Developing Human Resources
To create new value and increase the productivity of all employees, it is important to increase the abilities of all employees. We are taking a two-pronged approach comprising supporting the development of diverse talents and providing opportunities to utilize such diverse talents. We will provide support for employees to grow by autonomously acquiring knowledge and experience in order to realize the careers they have designed for themselves and thus make maximum use of their diverse talent.
Lion’s Ideal Human Resources and Guiding Principles for Behavior
Lion’s Ideal Human Resources
- Leaders who drive strategies and produce results
- Managers able to direct and support their subordinates and highly skilled specialists working to fulfill their appointed roles
- Employees who independently find and implement solutions to the challenges in their work
To develop such human resources, Lion is strengthening its workplace PDCA cycles and has established a training structure.
L-Compass (Guiding Principles for Behavior)
Lion has formulated L-Compass, a common set of values and rules of conduct for all Lion Group employees. In line with these guiding principles, we advance business aimed at realizing the management vision.
L-Compass Award
The L-Compass Award has been presented since 2015 with the goals of encouraging exceptional actions and processes that reflect L-Compass values and accelerating the improvement in organizational learning needed to provide a competitive edge.
Open to all employees of the Lion Group, the L-Compass Award program, based on L-Compass guiding principles for behavior, recognizes worthy actions and initiatives, regardless of the size of their impact on corporate performance . A total of 21 awards were presented in 2019, and data on the exceptional actions and processes so honored was shared throughout the Company.
Going forward, Lion will strive to create a work environment that fosters ambition and creativity among employees and to strengthen front-line capabilities.
Education and Training System
Lion Career Village (LCV）
Since 2019, we have offered employees learning opportunities through Lion Career Village (LCV), shifting from conventional level-specific training to a more self-directed mode of learning. In its first year, more than 60% of those eligible used LCV online instructional content, with approximately 20% participating in discussion-style programs. LCV is thus contributing to the formation of self-directed learning habits among employees. As we adapt to new learning styles, we are revising level-specific programs to create new educational opportunities and realizing an environment that allows the learning momentum of individuals to ripple out across the organization so that ambitious, highly motivated employees will generate dynamism within the organization.
Going forward, to help employees gain knowledge that will further expand the breadth and depth of their work and with an eye to accelerating institutional learning, we will create environments that enable them to teach one another and share what they have learned.
Enhancing Lion Career Village (LCV)
Lion Career Village Receives Two Awards
The new LCV system Lion launched in January 2019 to help employees realize self-directed growth received the Career Up Education Special Division 16th Japan e-Learning Grand Prize organized by e-Learning Initiative Japan and Nihon Kogyo Shimbunsha as well as the Nihon no Jinjibu HR Award 2019 from the Nihon no Jinjibu HR Award Organizing Committee.
Going forward, we will continue to improve work environments that promote ambition and creation to help all employees advance their careers in an effort to reinforce front-line capabilities.
ReDesign FORUM
Lion is advancing ReDesign Activities, a Company-wide initiative, in accordance with the idea that it is necessary to engage in action that creates dynamism for personnel, organizations and management based on earnest discussion between employees and management about essential issues that could alter Lion’s corporate behavior.
As part of ReDesign Activities, since 2018, Lion has held the ReDesign FORUM with the aims of directly conveying to management the passionate desire of employees to bring change to the Company and of rapidly implementing their proposals.
Overview of Activities
The annual ReDesign FORUM comprises three sessions, bringing together employees from a wide range of divisions.
At the first session (in July), participants select three themes and identify issues related to each. They then work to find solutions to these issues by, for example, implementing experimental measures and meeting with related departments, external experts and other companies. They make an interim report on their findings at the second session (in October) and a final report at the third session (in December).
Management has examined the feasibility of the measures proposed by the teams in the ReDesign FORUM’s first two years. Some of these have already been put into practice on a Company-wide basis.
Participants have commented that the ReDesign FORUM gave them a chance to directly convey their passion and ideas to management and see them realized. They also noted that participating increased their affection for Lion and gave them a greater sense of professional fulfillment in their work. As these comments demonstrate, this initiative is both creating opportunities to change Lion’s corporate activities and helping to increase employees’ professional fulfillment.
Overview of ReDesign Activities
| Participants | Themes | Measures implemented | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First term (2018) |
95 |
|
Measures based on the themes at left are being implemented as part of Company-wide initiatives, such as the Lion Professional Fulfillment Reforms |
| Second term (2019) |
35 |
|
Measures are being considered in preparation for implementation |
NOIL
The LIVE Plan includes the basic strategies of Expand and Evolve Our Business Domains through New Value Creation and Create Dynamism to Foster Innovative Change. As part of initiatives based on these strategies, in 2019 we launched NOIL, a program for selecting and implementing new business ideas. Under the theme of going beyond conventional healthcare wisdom, NOIL is aimed at continuously creating businesses that offer new value. In the program’s first year, it received applications from more than 100 people, collecting ideas based on diverse perspectives from employees not only in the R&D Division and Marketing Division, but divisions across the Company, including those related to sales and production. The applicants examined issues faced by consumers and, through their own efforts, devised business ideas aimed at resolving them. To commercialize the ideas for new products and services that management and outside experts selected as promising, the employees that submitted the chosen ideas have been transferred to the newly established Business
Overall Scheme of the NOIL Program
Perspectives of Employees Working to Commercialize New Businesses
The experience of independently coming up with the solution to a problem I had in my own daily life was the impetus for my applying to NOIL. I wanted to share my solution with others and spread the joy it brought. I also wanted to work on solving consumers’ problems from a wider perspective that transcends the boundaries of the areas I had worked in previously. Bringing together underutilized resources and consumers’ real desires, I am starting to work toward commercialization.
One of the reasons I applied to NOIL was that I wanted to solve difficulties encountered in everyday life. At the same time, I wanted to do something different than what I had been doing at work to that point so that I could broaden my perspective and push myself to grow. Over the course of the program, the process of refining my idea was difficult, but I had support from both in and outside the Company and was able to deliver a final proposal. Going forward, as the “owner” of the business, I will work with even more people to make it a reality.
Marketing Study Program
The Marketing Study Program has been implemented continuously in the Marketing Division since 2014. This program offers opportunities for the systematic study of such topics as practical marketing theory and planning design based on consumer insights and competitive strategies. The program also serves to develop marketing personnel in accordance with individual career paths.
Systems
Side Job System
Pursuing a side job can be an opportunity for employees to expand their own potential and take a fresh look at their own abilities. In 2020, we introduced a side job system (in which employees can either devise their own side job or choose from a number of options) to create opportunities for employees acting with deliberate autonomy to gain knowledge and experience. By gaining experience outside the Company, employees can grow and evolve while expanding the breadth of their career and career options. Furthermore, we aim to leverage the external knowledge and connections that employees build through their side jobs to help create new value.
Handpicked Appointment and Early Promotion
We have launched systems of merit-based “handpicked appointment”to select project leaders and persons to fill specific positions without regard to years of service or age as well as “early promotion” to quickly identify outstanding human resources early and expand their responsibility and authority. In addition, on a trial basis we have implemented multifaceted evaluations of ability with an eye to increasing employee satisfaction and fostering professional fulfillment.
