In terms of human resources development, we believe that it is necessary to develop human resources who can evolve and transform various operations, for realizing the 2030 Business Plan, which we intend to transform our business portfolio, implement structural reforms to improve profitability, and strengthen the business management foundation. We will actively invest in human capital to develop leaders who will drive such evolution and transformation, as well as human resources who will execute each strategy.
To realize the 2030 Vision, we must vigorously promote a human resources strategy linked to our corporate strategy. Against this backdrop, the Group has set a goal of increasing the sales component ratio of the focused domain (“in-,” Direct Marketing, Frozen Desserts, and the U.S. Business) to 60% or more by 2030. To achieve this, we are increasing the allocation of human resources to the focused domain from a medium- to long-term perspective, based on the role that our human resources strategy should play.
As the labor force in Japan is expected to decline in the future, we will need to secure, develop, and appropriately assign human resources who can drive our business growth. Based on this recognition, we will work to improve productivity and management efficiency throughout the Company by enhancing personnel plans for each division and stepping up subsequent monitoring in cooperation with each business sector.
We are implementing initiatives from a medium- to long-term perspective to continuously develop candidates at all levels.
For officer candidates, we offer one-on-one coaching with an outside professional. Through this one-on-one coaching, candidates are given opportunities to deepen self-understanding, such as how to be a leader. We continue to develop human resources who meet the Group’s management personnel requirements, including leadership skills.
For general manager candidates, we conduct off-site training and the Group's own training that teaches the framework for problem-solving. In off-site training, discussions are held in a group setting with participants of the same rank from other companies on the theme of solving social issues.
For manager candidates, those who have completed the training for future leaders are voluntarily dispatched to an external school to provide opportunities for independent learning to develop their management skills.
Recognizing that they are indispensable in each business domain for the Group to achieve sustainable growth, we will work to secure human resources with advanced expertise and develop them over the medium to long term.
In FY2023, based on the requirements of DX, accounting, and global, which are priority areas, we identified the current state of expertise and implemented training options. In FY2024, we will develop options for developing more advanced expertise and expand the scope to include R&D personnel. In addition to mid-career recruitment of human resources who can have an immediate impact, we will further subdivide the recruitment of new graduates by career track and systematically develop and produce human resources from a medium- to long-term perspective.
The Group has placed the concept of “Protean Career” at the heart of its efforts to promote self-sustaining careers. As shown in the figure below, we believe that an increase in the overlap of “Will,” “Can,” and “Must” among employees is a state in which they are able to achieve a self-sustaining career, and we are supporting their journey by combining various initiatives.
As an example, in FY2023, we started dispatching employees to cross-boundary career workshops, where they frankly discuss their career approaches and worries online with people at the same level at other companies. Around 20 employees in their 20s to 50s took part. Our employees are provided opportunities to think broadly about the business capital and social capital that should be built up in the future by interacting with people outside the Company and having the opportunity to look at themselves objectively.
Aimed at clearly defining individual employees' growth path and properly running a training PDCA cycle on site, the Program consists of three phases: assessment, development of a training plan based thereon, and implementation of the plan. In the assessment phase, the person subject to the training identifies his/her own strengths and weaknesses jointly with his/her supervisor according to the definition of capabilities required for all Morinaga employees regardless of the job type, and develop an annual OJT- and Off-JT-based training plan. In the implementation phase, an interview session is held every quarter to review the employee's performance and confirm programs scheduled in the future. When these phases are completed, a training PDCA cycle is run.
Morinaga has been particularly focused on the education and training of young employees and provide them with a basic training program that spans three years after joining the company. Included in the program are the OJT Trainer System for new employees, annual group training in the form of an Off-JT, and career interviews by the Human Resources Division. The Human Resources Division provides diversified support to younger personnel in such areas as skill, mind, and career. The three year program is designed to help participants develop.
We continue to provide training to employees who have completed the three-year basic training program to help them further improve their skills, mindset, and behavior, according to the organizational roles they are expected to play.
Our theme-based training programs, which are focused on management and business challenges, include the following: next-generation leader training, managementgame training, and educational training to improve specialized knowledge and skills required to perform duties specific to each division.
