Human Resource Development

Based on our corporate philosophy of “Bridging to a brighter tomorrow,　we cherish individuality,　cultivate values through innovation and creativity,　and commit to a positive and smart future,” the company is committed to fostering a participatory management approach and cultivating an inclusive work environment that values each other’s human rights and dignity.
We will foster innovation, improve employee satisfaction and work environment, and make a positive impact on talent acquisition and retention by encouraging diverse perspectives and experiences in the workplace.

Governance

The following is our governance structure for human resources development and working environment creation.

• ・Human resources strategies for the sustainable growth of our business, such as organizational restructuring, key personnel appointments, the development of management executives and global human resources, diversity, are reviewed and deployed by management executives including executive officers at the Business Strategy Meeting. Besides, the Workplace Safety and Health Committee, which is made up of representatives from each department, plays a role in improving holistic employee engagement and promoting workplace health management.
• ・We review such personnel development efforts to ensure that they are actually effective, based on opinions and views raised at the the “Employee Representative Committee,” which is operated by employees themselves, as well as on face-to-face conversations between staff members and management executives during their onsite visits to group business bases.

<Governance and Risk Management Structure>

Policy and Strategy

In the mid-term management plan, we have set out our goals of shifting from “IRISO for automotive” to “IRISO for future mobility”, increasing our global presence in the industrial market as our second pillar business, as well as in the automotive market as the first pillar, and improving technological development capabilities, cost efficiency, productivity, capex efficiency, and product and service quality. Besides, we are aiming to build a market-competitive pay system, including the basic pay raise, to boost employee motivation, to improve sales force, technology, and productivity, and to bolster organizational culture through visualizing and sharing necessary information across the company.
We also recognize that it is important to secure necessary personnel (recruitment, retention, and development), as well as to build an organizational structure and work environment, where people who have a global mindset and diverse values can perform well (diversity initiatives), and to create a safe and secure work environment.

①Human Resource Development Policy and Strategy

We are encouraging employees’ independent career development and fostering a positive work environment to ensure that those with various backgrounds and values, including women, foreigners, and experienced hires, as well as technical and administrative staff, etc. can achieve better outcomes and enhance performance through leveraging their individual strengths and characteristics. Specifically, our human resource development includes the following activities.
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• ・ Running training programs tailored to employees in different career stages, mid-level employees, leaders, newly appointed managers, etc.
• ・Offering training opportunities for employees to develop necessary work skills to carry out their duties
• ・Providing trainings to all employees for increasing their basic knowledge of diversity and inclusion, harassment prevention, and others.

②Working Environment Development Policy and Strategy

We are improving our working environment to ensure that all employees can continue to work despite a range of life events such as childcare and nursing care. We believe that fostering employee autonomy in the workplace leads to the improvement of productivity and employee engagement. Specifically, our working environment development includes the following activities.
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• ・Introducing work-from-home and flexible working hour schemes
• ・Setting up an unused paid leave accrual scheme for childcare, nursing care, volunteer activities, etc.
• ・Introducing a paid leave scheme for child nursing care

③Diversity and Inclusion Policy and Strategy

We believe that substantial value is created through showing respect for the uniqueness and diversity of individuals, which leads to future company growth in the long term. To increase mid- and long-term corporate value, we encourage the growth of individuals with unique qualities, attributes, and experiences, which is not limited to women, foreigners, and experienced hires, through fair job performance assessment, taking into account relevant criteria and considering the individual’s accomplishments, skills, and contributions.

④ Workplace Safety Policy and Strategy

We are committed to our “safety comes first” policy. Our topmost concerns are to prevent injuries and illnesses, and to provide a safe and healthy working environment for all employees, for creating a positive working environment where everyone can work with strong motivation and achieve good outcomes. We ensure such working environment where everyone participates and freely shares ideas through open discussions.

⑤ Improving Wage System and Promotion/Wage Evaluation System

As of the end of March 2024, the company employs 3,037 people, including 589 employees in Japan and 2,228 employees overseas, which is approximately 80% of the workforce. The wage gap in Japan is primarily due to differences in job responsibilities. Female employees earn about 70% of male employees’ annual income on average. Looking at the average annual income at the same grade, however, there is no wage gap for managerial positions, while there is approximately a 10% wage gap for non-managerial positions, which is resulted from differences in overtime work.

