黑料传送门

Human Resources Principles

The Asahi Kasei Group's Human Resources Principles, established in March 2006, outline the values and behavioral guidelines that should be embraced by each and every employee—our human resources. By ensuring that our employees act in accordance with these principles, we aim to establish it as part of our corporate culture and achieve both growth for each and every employee and development for our Group.

The Asahi Kasei Group Human Resource Strategy

In 2022 we celebrated the centennial of our founding. Since the beginning, we successfully grew our business by solving social issues that have changed with the times, and continuously transforming our business portfolio. In light of these circumstances, and the recognition of the need for further transformation towards a sustainable society, we developed our human resources strategy aligned with our medium-term management plan focused on the theme “Trailblaze Together,” which began in fiscal 2025.

Two-pillared human resources strategy: lifelong growth and co-creation of diverse individuals

The Asahi Kasei Group uses the term “A-Spirit” to describe what we expect out of our employees. The 'A' represents the first letter of ‘Asahi Kasei’, signifying that our employees are expected to have ambitious motivation, a healthy sense of urgency, quick decisions, and a spirit of advancement as they embrace new challenges.
We believe that these efforts will enable us to further develop and leverage our intangible assets, including our open and frank corporate culture, diverse talents and technologies, as well as the Group Values of sincerity, challenge, and creativity that have been nurtured over the past 100 years. A fundamental transformation of our business portfolio will require us to reawaken the A-Sprit, and we need human resources and organizations that will keep taking on challenges and making changes proactively and decisively.With this in mind, we identify “lifelong growth” and “co-creation” as the pillars of our human resources strategy.
We are running various initiatives to encourage all employees to envision their own career goals and continue learning/challenging for growth towards “lifelong growth,” and to create an organization, where diverse human resources can play an active role and we make diversity into a strength towards “co-creation.”
Furthermore, in order to promote both “lifelong growth” and “co-creation,” we will work even harder to improve our management skills to maximize the abilities of individuals and teams and connect them to results.

Specific initiatives related to “lifelong growth” are described on the "Human resources development and active engagement" page, and those related to “co-creation” are described on the “DE&I” page.

Policy

Based on the idea that "everything starts with people — people are our most valuable assets," the Asahi Kasei Group upholds a policy of “lifelong growth” whereby we encourage challenge and growth in the development of our human resources. Regarding this policy, we will focus on the following two objectives: 1) Encourage all employees to develop their career path independently and continue learning and challenging themselves for growth, 2) Strengthen management skills to maximize the abilities of individuals and teams.

Human resource development system

We offer a combination of ‘training by rank’ and ‘training by goal’ programs to help employees develop their skills and improve job performance. In addition to building basic skills to carry out their tasks, we support the line managers, develop top management candidates in the next generation, and foster individuals who will be successful globally.

Reference: Asahi Kasei Group's investment in training per employee (actual)

	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023
Investment in training (total)	2,806,147 (thousand yen)	3,471,596 (thousand yen)	4,248,249 (thousand yen)
Investment in training (per employee)	166 (thousand yen)	198 (thousand yen)	242 (thousand yen)
Time invested in training (per employee)	22.3 (hours)	25.7 (hours)	28.1 (hours)

• Human resource training-related data

Measures to support self-directed career development

Introduction of “CLAP” reskilling program

CLAP stands for Co-Learning Adventure Place, our unique program for employees to learn any content from over ten thousand courses for free. This program supports employees in acquiring necessary skills for their workplaces and facilitates reskilling to adapt to environmental changes and business transitions. As part of the CLAP rollout, we have incorporated the “learning together” concept, while helping continuous learning to fulfill their responsibilities and career goals. By leveraging people’s appeal and relationships, we offer opportunities for them to learn together and have fun at the same time.

Encouraging the senior generation’s participation by extending the retirement age

In this rapidly changing era, there is a growing number of issues that require the wisdom and experience of diverse human resources. Given the age distribution, it is also imperative to transfer technological skills to younger generations. We have thus extended the retirement age to 65 from fiscal 2023, in the hope that all employees will continue to hone their expertise and stay active even after the age of 60. We have also revised our compensation system from a conventional rehiring system to a new system with a treatment that allows employees to hone their expertise and take on roles needed by others, so that they can further show their skills and lead fulfilling lives.

