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
- 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.
Education and Training System
Lion Career Village (LCV)
Since 2019, we have offered employees learning opportunities through Lion Career Village (LCV), our platform for learning, shifting from conventional level-specific training to a more self-directed mode of learning. Approximately 90% of employees use LCV online instructional content, with approximately 10% participating in discussion-style programs. LCV is thus advancing the formation of self-directed learning habits. 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.
Career Planning Support
Lion’s career design support hotline offers consultations about employees’ careers and provides information from inside and outside the Company to support employees in realizing deliberate autonomy in the form of advancing their own careers based on their own aspirations and actions.
Career design interview with a career consultant
ReDesign FORUM
Lion has been carrying out 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, Lion launched the ReDesign FORUM in 2018 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 ReDesign FORUM brings together employees from a wide range of divisions.
Participants form teams to work on specific themes and explore 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. The participants brush up their proposals through direct dialogue with management before making a final report, at which point management decides whether or not their proposals can be implemented.
Management has examined the feasibility of the measures proposed by the teams in each of the ReDesign FORUM’s three 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.
| 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 |
|
Self-led LION ACADEMIA activities and other measures aimed at transforming corporate culture are being implemented |
| Third term (2020) |
26 |
|
Measures are being implemented to break down barriers between employees in Japan and overseas, such as the internal side-work system, which enables participants to get more experience in international operations |
NOIL
Under the theme of going beyond conventional healthcare wisdom, we launched NOIL, a program for selecting and implementing new business ideas in 2019, with the aim of 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 were transferred to the Business Development Center established in 2020, where they have been taking a central role in building new businesses.
Overall Scheme of the NOIL Program
Quickly Commercialized Business: Gokinjo Cheftomo
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 started to work toward commercialization after my idea was selected through the NOIL new value creation program in December 2019.
From there, we went through about a year of commercialization study and testing, culminating in the launch of Gokinjo Cheftomo, a service for reserving dinner take out. Gokinjo Cheftomo is a service by which users can reserve dinner take out via an app for the days they need it on a weekly basis. In addition to reducing the burden of housework, Gokinjo Cheftomo fosters the added value of healthy eating habits and community connection, differentiating it from existing delivery services. The service has been well received by both users and participating restaurants, and the numbers of both are expanding. Going forward, we will work to grow Gokinjo Cheftomo into a business that contributes to the formation of new housework habits and value.
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
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. Pursuing a side job can be an opportunity for employees to expand their own potential and take a fresh look at their own abilities. As such, we are both granting employees permission to work side jobs outside the Group and recruiting outside talent to work side jobs at Lion. 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.
Expected Benefits
- Employees will build relationships outside the Group and broaden their horizons externally, enabling them to expand the breadth of their careers and grow as individuals. They will then be able to apply the experiences gained to their work at Lion.
- Lion will gain skills, knowledge and experience that it lacks internally.
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, we have implemented multifaceted evaluations of ability with an eye to increasing employee satisfaction and fostering professional fulfillment.