Human Capital
Developing Human Capital
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Konica Minolta's Approach
Background and Issues
Nowadays, companies the world over are competing to create new services by leveraging big data with AI and ICT technologies. Konica Minolta, too, is aiming to become a digital company with insight into implicit challenges, the key to which is the transformation of human capital.
The Company recognizes that it must first accurately ascertain the needs of customers and society. Then, based on those needs, it must systematically and continuously develop professionals that can create and provide the kind of innovative value that is unique to Konica Minolta.
Vision
To create innovative value, every person has to thrive as an individual and professionals holding diverse views must engage in uninhibited discussions.
The Company’s human resources development vision is to empower people who can drive reform, feel a strong sense of ownership and complete projects to the end. Other highly prized qualities include ingenuity, the ability to engage partners, and the ability to create customer value. Konica Minolta wants to develop “business athletes” who can compete globally. This transformation of individuals as a professional will drive the transformation of the Company.
Key Measures and KPIs
- Systematically train employees with leadership skills by selecting young people early and reinforcing the pipeline for women officer candidates
- Provide global training for leaders who can meet customer needs with digital solutions (DX leaders) and finish assignments to global DX leadership positions by fiscal 2022
| Result | Target | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY 2020 |
FY 2021 |
FY 2021 |
FY 2022 |
|
| Strategic assignment of managerial candidates (%) (percentage of talent assigned to strategic leadership positions)*1 | 70 | 98 | 100 | 100 |
| Number of DX leaders trained (people)*2 | - | 24 | 27 | 40 |
- *1
- Percentage of employees assigned to strategic leadership positions
- *2
- DX leader: Leaders who can meet customer needs with digital solutions
Human Resource Development
Konica Minolta is focused on training employees to drive business growth.
In order to overcome the difficult competitive environment, Konica Minolta is training employees who can drive sustainable business growth by creating innovation.
Systematically Training Next-Generation Leaders (Implementation of Succession Planning)
Training leadership personnel systematically is essential to support the sustainable growth of the Company as it pursues digital transformation.
Particularly pressing issues include selecting young employees earlier, strengthening the pipeline for women director candidates, and establishing a specific plan for training candidates.
Konica Minolta addresses these challenges by providing regular opportunities for the President and CEO and top management to review talent in all businesses.
Through these reviews, the Company is elucidating the organizational issues in each business at present and those anticipated in three to five years, as well as identifying the employee criteria for the leadership positions that will be required. Both medium-term and long-term candidates are then listed, and an HR development plan is drafted.
Top management is committed to seriously discussing issues such as the early selection of young employees who can lead the next generation and the encouragement of performance among women to capitalize on diverse talent.
Raising up Global DX Leaders
Konica Minolta believes it is essential to orchestrate expert organizations and expand on a global scale the training of leaders who can meet the needs of customers with digital solutions. Accordingly, in training, the Company stipulates the requirements for DX leaders, thereby sourcing and identifying the global candidates for these positions, and then implements education programs in collaboration with external education institutions and provides individual coaching given by officers.
In fiscal 2021, Konica Minolta will focus first on the digital workplace field and expand the DX business with strategic global assignments.
Moving forward, we will accelerate our development of global leaders by expanding the scope of businesses covered by the program to all business operations.
Developing a Human Capital System
As the foundation of its OJD*, Konica Minolta, Inc. enhances its impact by providing rank-based training tailored to changes in roles and positions, as well as a range of training programs to raise knowledge and skills. In addition, the Company has established a support system to promote self-driven growth. Specifically, we have introduced a support system that provides referrals to recommended outside educational institutions and subsidizes the cost of attending educational programs of the individual’s choice. A total of approximately 8,600 employees took advantage of such educational programs in fiscal 2021, and the total time they spent was approximately 47,000 hours (excluding e-learning).
- *
- OJD: A variation of on-the-job training (OJT), OJD refers to the development of abilities while facing real-life work challenges, under the guidance of a superior.
Business Producer Development Program (CGF)
Konica Minolta, Inc. implements a program (CGF) that aims to train business producers who can achieve robust business growth. The Company carefully selects young employees with the desire to solve social issues through the creation of new value, and in fiscal 2021, 15 employees who joined in the tenth fiscal year of the program took part in the activities. As part of the training curriculum, the young employees who participate in the program work on creating new businesses while refining their skills together. This is not a pre-existing program, but is actually a curriculum that was entirely created by Management Committee members who are passionate about training the employees selected from a wide range of fields within the Company. In light of this, CGF plays a major role as an opportunity for interaction and refinement across the workplace, specialties and generations.
