Human Resource Development

Average training time and cost

※Data for full-time employees of the TOTO Group

TOTO Group Human Resource Development System

For the succession and the development of technology unique to TOTO － Specialist system

The manufacturing of the TOTO Group has been supported by high technology. “Specialist system” evaluates the persons with advanced expertise and skills producing high technology as well as managers, and designates them as “Specialist”. In this way, this system aims for their career advancement as skilled workers and the development of the next generation.

Our goal is to strengthen the competitiveness of the TOTO Group throughout manufacturing by ensuring further development of technology and skill, and accumulation & transmission of the knowhow. Furthermore with the technology the “Specialist”s produced, we will expand the new possibility of the associated fields and will contribute to the development of society.

About Fellows

The TOTO Group has appointed three specialist as fellows as the top of the over a hundred of specialists.

“Fellow” is one of the world’s top-level researchers and engineers who is responsible for TOTO’s core technology. As “Fellows” contribute greatly to the improvement of corporate value, brand, performance and symbolize TOTO’s unique technology, we will continue to develop the world level engineers and pass on the manufacturing spirit and the human resource development spirit to the next generation.

Developing Human Resources to Support Manufacturing the TOTO Way

In "the building of human resources" that support to  create things, TOTO bases its efforts on words left behind by our second president, Saburo Momoki: "You need to make good people before you can make good products." To that end, TOTO has created a system for structuring the technical skills needed in manufacturing products, and has rolled out a wide range of measures based on that system. We have divided the technical skills into technical expertise and the design approach to plan and implement technical skill enhancement programs and training to meet various needs. We also aggregate technical information in the technical information sharing site, which is design for users to be able to access necessary data anytime from anywhere.  In the development of manufacturing staff, we provide training programs by employee level in a systematic manner to develop human resources who support innovative manufacturing activities.

Manufacturing Personnel Development System (Technical human resources)

1. Enhancing e-Learning

TOTO's e-learning system was put in place to provide a convenient way for employees to study, and provides approximately 109 units of 34 courses covering basic technical knowledge and methods (as of Apr. 2024). We renewed all the content by providing supervision of the technical skills to make the content easier to learn and to develop an easy-to-use environment for employees by making the lesson hours of each content shorter to allow learners to choose and learn specific content as needed.

2. Hands-on Training

Group training conducted in fiscal year 2023 covered 14 subjects with a total of 320 employees trained across a total of 300 hours. In quality improvement training, which received special focus, attention was shifted from classroom-based training to a more hands-on system in the belief that knowing something and actually being able to do it are two different things. A three-step process (pre-training assignments; in-class training at the session; follow-up assignments to solidify what was learnt) works to ensure that employees are able put into practice what they have learned in the course of their training.

3. Hands-on Activities and Support for OJT

Based on the belief that OJT is the key to human resource development, TOTO has deployed two approaches: in one approach, the person in charge of human resource development at each department is working to level-up engineers by developing and promoting human resource development plans that include OJT and by sharing and exchanging information about the progress of engineer training at each department through company-wide, cross-sectional effort for engineer development. In the other approach, we set up a system in which the selected key engineer with specialized skills at each department provides OJT to employees there.

Manufacturing Personnel Development System (Manufacturing human resources)

1. Workplace Safety Initiatives

We are working to eliminate occupational accidents by not only group training but also providing on-the-job training and avoiding near-miss training at our own workplace facilities, with the aim of establishing a corporate culture of safety first.

2. Quality Improvement Efforts

We are working to improve the quality of our manufacturing by providing classroom and on-the-job training to acquire the knowledge necessary to maintain and improve quality at the manufacturing site, such as work standardization and change point management.

3. Productivity Improvement Initiatives

In order to identify issues at each workplace and continuously implement improvement activities, we are developing human resources who can work on improving productivity by acquiring improvement skills through education such as simple automation and DX.

Developing Human Resources for Achieving Sales Strategies

Our sales divisions develop and encourage a talent training system by job types and job levels for the purpose of ensuring the improvement of the necessary skills based on our sales strategy and by keeping up with changes in our business environment. We are focusing on the development of managerial-level people, primary- and mid-level workers and our sales-related Group Companies (distributors) with an aim of changing our organizational climate and human resources’ awareness and strengthening the changes, developing global human resources and improving our housing equipment business in Japan. Although the type of learning, such as group training, online training, one-on-one interviews, and personal development, varies depending on the learning contents and target, our focus is to support employees according to each development issue. Also, after providing the training, in order to help the employees fully acquire the knowledge, skills, and awareness they input, we develop a system and mechanism that facilitate enabling employees to practically output what they learned by, for example, deepening relationships with their supervisors or interlocking with OJT. We also continue providing education to learn basic knowledge including financial, legal and national policy knowledge in addition to business, sales, and management skills. In addition to business, sales, and management skills, we also continue to educate our employees to acquire basic knowledge of finance, legal matters, and national policies.

