The Isetan Mitsukoshi Group is promoting lifelong CDP with the aim of achieving both the growth of each employee and the growth of the company. This initiative employs a three-pronged approach in which employees, the company, and those in charge of management (supervisors) work together to promote the initiative with a medium- to long-term perspective and a group-oriented approach.
Supervisors create equitable growth opportunities for each employee through regular career dialogue while giving consideration to the medium- and long-term growth of the company and individuals, thereby creating a sense of growth among employees by achieving CDP through a group-oriented approach. We encourage our employees to think, learn, and act on their own initiative, without being passive, and to achieve sustainable growth in step with the changing times. As a company, we will build systems that cater to the career phases and life-work balance of its diverse employees, while at the same time creating a working environment where each and every individual can play an active role.
By continually updating our three-pronged approach to lifelong CDP, we will link individual growth as the starting point to sustainable growth of the company and society.
*Career Development Program (CDP): A medium- to long-term plan aimed at developing the careers and capabilities of employees
When it comes to lifelong CDP, we believe that in order to help each and every employee achieve personal growth, it is important to create a system and environment that accommodates each individual’s different career phases. Based on this idea, we have put in place a system to support individuals in setting, preparation, and realization phases of their careers, as well as in achieving a good life-work balance, including childbirth, childcare, and caregiving. In addition, by having employees engage in regular career dialogue with their supervisors, we are working to maximize the potential of each individual through strategic transfers and secondments based on an understanding of their medium- and long-term growth potential.
In order to achieve sustainable corporate growth and realize its business strategy, the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group aims to provide its employees with an environment and opportunities to learn, grow, and develop their careers in a self-directed manner. To this end, we have established MANABI NO MORI, our grand design for human resource development, and provide an environment and opportunities for education to all employees. MANABI NO MORI consists of (1) education that is essential for all employees; and (2) education that each employee can choose according to their own career goals. As part of this, we have prepared content for work education and skill development in four categories: career education, basic education, specialized education, and hands-on. We provide learning opportunities, including e-learning, for employees to choose and learn according to their own career paths, while keeping in mind areas where they need to have a thorough grounding.
Concept of MANABI NO MORI, our grand design for human resource development
In order to ensure continuous corporate growth, the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group places the utmost importance on matching what the company should do in terms of its strategies with what employees want to do in terms of their work duties (i.e., having the right people in the right positions). We believe that having the right people in the right positions directly leads to higher motivation, which in turn has a significant impact on individual performance, as well as on the performance of the organization and the company as a whole. In addition, in a world of increasing uncertainty in which both companies and people are expected to constantly change, as part of their personal growth, we believe that individuals need to take responsibility for their own career choices, rather than simply relying on company-driven career development. As part of our efforts to provide information for this purpose, in FY2022 we launched an initiative to introduce job content by company and business, providing an overview of work styles and job descriptions within the Group. Furthermore, we have established a number of systems to support the self-directed career development of motivated human resources, including annual self-reporting, internal open calls that give employees the freedom to apply for open positions within the company on their own initiative, and applying for challenging work, which encourages employees to voluntarily apply for positions in departments they wish to work in.
Going forward, we will collect more in-depth information on the wishes and skills of individual employees than ever before, and by centrally managing personal data, performance data, and career data, we will efficiently execute strategic personnel assignments that organically match our strategies with the thoughts and skills of each individual employee.
Under this initiative, we provide information to employees by centralizing information on such things as the nature of work and the type of human resources sought by each division of Isetan Mitsukoshi and each company in the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group. We encourage employees to think about their own careers based on this information, and use various systems to promote the career independence of each individual.
In regular one-on-one meetings between supervisors and subordinates, we position career dialogue as one of the important themes, in addition to dialogue on day-to-day business matters. In addition to helping employees think about their own careers, these meetings also provide such things as opportunities for work experience that will lead to the future by having supervisors and subordinates share their vision of what their careers should look like.
Under this system, employees freely indicate and submit their opinions and aspirations regarding their jobs, career paths, transfers, and other wishes, as well as their personal development and career plans while working for the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group. By collecting information from employees regarding such things as their level of satisfaction with their current job, a review of their career to date, and the skills they possess, we are able to better match their needs and aptitudes to new transfers and assignments. We will continue to identify the aspirations and desires of individual employees in more depth, which will help us to improve employee satisfaction through human resource development and having the right people in the right positions, thereby enabling us to achieve our corporate strategy. This reporting system is administered once a year to employees, mate employees (regional employees), elder staff, and, since FY2022, fellow employees (hourly contract employees).
