Human Resource Development
Human Resource Development Initiatives
The Yamaha Group aspires to provide opportunities for skill and career development to all human resources fairly and without discrimination. Under the concept of supporting highly motivated employees who wish to fulfill their roles and aim to make constant progress, the Group implements various measures to support all employees in exercising their talents to the fullest and developing professionally while working toward self-fulfillment. To this end, we have set the target of doubling human resource investments by fiscal 2025. Specific efforts toward accomplishing this target include increasing investments in education measures that give employees growth opportunities. In fiscal 2025, the amount of investments in education measures at Yamaha Corporation was 1.6 times higher than the previous level. Moreover, the new medium-term management plan sets the target of increasing the amount of human resource investments to 1.5 times the previous level by fiscal 2028.
Education and Training Programs
The Yamaha Group has established guidelines for Groupwide education and training programs to facilitate the systematic cultivation of human resources. Based on these guidelines, we seek to create an education and training system that is equally focused on skill improvement and career development as the basis for the development of globally successful human resources. At the same time, training programs are tailored to specific objectives and groups of employees.
We aspire to conduct highly effective education and training programs that allow employees to get the most out of their time spent in training. These programs include conventional group training sessions as well as e-learning programs utilizing videos and discussion-centered programs that take advantage of the characteristics of online meeting tools.
Major Training and Education Programs
| Format | Purpose / Scope | Program Name / Details |
|---|---|---|
| Selective training | Development of operating base leaders and managers (including overseas hires and other employees worldwide) | Training prior to promotion to planning position or management position |
| Yamaha Advanced Management Program (training for management candidates at overseas sales bases) | ||
| Senior Specialist Institute (production management training) | ||
| Yamaha Global Management Program (leadership training at overseas bases) | ||
| Management training program, self-education support programs for management position candidates | ||
| Yamaha Advanced Skill School and Yamaha Technology Training School (training for production site supervisors and core workers) | ||
| Rank-based training | Skill improvement training based on career stage | Training for new recruits, annual training for junior employees, training for mid-career hires |
| Training for new planning staff, training for new managers, training for middle managers | ||
| Training for evaluators, training for new heads of core and other divisions, training for new Group company presidents | ||
| Training for production staff (new instructors, new and existing foremen, new and existing process leaders) | ||
| Career independence training | Cultivation of autonomous career development mindset and supporters | Career design training (training for junior employees in second and fourth years at the Company and career training for non-career path female employees) |
| Career counseling training (training fostering career development support mindset and counseling skills) | ||
| Childcare leave support training (training for supporting returning to work and developing career after childcare leave for leave takers and their supervisors) | ||
| Second Life Preparatory Seminar (provision of information regarding lifestyles and workstyles for people over 60) | ||
| Function-specific training | Lectures for improving language and technical skills | Study abroad/language learning programs and open TOEIC tests held on Company premises |
| Technical academy and workshop programs (cultivation of engineers supporting product development) | ||
| Yamaha Business School (distance learning for supporting self-driven learning efforts of employees) |
Support for Growth and Success
The Yamaha Group seeks to support the growth of employees and ensure the evaluations of their successes reflect their ambition and expertise.
Once a year, employees meet with their supervisors to confirm their aptitude toward their current position, skills, and career goals. In addition, we provide information on how to carry out meetings as well as information for sparking career development motivation to both employees and their supervisors to facilitate more fruitful meetings.
Training programs for junior employees include meetings with human resource representatives held during employees’ second, fourth, and sixth years for the purpose of discussing their targets and their career plans. We provide comprehensive support to employees to cultivate their fundamental business skills, to heighten motivation, and to alleviate work-related concerns. Furthermore, in order to ensure that these meetings are conducive to fair evaluations and effective support for employee growth, the Yamaha Group carries out training for the managers who conduct meetings as well as training for the employees who will be responsible for providing on-the-job training.
We have also developed frameworks for facilitating information sharing between the Company and people taking childcare leave, which has the potential to upset one’s career plans. In addition, training is held for both leave takers and their supervisors to offer such individuals support in relation to both awareness and skills and to thereby aid them in achieving a smooth return to work.
