Takihyo Co., Ltd. (Head office: Nishi Ward, Nagoya City; President and CEO: Kazuo Taki), a textile trading company founded in 1751, has collaborated with artience Co., Ltd. (Head office: Shibuya City, Tokyo; President and CEO: Tomohiko Hazama), an organizational development consulting company, to unveil a “Co-Creation” training program for prospective employees that utilizes sustainable T-shirts. As a solution to support human resource development and organizational development in companies across the country, we have started offering a free download of a manual that condenses the know-how of this training.

■Background and Story of the Initiative
In recent years, many companies have been facing challenges such as pre-employment anxiety among prospective employees and a decline in engagement due to mismatches after joining the company. Furthermore, as interest in sustainability grows, especially among Generation Z, a new training perspective — how to have them perceive social issues as their own matter — is increasingly required.
In response to this situation, we implemented a unique “Co-Creation” training program over six months, using T-shirts made from “ROOPS,” a sustainable material developed through the “NO WASTE PROJECT” material recycling scheme, to encourage active participation by prospective employees and deepen their sense of belonging and understanding of the company. This training has produced solid results, with participants giving positive feedback such as, “I was able to build strong bonds of trust with my peers” and “I no longer feel anxious about joining the company.”
In order to apply the knowledge gained through this in-house training to solving the challenges of more companies, we collaborated with artience Co., Ltd., a company specializing in organizational development. By combining our expertise in “manufacturing” and “sustainability” with artience’s knowledge of organizational development, we have packaged the core experiential value of the six-month training into a program that can be implemented in just one day. This initiative aims to help many companies solve their organizational challenges.

■ Program Features
Feature 1: A Co-Creation Program Where Prospective Employees Themselves “Create”
Instead of a pre-set curriculum, the program emphasizes a process in which prospective employees repeatedly engage in discussions and shape their ideas into an “original design T-shirt.” This proactive crafting experience builds deep relationships of trust with peers and fosters a sense of success that “we were able to achieve this because of our members.”

Feature 2: Experience Sustainability as One’s Own Matter
These T-shirts are made of “ROOPS,” a sustainable material derived from fabric cutting scraps, created through our unique material recycling scheme “NO WASTE PROJECT.” By directly handling environmentally friendly materials and experiencing the process of producing only the quantity needed through on-demand printing, participants learn about sustainability in a hands-on way as their own matter.

Feature 3: Relieves Anxiety After Joining the Company and Fosters Camaraderie
New employees who experienced our training shared feedback such as: “I wasn’t afraid of April 1 (date of joining the company) at all. Since I was already used to my colleagues and the company, I felt almost no discomfort”; “On my first day, seeing many familiar faces gave me a great sense of reassurance.” The relationships they built beforehand directly lead to mitigating their reality shock and enhancing their engagement.

Going forward, we will continue to leverage the know-how cultivated through manufacturing as a “Sustainable Solutions Company” that aims to solve social issues, co-create with diverse stakeholders, and generate new added value.

■ Comment from a Stakeholder
Tomohiko Hazama, President and CEO, artience Co., Ltd.
I was deeply impressed by Takihyo’s attitude of “believing in people’s potential and creating value through co-creation,” which led us to undertake this initiative. This program is a groundbreaking system that allows prospective employees to integrate their own unique styles with the company’s unique style and take their first steps as proactive members of an organization. We hope that many companies will make use of this program and revitalize their organizations.

■ Related information
●Program name: Co-Creation Training for Prospective Employees
●Available channels: The manual is available for free download on the artience Co., Ltd. website.
https://artiencecorp.com/whitepaper/articleID=19672/
●Press release by artience Co., Ltd.
https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000100.000083674.html