This is a job offer-type recruiting system that solicits motivated individuals with the necessary abilities and aptitudes to perform duties for projects that require the participation of a wide range of human resources as part of efforts to achieve the Medium-Term Management Plan.
This system covers employees, mate employees, and elder staff.
Internal open calls: results
| FY2021 | FY2022 | |
| Number of solicited projects | 17 | 18 |
| Total number of entries | 95 | 58 |
| Number of people matched | 38 | 21 |
This is an open job application system that allows applicants to report their own specific experience and abilities that can be utilized in their desired roles and duties. Taking the self-reporting system one step further, those who wish to make a positive career change are invited for a direct interview with a human resources representative. This system is open to employees who have been with the company for seven years or more.
Applying for challenging work: results
| FY2021 | FY2022 | |
| Number of entries | 37 | 212 |
| Number of people matched | 11 | 27 |
In April 2023, I was transferred to the Isetan Private Sales Department, Private Sales Group by applying for challenging work.
Since joining the company in 2007, I have worked in several stores, including a secondment to Takamatsu Mitsukoshi. Most recently, I had been working as a member of staff in a back office. While it was very rewarding to learn different perspectives than those I gained on the shop floor, I gradually began to feel a sense of distance from the storefront and customers, which made me feel lonely.
It was then that I remembered the words of a respected senior colleague, “You must carve out your own career.” This made me rethink what it is that I really want to do. As was my motive for joining the company, I recalled my desire to do work that would leave a lasting impression on the important pages of people’s lives. This spurred me on to apply for challenging work in the Private Sales Group, where I could have direct contact with customers.
Having actually moved to my new position, I found that things were not as I had imagined them to be, and each day has been a series of trials and tribulations. Nevertheless, I spend my days with the support of customers’ words of gratitude and the support of my colleagues. I am grateful to be in this environment, and would like to accumulate efforts and experiences one by one, bringing me closer to making another page in customers’ lives.
Flow of systems to support self-directed career development
Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd.’s mate employees (regional employees) account for around 1,700 of the company’s approximately 8,000 employees, and play a major role in in-store sales, which is the most important aspect of department stores. This system was initially designed to grant employees indefinite employment after their fourth year with the company. However, from April 2016, employees are now employed indefinitely from their first year with the company, further improving the working environment for stylists (sales associates).
In addition, having shortened the number of years employees need to be at the company until they can take the promotion examination from the fifth year of employment to the fourth year, the number of mate employees promoted to regular employees has increased year by year. In FY2022, around 75 mate employees, or a cumulative total of 1,070 employees, became regular employees, of whom roughly 55 were promoted to managerial positions. In addition, approximately 20 fellow employees (hourly contract employees) were converted to mate employees in FY2022, for a cumulative total of approximately 1,500 employees.
We implement the Business Leader Program as a selective training program for Stage A (general manager) personnel in their fourth year or later to create a pool of human resources who can become future board members. This program has been held since FY2013 with the aim of cultivating the ability to conceptualize corporate value and leadership skills. To date, more than 150 people have participated in the program, of whom approximately 30 have gone on to become officers. In the assignment process, we assess the abilities and aptitudes of each employee from various perspectives, including evaluations, interviews, and self-reports, and strategically transfer and assign employees from the perspective of fostering managerial human resources.
The Isetan Mitsukoshi Group actively encourages the exchange of human resources in order to nurture a sense of group unity and develop the next generation of human resources. For example, regularly hired employees (selected employees) in their third year or later with the Group’s department stores are assigned to the MD Administration Department or stores in the Tokyo metropolitan area, where they undergo a one-year training program. This training primarily provides learning opportunities to acquire knowledge, skills, and experience unique to the Tokyo metropolitan area, such as understanding CRM* strategies to connect with each and every customer in physical stores, improving digital literacy, and building relationships with business partners. After returning to their department stores, they are able to put these skills to use in their day-to-day work. By continuing this training, we aim to raise the level of the entire group and quickly nurture talented future managers.
