Talent Management Program | Takeda Pharmaceuticals

Our heritage and deeply rooted values are the foundation of our culture, and everyone who joins Takeda learns our history and values during their orientation. In addition, we intentionally weave these elements into every development and learning program we offer

Ensuring each and every employee feels engaged and has an opportunity to contribute across the organization is essential. Effective communication is not just top-down dialogue from senior leaders, but it is two-way dialogue that solicits ongoing feedback from all levels and functions within the organization.

We do this in a number of ways– from encouraging all employees to ask questions directly of our executive team in regular town-hall style question-and-answer sessions to engaging our employees in selecting our Global CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Program partners.

We want our employees to feel invested in and passionate about their work and the impact they have on patients’ lives. We look for exceptional talent and then engage them in open and ongoing discussions to enhance performance and development. We use our “Quality Conversations” framework to empower managers and teams to communicate clearly and frequently to build trust, deliver impact and move our business forward. We also prepare high-potential individuals for new opportunities so that we’re constantly improving our bench strength of leaders and experts.

The Global Risk Management Policy determines in its Principles that managing risk is the responsibility of everyone from the Board of Directors to the employee. It has been published and made available to all business units, business functions and Local Operating Companies (LOCs). In the annual Enterprise Risk Assessment (ERA) process, risks (including human capital risks) are identified, assessed and reported to the relevant local committee by each business unit, business function or LOC. Human capital risks can therefore be raised from anywhere across Takeda, or be raised directly within the HR function’s risk assessment. All individual risk assessments are then aggregated into an enterprise risk heatmap, allowing the Risk, Ethics and Compliance Committee (RECC) and the Board of Directors to obtain an enterprise view. In addition, the effectiveness of mitigating controls & any remaining residual risk can be assessed and prioritized for further actions if required.

We are one of only 15 companies to achieve Global Top Employer certification for 2023, the sixth year in a row. In addition to the global certification, we are also recognized as a Top Employer across 22 countries, strengthening its commitment to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive working environment and an exceptional employee experience.

We believe that stock ownership provides colleagues the opportunity to invest in their own future as well as Takeda’s and align their interests with external stakeholders.

Our employees worldwide deserve extraordinary experiences as they strive to achieve their professional ambitions and thrive at work and at home. As part of this, we are constantly evaluating and enhancing our health and well-being programs based on the evolving needs of our employees.

When COVID-19 progressed around the world, our values guided us as an organization. We acted quickly and created a Global Crisis Management Committee. This was a cross-functional team of internal subject matter experts, including virologists and epidemiologists, who helped to ensure our decisions and policies were guided by science. The team developed robust risk mitigation plans to protect the health and safety of all our employees from the start, immediately implementing a global remote working policy, travel restrictions and robust, enhanced safety protocols for employees in critical onsite operations.

Aligned to the benefits and policies in each country, we launched a number of efforts to help our people navigate pandemic-related challenges and support their overall well-being. For example, in some countries, we moved quickly to increase paid time off for employees to help support those navigating illness and caregiving for family members. In others, we added additional volunteer days for our employees so they could help on the front lines or in their local communities, and we ramped up support for our working parents and caregivers.

In addition, we recognized the importance of collecting new data and information to better understand and address the evolving needs of our employees, adhering to Takeda’s privacy and security values and applicable regulations. Thus, we pivoted our annual employee experience survey to deploy a global survey focused on health and well-being.

Learn more about our Global Environment, Health and Safety Policy.

We embrace and celebrate diversity in all its forms (race, ethnicity, age, gender, gender identity, nationality, social origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance and other individual characteristics), and strive to give patients and our people equitable access to opportunities to achieve their full potential. We take a values-based approach to inclusive patient experiences, inclusive work environments, workforce diversity and societal impact. As a company, our objective is to have a workforce as diverse as the talent pools in the communities where we operate and the patients we serve. We do this to power a more equitable society.

Innovation is our path forward, and our people are the drivers of that innovation. COVID-19 has only accelerated the speed of change and created urgency for constant improvement and innovation. That’s why we offer unique opportunities for employees to learn, grow and progress professionally while making a difference in people’s lives.

This ranges from formal trainings and multi-year professional development opportunities to on-demand resources to help people managers and their teams have ongoing development discussions that can help enhance performance. For example, our Accelerator Program is a five-year development journey for high-potential employees who are early in their career to have global development experiences through at least two international assignments. The Accelerator Program is intended to prepare talent for future leadership roles at Takeda. In addition, in Japan we piloted a career support program in 2020 whereby employees can apply for a short term assignment in another department or on a project in order to gain exposure and build their capabilities. We also encourage our employees to learn and use new technology, such as virtual reality. In one example of this, our global manufacturing facilities are embracing virtual reality to create operational training efficiencies.

Investing in our people helps our teams stay ahead of the curve and ultimately, the time we spend on learning and development moves our business forward

We make available tuition reimbursement programs at the local level for full- and part-time employees to undertake external degree programs beneficial to their careers. In addition, we allow for individuals to grow their knowledge and skills and maintain their necessary certifications through funding available at the department or organizational level. This may include workshops, seminars, conferences, institutes, courses for which continuing education units (CEUs) are awarded and courses at nondegree-granting institutions, which are required or approved by management as necessary and/or appropriate for the performance of an employee’s job.