We, JSR Group, specify our responsibilities to employees within our management policies.

• Evaluation and rewards based on fair standards
• Continuous opportunities to grow by challenging themselves
• Acceptance of the diversity of fellow colleagues and to be provided a place where all employees can work together as a team

We established 4C Course of Action for our employees consisting of Challenge, Communication, Collaboration and Cultivation.

Based on this corporate philosophy system, our human resources strategy states, "maximize value (provision) to customers and markets, linking efforts for the enhancement of corporate activity efficiency and business competitiveness and the creation of innovation, by maintaining a global perspective and strengthening dynamic and diverse human resources and organizational capabilities according to the characteristics of countries, regions, and businesses.” We have formulated the following as our ideal corporate and organizational culture, and we are advancing various measures.

• By respecting diversity, equity and inclusion and having employees autonomously build their own careers, all employees are maximizing their abilities.
• By ensuring employees and the company trust one another and growing together, employee engagement continues to increase resulting in continuous innovation.

4C Course of Action

• CHALLENGE: All employees of JSR Group should share a common, global focus and desire to succeed. Employees should feel confident to autonomously take on new challenges, learning from successes while viewing setbacks as opportunities to learn, grow and improve.
• COMMUNICATION: All employees of JSR Group should share common fundamental values. They should maintain transparency in sharing company policies and departmental challenges and emphasize bi-directional communication to achieve common goals and solve issues together.
• COLLABORATION: Employees will work together in the spirit of cooperation, valuing common, corporate goals over internal or departmental barriers. Employees will also be encouraged to actively collaborate with external resources and not be bound to conventional ideas.
• CULTIVATION: All employees will cultivate an environment that supports bi-directional communication between managers and subordinates and provides opportunities to develop together as individuals and as members of productive, supportive teams.

• We shall ensure the fair treatment of employees, based on each person’s tasks, roles, and level of commitment.
• We shall respect the diversity of our workforce and make efforts to create a workplace environment that enables every employee to make the best use of their abilities and to find a rewarding sense of satisfaction in their work.
• We shall respect the human rights and diverse characteristics of all individuals, and shall not discriminate against gender, age, nationality, race, ethnic group, origin, religion, beliefs, social status, physical disability, sexual orientation, or other relevant conditions when determining employment status and/or working conditions.
• We shall not force religion and/or belief on others.
• We shall provide a workplace free from any harassment arising from positions of power. In addition, we will not engage in any form of sexual harassment, such as behavior and verbal comments with sexual connotations that will make others feel uncomfortable.
• In the event that a staff member reports the violation or possible violation of the law and/or the Principles of Corporate Ethics to his / her superiors and / or internal / external hotline, we shall fully protect the said staff member’s identity and protect him or her from unfavorable treatment.

The Global Employee Engagement Survey marked its third year in FY2023. During FY2023, we streamlined the survey by integrating the Employee Engagement Survey with the Corporate Ethics Awareness Survey, reflecting suggestions from employees received in last year's survey.

The global response rate for FY2023 was 83% (targets: 6,233 employees; respondents: 5,184 employees), marking the third consecutive year it was over 80%. The survey covered consolidated subsidiaries, and participants by country were, in descending order, Japan, China, and the U.S. The response rate in Japan, in particular, was 90%. In order to obtain the real voices of employees, we have increased the number of languages offered to nine. We continue to improve the survey year after year.

We also believe that the high response rate was attributed to management’s careful explanations of the significance and meaning of the survey, efforts to inform employees about it, and encouraging them to respond, so that management and employees can work together to promote this initiative.

The survey results showed that the first factors that have a significant impact on employee engagement were the same as last year: (1) opportunities for growth, (2) penetration of strategy, and (3) adaptation to change, which require continuous improvement as we transform and take on challenges as a Group. Considering the importance of these factors, we decided to expand top-down action discussion and setting in FY2023, and after a series of discussions within the management team, the global actions to be taken toward 2024 by the CEO were determined.

The greatest priority is growth through work via on-the-job training. We have produced the Seven Articles of OJT (Trainer’s Edition) and the Three Articles of OJT (Trainee’s Editions) and are using these to develop human resources through work at each workplace.

We have established the following systems to support self-education:

• Correspondence course system: Once an employee has completed a voluntary correspondence course selected from menu of 250 courses the company has selected, the company will pay roughly 50% of the course fee as a subsidy.
• Public certification course system: The company will pay testing fees, course fees, and the cost of course texts to employees who have acquired certifications necessary for their work.
• External training support system: The company will pay part or all of the course fees for external courses employees have taken that are necessary for their work.

We provide the following off-the-job training to augment on-the-job training.

Training in the common knowledge and skills considered necessary for skill qualifications or for each job grade level, from a company-wide perspective.

Training in the specialized knowledge and skills needed for each job for career building and to improve work efficiency.

• Specialized skill training: For engineers and technical staff, this includes plant training in common skills, safety training, quality control training, technology management training, and R&D environmental safety training. For administrative staff, it includes external courses on management strategies, accounting, finance, and other areas.
• Courses on handing down technological expertise: Expertise on the past business activities of JSR is shared among employees, including understanding of the past history, background on initiatives, techniques for problem identification and control, problem points, discussion of failures and tips for succeeding. We pass on the good DNA of JSR and have employees utilize it in the future business activities of each department.