*CRM: Customer Relationship Management
The Isetan Mitsukoshi Group has systems in place that allow employees to take a temporary leave of absence to pursue personal development or to be seconded outside the Group.
・Self-training leave system
This system allows employees to take a leave of absence for a minimum of one month and a maximum of two years. Eleven employees in total have taken advantage of this program since 2015, mainly for the purpose of pursuing postgraduate studies.
・Secondment outside the Group
We send employees on secondment outside the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group to allow them to gain experience at an outside company for a certain period of time. In addition to helping them achieve personal growth, this system enables them to acquire knowledge and skills that cannot be gained within the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group, and to return these knowledge and skill sets to the organization after their return. In the last three years, 88 employees from 35 companies have been transferred to companies in different industries, organizations, government agencies, and other bodies.
New graduates who join Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd. as career-track employees first experience working in the department store business. To begin with, they are assigned to the department store business, where they learn the basics of sales and marketing through direct contact with customers. Thereafter, depending on their own wishes and aptitude, they may continue to work in the department store business or be assigned to a business in a different field. For the first six years after employees join the company, they are required to undergo joint training with other companies in the Group (a total of 1,002 employees participated in FY2022), with the aim of pursuing Group-wide optimization and promoting inter-company communication. Then, after passing a promotion examination, they assume a management position at the earliest in their seventh year.
We provide more opportunities for employees to learn and develop their skills on their own initiative. One such example is MANABI NO MORI e-learning, an e-learning system available to all Group employees. The system offers a total of more than 500 courses across the Group, covering a wide range of original content developed in-house, including business knowledge and business skills. Employees can access these courses from their personal devices and other means, thus eliminating hurdles created by time and geographical constraints and allowing them to learn anytime, anywhere. These courses are also available to employees who are temporarily on secondment outside the Group or who are on leave due to childcare or other reasons. We have also prepared content that can be accessed by partner staff (sales staff of business partners) who are engaged in sales activities in our stores. In addition, we are expanding the number of group training programs in which employees can participate voluntarily, and are providing them with more opportunities for interaction beyond their own departments and companies.
One example of our liberal arts education is SNACK*, a self-directed learning opportunity for all employees of the Group to plan and participate in learning together. In FY2023, in addition to providing seminars planned and operated by employees, we have been working to enhance our liberal arts programs, aiming to raise the level of knowledge and education of all Group employees in order to fulfill our “High sensitivity, fine quality” strategy.
*SNACK: Skill, Network, Attitude, Communication, Knowledge
Lecture on kabuki
Wine seminar for beginnersThe Isetan Mitsukoshi Group aims to develop human resources who can meet and exceed customers’ expectations with a high level of expertise. We have established in-house qualifications covering the expertise required for each product area, thereby promoting the acquisition of knowledge and skills in a systematic manner. Our stylists (sales staff) have acquired are variety of in-house qualifications, and are putting the skills they have learned to use in their work. These certifications include interior specialist, personal color analyst, shoe counselor, master shoe counselor, maternity and baby concierge, sign language, and mode fitter.
Number of employees with in-house qualifications
*Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd.
| Name of qualification | No. of recipients |
| Interior specialist | 35 |
| Personal color analyst | 397 |
| Shoe counselor | 236 |
| Master shoe counselor | 65 |
| Maternity and baby concierge | 48 |
| Sign language | 53 |
| Mode fitter | 60 |
Personal color analyst
Master shoe counselorFrom among all employees who have contact with customers, we recognize and honor the achievements of those most outstanding employees who are indispensable to our customers, colleagues, and the company as “Evergreens.” This program started at Isetan Mitsukoshi Ltd. in FY2011 and was expanded to the entire Group in FY2012, with a cumulative total of 695 people receiving awards over the 11 years through FY2022. In FY2021, we switched the awards ceremony to a new online format, making use of digital technology to share know-how of good practices and other things. From FY2023, the award system will evolve into one that will contribute to enhancing employee independence and motivation by linking the efforts of award winners to human resource development, and by awarding stylists who “touch the hearts” of stakeholders by embodying the values (thoughts and actions we place importance on) set out in the Isetan Mitsukoshi Group Corporate Philosophy.
Evergreen badge and certificate of commendation