With Employees

Based on respect for human rights and dignity, we promote the creation of workplaces where employees can work with peace of mind and mental and physical health, and an environment and systems within which employees can demonstrate their creativity and spirit of challenge while feeling job satisfaction and pride in their work.

Approach to Human Resources Strategy

In order to realize our PURPOSE, “Passion in Creating Tomorrow," we believe that we need to be a company where diverse employees can play an active role with passion. To this end, we will work in tandem to address the challenge of infrastructure enhancement measures such as Improvement of Work Environment, Respect for Human Rights, and Safety and Health, as well as business growth measures such as Human Resource Development and the transformation to a culture of challenge. We believe thatImproving Engagement is particularly important in order to effectively promote such infrastructure enhancement and business growth. For this reason, we will make efforts to continuously measure and enhance employee engagement. At the same time, we will emphasize diversity and inclusion and recognize individual differences in gender, nationality, disability, and age, as well as different attributes such as individuality, strengths and weaknesses, health condition, personality, beliefs, and sexual orientation, in order to create a psychologically safe work environment where everyone can realize their full potential. Through these efforts, we hope to create synergy between employee well-being and increased corporate value.

Respect for Human Rights

The Pacific Industrial Group has clarified its basic stance on human rights as its “Human Rights Policy,” clarified matters for observance in its “Code of Conduct” and strives to fulfill its responsibility to respect human rights. At the same time, we share and promote the implementation of the “Supplier CSR Guidelines,” which include requirements concerning human rights.

Human Rights Policy Formulation

In recent years, the importance of corporate efforts to address human rights issues as a social requirement is growing. We consider human rights to be a core issue for sustainability management and created the “Pacific Industrial Group Human Rights Policy” in February 2021. Under this policy, all employees will act with high ethical standards and integrity as sensible members of the global community, and the entire Group will work together to promote initiatives that respect human rights.

Human Rights Policy（116.1KB）

Implementation of Human Rights Surveys

Through human rights due diligence mechanisms, our Group strives to identify and either prevent or mitigate negative impacts on human rights. These mechanisms include the regular monitoring of the implementation status of our “Code of Conduct” and “Supplier Sustainability Guidelines”.

Based on the results of a questionnaire conducted in fiscal 2020 for our Group in Japan, including our company, in accordance with the Code of Conduct, we conducted a questionnaire survey in fiscal 2021 with a strengthened section on harassment, and worked to resolve problematic harassment cases.Since then, we have conducted questionnaires for all employees at overseas business entities the same way as we do in Japan, and in the future, we will raise awareness during morning meetings and use opinion boxes to collect opinions and issues from employees and take measures to address them.

Education

Upon the development of our “Human Rights Policy”, in order to raise awareness of human rights within the Group and to put into practice the creation of a corporate culture of respect for human rights, we conduct awareness-raising and educational activities to promote proper understanding of those rights and ensure that information is shared throughout the company.

In FY2022, we have continued our efforts to resolve issues regarding harassment cases by　conducting a human rights questionnaire to which we added a significant number of harassment items to the Code of Conduct self-assessment. In our overseas businesses, as in Japan, we conduct questionnaires for all employees and promote initiatives to raise awareness of human rights, such as awareness-raising activities during morning meetings and regular education.

Engagement with Experts on Human Rights

The company formulated its “Human Rights Policy” in February 2021 and is promoting efforts to respect human rights. Consequently, in order to grasp global human rights issues and share them among promotion members, on January 31, 2022, we held an online workshop and dialogue with lawyer Junko Watanabe, who is active globally as a human rights lawyer, and lawyer Akiko Sato, who is active as Deputy Secretary General of the human rights NGO Human Rights Now, in accordance with the international norms of the “UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.”

Participants received lectures on human rights-related law, which is being strengthened globally, and human rights issues highly relevant to the automobile industry and the regions the company works in, and exchanged opinions on their practical implementation.

The two leaders provided guidance on things like the importance of taking a stakeholder’s perspective and the importance of conducting risk analysis, setting priorities and implementing initiatives across organizations and groups.

In addition, in October and December 2022, the Corporate Planning Department of parent company in Japan and management of subsidiary in Thailand participated for two days each in the Business and Human Rights Academy training program conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with the support of the Japanese government to deepen their learning. In March 2023, one-on-one meetings were held with Ms. Vanessa Zimmerman (representative of Pillar Two, drafting team for the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights) and Ms. Emi Sugawara (professor at Osaka University of Economics and Law and head of the Global Compact Research Center). They provided specific advice on our human rights policy and human rights due diligence, including the importance of stakeholder engagement and the effectiveness of using a combination of questionnaires and a Grievance Mechanism.

