Because it is people who will carry out our management strategy, we believe that our human resources are the source of our growth as a company. We have established a Group Human Resources Policy that covers our aims and organization for the human resources issues we must address to achieve the Nichirei Group’s long-term management goals toward 2030 and our targets for material matters (materiality). To address these issues, we have defined a five-perspective human resources strategy and set eight themes to steadily advance this strategy. We will continue working to ensure that each of our personnel measures is designed and implemented to increase corporate value.
Human Resources Are Critical to Our Sustainability Policy
| Encourage empathy; use business to resolve social issues | Develop proactive human resources by aligning employee aspirations with the Group’s targeted social impact, based on the idea that food connects people |
|---|---|
| Generate value by linking knowledge, digital technologies | Create an organization that contributes to good eating habits and health by incorporating a range of perspectives, as well as using data and digital technologies in response to environmental change |
| Cultivate a safe, secure corporate culture to tackle challenges | Communicate work-related ideas, develop mutual trust, and cultivate a corporate culture that can tackle challenges without fear of failure |
| Perspective | Theme | Objective | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ● | Improve employee performance through health maintenance and promotion | We will promote measures to reduce presenteeism and absenteeism, with the aim of ensuring that all Group employees, regardless of age or gender, are both physically and mentally healthy at all times and are working with enthusiasm. | |||||
| 2 | ● | Strengthen the relationship of mutual trust between the Company and its employees | Because mutual trust between a company and its employees (engagement) correlates with business performance, we aim to improve engagement by measuring and analyzing engagement levels and implementing a PDCA cycle to address issues. | |||||
| 3 | ● | ● | Provide opportunities to women employees and realize their active engagement | As the percentage of motivated women employees in management positions increases and both employee attributes and values regarding work diversify, we will reassess the male-dominated workplace and deploy measures to fully leverage the abilities of all motivated employees. | ||||
| 4 | ● | ● | Develop human resources to support overseas business promotion | Since the growth of overseas business is essential to achieving management goals, we will increase the number of human resources able to play an active role internationally. Measures will include providing opportunities to acquire the skills necessary to promote and support overseas business, offering career paths that include overseas business experience, and encouraging employees to take on challenges overseas. | ||||
| 5 | ● | ● | Educational practices related to digital and sustainability | We will raise the overall level of employee digital skills by providing educational opportunities related to digital and sustainability as basic skills that will be required in the coming era and society, in addition to offering further learning opportunities to motivated individuals. | ||||
| 6 | ● | ● | Provide independent learning opportunities and practice | By identifying the staff size and the types of skills necessary to implement management measures and by clarifying employee skills, we will create a system that enables employees to understand their own strengths and deficiencies and to independently learn the skills and acquire the knowledge they need. To underpin this initiative, we will also foster a corporate culture of self-directed study. | ||||
| 7 | ● | ● | ● | ● | Obtain new perspectives from inside and outside the Group | To both resolve social issues and grow our business, we will create mechanisms and provide opportunities to encourage the revitalization of the organization and the acquisition of new knowledge through the exchange of human resources and knowledge both inside and outside the Group. | ||
| 8 | ● | Compliance with laws and regulations and maintenance of a safe and secure working environment | Labor and management will work together to maintain and improve workplace environments and systems that allow employees to work safely and with peace of mind. | |||||
Each Group company promotes efforts adapted for its individual businesses, however, the Group has also established the Group-wide Group Human Resources Committee and Diversity Promotion Conference and shares information about and confirms the progress with each company’s measures to continually enhance workplaces through these two councils.
The Group Human Resources Committee and Diversity Promotion Council are organized across the Group, and the above two meeting bodies share information and confirm progress on measures to improve work satisfaction, which are being promoted by each company.
In order to ramp up sustainability management and achieve ongoing growth in corporate value, it is essential for the Nichirei Group to develop management personnel who can set its management targets and make decisions to promptly address changes in the operating environment. The entire Group is therefore working over the long term to systematically augment the ranks and develop its next generation of management candidates. We identified the prerequisites for the required talent pool in FY2024, and based on these prerequisites, we are conducting a variety of initiatives, such as promoting acquisition of the knowledge necessary for management through training and independent learning, developing the mindset of a manager through interviews with superiors, and transferring employees to other businesses or overseas to gain work experience that will complement experience in a single business over many years.