Overall Sales Division Human Resources Development System

1. Development of individuals for managerial posts

Our one-year program for training new office/section managers has run since fiscal 2001. In fiscal 2021, a two-year training program was introduced with a view to developing human resources that may become capable of serving effectively as department managers. In addition, in order to develop human resources capable of assuming managerial positions at an early stage, we are also focusing on training incoming managers, mainly mid-career employees.

2. Developing Human Resources for Entry-Level to Mid-Level Sales Divisions

In 2004, a training program supplemented by the knowledge and skills necessary for sales activities was introduced to a three-year program for developing primary-level workers, which is run by the TOTO Group as a whole. These programs continue and have evolved in accordance with the working environment, strategies and so on.

We will also provide training on the specialist’s role of showroom advisor. New employees learn service etiquette and product knowledge, and mid-level workers learn about building reforms. We develop human resources that may become showroom advisors to meet customers’ needs.

3.Development of individuals for sales companies that are part of the TOTO Group

Each of our Group Companies ran training programs independently since fiscal 2012, when these programs were centralized with the aim of facilitating the TOTO Group’s efforts to consolidate our Japanese housing equipment business. By holding training programs jointly with sales-related group companies (sales companies) throughout Japan, not only does it foster an awareness of being a member of the TOTO Group, but it also leads to great results in terms of unifying the image of human resources that we seek, as well as information exchange and mutual stimulation among trainees. 

Raising Awareness of Every Employee - Global Human Resource

＜Japan＞

In Japan, opportunities for working overseas have been concentrated on managerial-level people. With the aim of developing human resources who are capable of making decisions from a global perspective, we introduced a system to attract requests from our young staff members  for secondment to overseas group companies.

＜Overseas＞

・Training for General Manager and Section Chief

In the workplaces overseas, we delegate trainers from Japan to China and other Asian countries (Vietnam, Thailand, India, Malaysia and Singapore) and provide business skill training to provide general manager and section chief at the overseas group companies, who are the key players in TOTO’s operations in each region, with opportunities to train and develop themselves.

・Development of senior management

The TOTO Group offers training for senior corporate managers of overseas local companies (18 people in fiscal 2023) in order to develop human resources with an understanding of TOTO's business strategy and decisions base on the corporate philosophy and the ability to make decisions for their local companies. 　

Development and Evaluation Systems

The TOTO Group (Japan) evaluates our people on two axes, the Competency Evaluation to evaluate the ability/skills and performance against the requirements for their assigned role levels, and the MBO Evaluation to evaluate each individual result based on the desired target, and the evaluation results will be reflected in the determination of the right treatment, skill development, and future appointments. We adopt a multifaceted approach to evaluate people in managerial positions.

Competency Evaluation

Assessment and feedback interviews are conducted on the basis of the capability definition document designed for each role. The definition, consisting of specialized capabilities set for each workplace and common capabilities set cross-functionally, clarifies the skills and performance that each individual should improve by defining the required skills and performances for each role to help human resource development. Moreover, to support the individual growth, feedback interviews are conducted to motivate and promote the growth of subordinates and clarify issues that need to be addressed.

MBO Evaluation

This evaluation aims to improve individual development by setting individual goals based on the desired target that includes the business goals and supervisor' objectives and through assessment and feedback from their supervisors considering the individual's degree of progress and attainment.  It emphasizes communications between supervisors and their subordinates, and they need to conduct an one-on-one interview at the goal setting time in the beginning of each term and at the evaluation time at the end of each term. When a new theme is set during the term, or when a goal is reviewed or there is a change in the priority order of goals, this evaluation must be conducted on an ongoing basis, which helps employees' individual development and organizational achievement.

Multifaceted Observation

It is conducted for new managers to diagnose their management skills, the key role of managers, based on observations on their behaviors by the people around them, including supervisors, subordinates, and peers. It helps develop managers by providing them with the observation results as feedback and allows managers to be aware of their weak and strong points and reflects on their behaviors. (Conducted for 922 people from the TOTO Group Japan in fiscal 2023)

Incentive improvement systems

- Performance-based bonus system
As the system is linked to the company’s performance, it allows the company’s profit to be returned to employees on a semi-annual basis. Since the amount paid is calculated based on individual salary, the system reflects each employee’s level of contribution over the medium to long term.

- System to encourage employees to acquire official qualifications
We have implemented a system to motivate employees to develop and improve themselves by encouraging them to obtain public qualifications designated by the Company.

- President's award system
We offer awards to those whose business results and attitudes are role models for other employees and those who have achieved socially highly evaluated outcome and achievement. We strive to raise employee awareness by improving award winners' motivation and making them role models for other employees. We have also implemented it in overseas Group companies to improve award winners motivation and lead to creation of unity and penetration of corporate philosophy.