Based on this feedback, we will revise our human rights policy, strengthen human rights due diligence, and confirm the Grievance Mechanism.

Safety and Health Policy

We respect humanity, strive to create working environment where employees can work in health and with peace of mind, and foster human resources who can think and act on their own.

The Safety and Health of Employees

Based on the principle of safety first, in accordance with the occupational health and safety management system, we promote safety management initiatives centered on human resource development, equipment safety measures, and workplace development to provide a healthy, safe, and secure workplace for employees.

In addition, a Health and Safety Committee has been established to investigate and deliberate on basic measures to prevent worker hazards and health problems, and labor and management work together to address these issues. Health and safety risks are assessed at each workplace and prioritized to promote activities to reduce risks.

Human Resource Development

In order to become a company that is strict about safety, we use the Safety-dojo, facilities for safety education, in the Study Hall as a base for technical education. We also conduct safety experience education, risk assessment education, and hazard prediction training for employees at each level to improve their ability to recognize danger as part of our efforts to increase risk sensitivity. We provide the same training for temporary employees as we do for regular employees to help improve their sensitivity to hazards. In safety activities with our suppliers, we hold safety study sessions to mutually improve the level of safety, and we also conduct safety training using our safety dojos. We are also promoting the establishment and expansion of safety dojos to provide extensive safety education even at remote plants.

Equipment Safety Measures

Focus items for the eradication of STOP6, which are the six key factors to prevent serious accidents, are incorporated into our daily activities, and we are working to establish and continue implementing those activities, clarify priorities, and promote countermeasures. We aim to create a safe workplace through risk eradication at the process and equipment design stage, and work risk assessments at the installation stage, for the safety of new equipment and lines.

Providing Proper Work Environments

To provide a proper work environment in our plants, we are introducing air-conditioned clothing, systematically switching to LED lighting, and reducing physical workload through process improvements to create more comfortable places to work. Also, as an outreach activity, we are continuously working to improve the workplace environment from the perspectives of people,facilities, and the environment.

Improved work environments by switching to LED lighting

Health Management

In 2005, we launched our “work-life balance” initiative, and since becoming the first workplace to be registered with the Gifu Labor Bureau’s “Hatsu Ratsu Workplace Creation Declaration” in 2006,we have been promoting the mental and physical health of our employees in specific and continuous ways. With the recent aging of society and declining birthrate and increasing health consciousness, the importance of health management is growing. We also place importance on employee health as the foundation for the success of our human resources, as clearly stated in the Pacific Industrial Group Health Declaration, and we are continuously conducting health management.

In March 2023, we were certified as the 2023 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program (Large Corporation Category) for the second year in a row, in recognition of our lifestyle-related disease prevention measures, mental health measures, consultations with public health nurses and industrial physicians, and support for compatibility.We will continue to engage in health activities that are tailored to each employee and in measures that improve the physical and mental health of employees and their families.

Pacific Industrial Group Health Declaration

The safety and health of employees is an important foundation for our continued growth together.
We believe that sustainable growth of the company will be achieved when all employees are physically and mentally healthy and able to demonstrate their individuality and abilities to create new value.
In order to realize our Purpose of "passion in creating tomorrow," we will promote the creation of psychologically safe workplaces where new ideas and challenges are valued, and try to create an environment where all colleagues can work healthily and vigorously, with satisfaction in their job and happiness in their lives.

October 2023

Tetsushi Ogawa
President, Member of the Board
Pacific Industrial Co., Ltd.

Building of Mental and Physical Health

The company facilitates health consultation by public health nurses and nurses and health guidance by industrial physicians to maintain and promote employee health.Employees aged 35 and over are encouraged to have a comprehensive medical examination and health guidance is provided to those who require it based on the results. In particular, we are also strengthening health guidance to prevent obesity in young people and lifestyle-related diseases. We also hold interviews with elderly employees when their contracts are renewed, and support them so that they can work in a healthy and safe manner.

As part of our efforts to improve mental health, we facilitate consultation with public health nurses and nurses based on the results of stress checks and interview guidance with industrial physicians for employees who want it, and are working on the improvement of workplaces. For employees who work long hours with 45 hours or more overtime per month, if they wish, or at the discretion of the industrial physician, they are interviewed by an industrial physician to understand problems in the workplace and duties. We strive to proactively prevent, early detection and early care for mental health problem.

Stable Employment and Decent Work Environment

Improving Employee Engagement

Employee engagement refers to each employee's willingness to understand and identify with the strategy and goals of the company and workplace, and to actively contribute his or her abilities.