An issue for accelerating business growth overseas is securing and developing the human resources who can promote and manage those businesses. We therefore began by identifying the traits required of human resources who can actively contribute overseas, such as English conversation ability, interest in and understanding of different cultures, and a spirit of challenge and initiative capable of overcoming adversity. We are systematically transferring and dispatching employees to positions overseas and elsewhere, based on their individual career goals as they align with the required traits. Meanwhile, we are also conducting training to develop human resources, mainly at Nichirei Corporation, with a rollout to some Group operating companies. Specifically, we offer language training tailored to different proficiency levels (by selection or open application) to improve basic English conversation, on-site training to give first-hand experience with overseas business, and dispatch to overseas universities to take MBA courses. From FY2025, we also began training in cross-cultural understanding to equip employees with the skills necessary for intercultural collaboration. Nichirei Corporation is also recruiting foreign students studying in Japan who will graduate from university in FY2026. The Company is holding various events with the aim of hiring three new employees capable of working overseas in the future.
Risako Yoshida
Nichirei Sacramento Foods Corporation
When I was working at a food production plant in Japan, I learned about differences in values by communicating with foreign co-workers, and I wanted to broaden my way of thinking through contact with various cultures, so I applied to work overseas. Now, I am at Nichirei Sacramento Foods, a food production plant in the United States, mainly in production planning, but also involved in accounting, quality assurance and other areas.
The respective characteristics of the two countries that I have noticed since coming here are how precise the production management system is in Japan, compared with the positive approach and motivation once people get started here in Sacramento. I feel that my role is to lead the plant in a positive direction by combining the best of both locations. What I find rewarding now is my sense that despite the differences in approach, making improvements little by little has improved productivity and reduced problems. In addition, my ability to get involved in a wide range of areas soon after joining the company was only possible because I was stationed at a rapidly growing overseas base, and I think that will be an asset in my life in the future.
In picturing my career going forward, I would like to go back to Japan to spend some time gaining specialized knowledge and then be posted overseas again to put it to good use.
We provide a variety of opportunities for learning so that employees can acquire the skills necessary to respond to the coming era and implement our management strategies. In addition, training attendance records and data on each individual’s qualifications and foreign language abilities are collected in a talent management system. In this way, we have established a framework for implementing personnel measures according to the circumstances of our employees, such as conducting language training in tandem with the expansion of overseas business. We develop specific training plans for the Group and for each operating company according to the characteristics of its business. For Company-wide training, we set a Group education and training policy every year and provide e-learning on a wide range of content such as governance, including compliance and protection of personal information, as well as on legal affairs and quality assurance. We are also implementing more in-depth training, such as DX training and position-based sustainability training, which we launched in FY2023.
At our operating companies, we provide annual training and separate programs for newly appointed managers, as well as offerings tailored to each company's area of specialization, such as overseas on-site sessions for production staff.
●Hours of Training and Education, and Number of Participants
Medium-term Business Plan Compass Rose 2024, which began in FY2023, promotes the use of data and technology in the Nichirei Group as a high-priority human resource development measure, and we have been expanding learning opportunities tailored to individuals.
In the final year of Compass Rose 2024, we aim to appoint a Digital Leader in each department of our main operating companies in Japan to promote the use of data and technology. The program will be implemented in tiers, from DX Bronze—the introductory program providing the essential points of digital literacy—to DX Silver and DX Gold. DX Bronze targets all employees (approximately 4,000 people) at our main domestic operating companies, who are scheduled to complete this program by the end of FY2025. DX Silver and DX Gold will then provide learning programs tailored to individual competency levels.
●Identifying an Issue through DX Training and Initiating Operational Improvements
DX Silver training led me to focus on the Nichirei Group’s unique data analysis-based human resources development program, addressing the practical issue of visualizing the time, number of cases, lead time and other factors required for all the stages from ordering to inspection work at each center. In streamlining duties to deal with the labor shortage and improve profitability, I deemed it imperative to start by visualizing the work to determine where the issues lie and what the best course of action is.
