Enhancing job satisfaction and pride

The Bridgestone Group has adopted the following approach to enhancing job satisfaction and pride.

Employees will strive to create a motivating workplace and to grow
through their work as they share the following global and Group values:

Communications:

Encourage mutual communications that build shared understanding and trust.
Teamwork:

Operate with a sincere respect for diversity.
Promote decisive and planned actions that accommodate what is the best for both the team and the company.
Compliance:

Encourage sincere actions that comply with both the letter and spirit of all applicable laws, regulations and policies.
Customer Orientation:

Consider the internal and external customer perspective, and encourage actions that put customer satisfaction first.
Improvement:

Respectfully challenge the status quo, and always strive for excellence without fear of failure.
Foster an environment that promotes improvement and innovation, taking into account the importance of both the process and the results.
Personnel Training:

Provide a training system that supports proactive learning and encourages employees to develop their own abilities.
Evaluation, Compensation:

Build a human resources system that encourages employees to excel by fairly evaluating their achievements and compensating them accordingly.

In line with its approach, the Bridgestone Group has put in motion plans to improve human resource programs at each Group company and conducted training for human resource coordinators. The Group is steadily improving the human resource and compensation systems and the education and training programs and ensuring consistency across the Group.

The Bridgestone Group offers extensive training opportunities for employees to acquire new knowledge and skills. In 2019, the Bridgestone Group invested a total of 15,565,166 hours on employee training across the company. This represents an average of 16.9 hours (2.2 workdays) per employee per year.

Technical training specific to individual roles and functions
Ascend Program (Global Leadership Development)
SEAL (Strategic Excellence and Agility Leadership program)
Ignition and Navigation (Early to Mid-Career High Potential Leadership Development)
General Trainings implemented by Human Resources Development Department
E-learning on the Code of Conduct implemented by Legal Department

One of the Bridgestone Group’s human resource policies is to optimize the talent across the Group. On an ongoing basis, the Group conducts education programs to help develop key talent with the ability to guide and support the global organization. The Group has invested significantly in programs to develop next-generation business leaders to ensure that it has the best talent available to guide the business in the future.

Leadership Development for Top Leaders
Regional Leadership Conference (RLC)
Regional General Management Program (GMP)
Leading in Crisis for Top leaders
Leading in Uncertain Times for Top leaders
Bridgestone Global Leadership Capabilities
Ascend, Ignition and Navigation Program
Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em
General Trainings implemented by Human Resources Development Department

The Group's Global Manufacturing People Development Division (formerly Global Manufacturing Education Centre), or G-MEC, is committed to a mission to develop manufacturing-sector human resources who can implement the Bridgestone manufacturing way. In January 2020, G-MEC moved to the Tire Manufacturing Innovation Division to promote the manufacturing human resource development and to work closely with the manufacturing and production engineering division of the Technology Center in Tokyo, Japan.

G-MEC uses three pillars to expand the global manufacturing human resources: the standard human resource development program, the train-the-trainer program, and systemization of manufacturing resources development.

The Bridgestone Group has about 180 manufacturing plants and R&D facilities worldwide. Bridgestone focuses on maintaining and enhancing production at all plants so that it can make and supply quality products consistent with standards, and ensure self-directed, high levels of production. To that end, the Group established promotion structures in each region: C-MEC (China), AP-MEC (Asia), E-MEC (Europe), BRISA-MEC (Middle East), NA-MEC (North America), and LA-MEC (Latin America). Promotion leaders, or “masters”, are trained and appointed to each strategic business unit or facility as the key person for promoting education and post-education activities and encouraging more earnest effort at individual facilities.

Number of masters (as of December 2020)

Region by category	Japan	Americas	Europe / Middle East	China	Asia	Total
Production process management	13	3	4	9	13	42
Standard skills instructor	18	0	17	15	17	67
Equipment maintenance management	21	12	21	16	26	96
Total	52	15	42	40	56	205

Each of the Bridgestone Group's four major regions (Japan, Americas, Europe, Russia, Middle East, India and Africa (EMIA), and China and Asia Pacific) regularly conducts employee engagement/satisfaction surveys, using methodologies that will encourage the most participation, and represent the best techniques for diverse cultural contexts.

The Group uses the Korn Ferry engagement survey^*1 in the Americas and Japan to measure the levels of employee engagement (commitment and discretionary effort) and enablement (optimized roles and supportive environment), and the Denison Cultural survey^*2 in EMIA, China and Asia Pacific, which uses a validated organisational model that analyses organization culture and linkage to business performance across four traits ― mission, adaptability, involvement (engagement), and consistency.

The Korn Ferry engagement survey uses 6-point scale (Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree/ Don't know or don't apply). Response rates are as follows:
Japan (2020): 95%, the Bridgestone Corporation employees only
Americas (2018): 80%, US and Canada salaried employees only
The Denison Cultural survey uses 5-point scale (Strongly Agree/ Agree/ Neutral/ Disagree/ Strongly Disagree). Response rates are as follows:
EMIA (2019): 83%, except for the plant in France
China and Asia Pacific (2018): 88%, Indirect employees only, including Bridgestone India Private Ltd.

The Group offers its employees a wide range of health and welfare benefits, as well as various regionally appropriate and market-competitive retirement options. All Bridgestone employees worldwide enjoy some non-compensation benefits. For example, employees in Japan can make use of company housing, rest homes, childcare and nursing care support schemes, or group insurance. Japanese employees can also join the employee shareholding association that enables them to invest simultaneously in the company’s and their own long-term future.

Our approach

Enhancing job satisfaction and pride

Employee training

Types of training

Educating next-generation leaders

Types of training

Developing manufacturing-sector human resources group-wide

Employee survey

Employee benefits

Relevant Information