Case 3 – Restructuring

Background
A Japanese multi-national chemicals producer, Co. H, was in the process of two major organizational challenges: a group-wide down-sizing and ISO 9001 certification. As a result, it was highly focused on cost performance enhancement and quality systems. In terms of language training, the company had a long history of providing language courses for its 100,000+ employees, which were conceived and run by personnel department staff at its various sites around the country and the world. As with other companies, English was the primary target language, though Spanish, German, French, Chinese among others were also on offer, depending on the site and program. The company wanted to simply prepare their training program documentation for the ISO audit.

TOZAI’s support:

1. Program Standardization Gap Analysis identified holes in Co. H’s training administration and provided
   suggestions on how to fix them in time for the ISO audit.
2. During our consultations with human resources representatives at the group headquarters, it became clear
   that (a) significant amounts of money, time, and labor were being poorly utilized; (b) the company needed
   fewer and highly qualified employees, in order to maximize the effects of the down-sizing; (c) foreign
   language ability was a clear and valuable professional skill with which to screen employees for retention
   and further development. As a result, it was decided that group-wide language training should be centrally
   managed and streamlined to improve quality.
3. Standardized testing of English was administered to those classes of employees targeted by central
   human resources for possible retention. Other “strategic languages,” such as Chinese, Indonesia, Spanish,
   and Russian were identified by the company for their future market value. Those employees who had a
   record of training in those languages also had their proficiency tested.
   After reorganizing, the company carried out an internal language needs assessment, in order to refocus its training and boost morale. The company now had its targets. From there,
4. Instructor Search identified a mixture of instruction providers with three qualities: (1) suitable curricula,
   (2) confirmed prior training success, and (3) with convenient locations and schedules. These providers
   included language schools, an online program, and a publisher of computer aided self-study materials.
   Employees were given a choice of their preferred training methods and allowed to change at the end of
   the initial training term.
5. Standardized tests were repeated after the decided training periods to confirm progress and results were
   reported to all stake holders.
6. Unified Reporting collected all of the regularly generated program data, distributed monthly progress
   reports to all identified staff, and provided a term end report including statistics on progress and best
   practices.

Results: Program documentation passed the ISO audit. Desired language ability was defined, which helped in the down-sizing process. And finally, the training program was rationalized and aligned with company strategy.

Conclusion: Language training is recognized by most companies as a valuable investment in human resources, but a lack of programming fundamentals and the manpower or tools to closely oversee progress can severely limit the benefits to the company

日本語版 / Japanese Version