Sustainability - Improving workplace appeal and employee drive
We are creating an employment framework that enables a diverse range of employees to maximize their potential, irrespective of attributes such as age, gender, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability. We are reviewing our DEI education at all levels, evaluating human resource management systems and evaluation systems that can shape careers, and creating an environment where each employee can express their individuality.
Alongside initiatives to improve work efficiency and productivity in each division, the Meiden Group has rolled out Smart Work as an important management matter. This program promotes the reduction of annual total working hours and advocates employees to cut overtime hours and proactively take leave.
To provide flexible working environments, we consider ways to create comfortable working environments for employees, promote communication through a hybrid office/remote work model, implement a flex-time system and shared offices, and other actions based on opinions obtained from employee surveys. We also introduced initiatives aimed at encouraging employees to take vacation days, established the My Planned Vacation for employees to align vacation days with weekends, and created Vacation Promotion Days where meetings are discouraged. We also adapt to the modern world with the introduction of shortened days and limited working hours for a work-life balance that accommodates things such as childcare, nursing care, recovery from illness, the expansion of special leave for child-rearing, and more, as well as review our HR system to enable employees to stay employed longer with peace of mind. Going forward, we will continue to realize improved work efficiency and productivity by promoting flexible workstyles and digital transformation for all companies.
Meidensha has introduced a personnel treatment system that emphasizes results for both executives and regular employees in order to reform and enhance corporate character, using the catchphrase of “professional development.”
We hold discussions to mutually confirm objectives and results indicators, etc., between superiors and subordinates through objective-setting interviews and objective management results interviews to ensure that there is no discrepancy in expected results. Additionally, in the Personnel Committee established in FY2024, committee members verify the HR system’s operational status, share and resolve personnel issues in each business unit, and help create fair and equitable evaluations and treatment.
Furthermore, we disclose our evaluation standards through the Company’s intranet and the explanatory leaflet issued by the trade union, we periodically hold evaluation feedback interviews for all employees that are subject to evaluation, and we focus on developing and fostering the abilities of individuals. Evaluator training for new managers includes evaluation and meeting exercises to ensure impartial evaluations and treatment of employees. In addition to providing a complete understanding of the evaluator’s role in the HR system and how to prevent errors during evaluation, the training addresses the critical importance of communication between supervisors and their teams.
In FY2024, we revised our personnel treatment system to enact treatment in accordance with each employee’s role, contributions, and achievements, and to also create a fair and equitable system rooted in diverse workstyles and values, then implemented this system in FY2025. This will link to heightened employee engagement and increase our competitiveness in attracting talented individuals.
We continually review the personnel treatment system to reflect changes in the business environment and the labor market, diversification of individual working styles and values, and the impact of rising prices on employee lives, and consider it vital to examine our system from a variety of perspectives.
To respond flexibly to changes in living environments due to life events like joining a company, being transferred, or marriage, we operate a housing lease system that provides employees with either company-owned housing or rental properties leased as company housing. We lease single dormitories to support younger employees as well as houses for married employees. In particular, we increased support for transferred workers by introducing a system that provides assistance in renting appliances as well as measures to reduce leases on company housing as a way to relieve the financial burden on employees living away from their family for work.
We have introduced a diverse range of welfare services that support lifestyles and careers.
We have greatly expanded our services that support day-to-day life, such as preferential accommodation and recreational facilities, childcare and nursing care support, and restaurants and shopping, so that we can help employees reinvigorate and improve quality of life for both them and their families.
Additionally, from the perspective of balancing work and personal life, we provide comprehensive support for all stages of life, including personal development, health and wellness, and lifestyle support. In FY2023, we introduced new measures to aid the self-development and education of a segment of our younger employees and strengthened support aimed at our employees’ futures.
We believe that this full range of welfare support improves employee engagement and bolsters retainment, while leading to the continued growth of our company and the ongoing trust of society.
We plan and conduct a variety of cultural and recreational events at each business office and site to improve communication between employees, rejuvenate minds, and promote healthy lives. From rigorous sports events to bus tours of theme parks, employees and their families join events that enliven their days off, with many employees looking forward to these annual events as special times of enjoyment.
During FY2020 and FY2021 when the world faced the unprecedented hardships presented by the COVID pandemic, we held a remote riddle solving event and an online sport festival across all companies. These successfully created a sense of unity, even through computer screens. Additionally, as a special plan to help employees encourage each other, we also collected photographs of employees holding signs with thoughtful messages and created a heart-warming video to invigorate the Meiden Group. We also posted it and a theme song on the internal portal site, which many employees responded to with moving messages.
In FY2024, we held a highly requested bowling meetup at Headquarters as well as in Nagoya and the Ota area. It provided an opportunity for people to forge new friendships that transcended workplace barriers.
Additionally, our active company-endorsed cultural and sports clubs allow for socializing beyond position and age and contribute to the sense of energy and unity in the Meiden Group.
Meidensha has concluded a labor agreement with the Meidensha Union and we periodically exchange opinions and conduct consultations about management policies, business conditions, and the working conditions of employees at the Central Management Conference and the Central Staff Gathering. We are promoting the creation of an environment where employees can securely work without interruption because labor and management respect each other’s positions and sincerely engage in dialog.
We recognize the importance of ongoing reviews and revisions by the Labor-Management Consideration Committee to examine whether the company’s system meets employee expectations, including employee training and welfare. The Labor-Management Consideration Committee was formed in April 2022 and conducts reviews alongside the committee. We view investing in personnel as not merely increasing pay, but as a joint effort to comprehensively improve treatment that connects to employee development and drive. Based on this perspective, we will revise the personnel treatment system in FY2025 to increase employee engagement and bolster our competitiveness in attracting talent.
Though not explicitly required in labor agreements, etc., Meidensha discusses and negotiates notifications of job-related reassignments and transfers so that the labor union has sufficient time to explain these to employees. That period of time varies depending on the nature of the change.
We conduct an annual employee awareness survey for all employees. Each year, the response rate is close to 95%, demonstrating how much our employees value the survey. The survey begins with “vision,” “motivation,” “corporate climate,” “workplace environment,” “systems,” and “personnel deployment.” The purpose of the survey is to statistically understand how employees feel about their work, treatment conditions, and other general company-related information. In addition to the numerical results of the survey, we also draft various measures and initiatives based on honest opinions written by employees in the free description section, and use them in future measures aimed at increasing both company and employee satisfaction in an effort to improve as a company.
