1. Home
  2. SUSTAINABILITY
  3. Human Resources
  4. Human Resource Development and Fair Evaluation

Human Resource Development and Fair Evaluation

The following introduces Shiseido human resource development and career development support measures, as well as activities for fair evaluation.

Overview of human resource development

Based on our commitment to “PEOPLE FIRST,” Shiseido actively invests in human resource development, believing that human resources are the most important asset and that "strong individuals create a strong Company." To create “strong individuals,” we focus on strategic talent management, performance management, and autonomous career development support, founded on a job-based personnel system. In 2020, Shiseido formulated the TRUST 8 Competencies, which describes a Company-wide image of human resources, with the aim of effectively implementing global human resource management. The TRUST 8 Competencies serves as the basis of our globally standardized selection/evaluation and human resource development programs, allowing each employee with ranging expertise to grow in work areas where they can maximize their respective strengths. Shiseido encourages employees’ self-driven efforts to grow and provides support for individualized autonomous career development.

Job-based Personnel System

In 2021, Shiseido introduced a job-based personnel system in Japan for management and general corporate positions (excluding those in beauty and production) with the aim of becoming a globally competitive organization by strengthening the expertise of employees. The four items below are the adjusted approach to assessing employees from individual “ability” to “job,” thereby enabling objective personnel ratings and treatment according to global standards. By clarifying job responsibilities and required specialized abilities in each department, this system is aimed at promoting career autonomy for each employee.

1. Define areas of expertise that employees should aim for in each Job Family (JF).

2. Clarify Functional Competency (FC) expertise and skills required for each Job Family.

3. Introduce Job Grades (JG) in all positions, including both managers and staff.

4. Clarify the Job Description (JD) based on determined Job Grades (to respond to organizational changes or assignment changes in accordance with Japanese labor practices).

Strategic Talent Management

We strive to ensure placement of the right people in the right positions throughout the Shiseido Group for strategic talent development. Every year, talent reviews are conducted at the global, regional, and functional levels, and plans for appointment and training of successors are prepared for key positions. For training of successors, training plans are formulated for each individual based on their strengths and development issues, including assignments to Stretch goals, global transfer opportunities, and leadership development programs, and are implemented with the approval and support of the CEO.

Performance Management

We are strengthening performance management for the sustainable growth of both our business and employees. In 2021, we introduced a global standardized process in which the performance management program was revised to evaluate both the degree of achievement of performance targets and the degree of actions taken in line with the TRUST 8 Competencies. This is aimed at promoting the improvement of medium-to-long-term business performance and the growth of our employees.

All our employees set a personal performance goal through interviews with their supervisors at the beginning of each term. The goal setting is designed by cascading the group team into the employees’ goals so that the goals can link to the achievement of the team’s goals. Moreover, a Career Development Plan (CDP) is formulated to specify each employee’s career goal and competence development needed for achieving that goal.

In addition to more than one evaluation interview per year, during each term, employees review their progress on a regular basis through daily agile dialogues with and feedback from their supervisors and review goals as needed. At the end of each term, employees confirm their final achievement level through interviews with their supervisors. Moreover, supervisors can ask other employees to give their subordinates some feedback, which enables a multifaceted evaluation of employees, not limited to an evaluation by immediate supervisors.

To eliminate gaps in evaluation, an evaluation calibration meeting is held, and a formal evaluation is set. Also, at the beginning of each term, whether goals are set in line with the expected performance level is checked (calibration of goals) so that each employee can take on challenging work assignments to stretch their goals to strengthen their expertise.

Autonomous Career Development Support

In line with the introduction of the job-based personnel system, Shiseido has organized career workshops for all employees in Japan since 2020, aiming to enhance their self-driven career development and expertise. As of December 2020, 2,164 employees have participated in the program. In addition, employees are encouraged to provide a career development plan (CDP) to envision medium-to-long-term career goals and is incorporated into performance management. Employees may share with their supervisors an action plan to achieve their medium-to-long-term career goals, which supervisors refer to for effective work assignment and human resource development. Shiseido offers a broad range of training programs to enhance business skills and improve expertise in each Job Family, which are used by employees for self-driven career development.

Training Programs

Shiseido human resource development emphasizes the “70:20:10 model*” in its training programs, which particularly provide opportunities in learning, interaction with other excellent employees, and raising motivations to grow further. We offer three types of training programs: selective, voluntary, and compulsory, depending on purpose and target.