Brainstorming new business ideas
System to Develop and Certify ICT Personnel
Konica Minolta, Inc. has implemented an internal training program to develop ICT personnel who can leverage IT and digital technologies to provide added value from the customer’s perspective. The ICT Personnel Skills Certification System has been put in place to certify and register skill levels, from beginner to expert, based on the Company’s definitions of human capital, such as Data Scientist.*1 A training curriculum has been developed at each level. In fiscal 2021, 218 Data Scientists, 56 Product Owners,*2 and 10 IT Architects*3 received skill certifications.*4
- *1
- Data Scientist: Personnel who can identify decision-making and workflow issues by reviewing various types of data and then establish solutions
- *2
- Product Owner: Personnel well versed in both business and software technology who can maximize return on investment in software development
- *3
- IT Architect: Personnel who are responsible for realizing the processes and architecture for providing IT services to customers
- *4
- KM (Konica Minolta) System Architect: Mainly designs cloud infrastructure, system configuration, and application architecture. No registrations in 2021
Konica Minolta College
This educational program is open to all Konica Minolta employees, with class enrollment available through the Group's intranet system. The college currently offers over 150 courses, covering areas from business skills to expert skills, e-learning topics and distance education. These courses can help employees acquire knowledge of Konica Minolta's technologies and other cutting-edge technologies as well as critical business skills.
Konica Minolta College
Global Assignment Program for Early Career Talent
Konica Minolta, Inc. has a short-term training program that allows early-career employees to go abroad to learn at sales companies and world-class business schools. By practicing leadership and interacting with others possessing diverse values, these employees can improve and expand their outlook, which helps them to succeed on the global stage. The aim is to develop leaders early in their careers.
To date, 122 young employees have participated in this program. Since the end of the program, they have been using these experiences to contribute to the business. Although dispatching of students was put on hold in fiscal 2020 and 2021 due to the impact of COVID-19, we continued to offer practical English learning programs and programs for gaining knowledge and skills required for working abroad to those who would have been dispatched during that time. While the program was only intended for employees working in Japan, in fiscal 2022, we are expanding its scope to include the dispatch of employees from overseas affiliates to the head office in Japan, and from overseas affiliates to affiliates in other countries, and we expect these steps to help develop young executive candidates on a global scale.
Participant taking part in a trade show exhibit
A Personnel System Designed to Promote Human Resource Development
Assessment and Treatment System
To create an organization that continues to provide customers with new value, Konica Minolta, Inc. expects each employee to possess superior knowledge, expertise, and unique skills befitting a true professional, and to act and think independently to solve problems. In order to accelerate employee development, the Company revised its personnel assessment and treatment system for general employees, introducing a system that will highly evaluate talented personnel who act in accordance with the Konica Minolta Philosophy and take on the challenge of pursuing ambitious goals without fear of failure, and a system to evaluate employees who take on challenges, regardless of the outcome.
Please note that, since the merger, seniority has not been considered in determining employee treatment. Instead, skills and results are evaluated fairly and reflected in promotions and salary increases.
Furthermore, to create stronger leaders to drive our professional human resources, we have revised our definition of management positions in April 2022 and have decided to make the existing single-track management system multilinear by positioning traditional management positions as "Empowerment Leaders" and "Experts."
Open Job Posting and Free Agent Systems
As a complement to the Group's company-led system of personnel assignments, Konica Minolta, Inc. has introduced the Internal Open Job Posting System and the Free Agent (FA) System, which encourage employees to request transfers to new positions on their own. These systems will help produce employees willing to undertake new positions in building their own careers and create a corporate culture that respects the desire to challenge oneself in new ways.
The Internal Open Job Posting System, which allows employees to apply for open positions posted by departments looking for personnel, will be expanded into a system that covers not only Japanese but also global human resources.
The Free Agent (FA) System allows employees wishing to take on the challenge of a new type of job or department to post their application on the intranet. Departments with open positions review the employees' posts, call promising candidates in for interviews, and if both the department and the employee agree, the employee is transferred to the new job.
With these two systems in place, Konica Minolta continues to facilitate the fluid movement of talented personnel across the Group and to support employees' self-determination in shaping their own careers.
Evaluation by External Parties
Awarded Silver Medal at the National Abilympics
Employees with disabilities who work for Konica Minolta With You, Inc., a special subsidiary of Konica Minolta, Inc., were awarded the Silver Medal for representing Tokyo in the PC data entry skills competition at the 41st National Abilympics (vocational skills contest for persons with disabilities) held in December 2021.
The medal-winning employees, who regularly use computers for data entry, decided to participate to improve their work skills and test their abilities. As a result of improving themselves both in and outside of working hours, they were awarded the Silver Medal.
Establishment of a Global HR Organization
Konica Minolta, Inc. has set up a global human resources organization to develop personnel around the world and put the right people in the right positions. The aim is to realize a corporate group that continually provides new value to customers worldwide. The global human resources organization seeks to collaborate with senior management and relevant departments in order to promote individual skills and the capabilities of the entire Group. Various measures are being implemented such as the visualization of talent at a global scale, preparing individual career development plans, as well as assigning work based on individual career development plans, performing global job rotation, improving employee engagement and providing training opportunities in and outside the Company. A remuneration system is also being introduced to further motivate employees.