Yamaha Corporation introduced a talent management system in fiscal 2024, and application of this system was extended to Group companies Yamaha Corporate Services Corporation; Yamaha Fine Technologies Co., Ltd.; and Yamaha Hi-Tech Design Corporation in fiscal 2025. As part of this process, we updated the system’s framework of jobs and skills designed to clarify types of roles and expertise based on the implementation approach of the respective companies to more clearly track the roles that require specialized skills and the skill requirements for these roles. Based on this framework, training sessions were organized for supervisors with the aim of increasing the quality of the career counseling they provide so as to allow employees to utilize the information provided through this framework to take inventory of their skills and experience and pursue autonomous career development. Human resource information registered with the system is being used to help employees achieve career independence and enhance their specialized expertise by matching them with their ideal position. In addition, an internal application system has been introduced that is linked to job postings for mid-career hires* in order to improve the fluidity of our workforce in conjunction with the implementation of the talent management system. This fluidity is anticipated to provide employees with a wider range of options for developing their career and to thereby heighten motivation and invigorate the organization. Moreover, we will examine the possibility of expanding these initiatives to domestic Group companies in the future as appropriate.
- System that allows candidates for positions designated for mid-career hires to be selected from both inside and outside of the Company
Development of Management Personnel
The Yamaha Group’s basic policy is to provide all employees equal access to opportunities to develop their skills and careers. This policy shapes our efforts to develop the management personnel who form the backbone of business activities. In addition, core positions are managed in an integrated, global manner to facilitate the cultivation of human resources for core positions, including future managers.
General training programs for management personnel include extensive training based on hierarchical levels conducted on a global and Groupwide basis in accordance with human resource development guidelines. At Yamaha Corporation, training is organized by hierarchical levels to provide personnel with the ability to develop their skills as appropriate given their career stage. The Company also conducts training for the heads of core and other divisions in order to bolster its training programs for individuals who are central to management. In addition, training programs for overseas base leaders and overseas sales base manager candidates are conducted targeting individuals in core positions at domestic and overseas Group companies.
Fostering of Human Resources for Manufacturing
The Yamaha Group is committed to fostering human resources that can contribute to the advancement of manufacturing.
With the goal of improving upon its “Made in Yamaha” quality, the Group is clarifying the roles and functions of each of its production sites while also fostering human resources that can support the manufacturing activities at these sites.
Plants in Japan are positioned as bases for manufacturing high-value-added products. At these sites, we focus on cultivating human resources that can support the development of competitive manufacturing technologies, on developing core production site workers (Yamaha Advanced Skill School and Yamaha Technology Training School), and on transmitting the core skills required to manufacture musical instruments to new employees. Meanwhile, technicians and supervisors from Japan are dispatched to production bases in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India to help cultivate personnel at these sites based on the core manufacturing technologies developed in Japan. In addition, shared, rank-based manufacturing training programs are implemented to foster core human resources at these sites. Moreover, locally hired employees lead training programs targeting core manufacturing human resources designed on an area-specific basis to reinforce the foundations of the Yamaha Group’s high-quality production bases.
Engineer Cultivation and Success Support
Based on the corporate philosophy of the Yamaha Group, we are exploring new technologies and cultivating and supporting the success of engineers with the goal of creating new value. The Yamaha Group has traditionally cultivated engineers for advancing product development through courses on digital signal processing and analog circuits, core technologies to the Group. Production technology courses include those on wood fundamentals, coatings, and adhesives, which are available online, as well as other courses designed to help engineers develop a better understanding of fundamental production technologies for use in improving product value and quality.
Major Engineer Cultivation and Success Support Initiatives
- Technology seminars and technical academic programs
- Cross-organization technology forums and other opportunities for information sharing and exchanges among engineers
- Invention reward program
Technical Listening Training
Developing businesses in the fields of sound and music requires people who accurately understand the physical quantity of sound and are able to explain this to others. The Yamaha Group holds technical listening training for engineers and other employees involved in sound-related processes by utilizing the auditory sensitivity development techniques that Kyushu University has fostered for education purposes over the course of five decades. This training systemically exposes participants to changes in physical sound quantity and differences in the impression of sound in order to foster an ability to accurately comprehend the characteristics of sound in terms of physical quantity. The program also seeks to endow participants with basic knowledge regarding sound. To date, more than 1,000 individuals have completed this program.