At their assigned workplace, new employees learn how to accomplish their duties by running the experiential learning cycle for a period of one year, under the guidance of the OJT trainer in charge of them. An increasing number of facilities and employees have adopted the Human Resource Development Program in sequence, and, in conjunction with the use of personnel appraisal system, each workplace is actively implementing OJT programs to ensuring that employees can grow and develop their skills through the programs.
With the launch of the CO-MORI Campus, an internal platform for self-development, in the autumn of 2023, employees can now access a wide range of opportunities and information for self-learning and networking. In the six months since its launch, more than 1,000 employees, including those from Group companies, have used the platform, fostering a culture of voluntary learning from each other.
Top Screen of the CO-MORI Campus
We provide a wide range of programs that motivate employees to learn more, according to individual employees' training themes. These free-choice programs include distance learning, e-learning, Company-sponsored theme-based training, and external seminars whose fees are partly paid by the Company. Participants in the distance- and/or e-learning programs can freely select their own courses from approximately 200 options. We have established financial assistance programs under which employees can receive an amount roughly equivalent to half of tuition fees, or monetary incentives if they attend a course as a group. A number of affiliate companies have adopted similar assistance programs to support their employees' learning.
With the decline in the labor force, we believe that the active participation of seniors is essential, and since FY2022, we have been providing training for self-sustaining careers to employees in their 50s. Over 230 employees in total have participated in the training to rethink Will, Can, and Must. In FY2024, we plan to expand the number of eligible divisions. Also, we plan to conduct various training programs to think about careers from multiple perspectives, such as cross-boundary workshops and career resolution improvement. We continue to hold dialogue between the Human Resources Division and frontline supervisors to eliminate ageism*.
* Ageism: Stereotypes and assumptions based on age
In an effort to listen to our employee’s opinion, we hold various interview sessions between supervisors and their subordinates every quarter. These opportunities include quarterly accomplishment review, the Human Resource Development Program, and career design interviews. In this process, we make efforts to enhance employees' skills and performance by providing guidance and support for problem solving and growth while also emphasizing the process of reaching goals as well as evaluations based on MBO. We have established a system whereby employees who are subject to 360 degree evaluation are given feedback each time the evaluation is conducted, and are able to reflect on their own management style by receiving advice from their superiors.
In addition, the Human Resources Division holds an individual interview with participants in the rank-based training programs, ensuring that the Division can directly listen to employees and share their opinions.
The All Morinaga Labor Union, which consists of nine labor unions—six from Morinaga Group member companies and three from Morinaga Milk Industry Group member companies—operates under a union shop system. All regular employees, except for managerial or executive positions, are members of the Union. The Union discusses various measures and is working on such issues as the improvement of workplace environment.
We have continuously and regularly conducted employee awareness survey for more than 40 years. The survey is designed to identify issues to be resolved about corporate culture and various measures. The survey questions include those concerning the level of satisfaction with work, company, workplace, and supervisors, as well as other unique questions aligned with the times or circumstances, such as those asking the respondents' degree of understanding of the Medium-term Management Plan and their awareness of regulatory revisions. The results are shared with the management and each division's top executives, allowing them to use the results as important data for formulating management strategies and solving issues in respective organizations.
Morinaga is characterized by high employee satisfaction with the top management's communication regarding corporate vision and employees' great pride in their work and the Company.
Every year, Morinaga carries out initiatives to employ the diversity of ideas produced by individual employees and generate innovation.
Under this system, the President personally screens and honors employees (teams) who have brought tremendous tangible benefits to the company through inventions, discoveries, or ideas, or who have demonstrated the spirit of challenge and action in achieving goals that would be impossible to achieve through ordinary efforts or ideas.
New Business Development Division, which is engaged in efforts to create new business models, has recruited members through an internal open recruitment system.
The Division is also creating a culture of pioneering spirit,by providing training sessions for employees who wish to be involved in the creation of new businesses and by organizing lectures to learn about changes in the external environment and gain a heightened or broad perspective.