Basic Concept

The Nisshinbo Group's Human Resource Policy is “Business is People,” and the Group values relationships with its employees and respects the individuality and strengths of each person in the management of its organization.

Promotion System

The Nisshinbo Group values relationships with its employees, and in order to build good relationships, under a system in which the Director and the Chief of the Corporate Strategy Center of Nisshinbo Holdings, Inc. is in charge, the Human Resources Group of the Human Resources & Administration Service Department and the Diversity Development Department of the Corporate Strategy Center have set targets and Key performance indicators (KPIs) and are engaged in activities.

• Sustainability Promotion Plan and KPIs

Specific Initiatives of The Nisshinbo Group

Under the revised “Fifth Sustainability Promotion Plan,” the Nisshinbo Group is focusing on “Engagement” and “Practice the Group's Corporate Philosophy” as key action items. The Group is promoting activities while implementing the PDCA cycle with the goals of ①Continue to conduct global survey and ②Promote the practice of the Group's Corporate Philosophy, VALUE, and Business Conduct Guidelines
(Affirmation rate in global survey, 80% or more).

In FY2022, in accordance with the “Fifth Sustainability Promotion Plan” before its revision, the Group sets KPIs of “Rate of companies that have released management messages based on the Group’s corporate philosophy, 100%,” and the Group is working toward achieving this goal.

Practice the Group's Corporate Philosophy

In the “Fifth Sustainability Promotion Plan” before its revision, the Nisshinbo Group sets the “Instill the Corporate Philosophy” as a key action items and sets KPIs of “Rate of companies that have released management messages based on the Group’s corporate philosophy, 100%.”
To instill the corporate philosophy, in addition to efforts such as messages from the presidents of group companies through various opportunities, the Group enhanced the multilingualization of the corporate philosophy handbook and distributed educational videos using the Learning Management System.

In the revised “Fifth Sustainability Promotion Plan,” “Practice the Group's Corporate Philosophy” is set as key action items, and “Promote the practice of the Group's Corporate Philosophy, VALUE, and Business Conduct Guidelines (Affirmation rate in global survey, 80% or more)” is set as KPIs target, with communicating management’s messages based on the Group's Corporate Philosophy as an initiative item.

In order to encourage changes in behavior and to support Challenge and Change as stated in the Group Corporate Philosophy, the Group will create an environment that facilitates spontaneous challenges by providing information necessary for each step of Raise interest, Prepare, Implement, and Continue implementation and by introducing specific examples of implementation within the Group.

Global Survey Engagement Survey

The Nisshinbo Group has conducted an annual survey of its employees since 2018. In FY2022, the Group conducted for the first time a global survey including overseas. There were 15,680 participants and the response rate was 96%, a very high response rate for a global survey. The Group is in a cycle of analyzing the resulting data, identifying and implementing priority measures, and obtaining further feedback.

The results were generally healthy, with 7 out of 15 categories reaching the level of no major problems, 5 categories requiring further monitoring, and 3 categories requiring attention. To cultivate an organizational culture in which each individual is a diverse human resource and pursues innovation while respecting each other's different ways of thinking and ideas, the Group holds group-wide “Survey Managers' Meetings” to share the status of initiatives at each company and implements other ongoing activities to improve the organizational culture.

The survey will continue to be conducted in the future by expanding the number of companies covered by the survey.

Labor Union Status (Japan and Overseas)

In accordance with the laws and regulations of each country and region, Nisshinbo Group companies in Japan and overseas maintain mutually trusting labor-management relations through regular dialogues with labor unions and employee representatives of each company regarding working conditions for employees and the management situation of each company. Nisshinbo Holdings Inc. keeps abreast of the status of labor-management relations at Japan and overseas group companies and provides support to group companies as needed.

Labor unions at Japan group companies are members of the UA ZENSEN Union and Japanese Electrical Electronic & Information Union. All of them have established good labor-management relations, which are in a healthy state, with annual labor-management council meetings as well as other opportunities for labor-management discussions. The collective labor agreement concluded with the labor union stipulates that when transferring or reassigning employees for work-related reasons, the wishes of the employees themselves will be taken into consideration, and the labor union will be notified promptly after the decision is made. In the event of reassignment or other changes in assignment due to business restructuring, they consult with the labor union on the basis of securing employment.

With regard to employee health and safety, in order to ensure safety, promote the maintenance and improvement of health, and promote the creation of a comfortable work environment, labor and management are working together to improve the level of health and safety at group companies in Japan and overseas by holding group health and safety liaison meetings and conducting safety audits.

Dialogue between Employees and Top Management

To deepen understanding of the Nisshinbo Group, the president of Nisshinbo Holdings Inc. has been visiting group companies and holding meetings for direct dialogue with employees since 2021.

Meetings have been held at 40 locations, including overseas offices, and approximately 1,800 employees have participated so far, with the number of participants at each meeting limited to about 15 so that more time can be spent on questions and exchanges of opinions so that each employee can have more in-depth communication with the president. At the meeting, the president informs the participants of the current status of its group as a whole and what is expected of each department. Employees working on the front lines ask a wide range of questions about their own divisions and the future of the Group, including sustainability, D&I, and DX initiatives, and through dialogue a lively exchange of opinions takes place.

Specific Activities of the Group Companies

Dialogue between Employees and the President

The president of Japan Radio Co., Ltd. has held 242 dialogues with 1,974 employees (about 88%) in the 11 months since the program started in May 2022 for all employees, and it is still ongoing. The president goes to the head office and Nagano Plant, as well as to branch offices and destination offices, to speak directly with them. The purpose of the dialogue is to create an opportunity to reform the corporate culture. The president himself started the dialogue by talking with employees in order to create a cheerful and rewarding organizational culture in which employees can say anything to each other.

During the dialogue, the company took into consideration psychological safety and created a place where it was easy to talk. The theme of the dialogue was the goals and action plans of the employees in the company's ongoing transformation, and through the dialogue, the employees were encouraged to think about the connection between the transformation and their daily work and the nature of the problems they face in their daily work.

The company believes that dialogue between employees and the president is very important as an opportunity to hear directly from employees and to convey their thoughts directly to them, and will continue to do so in the future.

Direct Dialogue between Employees and the President "OPEN TALK"

Nisshinbo Chemical Inc. is promoting organizational culture reform, and as part of this effort, the company publishes a monthly in-house newsletter for its employees. In addition to information from the company and management to employees, the in-house newsletter delivers a wide range of content, including coverage of each business unit and organizational culture reform activities.

The in-house magazine, which began publication in 2018, was a one-way transmission from the company side, but in 2022, the company has created opportunities for direct dialogue between employees and the president. The company calls it "OPEN TALK" in the hope that employees will be able to speak up about anything, including work-related and non-work-related matters.

For employees who rarely have an opportunity to talk with the president, the dialogue with the president can be tense, but it is a meaningful time for them to hear the president's thoughts and feelings on their questions.