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Developing People’s Abilities |
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| An approach based on on-the-job training |
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Honda’s approach to personnel education is based on on-the-job training: building specialized skills and professional capacity through direct experience.
Seeking to promote truly effective on-the-job training, Honda has designed programs finely tuned to match the technical and technological content and aptitude levels of each specialty and occupational grade, with specific targets for the development of job performance, specialized knowledge and ability in each area. The results of these programs provide a way to check the specialized skills and managerial capabilities of individual associates, while also helping supervisors assess and foster the aptitudes of the associates they manage.
To supplement these on-the-job training programs, Honda also offers off -the-job training designed to provide associates opportunities to develop specialized skills and enhance their careers by developing new skills or management abilities.
To support associates who wish to take the initiative to learn new skills, acquire knowledge and cultivate themselves in order to fully realize their own potential, we also offer opportunities for language learning, distance education and inter-industry exchanges. |
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| Basic approach to personnel training |
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| • Principal off -the-job training programs |
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At Honda, we match a combination of on-thejob and off -the-job training to our associates’ aptitudes and aspirations in an effort to help them improve their abilities. Our off -the-job training program is divided into three main areas, with separate training programs for each level.
1. Self-improvement training (career development)
2. Work performance training (skill development)
3. Collaboration training (management training) |
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| Motivational programs that encourage independence |
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| • Honda’s self-expression system |
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| Under Honda’s self-expression system, associates meet with their supervisors once a year to discuss what work they would like to do or what section they would like to join, based on their own experience, abilities, talents and independent studies. By consulting with their supervisors and expressing their ambitions for the future, associates are able to better understand their own personal strengths and aptitudes, while at the same time clarifying their everyday work objectives based on a vision of the future. Honda has established this system to systematically support associates in their own efforts to grow and develop. |
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| • Our Challenger Recruiting Program |
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| Honda’s Challenger Recruiting Program spurs associates to set and attain their own goals. With the aim of increasing their motivation and helping them realize their potential, campaigns are conducted twice yearly to give associates the opportunity to apply for new positions. Since its inception in September 2005, the program has helped 303 associates take on challenging new assignments. |
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| Evaluations based on dialogue |
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Honda emphasizes two-way communication as the key to associate evaluation. Provisions are made for at least three meetings per year between each associate and his or her supervisor.
Conferences are held with individual associates each April to determine their assignments in accordance with divisional objectives. In June and again in December, the supervisor evaluates the associate’s work for the preceding six months, explains the evaluation and offers specific suggestions for improvement. During these meetings, associates and supervisors discuss appropriate steps for career development. |
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| Independent associate initiatives |
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| • Improvement suggestion system |
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| Honda has a system for encouraging all associates to make proposals as to how the company’s work could be improved, whether in large ways or small. This is one way Honda seeks to encourage independence of spirit and innovation, fostering the growth and refinement of skills and capabilities. Each year, some 100,000 suggestions are received, and some 90% of them are implemented. From the time the system was implemented in 1953 to July 2006, approximately eight million suggestions were contributed. |
| Suggestions for improvement received |
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| • NH Circle activities |
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In NH Circle activities, associates take the initiative to get together to discover ways to improve their work, their workplace and their company. The abbreviation “NH” stands for “Now, Next and New Honda”. It’s all about taking new steps now toward creating the next great Honda improvement.
Based on the principle of respect for the individual, and cherishing independence, fairness and trust, NH Circle participants strive to make their working environment even more positive. The strengths and initiative of each associate are utilized to full advantage to realize everyone’s unlimited potential and help the company improve and grow.
Each year six regional contests are held. Every second year, the NH Circle World Convention provides an opportunity for global exchange and education, while also giving everyone a chance to recognize the achievements of the inning teams from each regional contest.
Since the program began in 1973, it has steadily grown. As of March 2006, there were NH Circles in 31 countries.
Including suppliers, affiliates and dealers, 19,776 NH Circles were active in FY2007, involving some 144,856 individuals.
The 2008 NH Circle World Convention will be held in Guangzhou, China. |
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| NH Circle participation |
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| NH Circle World Convention held in the United Kingdom (November 2006) |
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| Fostering talent through motor sports |
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| 1955: Honda’s first team to enter the Mount Asama Volcano Motorcycle Race. Honda’s laboratory on wheels was off to a fast start. |
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| 2007: In MotoGP, Honda’s tradition of using motor sports to train engineers continues. |
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In 1954, when Honda was still selling motorized bicycles, founder Soichiro Honda audaciously declared the company’s intention to participate in the Isle of Man TT Races. Only six years later Honda captured first place. The company then turned its attention to Formula One, completing an F1-ready racetrack in Suzuka in 1962 before launching its F1 challenge two years later, in 1964. By 1965 the upstart automobile manufacturer had already won its first Grand Prix race. The initiative shown by Soichiro Honda, who was determined to take his company to the pinnacle of world motor sports, lives on. Today Honda is active in F1, MotoGP, IndyCar and many other motor sports activities. The fierce competition of motor sports gives many young Honda engineers the chance to
improve their skills and teamwork. It also gives these young individuals the opportunity to show the initiative that has always driven the company to the top—to taste the spirit of challenge that built Honda. For us, motor sports is a laboratory on wheels where engineers learn to overcome problems—in a battle against time, and always grow in the process. Personal initiative is in our DNA, and it’s the source of our creativity. |
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