Position posting system

We adopted an open recruitment policy in fiscal 2003. Since then, a cumulative total of approximately 500 employees has voluntarily moved from one department to another to take on new challenges each year. To support lifelong growth and self-directed career development, which are the pillars of our human resources strategy, we aim to revitalize the workforce by expanding the scope of concurrent roles within the company, enabling employees to gain experience outside their departments for a certain period.

Supporting independent study

In October 2003, the Asahi Kasei instituted a program to support independent study by employees. To encourage employees to acquire higher level specialized or technological ability, the company will pay part of the cost of attending courses or lectures. In fiscal 2023, a total of 1,483 employees utilized the program.

Measures to improve management capabilities to draw out the strengths of individuals and teams

We aim to create an organization that can enhance vitality and spur the growth of both individuals and the organization.

Action for improved engagement KSA (vitality and growth assessment)

In fiscal 2020, we reviewed the content of our existing employee awareness survey and introduced KSA (vitality and growth assessment), a new survey that aims to confirm work engagement and behaviors conducive to growth. The survey is provided once a year to all employees in Japan, and the report is provided to line managers as reference information for understanding the current state of their organizations. We also engage in activities aimed at creating a better workplace through dialogue with employees.

At the same time, we conduct stress checks to identify health risks and create an environment in which each employee can achieve sustainable growth while maintaining good physical and mental health.

Enhancing management skills and developing upper-management candidates

We offer an extensive training program for general manager-class personnel, who play a key role in organizational management. The program includes group training on management, e-learning, 360-degree feedback, 1-on-1 training, and courses on KSA (see above). In fiscal 2020, we started offering personal coaching for department managers to help them solve problems on their own. As of March 2024, 287 people out of 700 manager-class employees have already completed the program.
We also put emphasis on the development and acquisition of upper management talent. In addition to encouraging their personal growth through coaching, we offer programs to strengthen leadership and teamwork. Every year, several employees are designated as Group Executives^* through this program. In fiscal 2023, there were 35 Group Executives, and 91 department/division manager-class individuals in the candidate pool to become Group Executives. We will maintain this talent pool in terms of both quality and quantity.

• ^* Those selected from among the Executive Officers, who have the responsibility and authority to enhance the Asahi Kasei Group’s value as a whole, are designated as Group Executives with the approval of the Board of Directors. Specifically, these are Lead Executive Officers or above in Asahi Kasei, as well as Executive Officers of equivalent standing in the core operating companies.

Developing digital human resources to promote Digital Transformation (DX)

In 2021, we formulated DX Vision 2030 to promote the development of DX as a pillar of our growth strategy. We will strive to achieve a sustainable society a reality by maximizing the benefits of digital technology.
The most important factor in promoting DX is digital human resources. While enhancing DX training by employee level, we are working on initiatives to increase the number of digital professionals who can promote advanced digitalization by 10 times to 2,500 employees by the end of fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2021 (end of fiscal 2023: 1,728 employees). Since April 2021, the Asahi Kasei DX Open Badge program has been rolled out within the Asahi Kasei Group to promote the acquisition of basic digital knowledge for all employees while nurturing human resources who will drive the DX of workplaces.

Policy

The Asahi Kasei Group Code of Conduct clearly stipulates that "we must respect individuals' basic human rights and diversity, not discriminate on the basis of nationality, ancestry, ethnicity, religion, gender, ideology, age, physical characteristics, sexual orientation and gender identity, employment status, form of contract, etc., nor condone such discrimination" as company policy. We promote the establishment of a vibrant workplace that ensures equal opportunity and enables all employees to perform at their best without experiencing discrimination. We aim to instill our company policy to prevent any discrimination or harassment through corporate ethics training for employees at each level, including new hires, newly appointed assistant managers, and section managers.

We have also identified “co-creation” as one of the pillars of our human resources strategy in the current medium-term management plan. To respond to a rapidly changing business environment and continue creating new value, it is essential for us to enhance “co-creation” by leveraging diverse human resources to collaborate in new business development. Diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) is one of our key management strategies. To leverage our co-creation, we must ‘expand’ and ‘connect’ our diversity, organically integrating technologies, businesses, and human resources to bring out our unique value.

