Training and Development of Employees
Setting Vision of Desired Talent for Sumitomo Pharma Employees
Every one of our employees is a main actor in our CSR-based management. The Company has formulated "the vision of desired talent for Sumitomo Pharma employees," which articulates the following three strengths as the important factors. Through a variety of training programs and job rotations, the Company assists the employees to further develop their potential.
Desired Talent for Sumitomo Pharma Employees
An Environment in Which Employees Can Fully Exercise Their Capabilities
At Sumitomo Pharma, we aim to foster a corporate climate where employees can independently pursue their own skills development, where the Company actively supports employee growth, and where the corporate environment allows employees to demonstrate their full potential.
Personnel development primarily consists of on-the-job training (OJT) where employees learn through doing actual tasks and taking on challenges. As a supplement to this, a variety of off-the-job training (Off-JT) programs are offered in the form of strengthening/support programs, training sessions and more. By combining OJT and Off-JT with job rotation, we carry out effective personnel development in an environment that encourages employees to maximize their potential.
Sumitomo Pharma has also introduced a self-reporting system to motivate employees to take the initiative in their work. The primary purpose of the self-reporting system is to help supervisors understand the circumstances, issues and preferences of each employee they supervise, while considering their long-term career and skills development.
Supervisors hold face-to-face meetings with individual employees based on their self-reports, providing them with the opportunity to focus on their future in the Company and to reevaluate their resolve, interests and aspirations. Supervisors reflect on the Company's training policies and day-to-day duties of employee they supervise and, by linking this to OJT and Off-JT, support the growth of individual employees.
Training System
SMP Academy, for Training Selected Employees, and Overseas Training with Open Recruitment
We are building a stronger corporate culture and improving business results through human resources training. In fiscal 2016, the year which we positioned as "year one for investment in education/training," we restructured our personnel development system, and we have been actively promoting human resources training since then. In July 2016, as part of this initiative, we established the SMP Academy, a career grade-specific training system for selected employees.
The SMP Academy provides extensive learning opportunities to highly talented and ambitious students, from young employees to mid-career employees as well as managers. The Academy's programs consist of A1 course, A2 course, A3 course, and the "Management course." In the six years between fiscal 2016 and 2021, 482 students completed the program. Training participants develop a comprehensive view of business overall from a broad perspective and the imagination to create new value.
Since April 2020, due to the impact of COVID-19, all training has been moved to an online format. Training content relevant to our current era and the changes taking place was also incorporated, such as switching to lessons that instruct participants on proposing and executing business models for the digital age. The HR Strategy Meeting plays a major role in this development and selection of the next generation of leaders. The HR Strategy Meeting, which consists of all the Directors except Outside Directors, some of the Executive Officers together with division heads as necessary, has been held monthly with over one hundred meetings during the past ten years. At these meetings, we monitor our human resources strategy appropriately by discussing the alignment of our human resource policies with our business strategy and the selection and development of the next generation of leaders. In addition, at each meeting, human resource-related important issues are also discussed from time to time, such as work style innovation, diversity and inclusion.
In addition, in fiscal 2017, we started an overseas training program with in-house recruitment. The program's objective is to place promising young employees in environments with different industries and cultures, and provide them with early experience in overcoming challenges through their own efforts, thereby instilling resilient courage. The program up until September 2021, eight talented young employees had been dispatched overseas. We hope that the program will have an effect not only on the growth of the participants themselves, but also on fostering an organizational culture of challenge.
We aim to develop professional employees able to produce results by continuing to promote company-wide training programs for increasing individual skills.
Talent Management for Strategically Placing Employees and Promoting Human Resource Development
In April 2018, we adopted a talent management system for maximizing the performance of our employees (talents) and systematically understanding and supervising various skills, assets, and capacities of our employees. Utilizing the talent management system, we encourage employees to take steps toward their own self-improvement in order for employees to realize self-disciplined and independent careers. We also have supervisors and employee they supervise that work together to design customized development plans in order to realize human resources development and the proper placement of personnel, while striving to maximize results.
Starting from fiscal 2019, we introduced a many-sided diagnosis based on the belief that in order to further enhance the management skills of officers it is important to objectively identify the characteristics of the officers themselves and increase their trust and credibility among the people around them, including their supervisors and employee they supervise.
In fiscal 2020 and 2021, we undertook people analytics (workforce analytics) leveraging the information accumulated and sped up policy decision making in the human resource affairs while searching for and identifying factors that encourage employee growth and factors that contribute to employee engagement.
Going forward, we will continue to implement HR policies and initiatives aimed at both accelerating of employee growth by utilizing gathered data, and maximizing results for the organization.
