Key elements of our human capital approach are the attraction, acquisition and engagement of highly-skilled employees. We are committed to developing and retaining our people through a fulfilling, meritocratic culture and competitive employee benefits. We invest in talent programs that train our current and future leaders internally and improve the quality of our teams with whom our customers interact daily. Our employees embody the "5Cs" of our culture: Challenge, Commit, Collaborate, Choose and Care. We expect that these principles positively impact all our interactions with customers, colleagues and other stakeholders. In addition to tracking employee satisfaction, our culture surveys provide us with feedback on our employee development efforts, compensation programs and other employer-employee dynamics.
Talent Attraction & Retention
Our executive leaders, Head of HR and Head of Talent lead our efforts to attract, retain and develop our employees. Our Global Talent Acquisition team is responsible for enabling consistent recruiting efforts globally and attracting the best talent while increasing our diversity and hiring efficiencies. In 2021, we implemented a new Global Applicant tracking system, a new Careers website and MyESI, an internet-based human resources and career development portal. MyESI serves our focus on internal career mobility by gathering information from our employees on their prior experience, career aspirations and personal interests. This platform also allows employees to have greater access to opportunities internally.
We offer challenging opportunities with competitive compensation that help us attract diverse talent and foster a more creative, innovative and successful company. In addition, we provide our employees with comprehensive benefits to meet their diverse needs. From healthcare to holidays, we are committed to helping our employees enjoy happy and healthy lifestyles while maintaining an appropriate work-life balance.
CEO recognizing employees for their years of service in Hiratsuka, Japan.
Training & Development
We invest in talent development programs to grow our leaders and continuously improve the quality of our teams. We use MyESI to conduct employee performance reviews and aggregate employee self-assessments and manager feedback on an annual basis. In 2023, over 83% of our employees participated in career and skill-specific trainings and our total employee training reached 60,897 hours. Talent development and succession plans for each of our functions and segments are built on this information and are reviewed regularly to secure a pipeline of talent able to maintain business operations.
Throughout this review and our professional development and promotion process, we have check points in place designed to prevent discrimination as outlined in our Fair Employment Policy. We see internal mobility within our organization as a measurement tool of employee development. In 2023, our internal fill rate of 52% for open positions spoke to our commitment to invest in training and development initiatives to grow and retain our talent.
Employee Recognition
Recognizing employees who set outstanding examples for effort, leadership, collaboration, and effectiveness is part of our meritocratic culture. This recognition is also linked to the behaviors in our culture and reinforces it. All nominations for our employee awards are peer-driven as we believe this approach reinforces collaboration among colleagues and fosters collegiality.
In 2022, we updated our employee recognition program, introducing our "Elements of Excellence," a recognition framework which consists of three levels:
