Sustainability / Social Report / Creating Attractive WorkplacesSupport for Human Resource Development
- Basic Approach
- Management Structure
- Human Resource Development System
- Revision of the Human Resources System
- Performance Appraisal to Support Human Resource Development
- Human Resource Development and Training Programs
- Training Programs for New Employees
- Career Development
- Development of Specialized Skills
- Basic Training and Education for All Employees
Basic Approach
Based on the “Daicel Group Human Resource Policy,” our Group supports its diverse employees to grow with a sense of presence and fulfillment. Behind the promotion of investment in people is the desire for each and every employee to hone his or her skills and mind, and to achieve self-actualization by taking advantage of the opportunities at the company. As we strive to achieve self-actualization, we take pride in our work and contribute to the happiness of all by providing good things to society.
The following basic concepts have been established for human resource development.
- Develop employees who can protect safety, quality and compliance standards based on rules established in each country and region.
- Provide equitable opportunities for individualized human resource development and implement appropriate appointments tailored to each employee to enable our diverse employees to grow.
- Develop talented individuals focused on teamwork to contribute to the further progress of Daicel Group as a unified team.
- Develop talented individuals who can enhance their expertise and shine in their area of specialty.
- Strive to enhance employees’ employability by raising their motivation for self-development and providing maximum support for improving abilities.
- Cultivate a culture in which each employee’s career is considered and nurtured by the employer, superiors and subordinates.
Management Structure
Under the director in charge of human resources, the Human Resources Division promotes various training programs in collaboration with each Group company.
Operation Training Centers (TRC) have been established at manufacturing sites throughout the Company for the operators and engineers on the production floor. To facilitate the education of operators and engineers in the essential qualities of knowledge, experience and behavior, hands-on training is carried out in mockup plants.
The rotation schedule for training is submitted for deliberation by the Aptitude-based Placement Committee, comprising the Human Resources Division, top management and directors in charge of each SBU.
In addition, we established the Career Support Center, effective April 1, 2023. At Daicel, employees choose their own careers through dialogue with their supervisors rather than through company mandate. Some employees, however, may have difficulty making decisions about their own careers due to such reasons as a lack of experience at the company. The Career Support Center was created to help such individuals map out their careers.
Human Resource Development System
Various systems and structures are in place to support Daicel’s human resource development. The effectiveness of human resource development is further enhanced by skillfully combining these methods according to the position and ability of each employee.
Human Resource Development System and Personnel System
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| Method | Content |
|---|---|
| On-the-Job Training (OJT) |
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| Offsite Job Training (Off-JT), e.g., Group seminars |
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| Self-directed development |
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| Rotation (change of roles or functions) |
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| Assessment (reviewing the skills of each individual) |
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| Self-Development System (Human Resource Development Notebook) |
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| Human Resource Development Plan |
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| The Career Challenge System |
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| Technician Training System |
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| Fellow Career Track System *Fellow positions are equivalent to Professional positions under the old system. |
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 In-house Certification System for Skilled Experts |
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Revision of the Human Resources System
In April 2021, Daicel revised its human resources system for managers with work processes that encourage employees to set new challenges for themselves as well as measures to sufficiently reward results.
Daicel switched its focus from a preference for generalists to a system of multiple career paths for specialists and managers, so that individuals can now select a career path based on their aptitude. Furthermore, the seniority system for promotion was eliminated and changed to a framework in which employees can earn early promotion by demonstrating their ability. For those in leadership positions, 360-degree appraisals are conducted once a year as opportunities for better self-understanding through comprehensive feedback from coworkers and subordinates.
The human resources system for non-managers was also revised in April 2022 and changed to a framework in which employees can chose their career at Daicel independently. We streamlined a Creator Course and an Expert Course, each of which has clearly stated roles and expectations. Evaluation methods were simplified as well, incorporating dialogue with superiors as a means of gaining a sense of employees’ growth and efforts to reward their performance.
Performance Appraisal to Support Human Resource Development
Daicel uses Management by Objectives (MBO) as a performance appraisal method to support human resource development. The objectives of each division are broken down to the individual level, and we evaluate employees once a year based on achievements corresponding to their individual objectives.
Daicel practices MBO by upholding the keywords “Dialogue, Growth and Achievement” and emphasizes extensive dialogue between the superior and subordinate. This is based on our underlying belief that mutual understanding and trust fostered through dialogue will encourage employees to take on the challenge of achieving higher goals on their own initiative, which in turn will lead to personal growth for each individual. In addition to evaluating employees on their job performance, we appraise their conduct and attitudes according to their job and rank. We provide employees with feedback on the results of these evaluation, which are ultimately reflected in their compensation.
We are committed to maintaining a fair and equitable evaluation system by disclosing it to all employees and providing MBO assessor training to enable more appropriate evaluations, leading to enhanced human resource development.
Human Resource Development and Training Programs
The Company has various human resource development programs for enhancing the skills of employees.
Overview of Training Programs in Place
*The human resources system for non-managers has been divided into two career paths, the Creator Course and the Expert Course. The steps along each course are based on the individual’s abilities.
