The Benesse Group places a premium on training its human resources to achieve both business and personal growth in order to help solve the challenges faced by society and customers and continue to create fresh corporate value in accordance with the Benesse vision. To this end, we continue to nurture human resources who are thoroughly customer-oriented and capable of building a team that can continue to change and grow, with everyone demonstrating leadership (a sense of ownership and initiative) in an organization that trusts each other. In addition, in order to provide new value, we are fostering a learning culture as part of our corporate culture, aiming for a state where everyone can learn and feel a sense of growth. In particular, we are focusing on "employee reskilling" to develop DX human resources.
Benesse Holdings, situating the matter of planning for and training successors to the position of Representative Director and President as a vital issue, has formulated a succession plan for the Representative Director and President and works to implement it. Specifically, we work to organize candidate requirements, list candidates and evaluate them on an individual basis, consider where they should be placed, and provide training. In formulating and implementing the succession plan for the Representative Director and President, the Nomination and Compensation Committee—where outside directors constitute the majority, and which is chaired by an outside director—deliberates to ensure transparency and objectivity in the formulation and implementation of the succession plan.
We started the Next Generation Leader Development Program in 2010, focusing on the development of the next generation of top management who will lead the growth of the Group. Starting in FY2018, we started an initiative for the consecutive and systematic development for approximately 100 employees to become the next generation of management from each Group company. In addition to implementing this program following the development plans of selected candidates for training, temporary assignment to other organizations, and coaching, we regularly offer opportunities for top management to share information and conduct reviews from a variety of viewpoints.
We also established Benesse University in FY2018 to develop young employees. We established training for the selected employees and launched the courses approximately 20 young employees selected from Group companies participate, and the five-month training program consists of lectures by senior managers and external instructors, a training camp on Naoshima island, and action-based learning that attempts to solve actual problems. Participants are trained to become proactive action-takers. By also establishing deeper connections through extensive interactions with each other, the participants establish cooperative working relationships that transcend the boundaries of their individual companies.
The Benesse Group aims to have employees actively work with a sense of growth while enjoying the process of increasing the value offered to our customers more than ever before through learning. With the idea of well-being, we are putting effort into developing a corporate learning culture that will lead to a sense of growth among all employees, which in turn will lead to the development of the company and business.
As digitalization rapidly progresses in the education industry, it is important for all employees, including IT-related departments, to learn digital skills and put them into practice. The Benesse Group has created the Digital Innovation Partners initiative to effectively utilize digital personnel both within and outside the company and to promote the digitalization of business. The Group also promotes the "re-skilling" of employees, offering learning to deepen digital knowledge through develop assessments and training programs such as DX literacy checks within the company and more.
In FY2023, in addition to the above activities, we plan to establish a mechanism to utilize the expertise of DX personnel and develop practical training programs.
● Digital Transformation Certified Business Operator
We were certified as a Digital Transformation Certified Business Operator in May 2021 based on the digital transformation certification system as defined by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
Digital Transformation Certification System. This is a certification system based on the Act on Partial Revision of the Act on Facilitation of Information Processing that came into effect on May 15, 2020.
With this system, certification is granted based on an application to business operators who understand the policies established by the government and are involved in satisfactory initiatives.
Benesse Corporation, a major subsidiary of the Benesse Group and responsible for the education business, has a basic human resource development policy of "maximizing the potential of all employees and turning them into a competitive force in order to achieve business growth with a medium-term perspective. In order to strengthen the organization's ability to support business growth, we aim to continuously secure the necessary human resources consistent with the business plan, acquire organizational capabilities, and assign the right people to the right positions consistent with the career development and engagement of individuals. In addition to providing "company-designated learning opportunities" to learn the attitudes and skills required for each grade stage, we provide "support for employees to design their own learning" to promote autonomous learning and reskilling.
* Udemy: An online learning platform operated by the U.S. corporation Udemy, Inc. that is used by more than 57 million people worldwide. Udemy connects people who want to teach (instructors) and people who want to learn (students) around the world online. Benesse Corporation has had an exclusive business partnership with Udemy, Inc. in Japan since 2015, and offers the service to its employees.
