- Policies and Basic Concepts
- Employee Engagement
- Diverse Work Styles (Reforms to Enable New Ways of Working)
- Helping Balance Work with Childcare or Nursing Care
- Impartial and Fair Recruitment
- Relationship with Employees
Policies and Basic Concepts
Employees are the greatest assets of the Inabata Group. We believe that enabling employees with diverse backgrounds and strengths to fully demonstrate their abilities will increase the Group’s competitiveness and lead to sustainable growth. Therefore, we offer flexible and diverse work styles including support for balancing work with childcare or nursing care. We also strive to improve working conditions and create a comfortable workplace by enhancing benefits and preventing overwork with appropriate working hour management.
As set out in the Sustainability Code of Conduct and the Human Rights Policy, we comply with the laws and regulations of the countries and regions where we operate, while also supporting and respecting the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.
We comply with the statutory minimum wage and apply a gender-neutral remuneration system for employees with the same qualifications and job levels.
Employee Engagement
The source of value creation at the Inabata Group is our approximately 4,200 employees in Japan and overseas. Employees can work more energetically if engagement (namely, understanding, connection, cooperation, and an atmosphere of trust) is high between management and employees, between supervisors and subordinates, among employees, among departments, and among Group companies. We believe that growth is the outcome for the entire Group when each employee personally participates in the organization and applies themselves to their work based on a strong atmosphere of trust.
Employee Engagement Survey
We administered the first employee engagement survey in FY2021. The second survey was conducted in May 2022 to confirm changes in the intervening time. Findings such as employees’ motivation to work and satisfaction with the organization were quantified and given to supervisors as feedback. The aim is to provide guidelines for behavioral change and revitalize the organization.
| Apr. 2021 | May 2022 | Trends | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of employees surveyed | Total (Inabata & Co., Ltd./ main overseas trading offices) | 1,400 （587/813） |
1,697 （606／1,091） |
↗︎ |
| Response rate | Total | 49% | 73% | ↗︎ |
| Main items＊ | Engagement I am satisfied with the work I am doing at Inabata now |
70% | 73% | ↗︎ |
| Relationship with superiors I have the necessary collaboration with my supervisor at work |
75% | 80% | ↗︎ | |
| Organizational culture When a problem occurs in the course of my duties, my supervisor and the people around me provide appropriate support |
83% | 85% | ↗︎ | |
| Corporate philosophy I can relate to Inabata’s philosophy, vision, and management policies, and I want to participate in achieving them |
70% | 73% | ↗︎ | |
| Human resources system and benefits Inabata’s salary standards are satisfactory, compared to other companies in the same industry |
59% | 55% | ↘︎ | |
| Human resources system and training Inabata supports employee training to improve their skills |
41% | 48% | ↗︎ | |
| work-life balance Overtime is kept to a level that is acceptable for me |
64% | 69% | ↗︎ | |
* From among a five-point evaluation by employees (5. Strongly agree / 4. Agree / 3. Neither agree nor disagree / 2. Disagree / 1. Strongly disagree), the ratio of positive responses (5. and 4.)
As the FY2021 survey revealed issues around support for employees’ skills improvement, we responded by enhancing training programs, in particular those for managers, in FY2022. We have also introduced a video learning support system in which employees are free to select topics for their own personal development.
In FY2022, the survey was administered to 1,697 Group employees. The response rate was 73%, a significant improvement compared to the previous year. Engagement with in-house human relations and the organizational culture, among other factors, remained high. The issues with the training system identified in the previous survey showed some improvement, but we will continue to build on our efforts. Meanwhile, the human resources system and benefits scored lower in the second survey. We will undertake necessary measures in the regions where the scores fell significantly, in an effort to continuously improve employee engagement.
Diverse Work Styles (Reforms to Enable New Ways of Working)
Our NC2023 medium-term business plan highlights “enhancement of human capital utilization efforts” as one of the key initiatives. As a measure to achieve it, the plan mentions strengthening efforts towards reforms to enable new ways of working. To create a more comfortable working environment where employees can achieve work-life balance, we strive to reduce long working hours and encourage employees to take their annual paid leave, among other efforts.
As measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, we actively encouraged employees to commute at staggered times and work from home in shifts in order to prevent infection during the commute to work.