The Creator Course comprises levels C1 through C4.
The Expert Course comprises levels E1 through E9.
Training Programs for New Employees
To quickly equip new employees with the skills expected of industry-ready personnel, Daicel provides a training program that covers areas ranging from basic knowledge required of corporate employees to practical skills for operations at production sites.
The program is conducted at the Nishiharima Training Center, and new employees initially learn about social and workplace conduct, Company policies, and other basic knowledge and skills. This is followed by training at the Operation Training Center and production sites. Through these activities, new staff acquire the essential knowledge they need to perform their duties in a manufacturing workplace.
Training Schedule for New Employees
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Training in Manufacturing
All newly graduated employees are initially assigned to a plant and undergo one year of training in manufacturing. During this period, they learn the fundamentals of manufacturing and plant operations through OJT at the front line of production.
Plant training consists of instruction on basic facilities and the eight-hour-shift system, allowing new employees to actually see, hear, and feel what it is like to be in a plant. This experience deepens their appreciation of safety, quality, costs, and the environment, all watchwords of plant operations. Moreover, they are instructed in subjects relevant to their particular work areas.
While receiving advice and guidance at the workplace, trainees come into contact with many employees in each work area. Through the training, we aim to give new employees an appreciation of what it takes for them to do their best in manufacturing.
Career Development
As part of the ongoing career development process for employees, we create a human resource development plan every year. The objective is to encourage the medium- to long-term growth of each employee and link their career objectives to the Company’s goals.
Position-Specific Training
Daicel provides training programs that are tailored toward different positions as defined in the Company’s job grade system, ranging from new employees to new director for Group companies. Each training session aims to nurture human resources to live up to the expectations of their positions and respective roles and responsibilities.
In addition to sessions that deal with subjects such as corporate ethics, basic legal literacy, and other essential knowledge and rules that employees need to know, we provide training for skills in areas such as communication and management.
Our career training is for mid-career recruits as well as the newly promoted. It puts an emphasis on teaching how trainees can put the knowledge and skills they learned to use on the job, and it aims to motivate people after they are promoted or recruited while promoting individual skill improvement and behavioral changes.
In FY2023/3, the training sessions were attended by a total of 311 employees.
Next-Generation Leaders’ Training (Non-managers and Managers)
Daicel provides a “Next-Generation Leaders Training Seminar” (1) (for non-managers), targeting employees who are expected to soon become section chiefs in the hope of placing competent young personnel in optimal positions where they can demonstrate leadership and grow into leaders of their divisions at an early stage. We also conduct a “Next Generation Leader Training Seminar” (2)(for managers) with the aim of identifying promising young managers at an early stage. In these training programs, the participants experience action learning for a year that is aimed at resolving issues faced by their divisions.
As of FY2023/3, 10 employees were selected for the Next Generation Leadership Training Seminar (1)(for non-managers), and 10 were selected for the Next Generation Leadership Training Seminar (2) (for managers).
Age-Specific Career Training: The Fifty Seminar and The Forty Seminar
Since FY2022/3, Daicel has held The Fifty Seminar, an age-specific career training program for employees in their early 50s. In FY2023/3, we expanded the scope of our age-specific career training program to begin offering the "Forty Seminar," available to employees in their 40s. During this training program, participants engage in group work with people of the same age to reconfirm their strengths and expertise. In addition, they work out how they can contribute to their organization in the future. They also receive information about preparing for a fulfilling future life, as well as deepening their understanding of the Company’s internal systems for older workers (pensions and the post-retirement re-employment system).
We anticipate that this training program will help employees in their 40s and 50s map out their future career paths independently and enable them to excel in their careers and create a fulfilling life for themselves. In FY2023/3, 193 employees took part in the Fifty Seminar and 65 attended the Forty Seminar.
Establishment of the Career Support Center
Along with creating a career development mechanism for Daicel employees to choose their own career path, we launched the Career Support Center in April 2023 to provide career consultation services. In the future, we will begin offering these services to all employees rather than only new graduates and mid-career recruits. Career-related information is provided through our company intranet in addition to our career training sessions.
Development of Specialized Skills
As a manufacturing company, capable engineers are the foundation of our business, and developing them is one of our most significant tasks. We maintain an extensive training curriculum, which ranges from Monozukuri Training (“monozukuri” means manufacturing), which is offered to new employees, to sessions on specialized knowledge and skills that are needed at various points in their careers.
The Engineer Development Program
The Company’s Human Resource Development for Engineers Committee meets quarterly to review progress and improve the content of the Engineer Development Program, which includes financial literacy as well as technical skills and knowledge. Completing the program is considered one of the prerequisites for promotion to manager, and it is effective for strengthening employees’ engineering capabilities over several years.
Engineer Development at Our Global Sites
The Safety Strategic Business Unit operates five manufacturing sites in four countries (the U.S., China, Thailand, and Poland). While each location develops its own training and development programs, the Human Development Center trains and certifies trainers specialized in critical processes and develops special skills to ensure that the same level of safety and quality are being incorporated into manufacturing practices worldwide. Currently, there are 25 certified trainers across the globe, and each one trains and certifies new trainers locally at the various business sites.