The Group believes that in promoting human capital management, the most important factor is how to increase engagement. To that end, we have decided to first conduct an engagement survey.

The survey measures and quantifies eNPS, a numerical indicator of employees' affinity for the company, satisfaction with the company and their work, and so on, and the eight factors that affect eNPS: management, business strategy, work style, boss, colleagues, work, growth opportunities,and evaluation. We hope this will help us to understand the company's strengths and potential challenges, and to promote measures for improvement.

The results of the survey will not only be used to resolve structural issues company-wide (such as the design of various systems), but will also be disclosed to employees for use in resolving individual issues in workplaces, such as through open discussions to increase engagement in each department and group, and effective measures will be implemented with a sense of urgency.

Decent Work Environment

Creating a decent work environment improves employee job satisfaction and engagement with the company, leading to a higher retention rate. We are actively working to improve the working environment in our offices and plants and to review various systems. As a concrete example, we moved the start time of our Kyushu and Tohoku plants from 6:00 to 7:10 in order to reduce the physical burden on plant workers.

In addition, since good human relationships are important for a decent work environment, we have expanded the workplace senior system, which assigns younger senior employees to new hires in the technical field as well as the staff field. We also provide personnel development while checking mental and physical health, such as through pre-training for managers and supervisors at their assigned sites, and regular interviews. We also strive to create a workplace with a high level of psychological safety by holding regular informal discussions where employees can talk freely to management about their thoughts and feelings on their work, as well as any problems they face.

Converting Non-Regular Employees into Regular Employees

We regularly evaluate non-permanent temporary and contract employees and make them permanent employees if they have the qualifications. In FY2022, we hired 39 temporary employees as regular employees.

Promoting Work-Life Balance

We are implementing a variety of measures to ensure that employees are able to feel satisfaction and personal growth at work, while living a fulfilling personal life. In addition to being awarded“Kurumin” certification as a company that supports child care, we have set a target of having employees take 12 days of annual paid vacation and have been working to ensure that target is achieved. In FY2022, the average target achievement rate for union members was 100% for the second year in a row.

We have also introduced more flexible working styles, such as by promoting the taking of annual paid leave, reducing long working hours, installing a work interval system, and using shorter working hours, staggered working hours, and flextime systems to support both child care and nursing care.

We will remain committed to supporting our employees in balancing work and personal commitments such as child care and nursing care, while fostering an environment and culture that encourages them to take leave, stay healthy, and work hard.

Slogan of Work-Life Balance

Bonds and growth

Family bonds and personal growth
Workplace bonds and company growth
Social bonds and regional development

Support for the Balancing of Work and Child-Rearing

Since the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children came into effect in 2005, the company has developed and expanded systems that support the balancing of work and family. Parental and nursing care leave periods are set at two years, which is above the legal standard. There is no limit on the number of changes, and systems have been established that allow employees to choose various work-styles in accordance with their individual life stages and circumstances.

In 2008, 2011, 2016 and 2020, we obtained “Kurumin” certification from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a company that supports the development of the next generation positively.

We are working on a “Parental Leave Support Program” to provide support before, during and after leave to employees who take parental leave, and working on the creation of an environment and culture in which the entire workplace supports childcare so that employees can raise their children with peace of mind and return to work smoothly.

In addition, we are also working positively on measures to support childcare, such as tie-ups with company-led daycare centers and registration as an excellent company for childcare with Gifu Prefecture.

Parental leave period	Until the child reaches 2 years of age
Number of times parental leave can be taken	Leave can be taken and changed as many times as required
Changes to work start and end times, staggered work hours	Until the child reaches elementary school age (60 minutes each per day) * Until the end of elementary school grade four based on conditions
Benefit	Payment of “Parental leave allowance” by the company

Development of Human Resources and Cultivation of Culture that We can Tackle New Endeavors

Human Resources Development Policy

Our Group is committed to cultivating motivated personnel who can think and act on their own initiative so that every employee has “Passion in Creating Tomorrow." In particular, we need people who can perform globally, people who play a central role, people who set high goals and take on challenges, and people who can solve problems to achieve a sustainable society. We will visualize the skills and number of people required for this, and systematically strengthen any areas that are lacking. In addition, we will actively provide education to enhance the resourcefulness they will need in order to achieve work results as a team. For everyone to be able to grow and fulfill their potential, we will provide learning opportunities and career support to help them develop individuality and characteristics regardless of their gender, nationality, age, work style, etc.