  • *This model presumes that personal growth is derived 70% from challenging assignments, 20% from developmental relationships, and 10% from training and self-learning.
Training programs

To strengthen employees’ expertise, we have introduced LinkedIn Learning as a learning platform for encouraging autonomous learning, and we are expanding it so that global employees can learn on the same platform.

The training for development of female leaders titled “NEXT LEADERSHIP SESSION for WOMEN” is a program in which female managerial candidates learn management and business skills while exploring their individual leadership styles. For eight to ten months in 2022, 48* female managerial candidates attended the program and received opportunities to specify their career plans and develop a mindset and management skills to display their leadership, in addition to workshops for eliminating unconscious bias and prejudice. This program empowered female employees and resulted in 49% of the participants being successfully promoted. As such, it is contributing to an increase in the ratio of female leaders. The ratio of female leaders increased from 29% in 2017 to 37.6% in 2023.

  • *Number of participants in "NEXT LEADERSHIP SESSION for WOMEN basic." The total number of participants was 66 in 2022.

We place importance on leadership training to make the most of our various human assets. To strengthen trust relationships between managers and employees and enhance management skills that can promote members’ growth, a manager workshop is held for our managers on a quarterly basis in Japan. In 2022, 1,475 managers participated in the workshop, and it resulted in participants’ confidence in management increasing from 26 points to 50 points following the workshop.

Selective Programs

To develop strategic talent, the Shiseido Group provides manager candidates in each region access to its Shiseido Leadership Academy global education system, promoting the development of abilities and the establishment of international networks. At the Shiseido Leadership Academy, next-generation leaders selected through talent reviews are provided with programs in partnership with business schools to learn leadership and management skills. Shiseido also focuses efforts on developing female leaders, and has held the "NEXT LEADERSHIP SESSION for WOMEN" every year since 2017 to enable and promote talented women free from unconscious bias toward themselves or any circumstance.

Voluntary Programs

Voluntary programs are offered to motivate employees to help them demonstrate high performance and autonomously develop their careers. Voluntary programs offered in Japan include business skill training for all job types and the dispatch of young ambitious employees for MBA programs, as well as the sales academy and the marketing academy to further enhance expertise in their respective Job Family or specialized field.

Compulsory Programs

Compulsory programs are provided at each milestone in career development, such as training for new employees, training for employees in their third year, and training for newly appointed managers. For leaders (Job Appointment Managers), manager training and manager workshops are provided to strengthen management skills, with a view to ensuring fair evaluation and promoting human resource development in each department.

Fair Evaluation

The Shiseido Group has established rules and guidelines regarding evaluation and treatment under its Shiseido Global Human Resources Policy.

  • Ensure fairness of treatment both inside and outside the Company, and pursue satisfaction of employees in system operations.
  • Strive to ensure high transparency in evaluation based on objective facts without prejudice.
  • Conduct evaluation according to target management (performance) and the TRUST 8 Competencies (exercise of action).
  • Disclose criteria for evaluation and promotion to employees, and provide feedback to employees following evaluation.
  • Provide support and training through annual evaluation interviews and daily dialogue.

The Shiseido Group in Japan has established a fair and widely approved system to appropriately evaluate the results and processes of work. To maintain the fairness of evaluation, leaders (Job Appointment Managers with subordinates) are provided with enhanced training in management skills. New manager courses, evaluator training, and manager training are part of the opportunities through which leaders are encouraged to improve their management skills. Twice a year, personnel system seminars are held for managers of the Shiseido Group in Japan as opportunities to deepen their understanding of the system and its operation.

Employee Feedback Systems

The Shiseido Group Engagement Survey is conducted for all Shiseido Group employees once every two years on average to ensure that each employee is working in an open atmosphere and with a sense of satisfaction in their work. The survey asks the questions of “Engagement,” “Inclusion,” “Well-being,” “Psychological safety,” “Dissemination of strategies,” “Trust in management and supervisors,” “Opportunities for growth,” “Authority/Discretion,” “Corporate ethics,” etc., for employee feedback.
Shiseido employees are expected to take on many challenges during management reform, and are required to constantly improve their awareness and behavior. Where there is a gap in awareness or efforts among employees, the speed of reform may be slowed. This survey is therefore conducted to enable top management to directly receive the opinions of employees, clarify current issues, and formulate specific actions to solve those issues. The results of the survey are provided to employees through representatives in charge of each workplace, and representatives ensure that issues for each department are shared among employees and efforts are made for improvements. In addition, consultation and reporting centers have been set up inside and outside the Company to provide employees (regardless of employment type) with consultation on their working environment and relationships in the workplace, and are positioned to respond to whistleblowing on matters such as violation of the Rules of Employment or other law.

 

CAREERS