Augmenting our human capital to become a top pharmaceutical company by creating a motivating work environment that fosters personal growth
Career Support for Female MRs
Chugai employs approximately 300 female medical representatives (MRs), accounting for about 18 percent of all MRs. In many cases, however, female MRs quit because of life events such as marriage or childbirth. Therefore, Chugai is augmenting various programs to create an environment in which they can continue to work. In 2010, the Company introduced a plan that enables MRs to transfer to job locations so that they can live with their spouse after marriage in cases where they would be unable to do so if they continued working in their current locations.
In July 2010, Chugai held CHARM (Chugai Attractive MRs Forum for Women) to encourage female MRs to think about their life and career plans. This forum, which brought together branch managers as well as MRs, featured a lecture by Dr. Mariko Miyagi, a professor at the Faculty of Lifelong Learning and Career Studies at Hosei University. It also included an explanation of various support programs, and group work with MRs of different branches and ages. The forum provided an opportunity for participants to look closely at their life and career plans. Among participants' comments were "Listening to my seniors and peers was motivating," and "It created an image of balancing work with marriage and childbirth, so I was able to consider taking on that challenge."
- Forming Life and Career Plans That Do Not Stop at Major Life Events
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In shaping the work environment for female MRs, I think that in addition to systems in the Company, key considerations are the thinking of the MRs themselves and the attitude of those around them. In the course of implementing initiatives, I'm sensing a gradual change in attitudes. For example, I hear that the topic of continuing work after marriage and childbirth has come up in conversations even at branch offices. We are currently holding separate meetings to tailor initiatives to conditions at each branch and intend to move forward in this direction to create a work environment that is supportive for both men and women.
Narumi Okano
Sales Human Resources Management Dept.
Chugai's fundamental principle is that its people are an invaluable asset in generating the Company's growth and development. Thus we offer a range of programs suited to the career goals of each employee. At the same time, to become a top pharmaceutical company recognized throughout the world, and to sustain our growth, we are reinforcing our employees' skills to promote necessary changes and act internationally. Chugai has defined the attributes desired in its employees to fulfill its Mission Statement and to achieve the goals of the mid-term business plan Sunrise 2012. We have created and organized all of our employee development programs around these attributes to carry out human resource development unique to Chugai.
Human Capital Development Programs for Individual Growth
Chugai FCL program class
Chugai has defined the attributes desired in its employees to fulfill its Mission Statement and to achieve the mid-term business plan Sunrise 2012. Based on these attributes, we have created and organized our employee training programs.
In cultivating the desired skill sets, five types of development opportunities — on-the-job training, off-the job training and self-development, personnel treatment, career development, and reassignment and promotion — are organically linked so that human resource development can be conducted on a daily basis.
The HR reinforcement basic programs provide a common foundation for all off-the job training, including the "three approaches" and "three C's," which are attributes expected of all Chugai permanent employees and are designed to quickly develop role awareness, knowledge, and skills. The HR reinforcement basic programs are conducted in synergy with the Chugai Future Core Leaders (FCL) programs aimed at mid-to-long-term continuous development and advancement of future core leaders at each level, and with programs to strengthen functional expertise. Moreover, Self-Innovation Programs (SIP) are offered to help employees upgrade skills on their own initiative. Under these four categories, Chugai is conducting a full range of development programs for employees.
In 2010, training for managers and at all other levels shared the theme of "commitment to become a top Japanese pharmaceutical company." Training deepened employees' understanding of and connection with this goal, and helped inculcate the organization's vision. The result was improved interest on the part of every employee to proactively work toward the goal. Employees were also reminded to always act with an awareness of the meaning that their work gives to patients' lives, regardless of their position. Moreover, dialoguing skill practice sessions for employees and their respective managers promoted improved workplace communication. All participants drafted their own career visions, and Chugai is helping them to work toward those visions with opportunities to practice the skills they have developed.
Desired Employee Attributes
Personnel Systems Supporting a Vibrant Work Environment
Career planning support for fulfilling individual career goals
Chugai has established the systems shown in the chart below to provide permanent employees with options for choosing their career paths and becoming more self-reliant.
Options for Career Choice and Self-reliance
Leave for education and qualification acquisition
This system provides permanent employees with the opportunity for personal career development by granting them up to three years of leave to obtain a degree or professional qualification.
Internal recruiting system
This system allows for the advertising of internal job openings in the Company, and the selection and assignment of persons with the required skills and experience from among the applicants. It is intended to encourage self-reliance among permanent employees, to provide opportunities for skill development, to energize the organization, and to place the right person in the right job. The number of jobs offered and the number of applicants have been increasing every year since the system was introduced in 2007.
Career change support system
This system allows permanent employees of a specific age or with a specific number of years of employment to opt for voluntary retirement before the mandatory retirement age, and provides them with support for a smooth transition into a new career.
