Human Resources Strategy

Promotion system for human capital management

Strategies and policies regarding personnel cultivation and workplace environment improvement in the Mitsuboshi Belting Group are formulated by the Personnel and General Affairs Division (Division headed by Board Member/Managing Executive Officer), deliberated on and decided by the Management Council, and then reported to the Board of Directors.

Also, in order to implement and quickly disseminate measures regarding improvement of workplace environment and productivity across the entire organization, the Work Style Reform Promotion Committee comprising diversity (gender, age, job category, job rank) literate members has been established. This Committee establishes implementation challenges, target divisions, countermeasures and goals, monitors and evaluates the implementation status of the countermeasures, and instructs specific changes to the measures as needed. Depending on the progress of the countermeasures, details of such activities are reported to and discussed by the President and the Management Council, and the content of these reports and discussions are to be reported to the Board of Directors.

As for the Sustainability Promotion Committee, “Reinforcement of the human resources strategy” is on the FY2022 Materiality list based on the perspective of human capital management, and the promoting organization (see table on the right) is designated for each measure. Measure promoting organization reports to the Sustainability Promotion Committee on the implementation status on a monthly basis for the purpose of monitoring and evaluation of the implemented measures.

・Deepening ESG Management

Department in charge of each measure related to human capital management

Strategies related to human capital

We have identified the risks and opportunities pertaining to human capital (table on the right) for the Japanese members of the Mitsuboshi Belting Group.

Declining working population and the aging workforce are common issues to all Japanese company management, and in addition, the Japanese members of the Mitsuboshi Belting Group have become aware that the low ratio of female employees and managers as well as not evaluating employee engagement are also issues that must be tackled. In particular, improving employee engagement can directly revitalize business activities, and therefore, measuring, monitoring, evaluating and improving employee engagement is an important element in business activities. We also believe that by using it to set goals for personnel and general affairs measures, which has been difficult until now, the efficacy of the measures will be clarified so that personnel and general affairs activities can become more efficient.

Declining working population and ensuring diversity

We are aware that in Japan, addressing the declining working population is important in continuing our business. As the working population declines, we must promote DX to improve labor productivity and automation, and keep the need for increase in personnel to zero or negative as we expand our business. The DX Promotion Office was established in 2022 to ensure further utilization of DX. Also, the Personnel Development Office has started new education programs such as "IT-ization of logistics" and "Utilization of AI (artificial intelligence)." Among the various business plans that will be materialized in the future, we will create a staffing plan indicating how many personnel with what skills and knowledge are needed by when, and provide personnel education accordingly, or hire new personnel as needed.

On the other hand, the situation in which there are not enough female employees and managers (FY2022 Mitsuboshi Belting (main company) female employee ratio: 10.1%, female manager ratio: 2.4%) is clearly a diversity and inclusion issues that this company must address. Against such a backdrop, we are actively hiring women in order to support female empowerment, and working to improve the workplace environment to retain women and motivate them to pursue managerial positions.

Various systems to adjust work hours to meet the needs of individual employees are already in place, including parental leave, part-time work system, paid time off on an hourly basis, and flextime system. We are also working on promoting new ways of working that are not limited by time or location, such as the remote work system that became popular with the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, we will set goals and work towards the dissemination of these systems so that they may effectively support the lives of each and every employee, not just women. Furthermore, with the aim of enlivening business activities and improving employee engagement, the President is currently taking the lead in creating “a company where everyone can speak their mind,” and we are beginning to feel the change in the company atmosphere. We believe that these measures will be most effective in improving the female employee and manager ratios, and using the aforementioned employee engagement as an indicator, we intend to further vitalize our activities in this area.

Addressing the aging workforce

The aging workforce is a major issue in the management of Japanese companies. Employment until the age of 70 is becoming commonplace nowadays, and we are in need of measures that take advantage of "experience" while canceling out the disadvantages of "physical decline" and "obsolescence of technology." Further, given the current situation where the problem of the declining birthrate is slow to be resolved, the problem of an aging workforce is likely to remain a persistent issue. Elderly employees are expected to provide their "experience" while acquiring new knowledge and skills through reskilling. Addressing the aging workforce and Reskilling of the Elderly Employees are the two challenges that the Mitsuboshi Belting Group is undertaking in order to handle the situation of the aging workforce.

In addressing the aging workforce, the first key point is maintaining health. Our company has introduced a health checkup service system that includes comprehensive medical screening, heart screening, brain screening, and lifestyle disease checkups. To ensure that these services are effectively utilized, we will continue to improve their content while making improvements based on the recommendations of industrial physicians. In addition to maintaining health, efforts to promote health are just as important. Our primary focus is on smoking and obesity, and we will establish clear indicators to aid in our activities.

　Regarding reskilling of the elderly, as mentioned above, the Personnel Development Office and the newly established DX Promotion Office will support personnel cultivation in each business division and affiliated company. The Personnel Development Office and the DX Promotion Office will develop new education programs while business divisions and affiliated companies clarify their personnel needs based on their staffing plans, develop them into personnel cultivation plans, and conduct personnel cultivation with help from the Personnel Development Office and the DX Promotion Office.

Capability development for each individual

At the Mitsuboshi Belting Group, new employee education and initial worker education are the first phase of employee capability development in every workplace. Then, we carry out a variety of capability development programs, including rank-based training to cope with changes in roles, specialized training according to job content, statutory training, and training to support self-development (see the light table). Moreover, QC circle activities, GLOBAL GEMBA KAIZEN ACTIVITY, and their results reporting sessions greatly contribute to the development of employees' capabilities, and the rewards given to excellent activities at reporting sessions are serving as one of the driving forces behind these activities. These capability development programs are planned and executed annually by departments or designated organizations based on the skills matrix, and after evaluating their effectiveness, they are rolled out into activities for the following fiscal year.

Creating an environment to improve engagement

“To give attentive consideration to both humanity and nature” is the Corporate Philosophy of the Mitsuboshi Belting Group, and we honor individuality and diversity. Our aim is to create a workplace where all employees, regardless of gender, race, living environment, ideologies, etc., can feel safe and secure so that they may maximize their productivity and find fulfillment in their jobs. We have adopted the aforementioned "employee engagement" as a new indicator to set specific targets, and are promoting initiatives from FY2023.