Human Resources Management
SC VALUES
- 1．Integrity and Sound Management
- To comply with laws and regulations, while maintaining the highest ethical standards.
- 2．Integrated Corporate Strength
- To create no boundaries within the organization;
to always act with a Company-wide perspective.
- 3．Vision
- To create a clear vision of the future, and to communicate to share it within the organization.
- 4．Change and Innovation
- To accept and integrate diversity in values and behavior,
and to embrace change as an opportunity for action.
- 5．Commitment
- To initiate, own, and achieve organizational objectives.
- 6．Enthusiasm
- To act with enthusiasm and confidence, and to motivate others through such action.
- 7．Speed
- To make quick decisions and act promptly.
- 8．Human Development
- To fully support the development of others' potential.
- 9．Professionalism
- To achieve and maintain high levels of expertise and skills.
Strengthening Human Resources Management on a Company-wide Level
To ensure the sustainable growth of the Sumitomo Corporation Group, it is vital to strengthen our recruitment and development of global talent in a strategic and well-planned manner from a medium- and long-term perspective, pursuing human resources strategies in line with business strategies. Under the new medium-term management plan “ƒ(x),” we aim to achieve “cross-boundary growth,” the growth together with all our partners across regional, generational, and organizational boundaries, while carrying on with the basic policy and various initiatives adopted under the previous medium-term management plan “FOCUS'10.”
Strengthening our recruitment and development of global talent
Strategic development and placement of key staff in each overseas office
Sumitomo Corporation is making the best effort to train locally hired employees in overseas offices and Group companies and assign them to play more important roles as a proactive response in global business operations. As part of these efforts, we are conducting training programs for locally hired employees at different career levels (staff in charge, managers and senior executives). At the training programs, nearly 300 participants per annum from all over the world come to the Head Office in Tokyo, Japan, to share the corporate DNA that runs through the Sumitomo Corporation Group and strengthen their sense of unity as a member of the Group through reaffirming Sumitomo's Business Philosophy, and the Management Principles of the Group. In addition, information is shared on management direction and strategies, and the participants attend “skill-up” seminars on a variety of themes as well as joint workshops with Head Office employees.
A training session for locally hired employees overseas
Development of the infrastructure for global HR management
[ Global HR Database ]We plan to make the profile of our human resources more visible by establishing a database which contains our individual personnel development plan in order to identify and share information on key personnel at Head Office and overseas organizations. Our efforts are focused on development of infrastructure for strategic allocation of Head Office employees and locally hired employees across regions and organizations on a global basis.
[ Sumitomo Corporation Global HRD Center ]Sumitomo Corporation's new training center in the Ginza, Tokyo, was completed in March 2012. The new training center serves as a training center to develop global talent and as a strategic multi-purpose facility. As a training center, we use this center to strengthen our human resources development across the entire Group world-wide and to encourage our diversified human resources management.
The facility also provides a multi-purpose and versatile space, supplementing Head Office functions. In this center, we expect to see our global colleagues from around the world, irrespective of organization or country, meeting for intensive discussions on the future visions and strategies of our Group.
Sumitomo Corporation Global HRD Center
Conducting strategic placement of human resources on a Company-wide level
At Sumitomo Corporation, under the Company's overriding principles of autonomous management and self-responsibility, each Business Unit implements its own strategic human resources management. Business Units also conduct their own staff training and education in order to ensure their medium and long term strategic human resources' needs will be fully satisfied. Under the ƒ(x) management strategy, we carry on what we have done and conduct strategic placement of human resources across Business Units on a Company-wide level.
Further development of cross-organizational personnel
[ Job rotation training ]We have introduced job rotation training between Business Units and the Corporate Group to allow our employees to have not only onsite experience but also a Company-wide perspective, as well as our management's point of view. Under the ƒ(x) management strategy, we also promote job rotation training across Business Units, with the aim of developing our talent to be capable of leading cross-industrial businesses and managing business subsidiaries. We aim to increase the diversity of our human resources with broad experiences and different values.
In fiscal year 2010, a new internal fund for human resources development was established to facilitate the effort to ensure and develop enough talent required to achieve the medium- and long-term growth strategies of Business Units and divisions. The fund is being effectively used for sending trainees to overseas offices to develop our global talent in a strategic and well-planned manner. In particular, we are increasing the number of language trainees of Chinese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, etc., to grasp expanding business opportunities in the emerging markets, which will become important management issues for our Group in the future. Furthermore, we are also investing aggressively in human resources development from a medium- and long-term perspective and sending employees who are primarily in managerial positions to overseas short-term executive programs to acquire the latest management literacy and build a network with global executives, as well as sending locally hired employees of overseas offices to the Head Office.
[ Sumisho Business College (SBC) ]SBC, a corporate university, offers around 300 courses a year. For instance, visiting the Besshi Copper Mine, the origin of the Sumitomo Corporation Group, has been conducted with the aim of providing participants with an opportunity to realize Sumitomo's Business Philosophy, which inspired the Sumitomo Corporation Group's present-day Management Principles.
Through a variety of programs provided by SBC, our employees can learn basic knowledge and skills required in common, advanced specific expertise and also develop their leadership skills. The concept behind SBC is that the growth opportunity is “something to take by oneself” instead of “something to be given.” Under this concept, we intend to further upgrade and extend these programs as a system to support our good talent who are able to think and act on their own, and deliver results.
Visit to the Besshi Copper Mine
A training session at SBC
Enhancement of long-term HR development & placement plan
[ Diversified recruitment sources and strategic reallocation based on HR analysis ]We intend to promote reallocation of our human resources at the Company-wide level, including recruitment and job rotations among Business Units, based on the business strategies at each organization.
From the standpoint of recruitment, we will seek to diversify our recruitment sources, including in collaboration with our regional organizations and subsidiaries, in addition to increasing the hiring of new graduates and mid-career recruits in Japan. We will also promote personnel development and placement at each organization by implementing succession planning for key posts such as general managers, while reorganizing human resources data to facilitate the assignment of the right person to the right position.