Talent cultivation

General functional training

CSRC Group actively promotes talent cultivation and has drafted “Training Management Measures” to address international development and future operational needs. Additionally, to uphold the brand spirit, five comprehensive training programs are designed for professional skills, core functions, management capabilities, environmental safety and health, and new employee training. The scope includes regular employees of CSRC and its directly managed subsidiaries.

CSRC launched internal digital training courses in 2023. Course topics include product applications and production process introduction courses, aiming to break through time and space limitations so that employees can understand the extensive applications of carbon black and thereby enhance their job and product identity from their first day at work through videos. To further enhance training effectiveness, in 2023, we clearly outlined the training requirements for various job levels in factory production units and identified gaps through skills assessment. Personalized training and development plans were then arranged to precisely enhance employee capabilities.

We conduct education and training surveys for various departments, conducting training needs interviews with supervisors to understand departmental needs and provide corresponding training materials and courses to strengthen and enhance employees' abilities, thereby accumulating their experience. In 2023, the most popular course was “Goal Setting and Performance Review.” In 2023, the average training hours per employee at CSRC Group was 22 hours, an increase from 20 hours in 2022. We will continue to optimize in-person classroom courses and, in response to the digital technology trend, plan to increase more online courses to provide employees with sufficient learning and training resources.

Training status of the Group and each region in 2023

Percentage of CSRC employees in each region receiving vocational or skills-related training in 2023

Percentage of CSRC employees in each region receiving environmental (carbon reduction and climate change) or skills-related training in 2023

Average training hours for the Group and each region

Note: Data for Greater China: 2022 does not include the Chongqing plant; 2021 does not include the Chongqing plant and the Anshan plant.

CSRC has established diversified educational training courses in response to rapid global environmental changes and industry-specific needs, systematically cultivating each kind of talent required for organizational operations and Group development. At the same time, CSRC also cares about the actual feelings of employees and feedback after class. All internal training initiated by the Human Resources Department and colleagues applying for external training courses themselves will conduct a satisfaction survey, focusing on aspects such as curriculum design, lecturer performance, and individual learning outcomes to assess learning responses. If necessary, further training and related assignments will be arranged to facilitate the validation of learning effectiveness and enhance overall course efficiency. The overall feedback on course satisfaction in 2023 was as high as 9.3 points (out of 10 points).

Employee function improvement project

Experience Inheritance and Knowledge Building Project

CSRC deeply understands the importance of internal knowledge exchange among employees. In addition to formulating the “Internal Lecturer Measures” (applicable to full-time employees of CSRC and its directly governed subsidiaries) to cultivate and encourage employees to teach, the Company also conducts regular seminars on consensus cohesion strategy for senior executives. Through these activities, management consensus is gathered to jointly establish future operation strategies as the basis for the development of various department goals and serve as a channel for the exchange of internal senior and high-level employees. Additionally, since 2019, we have launched the “Experience Inheritance and Knowledge Building Project,” through which senior employees use a mentoring system to transform years of accumulated knowledge and technical experience into important teaching materials for the Company. During the knowledge building project, mentoring and mutual discussion between masters and apprentices have created a knowledge repository that enhances workflow optimization and improves work efficiency. Since 2022, CSRC has promoted the Carbon Black Academy as a talent cultivation blueprint. We have completed the production unit training blueprint and gradually expanded to non-production units. In 2023, we pioneered the introduction of mentorship systems in the Linyuan Advanced Plant production units, assigning dedicated mentors to new employees for a 6-month personalized guidance period upon their entry to help them get started on their jobs more quickly. We promote professional skill development based on job manuals, identify required knowledge and skills, and design corresponding courses and training times based on final job performance expectations. Production and process units are currently completed and expanding gradually to engineering and quality assurance, among other plant areas

Rehiring senior staff as consultants

In addition, CSRC makes full use of the skills and experience of senior staff, rehiring retired senior employees as consultants for the Company. In 2023, the Linyuan Advanced Plant in Greater China rehired one retired senior employee, and the India region rehired five, under contract with professional personnel. Leveraging nearly 30 years of practical experience from senior employees, they assist in cultivating new and existing staff and establishing a production process knowledge base, integrating and promoting improvement projects across all plants to build a talent pipeline.

Global Elite Program

CSRC actively supports the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. In response to the Group's overseas expansion, through the CSRC Global Elite Program, we actively recruit and cultivate global management talent. Starting in 2023, the training period has been adjusted to 15 months, with initial practical unit operations and later deep involvement in cross-departmental and cross-plant large projects. Finally, practical overseas internships are arranged to enhance multidimensional cross-functional breadth and professional depth. In 2023, a total of 32 elites were trained across six sessions, with 10 becoming CSRC overseas executives, stationed in mainland China, India, and Turkey to manage overseas plant operations and production and to assist in new plant projects.

New employee mentoring

A six-month mentorship program is provided for new colleagues in production and manufacturing units, assigning a senior colleague to teach the necessary job content and conducting 2 stages of learning reviews and feedback to help new employees adapt more quickly to their work.