Beginning in FY2021, we have implemented a system that integrates a goal evaluation system and a self-learning platform. Employees communicate with their supervisors on the system about what kind of learning they need to do to increase the value of their work and update their own learning. In fiscal year 2022, we introduced a "career plan" into the system. All employees take stock of their background, experience, and qualifications, and visualize their career direction by using a worksheet to clarify their future direction and other intentions. In addition to conducting progress and evaluation interviews for mid-term and year-end goals, the system is designed to facilitate communication with supervisors on strengths and future skill development themes as appropriate to individual learning, skill development, and work situations. In addition, a multidimensional performance evaluation (360-degree survey) is conducted as an effort to improve the quality of management.
(Fiscal year ended March 31 of each year)
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
|
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total (millions of yen) | 127 | 142 | 131 | 132 | 176 |
Cost per person (yen) | — | — | — | 91,411 | 76,905 |
Time per person (hours) | — | — | — | 21.9 | 26.7 |
* ACP: Advance Care Planning (Life Conference). A process in which the person himself/herself, family members, and the medical and care team repeatedly discuss in advance about medical treatment and care in the final stage of life.
Benesse has introduced a "Growth Plan" to manage goals and develop skills by considering how we want to grow and what value we want to provide for whom. Based on the “Five Styles of Service” and “Three Styles of Work,” which are in turn based on our “Five core values” of customer care, we always check for discrepancies between the company and employees’ expectations. We look at the current situation and consult with our managers and take steps to utilize their expertise.
Specifically, we use a sheet called "Growth Plan," in which employees themselves first express their "aspirations" and "expertise" that they would like to enhance. Then, based on the "expectations of the company," at the beginning of each fiscal year, employees set goals for the year with their supervisors. In addition to progress and evaluation interviews at the middle and end of each fiscal year, we communicate with employees on a daily basis to help them achieve their goals and enhance their expertise.
In addition to human resource development and career development at each company, the Benesse Group as a whole provides employees with opportunities to apply for jobs at Group companies (up to one transfer between companies per year is allowed). The career experience gained by taking on the challenge of a new job while going beyond company borders and working at other companies is seen as an opportunity to contribute to personal growth. Successful applicants are determined through screening and interviews.
In December 2022, the Japan Institute of Information Technology presented IT awards to companies, institutions, offices, and divisions that have made outstanding efforts in "management innovation using IT" and achieved excellent results. We received the award in the Transformation category in fiscal year 2022 for our "Establishment of a business promotion system through company-wide integration of the Benesse Group's IT and DX divisions." In awarding the prize, the committee noted that "the efforts centered on the DX transformation of the business itself and the development of cross-functional human resources are the essence of DX and should be highly benchmarked."
In addition, the "Development of Majikami AI," a digitalization initiative in the nursing care field, was awarded at the same time in the customer and business function area.
Benesse Holdings won the "Excellence Award" at the 4th Platinum Career Awards, sponsored by the Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc. in cooperation with Toyo Keizai Inc. and supported by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This award recognizes companies that are oriented toward providing career development and active opportunities for employees. The reasons Benesse Holdings received this award are as follows:
In June 2022, Benesse Business-mate received the "Innovation Award" of the Japan HR Challenge Awards, sponsored by the Executive Committee of the Japan HR Challenge Awards and supported by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, Japan (SMEJ), Toyo Keizai Inc.
While it is difficult to recruit and train support staff in the field of employment for people with disabilities due to the high hurdle of performing their duties while taking their disability characteristics into consideration, we have established and implemented a system that enables instructors and business leaders of people with disabilities to constantly improve their skills and demonstrate their abilities in the field to work with a sense of fulfillment. The fact that the company has been able to build and operate a system that enables instructors and business leaders of people with disabilities to constantly improve their skills and demonstrate their abilities in the field to do rewarding work is innovative and highly evaluated.
Last updated : 2023/08/28