### Section 3. Current situation and issues of human resources development

Companies manage human resources of regular workers focusing on the internal labour market and use diversified human resources. Human resources development is an important issue in business management.

Regular workers have access to the development of their career within the company through structured and systematic OJT (for younger generations) and various personnel transfers (for mid-career generations). Internal training and promotion are prioritized for the policy of training and promotion of managerial positions. A higher percentage of companies that focus on internal training places efforts on human resources development compared with those that focus on outsourcing. However, it seems difficult to train candidates of managers in a structured manner. Issues of human resources development include the insufficient time for training due to busy work schedule and lack of supervisors' training ability and leadership.

Non-regular workers are provided less opportunities of human resources development compared with regular workers. As the use of human resources by companies diversifies and the number of non-regular workers increases, it is expected that non-regular workers have more opportunities to play an active role according to their motivation and abilities including promotion to regular workers.

## (Human resources development is an important issue in business management)

The point of highest priority to strengthen in the future in order for companies to increase their competitiveness is the "training system that improves abilities and the potential of human resources." Therefore, human resources development is an important issue in business management.

### (Young generations who are trained using structured and systematic OJT, etc.)

According to Figure 39, compared with mid-career generations (those not in young generations and managerial positions), a higher percentage of companies basically conduct uniform internal OFF-JT for all these employees (structured and systematic OJT, placement of supervisors and instructors, orientation, etc.) as activities of human resources development for young generations (employees who have worked in a company up to 3 years).

According to Figure 40, a relatively high ratio of companies answered that the issues of human resources development for young generations are "the insufficient time for training due to busy work schedule," "lack of supervisors' training ability and leadership," and "human resources development that is not carried out in a structured and systematic manner."

## (Mid-career generations develop their career more through various personnel transfers compared to young generations)

When comparing activities of human resources for mid-career generations with those for young generations, many companies conduct activities for career development such as "personnel exchange (temporary transfer) with other businesses" and "relocation (personnel transfer between businesses) (forecited Figure 39).

A relatively higher ratio of companies said their issues of human resources development for mid-career generations are, as in those for young generations, busy work schedule, lack of supervisors' training ability and leadership, and human resourced development that is not carried out in a structured and systematic manner. However, a higher ratio of companies answered that they have more issues in human resources development for mid-career generations than those for young generations (forecited Figure 40).

## (Structured development of managers is a issue)

Managers play a role of connection between executives and job site, and their influence on business performance is large. A much higher ratio of companies focus on "internal training and promotion" rather