For issues that should be addressed on a company-wide level, we narrow down the objectives and focus on the needs.

• Language training: To develop language skills and the mindset for global response, we support short-term language study abroad (in English and Chinese), and hold conversation classes in English and Chinese.
• Overseas research dispatch: Employees voluntarily perform research at universities and research institutions overseas for up to two years to improve research skills and learn challenging and innovative new technologies useful for future business creation and technological innovation.
• Dispatch for MBA/MOT: Employees acquire MBAs and MOTs at graduate schools in Japan while working their normal jobs.
• Life planning/management seminars: Employees around the ages of 51 to 52 have the opportunity to think about their lives after retirement by learning about the three pillars of life planning: 1) career development plan, 2) lifelong economic plan, and 3) health management.

• Training content is the same for all domestic Group companies and the employees of domestic Group companies also participate in training conducted by JSR. JSR is working to develop human resources for the entire Group.
• Some training is provided online, depending on the training objectives.
• To promote the advancement of women, the Diversity Development Office provides training to managerial level employees who have female subordinates, sends them to external training (the NPO, J-Win), and provides other training opportunities. Click here for more information.
  • Diversity, equity, and inclusion: Initiatives promoting the advancement of women
• As part of our efforts to promote digital transformation (DX), we provide training in data science to employees who will be the next generation of leaders, training in programming to young engineers and technical staff, and an introductory course in data literacy to young administrative staff.

As globalization and digitalization progress, the demands made of leaders are changing. At JSR, we have been providing the “Training the next generation of leaders” course with external cooperation since 2007. This course is focused on development of the next generation of leaders. The training teaches participants established management practices, the essentials of digital management, and other necessary business skills through discussions based on actual cases. Participants also expand their perspective by imagining that they are in the position of a superior, thinking about what is important from a management perspective, and outlining a vision for their own departments. The program also incorporates action learning, in which teams work together to envision the creation of new businesses. Those who have taken this training include people who are already officers and the training is steadily generating diverse human resources who are equipped to look beyond the present and spur innovation themselves.

As part of its nurturing and career development for young employees, JSR established and runs the Career Development Program (CDP). CDP is a job rotation program for university graduates on the management track. Since introducing the program in 1988, we have continued to improve and refine this method of training.

The program is for employees up to their 10th year with the company who are able to work for a number of different departments. This program not only produces employees with diverse and broad horizons, but also leads to increased inter-departmental communication. In terms of career development, CDP gives participants the opportunity to think about their own careers and facilitates autonomous career building for the future.

To consider transfers under CDP, CDP Committee members individually interview employees who will enter CDP before discussing individual rotation plans at a general CDP meeting, which are also based on a comprehensive view toward the employee’s desires and aptitude. The Human Resources Department runs the CDP Committee, and each General Manager is a committee member.

We established a self-evaluation system in which individuals report frankly on how they view the status of the work they are currently responsible for and their future vision and career ambitions for themselves. This system plays a role in the career development of participating employees and increasing engagement. Skill development objectives are set for the coming year through discussion between the individual and his or her superior based on feedback from wage assessment results, skill development results during the past year, and the individual’s self-evaluation. As a result, using this system, we conduct systematic and efficient skill development to achieve self-realization, skill improvement, and autonomous career development, as well as human resource development that is important for both the individual and the company.

SR conducts a variety of training programs to raise the skills of its employees.
The total annual training time and education cost per JSR employee was as follows.

Note: This total was calculated by including technology and skill training, stratified training programs, and other training organized by human resources departments. It therefore does not include hours spent in education provided independently by departments or external education. Additionally, it does not include educational hours based on e-Learning.

The status on providing core training is shown below.

Note 1: Nearly all technical training common to all plants, miniature plant training and safety education, and quality control education is conducted by internal instructors or alumni. We provide instructor training to improve the instruction techniques of these internal instructors and alumni.

Note 2: The total number of participants is limited to full-time employees of JSR.

We have established training centers near our Head Office and in the Yokkaichi area to create an environment that can provide continual educational support to employees. We are using these training centers to focus on further refining our strengths in technology and developing human resources by passing on technical skills at manufacturing sites and expanding employee education programs.

The following types of original educational programs and symposiums are also held at domestic Group companies.

This program is designed to develop human resources equipped to support global business operations overseas. The three-month program involves learning the mechanisms of company operation and management at the U.S. subsidiary while studying at a language school in the U.S.

Techno-UMG Co., Ltd. has been conducting selective business training since FY2022. The training consists of two phases. Phase 1 involves systematically learning the management skills required for business leaders. Phase 2 utilizes what participants learned in Phase 1 to think about what will be important to the company in the future from a management perspective, identify an ideal state, and formulate the necessary business strategies to achieve it.

This symposium has been held since 1989 and facilitates interaction with researchers who are leading global biological research. The 34th Symposium was held in FY2023.

• Takato Molecular Cell Biology Symposium (Japanese only)