In FY2022, we introduced the new systems listed below. They are designed to improve the efficiency and outcome of work by leveraging the characteristics of diverse work styles, such as in-office work and remote work, and by allowing an even higher degree of freedom and discretion in how each individual works.
Newly Introduced Systems (Inabata & Co., Ltd.)
| System | Description |
|---|---|
| Remote work with a higher degree of freedom and discretion in work styles | Remote work is made available to all employees with the aim of improving the efficiency and outcome of work. |
| Work-from-home system that helps balance work with childcare, nursing care, or treatment for nonoccupational injuries or illnesses | Childcare purposes For employees with a child up to sixth grade in elementary school in case they are temporarily unable to leave the child in a childcare environment, or employees with a child aged under three and without a childcare environment. |
| Nursing care purposes For employees who live with a family member requiring nursing care. |
|
| Treatment purposes For employees with nonoccupational injuries or illnesses who are able to work and wish to continue working while receiving treatment, when the attending physician and the industrial physician determine that the employee is able to work but needs to work from home. |
|
| Staggered commuting and staggered lunch breaks that allow employees to choose optimal working hours | Core time is 10:00 a.m. to 4:10 p.m. Employees can stagger their arrival and departure times by 30 minutes to one hour (8:00, 8:30, 9:00, 9:30, or 10:00 a.m.) if they are able to work the prescribed number of hours. The lunch breaks are one hour between 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. This applies to all employees. |
| Annual paid leave by hourly increments that improves convenience of paid leave | Employees can take a maximum of two days of their annual paid leave in hourly increments. This applies to all employees. |
Managing Working Hours
We endeavor to rectify long hours spent at work and prevent chronic overwork by promoting diverse work styles while effectively managing working hours. We have implemented measures such as digitizing data on entering and exiting the building and using attendance management systems to manage working hours. We do this not only to ensure compliance with laws, regulations, and labor agreements stipulated in Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act, but also to create a safe and healthy working environment for our employees.
Helping Balance Work with Childcare or Nursing Care
We have established support systems that exceed our statutory requirements to help employees balance work with childcare or nursing care. This allows all employees, regardless of gender, to maximize their abilities and continue to work even when they find themselves in a stage of life that involves childcare or nursing care.
Childcare and Nursing Care Support Systems
| System | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Staggered commute during pregnancy | Working hours reduced by 45 minutes after arriving at work. | At the request of the individual, may be granted only when leaving work. |
| Leave before childbirth | Special leave for six weeks before giving birth. | |
| Leave after childbirth | Special leave for eight weeks after giving birth. | |
| Childcare leave | Until the child turns three. | May be taken in installments with no limit on the number of times. The first five days are treated as paid leave. |
| Exemption from overtime, holiday work, and late-night work | During pregnancy and within one year of giving birth. | |
| Child nursing care leave | Can be used for child nursing care until the child starts elementary school. Five days a year for one child. 10 days a year in case of two or more children. | |
| Nursing care leave | Can be used to care for a family member in need of nursing care. Five days a year for one person. 10 days a year in case of two or more persons. | |
| Accumulated nursing care leave | Of the annual leave due to expire at the end of the fiscal year, up to five days can be accumulated for nursing care purposes, up to a maximum of 60 days. |
Impartial and Fair Recruitment
It is the view of Inabata that human capital is our greatest resource. We carry out recruitment drives (new graduates and mid-career professionals) on an annual basis in order to attract employees with diverse backgrounds and skill sets who can play an active role at the company, and who empathize with the spirit of “love (ai)” and “respect (kei)”. The basic policy at Inabata is to recruit people based on their abilities and character. We carry out fair and impartial recruitment without regard to age, gender, nationality, and other attributes. In addition to disclosing recruitment data and recruitment flow on the website, we provide training for employees in charge of selection to ensure fair hiring practices.
Relationship with Employees
The Inabata has established a labor union. We also provide an extensive welfare system and facilities to realize an environment where union members can make the most of their individual characteristics and concentrate on their work with peace of mind. This also helps increase employee motivation. Labor and management regularly discuss various issues with the aim of improving working conditions, including occupational safety, and raising the economic status of employees. The rate of union membership is 57% as of the end of March 2022.