Human Resource Development

Human Resource Development

To create human resources who act independently and take on new challenges based on their resonance with SUBARU, we work to ensure a system and environment is in place where employees can chart their own careers and learn and grow independently.

・Group companies in Japan

Beginning in FYE March 2023, primary responsibility for Group company talent development has been transferred from the SUBARU Corporate Planning Department to the Human Resources Department. With an integrated program, we will improve the level of our talent throughout the SUBARU Group.

・Overseas Group companies

We support the development of Group company employees outside Japan by providing talent development programs connected to capabilities needed and specialized skill development, based on regional systems, business content, and other factors.

Career Development

Under the new personnel system launched in FYE March 2022, our organization aims to achieve the following three target states: 1) employees who take on new challenges can grow and succeed, 2) evaluations and treatment are fair and commensurate with work, and 3) human resources with a diverse set of abilities can succeed. Under this organization, we are supporting the independent career development of our employees.

Training Programs

SUBARU is working to develop a system and environment in which companies themselves encourage the growth of the individual so that all employees can independently develop their careers. To this end, we provide a wide range of learning opportunities to enable individuals to develop skills according to the career plans they have created. By actively incorporating Off-JT (off-the-job) training as well, we focus not only on the systematic acquisition of business skills appropriate for each rank and position, but also on the development of human resources with diverse skills and who can be adaptable in an era of rapid change and future uncertainty.

Training Results

Note:

The scope of data has been expanded as of FYE March 2024 to include training held by personnel departments at all business sites.

Identifying with the corporate philosophy

Since FYE March 2022, we have conducted our SUBARU Vision Awareness Program for all employees across the Company at the end of October each year, including those in direct departments, with the aim of creating a strong organization in which diverse employees work as one toward a unified vision through autonomous demonstration of their respective outstanding abilities.
In FYE March 2024, this program’s theme was the New Management Structure Policies. By holding discussions within workplaces about the connection between SUBARU’s goal of being a company “delivering happiness to all” and these policies and initiatives, as well as the actions of each individual employee, we are encouraging each person to take autonomous action, and this is leading to the growth and increased competitiveness of the organization as a whole.

Managerial Talent Development

SUBARU offers training for selected mid-level and manager class employees with the aim of continually fostering the next generation of managerial talent.

Career Development Support

Career interviews are offered to employees as an opportunity for them to come face-to-face with their potential career paths so that they can develop their own careers independently. We offer career management training for managers so that workplaces and superiors can provide appropriate career support.

Business Skill Development Support

All employees are offered a choice of various business skill development support programs in accordance with their individual levels, goals, and career plans. We offer on-demand programs that allow employees to learn in their spare time and invite outside instructors to promote individual growth through external learning opportunities.

Globally Focused Talent Development

In addition to improving language skills, we encourage employees to develop a wide range of capabilities with the goal of acquiring cross-cultural, collaboration, and leadership skills with a view to playing an active role on the global stage.

Cultivation Fund

This fund, introduced in June 2024, is a program that not only provides educational opportunities directly from a SUBARU entity, but also allows employees to seek out learning opportunities that will lead to the evolution of their work. If these opportunities are approved, they can receive full support from the company. This is designed so that the employee’s learning is then given back to the organization in the form of growth, with the goal of becoming best-in-class in each field and enhancing true competitiveness.

Engineer Development

SUBARU believes that in order to maintain sustainable competitive advantage as a corporation, it is essential that we cultivate engineers capable of creating technological value that captures market changes and meets customer expectations. In this period of great transformation in the automobile industry, SUBARU is strengthening its unique technological capabilities by adding new capabilities (skills) that capture changes in the times in addition to the capabilities we have cultivated up to now. SUBARU is actively working toward this “upskilling” of its employees in the software domain, particularly for its engineering human resources.
Given that areas related to software will greatly influence a company’s car manufacturing and functional values, we launched the Software Human Resource Development Project in FYE March 2023. This project aims to cultivate human resources capable of understanding and developing both vehicles and software, direct drivers of greater product strength and “Monozukuri Innovation.” In this project, we have set up programs for new employees and existing employees, offering educational courses for each level. For new employees, we have set up two courses: the Embedded Systems Course, which applies software technology to product development, and the AI/DX Course. As of FYE March 2024, all 350 new employees who joined the engineering department have taken these courses, with around 20 of them progressing to the advanced level. At the advanced level of the Embedded Systems Course, we are working to develop core human resources who can develop infrastructure software through training that is in line with the actual work of the development site. In the advanced level of the AI/DX Course, students are assigned to the SUBARU Lab, which leads the development of advanced technologies that combine EyeSight and AI, and they acquire practical and advanced AI development skills. Furthermore, through education that takes into account the needs of each workplace, we aim to apply the results of education to actual work, and contribute to improving the productivity of the entire organization and driving technological innovation. For existing employees, we provide an introductory-level AI/DX Literacy Course for all 4,000 people in the engineering department. Furthermore, of these, more than 200 people from those who were recommended based on technical strategies and those who wished to do so based on their own volition have stepped up to the next level and are improving their technical capabilities. These initiatives are now more than just a way to improve skills, becoming an important driving force for organizational transformation and strengthening competitiveness. Going forward, we will continue to aim for qualitative improvement in these initiatives.

Open-Call Job Rotation System

SUBARU introduced an open-call job rotation system in FYE March 2022 as a scheme to support employees in the career plans they have developed for themselves.
Under this system, employees voluntarily apply for open positions offered by each department, and if conditions are met for both sides, the employee is transferred.
In the three years since introduction of this system, more than 200 employees have gained new career opportunities.
Users have commented on how rewarding it is, how it gives them a sense of tackling new challenges, and how it broadens their perspectives.
The purpose of the system is to strengthen individual capabilities through career plan support, while also strengthening the organization through benefits from mobility of human resources.

Transferring Skills

■Technician Development

The Monozukuri Division aims to develop ideal human resources who can think and act autonomously, and who can solve problems by involving other departments from a QCDS perspective (quality, cost, delivery, and service). We are conducting education based on five core areas of introduction, basics, skills, improvement, and management. Among them, our rank-specific training, which is one of the basic education programs to acquire understanding of roles and problem solving, has already been taken by 1,160 employees in FYE March 2024. In addition, as an initiative to pass on skills that require human intuition, we are operating a system called the Special Skills Transfer Course. In FYE March 2024, 39 trainees completed this course.

■Taking on the National Skills Competition^*1

SUBARU participates in the National Skills Competition, which is designed to cultivate talent with advanced technical skills and who can lead in the workplace.
Each year, SUBARU employees compete to be the best in Japan in three categories—lathe work, plastic molding, and automobile sheet metal. For about three years from when they join the Company, competitors strive to hone their skills, concentration, and endurance in daily training so that they can do their best at this national competition.
SUBARU has participated in the National Skills Competition for over 20 years. In 2017, our participants won the gold medal in the automobile sheet metal category, and have continued to win awards every year since then. In the 61st competition in 2023, SUBARU participants won the Silver Award, Bronze Award, and Fighting Spirit Award. Including this achievement, we have won a cumulative total of 54 medals^*2.

*1

The National Skills Competition is an event sponsored by the Japan Vocational Ability Development Association for young technicians (in principle, up to 23 years old) in Japan, with the aim of providing young technicians with a goal to strive for through skill competitions, and providing opportunities to come in contact with skills, etc., to appeal broadly to the general public about the importance and necessity of skills, and to help build momentum toward respect for technical skills.

*2

Total awards (54) include 1 Gold Award, 3 Silver Awards, 14 Bronze Awards, and 36 Fighting Spirit Awards.