Senior employee system
Started in 2011, this system allows permanent employees aged 55 or older to voluntarily choose to continue working as contract employees up to age 65. Career-Design Seminars have been held for eligible employees since 2008 to help them understand the system and consider their future career and life plans.
Professional career-track
Introduced in 2008, this system encourages permanent employees with a high level of expertise to contribute to promoting the Company's business and growth by appropriately evaluating and rewarding their expertise.
Career Consultation Office
The Career Support Center underwent a name change as part of organizational changes in July 2010, but it has consistently provided career support for Chugai employees since it was opened in March 2007. The newly named Career Consultation Office continues to provide useful career-planning information and skill development advice to help employees build satisfying careers. It also helps them consider how to take advantage of various personnel systems. As of October 31, 2010, more than 220 employees have visited the Career Consultation Office since it opened.
Maintaining open, transparent personnel systems
Managed with an emphasis on enhancing transparency and fairness, Chugai's personnel systems provide support for the individual aspirations of permanent employees. All of the systems are open to these employees, including training to improve their management and leadership skills.
Equal opportunity and fairness in recruiting
The Chugai Group has an equal opportunity policy, and treats and compensates its employees equally regardless of gender, age, or whether or not they have disabilities. In accordance with this policy, the Chugai Group also actively seeks to hire persons with disabilities. As of December 31, 2010, the ratio of employees with disabilities in the Company was 1.87 percent, which meets Japan's legal requirement. In addition, Chugai maintains fair and impartial hiring practices by using a diverse team of interviewers to evaluate candidates' abilities, skills, and experience.
Creating Supportive Work Environments
Facilitating a healthy work/life balance
Based on the desire to retain employees and support family life, Chugai has developed a full range of programs, including childcare leave and a part-time working system for child care, that allow employees to continue working during, for example, childbirth and child-rearing years. In 2008, in recognition of these measures Chugai was certified by Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a company that actively supports the balance between work and family life. In 2009, Chugai changed its system to allow permanent employees to take childcare leave regardless of their spouse's employment status.
Chugai will continue to study and implement measures to enhance its work environment so that both male and female employees can balance their work and family life.
Mental healthcare initiatives
Chugai has an Employee Assistance Program to help employees and their families receive counseling to address mental health issues. In 2008, the Company also introduced an adaptation period after medical leave to help employees return to work smoothly. Furthermore, specialist physicians are occasionally invited to give seminars on mental health. In 2010, the Company planned training for managers in each organization in an effort to support managers and supervisors dealing with mental healthcare issues.
Help lines
In recent years, incidents of harassment and bullying in the workplace have been increasing as people working in the difficult social environment become less considerate of others, and there seems to be a lack of communication. Insensitive words and actions not only hurt the feelings of individuals, but can adversely affect the work environment as a whole. The Chugai Group provides confidential channels for employees to consult about their worries without fear of
reprisal: the BCG Hotline and internal and external help lines for sexual harassment issues. Chugai resolves such issues in a fair manner to ensure that employees enjoy a working environment where they can perform at their full potential in an atmosphere of mutual respect for personality, individuality, and values.
Dialogue between the President and Employees
Chugai conducted dialogues between the president and young employees as part of the "Top Pharmaceutical Company" project. Participating employees spoke freely with the president about what being a top pharmaceutical company means for them, and about their aspirations as individuals. The ideas of the young employees and their exchange of views with the president have been shared with the rest of the Company through webcasts to raise employees' awareness of Chugai's goal of becoming a top Japanese pharmaceutical company.
Sound labor-management relations
Regular meetings are held at various levels between the Company and the Chugai Pharmaceutical Workers' Union to improve communication and to build cooperative, sound labor-management relations based on trust. The workers' union, which operates democratically, had 3,567 members as of December 31, 2010. On November 17, 2009, the Chugai Pharma Manufacturing Workers' Union was established. On December 17 of the same year, it joined with the Chugai Pharmaceutical Workers' Union to form the Federation of Chugai Workers' Unions. From 2010, the Chugai Group has been conducting labor-management consultations under a collective labor agreement.
Putting the Chugai BCG into Practice at a Personal Level
BCG and Human Rights Training
Chugai conducts training for all employees. In the first half of the year, the content focuses on corporate ethics, and in the second, on respect for human rights. Questionnaires are distributed after the training to raise the awareness of participants and enhance the training program.
Training in the first half of 2010 was based on the theme of "Our social responsibility goal: The significance of ensuring transparency." Recognizing that ensuring transparency, one of the Company's wide-ranging social responsibilities, is the task of each employee, Chugai conducted the training to reinforce awareness of information management and appropriate disclosure in business activities and to provide employees with an opportunity to re-examine their own awareness and actions. The theme in the second half was "Thinking about harassment." The training emphasized realizing one's own power and its effect, and the significance of putting oneself in the other person's shoes. It also got participants to think about their mental attitude and stance to facilitate a workplace environment in which people can exchange opinions honestly, with mutual respect, when encountering situations that are questionable from a human rights standpoint.
