Training and Education

Basic Approach

Basic Approach to Human Resource Development

The Olympus Group regards its employees as its most important management resource from a long-term perspective. By treating every employee with respect, sincerity and empathy, we aspire to become an organization capable of working globally with speed and solidarity in the face of changes in the business environment. To achieve this goal, every employee needs to gain a deep understanding of the principles and values shared by the entire Group and the skills to conduct business on a global scale, along with leadership and a high level of expertise. We believe it is important to trust in the incentive and enthusiasm shown by our employees and to assign each person to a job that matches their capabilities so that they can make the most of their own individual skills and competences.
For this reason, we have introduced activities to disseminate and energize these principles and values, including organization of a Core Value Week, which is held simultaneously worldwide, skills training programs held internally in the Global Group and foreign language learning programs for employees who work in non-English-speaking regions. In addition, the Olympus Global Talent Management System has been introduced for job definitions that require the implementation of management strategies. We are starting succession planning (planning to train successors for various job functions) for important positions and working to make effective use of human resources regardless of nationality so that we can maintain our advanced levels of expertise.
Other activities include the establishment of a globally unified leadership competency model, Leadership Academy, to train employees to exercise leadership and one-on-one support and onboarding programs in an effort to create a corporate culture that enables employees to continue to demonstrate outstanding performances in their jobs and a study of how to upgrade our human resources development.

Promotion Structure and Systems

Promotional Structure in Human Resources Development

In addition to the human resources development systems that operate in each region, to ensure optimal development of human resources on a global scale, the Olympus Group has improved its coordination between human resources development systems at the global and regional levels by organizing them into mirror organizations. Coordination among leaders of business and functional organizations has been improved by appointing human resources officers responsible for business and functional organizations known as HR Business Partners. This scheme is designed not only to assure consistency throughout our global organization, but also to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of human resources development measures adapted to conditions specific to each region and business.
Human resources coordination between global and regional operations has proven effective in bringing greater efficiency to worldwide programs from the aspects of better multilingual responses, better coordination among existing regional programs and more effective resolution of business and organizational issues through closer coordination among business and leaders of functional organizations.

Training and Education System

The Olympus Group has started succession planning for critical positions under the title "Leaders Developing Leaders," established a global leadership competency model (GLCM) for promising leadership candidates in 2019, to be introduced to the senior management level and then expanded to all management from 2021, and activities aimed at the exercise of leadership and rendered assistance with skills development. From 2021, a 360-degree feedback system based on the GLCM (a system to measure the degree to which a target person demonstrates competency by multiple evaluators in different positions, including colleagues and subordinates as well as supervisors) will be introduced and rolled out to all managers around the world. Additionally, the globally unified skills training program that was started in 2019 is progressing as planned with a total of 6,000 participants as of the end of March 2022, and further development and establishment of the program is underway.
At present, Olympus and Olympus Medical Science Sales provide educational programs and learning opportunities for their employees, with several hundred course titles made available each year. They include e-learning programs based on the Olympus College Plus educational management system and group specialized skills training and compliance training programs. With advances in the online environment in recent years, we are working to develop more effective and efficient skills development systems. Specifically, we have reduced travel costs by conducting online group training programs, created new internal studios, improved the program participation rate with on-demand videos for existing programs and improved the learning effect through combining these programs with flipped learning. By thus consolidating our human resources systems on a global scale, we hope to achieve greater improvements in the training content, learning effect and participation efficiency.

Manufacturing Technicians Training Program

The Olympus Group regards its manufacturing technicians as an important source of added value.
The manufacturing sites in Japan provide them with functional training through the Manufacturing Technicians Training Program. In the Manufacturing Technicians Training Program, we classify skills of manufacturing technicians into 6 stages, aiming at a planned level-up. Level 1 to 3 new employees are "general technicians," Level 4 and above are certified as "advanced technicians" with high technical skills. Level 4 employees are referred to as Manufacturing Advisors (MA), Level 5 as Manufacturing Supervisors (MS), and the highest level 6 as Manufacturing Masters (MM). From new recruits to MMs, we nurture our employees in a planned manner according to their level. As of April 1, 2022, the cumulative number of advanced technicians reached 147.
We provide training programs oriented toward certification and programs that allow higher ranking certified technicians to provide assistance to raise the motivation of each employee.
At Olympus Vietnam Co., Ltd., where medical products are manufactured, a certification system for bonding and soldering work has been introduced. This is designed to upgrade the training and education programs and contribute to the creation of a global manufacturing system.