2019), four were national staff from overseas Showa Denko Group companies.

TOPICSLaunching SGED from March 2019

President Morikawa giving instructions to participants

SGED is a training program that was newly launched in March 2019. The program is implemented by selecting participants, assessing their past achievements, giving them feedback about the results, having them make self-development plans, providing them with training, and encouraging them to implement the self-development plans at their workplaces. Led by divisional managers and others in charge of human resource development, selected participants receive training and acquire broad knowledge, beyond the scope of their career experiences, one-to-one from their mentors, who serve as directors or in equivalent positions from business divisions other than those to which the respective participants belong. On the first day of the training, President Morikawa gave instructions to the participants.

3. Empowerment of female employees

■ Number and proportion of female managers
(section managers and those in higher positions)

We aim to increase the proportion of women to 30% or more of the total number of career-track employees, and continuously hold career support seminars for mid-level career-track female employees. Moreover, we are improving the work environment to enable female employees to achieve compatibility between their work and life events, such as marriage, childbirth and childcare.

Promotion of Diversity and Inclusion

Toward the future

We will establish pre-SGED measures at each Group company to increase the proportion of non-Japanese employees selected to be participants in SGED.
We will build a system to efficiently grasp information concerning the Group’s human resources for systematic human resource development.
We will further empower female employees to acquire “Eruboshi” certification as a company that promotes women’s empowerment.

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