(Gender Wage Gap) (Fiscal Year 2023)

As the active involvement of employees from diverse backgrounds is considered crucial for the growth and success of the company, we do not tolerate gender gaps and ensure employee work-life balance. During FY 2023, we implemented the following measures:

• ・Based on the reviewed wage system and operational procedures for promotions, we aim to create more active working environment and address the gender wage gap by actively promoting younger employees to managerial positions, as well as increasing the number of women who are promoted to managerial positions.

Risk Management

To keep our business going for future development, it is important to secure human resources. It is crucial to revitalize the organization through securing the talent we need, developing human resources for employee growth, and ensuring a work environment where each and every employee can demonstrate his or her skill and ability. Potential risks arise when it is difficult to recruit the talent we need, when human resources development does not go well owing to employee turnover or worsening employee health, and when each and every employee cannot demonstrate his or her ability for lack of diversity within the work environment. To mitigate these risks, we ensure that safe and healthy working conditions are provided to employees and a diverse work environment is created.

• ・We identify, evaluate, and manage human capital risks in the Business Strategy Meeting of the company.
• ・The Workplace Health and Safety Committee and the Employee Representative Committee discuss issues reported by each department and business site with departments involved. Some of the issues are also reported in the Business Strategy Meeting after considering whether certain responsive measures are necessary or how to prioritize them.
• ・After discussions, important issues and responses with potential major impacts are reported to the Board of Directors, which discuss them and make a decision on them.
• ・The Human Resources Department and the Workplace Health and Safety Committee develop and implement risk mitigation plans under the guidance and directions of the Business Strategy Meeting and the Board of Directors.
• ・Besides, our company has set up a workplace safety and health management system based on the ISO 45001 standard, and legal and compliance risk monitoring based on this management system is included as a part of human capital risk management.

Metrics and Targets

To build on the second business pillar that comes after the automotive market, which is set out in the mid-term management plan, to increase technological development capabilities, and to improve production, cost and quality performances, we aim to secure and develop the necessary human resources. Currently, we are focusing our efforts on recruiting technical personnel for both new graduates and mid-career hires, boosting our workforce through mergers and acquisitions of mold manufacturing companies, as well as recruiting professionals, including those for overseas business bases. We are also working on pay-scale raise on a step-by-step basis.
From the perspective of diversity and inclusion, while the group’s share of women in management is 27.2%, the company’s share remains 2.6%, which we recognize as an issue to address. To overcome this diversity challenge and solve working environment issues, we have set the following indicators and targets for the company alone and will focus on them.

Workplace Diversity Targets

①Female employees

The company is a manufacturing company and recruits mainly for technology/engineering-related jobs, which are male-dominated. However, we have not been satisfied with this situation yet. We have set the following targets to create a positive and open working environment for women and to increase the number of female employees who wish to be promoted to managerial and executive positions.

The following is our targets to increase personnel needed for business growth.

• ・Share of female graduates hired at the headquarters (in Japan): 30% by 2025.
• ・Share of female managers and executives at the headquarters (in Japan): 5% by 2030

②Non-Japanese employees

The percentage of non-Japanese employees at the entire group level is higher than that of Japanese employees, and non-Japanese employees have played a core role at group companies and plants outside Japan. Nevertheless, to increase the level of diversity and inclusion at the headquarters in Japan, we have set the following targets to increase the ratio of non-Japanese officers, including Executive Officers, at the headquarters by developing and appointing human resources available at the group bases worldwide. The targets have been set as follows.

• ・The share of non-Japanese executives including executive officers: per 10% by 2025

③Mid-career experienced hires

Every year, we hire a certain number of mid-career experienced people whose talent readiness for immediate business needs is expected, which serves as a human resources strategy for the group business that has been growing. We have positively promoted them to managerial positions and others, according to their demonstrated skills and abilities. As a result, the share of mid-career experienced hires promoted to managers is already over 65%. We believe that the target share of mid-career experienced hires in managerial positions should reach at least 50%, and thus do not see any problem with the present share.
In the future, we will continue to promote employees to managerial positions by maintaining a balance between graduates and mid-career experienced hires, taking into account the characteristics and personalities of each employee.

Investment in Human Capital and Intellectual Property

For developing human capital and intellectual property necessary for driving sustainability in our business, we are focusing our efforts on:

• ・Providing incentives for those who hold qualifications and licenses, such as language or quality certification, or auditor license and others.
• ・Sending future executive candidates, who are hired at subsidiaries outside Japan, to the headquarters where they learn technical and organizational management skills.
• ・Sending engineers to research institutions, including universities, for the purpose of technological development and joint research.
• ・Investing in human resource development and technological development, such as incentives for patent applications and registrations.