Diversity Initiative for Human Resource Development
In the ongoing process of globalizing business, NGK has created three fundamental education systems of manufacturing training, position-based training and global personnel development. NGK is applying these systems in a Groupwide initiative to further personnel development.
Leaders receiving training to strengthen onsite capabilities
The purpose of manufacturing training is to safely pass on NGK-specific manufacturing skills and techniques to the next generation of workers.
The program to strengthen onsite capabilities is the main feature of the manufacturing training system, and has been run since 2005. The program focuses on nurturing key personnel who will take the lead as innovators at manufacturing sites.
At the end of fiscal 2008, there were still a number of middle managers and workplace leaders who had yet to take this course. Our aim for fiscal 2009 is to have all such personnel complete the course, and going forward, to develop this initiative into autonomous activities involving all personnel connected with worksites led by the key personnel. We aim to achieve robust and active worksites in this way.
For position-based training in fiscal 2008, we focused particularly on increasing the number of middle managers that had taken a seminar in management principles and fundamentals. The purpose of the seminar is to remind participants of the importance of “people management,” which in practice tends to be overshadowed by work management.”
In position-based training for new hires, we underlined the importance of morals and social manners, emphasizing that as NGK employees, they are expected to behave as adult members of society.
Important goals of position-based training are to encourage participant’s self-awareness of the responsibilities associated with a given job position based on their career path and to promote the acquisition of basic knowledge. However, a deeper purpose of position-based training is to promote mutual understanding and awareness through discussions across divisions and job types.
Going forward, we will continue to view position-based training not simply as a means to heighten the awareness or motivation of individual employees, but as an opportunity to cultivate a sense of solidarity with colleagues of all generations working at the Company.