Feeling a sense of accomplishment from the results of the training program and recognizing the need to put what I had learned into practice, I proceeded with system development of a dashboard.* Launched in April 2024, this dashboard is now available to approximately 2,000 people with core system accounts, enabling them to use it for data analysis. This analysis has revealed bottlenecks at one center, such as the frequency of manual entries and same-day input tasks in registering incoming and outgoing goods. The Integrated Operations Management Division will continue to promote the use of the dashboard for analysis as it works to establish and support environments that enable logistics facilities to identify bottlenecks and make precise operational improvements.
The Nichirei Group has been ramping up sustainability management by implementing position-based study sessions and education and training programs for all levels of employees since FY2023.
| Objective | Learn the latest sustainability information and trends, measure their impact on management, and deploy that information in management strategies in both financial and non-financial contexts. |
|---|---|
| Target participants | Directors, Audit & Supervisory Board Members, Executive Officers (Outside directors, outside Audit & Supervisory Board members, operating company management members and general managers may participate voluntarily.) |
We deepen learning by inviting experts to conduct lectures on topics such as sustainability management, sustainable procurement, business and human rights, climate change, a circular economy, biodiversity, and diversity of human resources.
| Objective | Encourage a sustainability mindset and behavioral change by providing participants with an understanding of Nichirei’s sustainability management goals and a simulated experience of achieving both social and economic value through the resolution of social issues. |
|---|---|
| Target participants | All managers or above (Approx. 1,300) |
We initiated training for all Nichirei Group managers or above, approximately 1,300 individuals, in August 2023. The training employs a unique online business card game called “One for Future”, which incorporates information on the Group’s assets and material matters to deepen thinking about how to achieve both social and economic value. Participants assemble in teams (as members of different operating companies from the ones they belong to) to think about the social issues they can resolve using the Group’s strengths and capabilities.
The Nichirei business card game “One for Future”| Objective | Inculcate understanding of Nichirei’s sustainability management vectors and how they relate to its material matters. Encourage participants to think about social issues the Group can help resolve, their relevance to each participant’s own work, and the mindset for resolving those issues. |
|---|---|
| Target participants | New employees and newly appointed managers |
Teams think about business models through which the Group’s capabilities and strengths can be deployed to achieve both social and economic value while resolving social issues.
Training materials (excerpt)| Objective | Acquire basic knowledge about the SDGs and ESG related to our business activities. |
|---|---|
| Target participants | All employees |
We conduct activities related to SDGs and ESG relevant to our material matters, which encompass the environment, society, human rights, and sustainable food, in conjunction with global events. We also use videos to help participants easily understand and learn technical terms.
| E-learning (theme) | Global event | Attendance rate | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2023 | May | Circular Economy | May 22 | International Day for Biological Diversity | 97.1% |
| November | SDGs Overview | November 20 | World Children’s Day | 93.8% | |
| December | Business and Human Rights | December 10 | Human Rights Day | 93.9% | |
| FY2024 | June | Environment (CO2 Emissions Reduction) | June 5 | World Environment Day | 93.8% |
| July | Environment (Global Warming) | July 7 | Cool Earth Day | 93.1% | |
| September | SDGs Overview | 1 week including September 25th | SDGs Week | 93.2% | |
| December | Business and Human Rights | December 10 | Human Rights Day | 94.2% | |
| FY2025 | June | Environment (Circular Economy) | June 5 | World Environment Day | 95.7% |
| September | SDGs Overview | 1 week including September 25th | SDGs Week | 94.8% | |
| December | Business and Human Rights | December 10 | Human Rights Day | 93.5% | |
| Objective | An intranet information platform available to all employees. In addition to disclosing the progress of the Group’s sustainability activities and material matters, it also provides content on sustainability and ESG-related subjects for individuals who want to deepen their understanding. |
|---|---|
| Target users | All employees |
Sustainability Portal Site| Training plan | Objective | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Executive Coaching | To stimulate better management decisions, improve organizational growth, and business performance. Changes in the thinking of executives is expected to have a ripple effect on employees, resulting in improved productivity. | Executive officers |