Management Framework

Recognizing the importance of developing an organization comprised of talented individuals with diverse backgrounds to ensure our sustainable growth, we promote the diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives group-wide, led by the DE&I Promotion Office, a department dedicated to addressing this subject. At the same time, we are working to strengthen our promotion framework by establishing a DE&I committee led by the upper management and business unit leaders to monitor and expedite the progress of DE&I initiatives.

Development of diverse professionals through the Group Masters program

We employ a "Group Masters" program to broaden the segment of human resources with expertise that holds universal value through the appointment, training, and treatment of human resources expected to be actively involved and participating in creating new business and strengthening existing business as "Group Masters." Under the program, we have defined five categories of Group Masters. We have clarified the respective roles of each Group Master category and enhanced treatment to create a mechanism that encourages the growth of human resources while securing outstanding external human resources at the same time. Group Masters lead the R&D of core technology fields, and the connections between diverse technologies and human resources result in the expansion of the 10 Growth Gears businesses (GG10).
We have also formulated a succession plan for Group Masters in each field, and have linked the succession plan to business reinforcement and human resource development, which will strengthen our competitive edge.

Categories and roles of Group Masters

Target areas

Number of Group Masters and Targets

In our medium-term management plan that began in 2022, we set the KPI for the number of Group Masters to reach 300 in total by fiscal 2024, but because we are almost there as of 2022, we have increased the KPI to 360.

Expansion of opportunities for women

Basic Approach

Based on the belief that the expansion of opportunities for women is one of the key elements of DE&I promotion and that advancing this initiative will lead to an environment in which a diverse array of human resources can play an active role regardless of gender, other attributes and age, etc. we established a dedicated organization (currently the DE&I Promotion Office) in 1993 to foster an environment in which women can continue working through expanded job opportunities and support measures that help them to balance work and family life. Since the 2010s, we have supported career development by providing handbooks to supervisors containing reference information on nurturing female employees who joined the company right after college. We also conducted seminars prior to maternity leave and on returning to work. Additionally, we offered a mentor program to support the career development of female managers after experiencing childbirth, child care, and other life events.

Various initiatives for the active participation of women

Under our medium-term management plan announced in April 2022, we declared our intention to focus on the ratio of female managers in leadership positions (for line posts and Group Masters) as an indicator to measure the success of our diverse human resources (FY2030 target is 10%). In addition, based on these developments, our Action Plan for the expansion of opportunities for women has been revised as follows.
The achievement of the above is coupled with the implementation of various initiatives to form a candidate pool as a mechanism to continuously produce female leaders. The above-mentioned mentor program has been continuously implemented since 2013, with the participation of 132 new female managers cumulatively. It offers an opportunity for each attendee to independently think about career formation and issue resolution, and foster ambition toward personal growth.
In addition, to further motivate female managers in line posts to grow and broaden their horizons, we held a round table discussion between two female Outside Directors and female managers in fiscal 2023. The two Outside Directors talked about their careers and experiences, as well as the expectations for female managers, to broaden their perspectives in terms of management needs, and to encourage participants to change their awareness and behavior toward upcoming challenges and success.

In addition, we conducted unconscious bias training for all Executive Officers and Senior General Managers from January to May 2024, based on the idea that it is important to learn how to recognize and control unconscious bias inherent in each worker in order to maximize organizational strength by making the most of each person's diversity. In fiscal 2024, we expanded the training to all General Managers, and are working to increase psychological safety in the workplace and develop managers who can support the success of all employees.
In parallel with the aforementioned company-wide measures to increase the number of female employees in leadership positions, we have established by-name female personnel plans in each domain and are implementing initiatives to lead to actual promotion. Moreover, the DE&I Committee chaired by the President was established in fiscal 2023 to regularly monitor and exchange opinions with a view to confirm progress and improve issues throughout the Asahi Kasei Group. As a result of these various initiatives, the number of female managers has increased from 3 in 1994 to 351 (as of June 1, 2024). At the upper management level, we currently have two female Executive Officers, two female Directors, and one female Audit & Supervisory Board Member (as of June 25, 2024).

Asahi Kasei Group Action Plan*	We have developed an action plan to promote the active participation of women more than ever. As part of our efforts to create an environment in which diverse human resources with various values and backgrounds can play an active role together and contribute to the growth of our business and organization.
Term	FY2022 to 2025
Content	Objective 1 Expand the pool of human resources who can be candidates for senior management positions in leadership roles: Increase the number of female managers by 40% compared to March 31, 202