Strengthen Education at Each Level

After a complete review of our education system in April 2021, we redesigned a new education system that is more effective in improving not only competence but also resourcefulness. For our staff, we have expanded education for managers and supervisors and introduced problem-solving training for younger employees. For our technical staff, our new programs include Toyota Production System (TPS) leader training, systematized safety, quality, and productivity training, and education to improve resourcefulness. In FY2022, we added psychological safety education to our existing harassment education.

Learning Opportunities

We are constantly promoting work methods improvement based on the idea that every employee can improve their work productivity and personal growth and shift to more value-added and creative work by being continuously involved in improvements, without being constrained by conventional methods.

In order to provide employees with a wide range of learning opportunities, in FY2023 we introduced a new web-based education system for employees to learn various business skills.

Personnel System and Welfare

Personnel System

The company strives to establish and operate a personnel evaluation system that evaluates and treats every employee fairly. Evaluations are based on grade standards, roles and job standards, and levels of achievement are linked with target management. By emphasizing communication between superiors and subordinates and achieving highly convincing evaluations, we aim to invigorate workplaces, improve productivity and develop better human resources.

Welfare

The company aims to enhance its attractive welfare programs to invigorate its organization and employees, improve the health and lifestyles of employees and their families, and secure and retain excellent human resources.

Diversity and Inclusion

Policies and Initiatives

We believe that creating an environment and culture that are inclusive and allow employees to fulfill their potential according to their internal attributes, including individuality, strengths and weaknesses, health, personality, beliefs, sexual orientation, and nationality, will revitalize workplaces, contribute to innovation, and reduce employee turnover. To this end, we respect diversity and inclusion as one of our management strategies, and are promoting various cross-functional initiatives within the company.

Active Roles of Non-Japanese Employees

Aiming for diversity, we employ non-Japanese as full-time employees and accept trainees from overseas companies. We are working to create an organization and environment within which human resources with their respective personalities and senses of value can demonstrate their capabilities to the full.

The group has set the target of increasing the ratio of non-Japanese managers to 53% or more by FY2030.

For foreign workers to understand, we have created foreign language versions of medical examination questionnaires in common areas, hygiene-related guidelines, training materials for new hires, work manuals, and other materials.

Employment of People with Disabilities

In order to ensure workplaces where people with disabilities can play active roles and support their independence, we strive to employ people with disabilities. As of June 2022, we employed 39 people with disabilities, 2.31% of our total workforce.

Ongoing Employment of the Elderly

We have introduced a system that allows employees to continue to work as contract employees after they reach the mandatory retirement age of 60 years old if they want to. By continuing to use their abundant experience, knowledge, technology and skills cultivated over many years, we promote the transfer of technologies and skills while employees feel the satisfaction of working.

Promotion of Women’s Activities

We believe that the further advancement of women is essential for a company's sustainable growth and corporate competitiveness, and are therefore hiring capable human resources regardless of gender, creating a work environment that allows diverse work styles, and promoting career education necessary for individual growth. We are working to increase the ratio of female staff hires to 20% or more per year (up from 10%), and the ratio of female hires among new graduate hires in FY2023 was 32%. Our goal is to have 14% or more of the Group's total management positions filled by women by FY2030.

In addition, we support male employees taking parental leave based on the belief that male employees’ participation in child care is necessary to promote women’s success. For men considering taking leave to care for their children, we have created a Handbook for Men on Child Care Leave, which provides detailed descriptions of subsidy programs for men concerned about a reduction in income, including explanations of procedures from a male perspective and interviews with male employees who have taken long child care leave. We are also focusing on activities to promote better understanding of child care leave, such as introducing cases of maternity/paternity leave in our company newsletter, and providing information to male employees who have a new child via the management system.

Female officers (As of Mar. 31, 2023)

	Number of Famale	Managers	Assistant Manager
Administrative positions	95	4	21
Technical positions	20	0	2
Technical staff	57	0	0
Total	172	4	23

* The numbers of managers and assistant managers are included in the number of female employees.

Communication between Labor and Management

Dialogue with Labor Unions

Our company and the Pacific Industrial Workers Union strive to maintain and strengthen sound labor-management relations, respecting differences in positions and perspectives, and aiming for the sustainable development of the company through mutual trust.

Regular monthly labor-management council meetings are held between strategic officers, including the president, and union officers to confirm the status of overtime and paid leave utilization, and we actively report and exchange opinions on employment stability, working conditions, health and safety, and the status of production and sales activities between labor and management to promote labor-management harmony. In addition, labor management roundtable meetings and production committee meetings are held in each business division. These meetings are forums for communication to ascertain the status of safety measures and other measures that have been put into practice, discussing issues for the betterment of the company, and consulting on any problems.

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