We have stepped up mid-career hiring efforts in many departments every year. In fiscal 2021, we hired 29 talent for primarily head office organizations, the Drug Research Division, and the Technology Research & Development Division.
Fostering professionals for achieving new value creation and operational reform via DX
In August 2021, we launched DX training aimed at developing 100 data scientists※. We have created courses that include e-learning programs for all employees and managers and that aim to give individuals a higher level working knowledge of data science. Making effective use of a range of data, we will strive to swiftly develop digitally capable professionals who can address a variety of issues.
※Based on "Skill Checklist Ver. 3.01" by the Japan Data Scientist Society.
Developing Human Resources through Application of Research Project System
We have applied a "Research Project System" to accelerate the creation of innovative pharmaceutical products. Under this system, Research Project Leaders with budget authority are selected and play a central role in consistently promoting the research project from the early stages through to the later stages.
Research Project Leaders are selected irrespective of age and experience based on factors such as themes and enthusiasm and given budget authority and personnel evaluation authority. The management of research projects with discretionary authority leads to the development of human resources as well.
Training for Medical Representatives
Sumitomo Pharma provides training for medical representatives (MR) with the aim of nurturing MRs who can work with healthcare professionals and help solve the issues with which they are confronted. OJT serves as the basis of our approach to MR training and we encourage them to be self-disciplined and independent. Those with less than three years of experience are considered young MRs in development and go through a training program entitled "Sumitomo Pharma―MR Basic Program." MRs attain, from various perspectives, knowledge and skills needed to do their jobs with excellence.
Furthermore, to meet needs arising on the medical frontlines, all MRs participate in ongoing training to ensure they acquire the latest medical information. We have also made available various tools for self-study, thereby providing an extensive training system to develop professional MRs that can contribute meaningfully to the medical community.
Introduction of Programs to Support Self-Improvement
In addition to selective English proficiency enhancement training of personnel recommended by each department, since April 2020, we have adopted the goFLUENT program (e-learning, group English conversation lessons, etc.) as a means to help employees enhance English proficiency. We increased the number of times we offer the TOEIC test from two to four times per year and incorporated TOEIC scores as one of the criteria for applicants applying to sit exams for certain managerial positions. We also adopted a distance learning program offered by GLOBIS Corporation to help enhance business skills. The company pays a part of the tuition fee and supports self-improvement for employees to improve their employability.
Going forward, we aim to increase employees able to work in a global setting, so we will polish our programs for enhancing English proficiency and will review and implement new programs as well.
Penetration/practice of "CHANTO"
Mid-term Business Plan 2022 calls for building a flexible and efficient organizational foundation in which "CHANTO" is instilled. This is aimed at continuously creating and delivering innovation to people, transforming our organization to adapt to changes in the world, and continually growing our business.
In order to deliver the highest performance, it is essential to clarify performance targets more than ever, and to foster a culture of challenge and human resources that will enable us to work together as professionals. Therefore, we launched Project CHANTO in February 2020 as an initiative to make each one of our employees always aware of CHANTO and to change their own behavior.
At the start of the project, executives defined CHANTO at a workshop and established five Conduct Guidelines to serve as guideposts for employees when they lose their way or hit a wall.
Five Conduct Guidelines
1. Goal-oriented, take as one's own issues, and follow through
2. Show courage to meet challenges
3. Self-disciplined, independent and exert individual abilities
4. Respect each other and collaborate with peers
5. Continue to cherish diligence and integrity
For the penetration and practice of CHANTO which is the established Conduct Guidelines, we have held sessions to provide navigators* chosen from each workplace with opportunities to understand the importance of the Company's principles and CHANTO. These navigators have then led efforts to familiarize team members with CHANTO, resulting in an environment where CHANTO is understood.
In fiscal 2021, we moved from understanding CHANTO to putting it into practice. This involved navigators directing their organizations in identifying issues at their workplaces, and then formulating and executing action plans to make those improvements. We also conducted surveys to gauge how our employees' perception of CHANTO changed by executing their action plans. This suggests that employees feeling more strongly that they themselves must change is the result of Project CHANTO.
In April 2022, we reviewed our personnel evaluation system. We incorporated the "CHANTO" Conduct Guidelines as an evaluation factor. This system can especially evaluate those who "show courage to meet challenges."
Our aim in instilling CHANTO is to get every workplace to work towards ambitious goals and deliver results, but there is too much variation among individuals with respect to what "ambitious goal" means. To improve this situation, every workplace will aim to establish a position as a Global Specialized Player by 2033 and discuss where they want to be by then, taking ownership of getting there. Meanwhile, we will get all employees on the same page and foster a culture focused on delivering the highest performance.
* Employees selected with the criteria that they are non-managerial staff, exhibit leadership, and seem able to draw in their colleagues in a fun way.