In our 2030 Long-term Management Plan “NITTOKU BX,” we have set “change drastically beyond the current way” as our actions toward our vision for 2040. The core message of this vision is to be a company that coexists with a diverse range of human resources with aspirations. We are not only concerned with “what ceramics can do,” but also with the acquisition and development of autonomous human resources, the combination of diverse knowledge and expertise, and the enhancement of engagement with the aim of maximizing our human capital and thereby improving corporate value so that we can take on challenges beyond the realm of ceramics and beyond the world and our own imagination.
To realize our vision, we need a diverse range of human resources who have aspirations. We consider diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) to be one of our most important management strategies as we believe that harnessing each employee's individual qualities and helping them fully demonstrate their abilities are essential for companies to attain sound growth and ensure happiness for all employees. We strive to understand and accept diverse human resources regardless of traits such as gender and age, and to provide each with the best support and opportunities in a fair manner.
In addition, to enhance the value of human capital, we recognize that human resources are the most important management resources for a company. Knowing this, and to achieve the goals of our Long-term Management Plan, we have defined the human resources we seek as "self-disciplined creative human resources" and are taking systematic and consistent actions to create this kind of human resources. Among these, we consider the development of next-generation leaders to be an issue of great importance, and we are working to cultivate managers from early stages and develop human resources for upper management.
Our human resources strategy focuses on how to acquire and develop the human resources needed to achieve the vision of our 2030 Long-term Management Plan “NITTOKU BX,” and our Medium-term Management Plan. We have defined the image of human resources we seek and are advancing global human resources management to bridge the gap with our current human resources and transform our portfolio in this area.
In order to create technologies and new businesses that can respond to rapid changes in the environment, we are focusing not only on the further development of internal human resources, but also on the strategic acquisition of external human resources with sharp expertise.
As a specific initiative to create self-disciplined creative human resources, we are working to establish a Group-wide skill map that defines the necessary skills for our talent. We will also identify the gap between the current state of our employees and the desired skills, and create an environment in which employees can improve their skills to fill this gap.
As for DX, we are actively deploying measures to cultivate our personnel to achieve high efficiency in operations and to realize "change beyond the current way." In FY2022, we implemented educational measures to improve the digital literacy of employee at all domestic Group companies. We will continue to deploy educational measures to harness digital technologies for reforming operations, and ultimately, creating new businesses.
In terms of recruitment, in order to respond quickly to changes in the business environment, we aggressively pursue employment of mid-career personnel who can immediately take on a job effectively, mainly in the new business and IT departments. We are also promoting the employment of foreign nationals in our effort to adapt to the rapid advancement of globalization and encourage diverse talent to play active roles. For new graduates, we have been employing around three to five foreign nationals every year, recently with a special focus on the employment of foreign nationals who have acquired not only Japanese language skills but also more specialized skills from overseas universities, in addition to those who have studied in Japan. We are also conscious of increasing the ratio of female employees and the employment rate of people with disabilities. The inclusion of mid-career employees and foreign nationals in each workplace has helped increase our diversity awareness across the company.
In April 2022, the Company revamped its personnel system. In order to accelerate the creation of self-disciplined creative human resources who can realize the themes of the Medium-term Management Plan to "Break to change" and "Change to create," we have incorporated the Group Human Resource Policy. This policy clearly defines the direction of human resource policies that the entire Group will pursue, creating a highly fair personnel system that rewards achievements and challenges regardless of age, gender, and other personal attributes. We have introduced a system in which employee compensation reflects the results produced by each in-house company, and we expect each employee to be aware of the output that contributes to our business and performance, and to work in a more efficient manner.
Under the new personnel system, self-discipline, creativity, achievement, and challenge have been newly added as evaluation elements common to the Group. The entire Group will work together to develop self-disciplined creative human resources who can realize the themes of the Medium-term Management Plan to “Break to change” and “Change to create.”
Individual interviews are held at the beginning of the term to set personal goals that align with the organization's goals. personal goals that align with the organization's goals.
In addition to confirming progress on a daily basis through one-on-one meetings and progress report meetings, we also review the first half of the term and discuss how to proceed in the second half on Individual interviews during the term. Finally, performance evaluations are conducted at end-of-term interviews.
Additionally, by providing feedback on performance evaluation results and advice from the superiors, we are helping to improve performance and develop future careers.
A role grading system was introduced for managerial positions, and by setting role ranks and salaries according to the roles required, we established a system so that the actual roles played by the employees and their compensation are aligned. By abolishing the annual requirement for promotion for staff positions as well, we have been able to quickly appoint excellent human resources in both managerial and staff positions, regardless of tenure. In addition, as human resources who can make a positive impact on our business management and performance by utilizing their high level of expertise, we have established qualification for specialist positions (SP positions). The M positions, the traditional managerial positions, will focus on management, while SP positions will concentrate on demonstrating their expertise toward more efficient business operations. By further clarifying the roles of each individual, we will realize speedy innovation and the placement of the right people in the right roles to promote the achievement of organizational goals.
Qualification system for core positionsWe have established various award systems to encourage employees to engage in various activities.
The NITTOKU BX AWARD is an internal contest designed to recognize employees who embody the spirit of “Beyond ceramics, exceeding imagination” and exhibit the mindset of Nittoku Way. Established in FY2021, the award aims to promote understanding and dissemination of the “Nittoku Way” and the “2030 Long-Term Management Plan NITTOKU BX,” encourage “unprecedented changes,” and recognize individuals who “speak of dreams and make them come true.”
We invite submissions for activities that have achieved unprecedented changes or are currently making efforts to achieve them, as well as activities that contribute to society or the NITTOKU Group. From among the activities submitted by employees, we select excellent activities and award the President’s Prize (one per year from all activities) and the Excellence Awards (top ten every six months).
We have introduced an improvement proposal system aimed at encouraging employees’ innovation, fostering their motivation and capability for improvement in their work, and enhancing their sense of engagement with the management. This system accepts improvement proposals related to work methods and quality, as well as environmental conservation through the reduction of energy and raw material consumption, and safety and health. Outstanding improvement proposals are rewarded with cash incentives.
This system has been established to encourage employees to propose cross-departmental ideas or ideas related to their own department. When a proposal is adopted, the proposer has the opportunity to work towards its realization by applying their knowledge and skills. Employees whose ideas are adopted are rewarded with cash incentives.
To encourage employees’ inventions related to patents, utility model rights, or design rights, we recognize employees whose inventions demonstrate creativity, possess high technical value, and are considered to make a significant contribution to our company. These employees are rewarded with cash incentives.
The Group conducts employee satisfaction surveys for the following three purposes.
The survey results of each individual department are fed back to the departmental heads to notify them of the department’s situation and challenges indicated by the results. For items with low engagement, countermeasures are considered through exchanges of opinions within departments to improve workplaces, and in some cases, companies launch projects to proactively engage in such activities. The HR development department is also working to offer a better working environment for employees by identifying issues to be resolved through interviews with young employees at each workplace, and the employee satisfaction survey has become an important tool for reform.
In addition, the change in overall satisfaction has been adopted as one of the indicators used in the calculation of directors' bonuses as of FY2022. We recognize that improving employee engagement is an important management issue and will work on measures toward this improvement.