In order to ensure sustainable growth in the future, it is important for the Sanyo Group to specify organizational roles according to the brand vision and management policy. The desired direction for the organization then needs to be unified, and the cohesive momentum increased.
The current personnel system clarifies the organizational functions and the expected roles of employees within this framework. It also specifies the specialized abilities that need to be acquired in order to fulfill each of the roles. The target management system, evaluation standards, and promotion conditions are then established based on this. By evaluating whether a good balance has been achieved for both the acquisition of specialized skills and the execution of the expected role, and by reflecting this in the treatment and remuneration, a more results-oriented personnel system has been established for better satisfaction, transparency and fairness.

To reinforce employees' incentives to invent, our company has set up an employee invention reward system. Various rewards are provided through this system, such as a reward upon filing a patent application, an advance reward to honor an invention that appears to be very excellent, a reward for a patented invention that has been used for our company's business, a reward for licensing to another company by paying a part of the royalty income to the inventor, and a reward for an invention that has contributed to our company through cross licensing. Under the system, employees are able to submit their opinions concerning the rewards, and are also provided opportunities for consultations before any major changes to the system are made. By properly responding to employee feedback, Sanyo is striving to make its invention rewards more equitable. Furthermore, we make a public recognition of patented inventions with the highest degree of contribution to the company's business and performance at our annual “Technology/Environment Convention^*1.” Thus, we promote activities to further heighten employees' motivation through praising their accomplishment.

*1 Technology/Environment Convention is held, with participation by our engineers and the top management, for the purpose of sharing the vision and strategy about research and development or environmental initiatives in the company. Moreover the fruits of technological research or the product development and the reward for a patented invention are announced, and it has led also to the employee's motivation improvement.

Awards ceremony in the Convention

The Sanyo Group is improving its system in order that all employees may find their potential, achieve job satisfaction, and realize their abilities to the fullest.
Sanyo has established skills requirements for each job type of the personnel system and constructed the skills development programs. The skills development programs for each career type are comprised of on-the-job, job level, specialized ability, and career path trainings, and the system enables employees to set medium and long-range career plans. The training methods now include e-learning in addition to group and correspondence courses, and there is a range of other skills development support including courses from outside educational institutions, and a study-abroad system and other learning. These programs will be introduced at some Sanyo overseas subsidiaries as well.

Training sessions

International Training Course　(ITC)
In order to raise the overall strength of the Sanyo Group as global entity, it is important to share the same values and goals, to improve management abilities, and to promote interaction between people in the group. Consequently, every year Sanyo holds an International Training Course (ITC) for upperrank managers from principal subsidiaries and affiliates outside Japan. The participants reviewed the current situation of Sanyo Electric and its business environment, as well as the company's future directions. A total of 12 people from 9 countries including the US, Germany, Indonesia participated in the fiscal 2008 ITC.

Workshops for Strategy Creation and Application
Continual change is essential for the sustained growth of a company. Based on this concept, Sanyo provides training through active learning that goes beyond listening to lectures. The workshops teach participants how to devise strategies that will lead to specific corporate changes. They are offered to managers from various parts of the value chain, namely, research and technology development, product planning, production technology, purchasing, quality assurance, and sales. Teams are created that cross professional and organizational boundaries, and each team carries out cross-organizational investigation of management issues common to the Sanyo Group, in a total of four training sessions. The teams devise strategies to resolve the issues using innovative approaches, along with plans for their implementation, before explaining them to executives. Afterwards, participants become leaders for changing awareness and behavior in the workplace, based on the management strategies and application methods they have learned in the workshops.