Human Resources Management

Programs in Line with Stages in Development Based on a Leadership Pipeline Concept (Japan)

To support Group-wide/business strategies, we are organizing training programs that focus on leadership development. The training program is based on the skills and job function awareness required in the exercise of leadership at various organizational levels. Minimizing knowledge-cramming-style training, we expect our employees themselves to repeat cycles of experience and introspection, while acting proactively to meet their higher-level job requirements, and will support them in changing their behavior in ways that will produce results.

Training system (Japan)

Leadership Development Program

Allowing talented human resources to demonstrate their abilities—despite time constraints caused by life-changing events, such as childcare and family care, and regardless of differences in nationality, ethnicity, and religion—requires improvements in line managers’ management capabilities. Mitsui Chemicals focuses on developing leadership skills to lead the organization toward an even better direction by incorporating coaching methods into training programs for each level of line manager training and by encouraging core leaders in each division to take specific and innovative action in their daily business activities. The normalization of online training programs has enabled the participation of employees with time constraints due to parenting, nursing, and other life events, regardless of where their business sites are located, thereby realizing a training system that accommodates diversity.

Number of Leadership Development Program Participants (Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. registered employees)

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Key Achievements of Stratified Training (Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. registered employees in FY2021)

Training by Theme

Digital transformation training (E-Learning)

As a basic strategy for promoting digital transformation under VISION 2030, Mitsui Chemicals aims to improve the digital literacy of the Group and shift to a data-driven organizational culture by improving the literacy of all employees and training employees to acquire specialized skills. In fiscal 2021, we launched a group-wide E-learning program to quickly improve our employees' digital literacy. In addition, we will enhance our training and education programs to develop data scientists and AI-related technologies and establish a system for promoting these initiatives mainly through internal efforts.

Regional Training

Global Manager Seminar

This program provides knowledge of Mitsui Chemicals business strategy, cultural understanding, and leadership skills, in order to develop local leaders from different Group companies. Manager candidates from major sites around the world work together through discussions. In fiscal 2021, since we struggled to get opportunities for face-to-face meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we adopted a hybrid training style that combined online and face-to-face sessions, while providing training programs on how to remotely manage teams and strengthen D&I and compliance for each region. In addition, in the U.S., we provided training programs for eligible members and senior leadership members to develop their executive presence, strengthen their strategic thinking, and learn to deal with conflicts and build effective teams so that they can achieve the goals they set.

Mitsui Chemicals Competency Development Program

This is a program for future generation leaders to help them understand their roles as leaders and acquire the necessary knowledge and skills. Selected candidates from young employees from the Asia-Pacific and other regions work through this 5-day program, including business simulations.

Training style in the age of the New Normal

The Mitsui Chemicals Group respects a variety of work styles, including telework and staggered work hours. In view of these changes, a study has been conducted on moving training to online programs.

Global Employee Engagement Survey

We believe that enhancing the engagement of individual employees is necessary to achieve our long-term management plan, and have launched the Global Employee Engagement Survey for all employees of the Mitsui Chemicals Group. The first survey, which was conducted in 2018, revealed our unique strengths, as well as some issues. In response, we have implemented countermeasures as post-survey actions. For example, with regard to learning and self-development, we have been piloting LinkedIn Learning, an online learning platform, for approximately 1,000 employees in the Group and globally since 2020. In addition, we have been utilizing the survey results by business sector, business division, and company to identify the unique challenges of each organization. Based on such findings, approximately 96% of the organizations have developed and implemented post-survey actions.

Examples of post-survey actions

Following these activities, we conducted the Employee Engagement Survey for the second time in 2021 (response rate: 88%). Although the Group has experienced significant changes in the environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic since the last survey, the Group's engagement score improved by 3% compared to the previous survey, indicating that the post-survey actions have had some effect. Some organizations that were particularly enthusiastic in executing post-survey actions saw their scores increase by over 20%.
As with the previous survey, we will continue to develop and execute post-survey actions across the company and at the organizational level to further improve the scores. By setting this item as a non-financial KPI for VISION 2030, we will endeavor to build a highly competitive organization through enhanced monitoring.

Employee Engagement Survey (Results from FY2018 and FY2021)

Engagement Score trends and target

Engagement Factor Score (Areas of strength and Challenge areas)