We opened four dojos, for safety, quality, maintenance, and assembly, at Daicel Safety Systems (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. (DSSC) in China and Daicel Safety Systems (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (DSST) in Thailand, and two dojos, for safety and maintenance training, at Daicel Safety Systems (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (DSST) in Thailand in January 2021.
We conduct training and development programs tailored to local cultures and the scale of each business site based on Daicel’s relentless pursuit of safety and quality and monozukuri spirit.
Human Development Center at the Harima Plant
Overseas Language Training
We have also established programs for dispatching employees for overseas language training, ranging from short-term studies (English) for all new employees, to sending employees recommended by department managers to study overseas, and to various universities for longer periods (English and Chinese). We aim to foster a global mindset among new employees by creating opportunities to promote not only language learning but also cross-cultural understanding. While we had been unable to implement overseas language training since FY2022/3 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have re-started this program on a limited basis (Chinese) since FY2024/3.
Basic Training and Education for All Employees
The assurance of safety and quality is the basis of monozukuri activities and, at the same time, a matter of the utmost importance for our ongoing business. Thus, we need to develop human resources who are capable of achieving these essential criteria. We should not be satisfied with simply acquiring more sophisticated technologies and knowledge. It is also important to remain focused on the basics and diligently execute basic manufacturing activities such as performing greetings; 3S activities, namely Seiri (Sorting), Seiton (Setting-in-Order), and Seisou (Shining); crisis-identification activities; and hazard prediction activities. At our Operations Training Centers (TRC), we maintain our management principle of “start with basics, and return to basics,” which was adopted at the time of our founding, and we continue to develop the right people who support Daicel’s monozukuri activities with the focus on “assurance of safety and quality.”
Operation Training Center (TRC)
The Operation Training Center (TRC) provides training programs to foster operators and engineers, who are indispensable at each manufacturing site.
The center was set up in 2002 as a facility responsible for the Group-wide education and training programs for all employees, with the goal of instilling and maintaining “Production Innovation by the Daicel Way”. Production Innovation by the Daicel Way goes back to the basics and focuses on human-oriented manufacturing. By systemizing the skills and know-how of experienced staff and enabling everyone to put them to practical use, it endeavors to achieve a broad range of results including: (1) safe and stable operations, (2) dramatically higher productivity, (3) substantially lower manufacturing costs, (4) smoother, more uniform operations and quality stabilization, (5) the passing on of skills and techniques and human resource development, and (6) energy conservation. The TRC is a place where operators and engineers acquire the knowledge, experience and skills needed in their jobs, through experience-based training using both real equipment and simulators. It enables trainees to learn effective ways to operate and control equipment that is used in actual worksites and gain a structural understanding of the equipment.
Daicel’s Commitment to Monozukuri Manufacturing
Education and Training Programs
Target: New employees, operators at all levels, engineers, and workplace leaders (foremen, managers, and general managers).
Content of training programs: We implement 25 different training courses. These include basic manufacturing activities such as performing greetings, 3S methodology, namely Seiri (Sorting), Seiton (Setting-in-Order), and Seisou (Shining), and crisis-identification activities to hands-on experience and work on small-scale chemical plants and training devices, which involves training for operating distributed control systems (DCS) at each job level. Employees can raise their awareness of safety by learning about the objectives and background of the safety measures and rules introduced on the basis of lessons learned from past incidents. In addition, we provide experience-based hazard education using specialized equipment that simulates entanglements with equipment, static electricity, solvent and dust explosion, pressure, and exposure to chemicals.
We have been using an annual CAPD cycle* to actively improve the TRC’s training curriculum, programs and textbooks. We have also kept class sizes small (interactive education with about six students) to maximize educational outcomes.
*Instead of a Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) cycle, the most widely known approach to continuous improvement, Daicel has adopted a CAPD improvement cycle to avoid the risk of overlooking crucial facts and realities that often lie hidden in the initial planning stage.
Pressure Experience
This equipment runs pressurized water through pipes of varying diameters and simulates different pressures. Trainees develop a better understanding of issues relating to pressure, which they rarely come across in their daily lives.
Entanglement Experience
This equipment simulates a person’s hand getting entangled in a roller. By demonstrating the shock of getting entangled, we teach about the danger of rotating components.
On an annual basis, the TRC has offered experience-based training with a focus on chemical plants, not only to Company employees but also to university and vocational high school students.
From the time the TRC opened in 2002 to the end of FY2023/3, a total of 8,561 people has completed their training (FY2023/3: 397). The number includes 3,262 operators (excluding new employees) (FY2023/3: 139), 2,114 engineers (FY2023/3: 152), 1,983 new employees (FY2023/3: 82), 811 workplace managers (FY2023/3: 24), and 391 students and other staff (FY2022/3: none).
Moreover, the TRC was awarded “the Responsible Care Award (RC Award)” at the JCIAʼs 9th Responsible Care Awards in 2015, in recognition of its activities toward “passing on skills, and education and training in the process industry” since FY2003/3.
