Dialogue with colleagues at work opens up opportunities for your career. Idemitsu's "Career Workshop by Organization"

At Idemitsu Kosan, we are implementing various support measures to enable each employee to proactively create their own unique career path.
One example is the "Career Workshop by Organization" conducted by Career Design Department.
Thinking about your career alone can be difficult, but dialogue with colleagues at work can lead to new insights and provide the impetus to take the next step.
What is the significance of "organization-specific career workshops" that has become apparent through initiatives in various workplaces?

Established in April 2024, Career Design Department works to create better opportunities for growth by supporting the lives and careers of each individual employee, with the aim of contributing to the growth of the organization.
At the heart of this initiative is a perspective that considers "working, living, and living happily" as an integrated whole.

One initiative that puts this idea into concrete form is the "Career Workshop by Organization."
This initiative, which supports employees' career development not by leaving it to individuals but by providing opportunities for dialogue at the workplace level, is a career support measure unique to our company, which advocates "People-Centered Management."

Our organization-specific career workshops are designed and implemented to support the career development of each individual employee, based on the results of our internal engagement survey*, and tailored to the specific circumstances of each organization.

Career Design Department offers voluntary career training programs that employees can choose to participate in, but the organization-specific career workshops are conducted at the workplace level. Themes are set in consultation with each organization, such as "deeper self-understanding" and "deeper understanding of work," and the content is tailored to the needs of each organization. These workshops are short, easy to participate in, and provide an opportunity for employees to think about their own careers and to dialogue with their colleagues.

In the workshop, participants will use our original "Career Design Sheet" to organize their values, strengths, expectations and roles in the workplace, and their desired future selves.
In our busy daily lives, it's not easy to find time to pause and reflect on our careers. That's why I believe there's great value in having a space where we can think, articulate, and dialogue these things together with our colleagues.

^{* A survey to understand the current status and challenges of employees' "engagement, mutual trust, and sense of unity (≒ engagement)," aiming to create better workplaces and improve organizational strength.}

Our original "Career Design Sheet" developed by Career Design Department

At Tokuyama Complex (Shunan City, Yamaguchi Prefecture), which wanted to further improve its score on the question "I can envision my future career at our company" in an engagement survey, a workshop was held with the aim of articulating one's career from both a life and work perspective. The workshop began with a reaffirmation of the significant contribution that the manufacturing site where they work makes to society and the company, and the type of personnel required within that context. Following that, an exercise was conducted to help participants understand their own values. The card-based exercise was designed to allow participants to share not only their own values but also those of their colleagues in an enjoyable way, leading to increased communication. To ensure that the workshop could be implemented even in workplaces with shift work, measures were taken to keep it short and involve small groups.

Scenes from the workshop at Tokuyama Complex
In the card-based workshop, participants organize their own values while engaging in dialogue with their peers.

After the workshop, participants shared positive feedback and insights such as, "I realized that the skills I'm currently acquiring will be useful even as times change," "I understood that there's a lot I can learn at my current workplace, and I'm determined to build my ideal career through daily effort," and "I feel that when advising younger colleagues on career development, I want to approach it from both a life and work perspective."

In addition, workshops tailored to each organization were held at the Hokkaido branch (Sapporo, Hokkaido) and Advanced Technology Research Laboratories (Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture), and feedback included comments such as, "I was able to reaffirm my own values and strengths," and "I was able to organize the materials for thinking about my future vision." This suggests that the workshops are functioning as an opportunity for people to think about their future, regardless of their job type or age group.
Furthermore, by putting their own thoughts into words and sharing them with each other, members deepen their understanding of one another, which leads to more active daily communication and dialogue.

Scenes from the workshop at the Hokkaido branch
We will use a "career design sheet" to articulate the kind of person you want to be.

Career development requires initiative—the ability to think and act independently. However, taking that first step also requires opportunities and environments where you can reflect on yourself and engage in safe dialogue.

Organizational career workshops provide a space for each employee to clarify their own values and future aspirations, as well as to share their thoughts and ideas with colleagues. By conducting these workshops at the organizational level, they foster dialogue about "how we want to grow in this workplace" and "what role we want to play," creating an opportunity to balance individual career development with organizational growth.

Members of Career Design Department
We support each employee in proactively creating a career path that suits them.

Idemitsu Kosan will continue to create an environment where each employee can build their own unique career, and a workplace where employees can take on challenges while understanding each other's values and aspirations.