Human Resource Management

In our Articles of Incorporation, we designate our employees as one of the Company’s principal stakeholders to realize our Corporate Concept (hhc), and enhance the value of our “human talent” by ensuring stable employment, respecting human rights and diversity, providing full opportunities for growth in support of self-fulfillment, and creating an employee-friendly environment.
We aim to effectively achieve social good by placinghhcand compliance as our core value for human resources, aligning our vision with what employees want to accomplish, and by providing an environment and programs that enable every employee to carry out their daily work with a sense of fulfillment and job satisfaction based on a strong sense of empathy with our corporate concept, and at the same time, support the growth and self-realization of the employees themselves.

We are focusing on strengthening organizational management, both in terms of systems and operations, in order to conduct the appropriate placement of human talent that supports the effective achievement of social good, treating them fairly, improving work engagement, and fostering a sound organizational climate.
In order to foster a climate that accepts and acknowledges differences in opinions and ideas among employees and promotes dialogue based on diverse values within the organization, we continue to work on simplifying the design of the organization and hierarchy, data-driven visualization of the characteristics and activities of the organization and its members, and developing and enhancing training programs that contribute to the improvement of management skills.
In addition, we support employee self-realization, along with careful management of goals, through fair screening of individual employees’ willingness and attitude toward work, performance and contribution to the company in light of the standards required for each role, as well as by conducting career reviews and providing opportunities to realize their potential.

Under the supervision of the Chief HR Officer (CHRO), we have established a system in which the HR organizations in each country work together globally to design and operate systems in order to maximize the performance of each employee, conduct optimal placement of human resources, and develop talent. This system allows us to understand issues concerning the management of the Company, including the rapidly changing business environment and diversifying employee values and work styles, and to swiftly resolve them, leading to the realization of management and business/divisional strategies.

In Japan, we also provide all employees with a system to assist self-actualization that allows them to envision “what I want to be in the future,” understand their own strengths, weaknesses, and values, and incorporate it into action plans. We also provide a system that reflects each employee’s requests, ideas and opinions in personnel transfers, company policies and other measures.

In order to enhance employee autonomy over goal execution and growth potential, we promote one-on-one meetings between employees and their supervisors through guidelines and systems.

1）Engagement survey
In Japan, we have been conducting monthly surveys of employee engagement since fiscal 2020, and using the results for discussions and improvements in the workplace, and for people analytics*. In addition, beginning in fiscal 2021, we are introducing a global company-wide engagement survey. In the first such survey, the ratio of highly engaged employees was 85%, higher than the average for global pharmaceutical companies. Notably, the level of empathy with and everyday practice of our corporate concept was extremely high, at 95%, while items related to corporate ethics exceeded the benchmark by more than 10%. This clearly indicated that management based onhhcand compliance has permeated the Company and has become one of our strengths. However, there remained room for improvement, especially in Japan, in terms of fostering a culture in which creative discussions are based on knowledge gained from empathizing with patients and the people in the daily living domain, and in which diverse values are mutually recognized and opinions shared. This global survey will be continued on an annual basis, and will be assessed as an indicator of the enhancement of human capital, which is of utmost importance to the Company, and actions aimed at improvement will be implemented.

2）Ostering an organizational climate
In order to utilize creativity and leverage diversity to create new value and realize hhceco, it is important to have an organizational climate that accepts and makes use of perspectives, ideas, and values that are not simply an extension of conventional thought.
For fostering an organizational climate which allows employees to share opinions based on diverse ideas and values, we are taking the following actions.

3）Enhancing human capital portfolio
To realize the digital transformation (DX) strategy at the core of our new business model, we are proactively hiring data scientists, engineers, and other specialized talents and strengthening our human capital base.
In addition, to maximize the human capital base to execute management strategies, we are implementing an annual succession planning for key global positions to select, develop, and promote the next generation of leaders, ensuring diversity in terms of nationality, gender, age, etc.
Going forward, we will focus on creating global talent mapping to identify employees who are currently active globally and potential human resources who are expected to be active in the future for implementing, data-driven, optimal human resource strategies.