| Next-generation Management Team Development Program | To foster management capabilities, world-standard leadership, and decision-making criteria by cultivating ideas based on broad perspectives. | General managers, department managers |
| Leader Training | Creating true managers: Fostering human assets able to play a part in creating a strong and autonomous organization which discovers problems that need to be solved and creates its own solutions to become an organization that is relied on by businesses. | Managerial staff |
| Evaluator Training | To teach the principles of evaluation and deepen understanding of the purpose and significance of goal management and evaluation systems. | New attendees (such as recent graduates, career hires, transferred employees) |
| Facilitation Training | To understand such concepts as meeting preparation, meeting management, and follow-up, in order to conduct efficient meetings. | All employees |
| Training for Newly Appointed Managers | To elucidate the role of managers expected to lead the organization, and the viewpoints, perspectives and key behaviors required. | Newly appointed managers |
| First Career Training | To inculcate basic behaviors essential for human assets to produce results expected by the Company and supervisors. | New hires, employees in their second and third years of employment |
| New Employee Training |
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New hires, employees in their second and third years of employment |
To achieve sustainable growth, the Nichirei Group will secure and develop diverse human resources while fostering an inclusive corporate culture in which everyone can make the most of their strengths.
| Advancement of Women Employees | • Group project to promote the advancement of women employees, led by members active at the front lines of each operating company • Initiatives to resolve issues at each operating company (training and networking meetings, etc. for women managers) |
|---|---|
| LGBTQ | • Establishment of a consultation center staffed by experts to ensure psychological safety for LGBTQ people • Training for executives and basic training for personnel staff to prepare for in-house consultations |
| Active Participation by Seniors | • Assigning responsibilities after reemployment according to individual skills and experience, utilizing know-how cultivated in each workplace |
| Employment of People with Disabilities | • At special Group subsidiary Nichirei Aura Inc., 35 staff members with disabilities are engaged in a wide range of duties including office cleaning at the Head Office, and at the food factories and distribution centers of operating companies. |
Nichirei Foods launched its Diversity Promotion Department in 2022, and is carrying out a variety of activities with the goal of creating an environment where diverse people can do work that is satisfying and allows them to demonstrate their unique skills. In this context, we have positioned the advancement of women employees as an important issue for promoting diversity and inclusion. We are therefore implementing measures to help employees advance their careers while taking into account their individual life stages and values. These measures include providing opportunities for women to proactively think about their careers, creating networks among women employees, and enhancing welfare programs to support work-life balance.
Diversity Promotion Department, Nichirei Foods Inc.●Career Advancement Seminar for Women: Research & Development and Product Development Department
In March 2023, the Research & Development and Product Development Department held a seminar for their women employees in management positions, with the aim of nurturing women in management and resolving career concerns specific to their job types. The first half of the seminar featured a lecture by a woman director from outside the Group with a career in product development, and in the second half participants broke off into working groups to exchange opinions. Many participants indicated they were able to envision taking on challenges to advance their careers. They also indicated that they found the seminar’s suggestions for solving problems and thinking positively from a woman’s perspective very helpful for dispelling concerns about career building and embracing a growth mindset.
●Initiatives in the N-win Project for Women Employees
The N-win Project launched in 2021 aims to improve the job satisfaction of Nichirei Foods’ women employees. It involves conducting employee surveys and other initiatives that address feedback from the workplace obtained from the surveys. In FY2023, the project included a total of four roundtable discussions in which 69 women employees in their 20s participated.
| Roundtable discussions | Total of four (Monthly from November 2022 to February 2023) |
|---|---|
| Participants | 69 women employees in their 20s and their supervisors (Total of 77 people) |
| Panelists | 16 people (Four people x four times); mainly people in their 30s from various occupations and areas |
The Nichirei Logistics Group places the highest priority on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) in order to innovate. Unconscious bias has a major impact on how DE&I is promoted, and many women themselves believe that their role is in the home and that the genders have differing abilities to perform work. While men currently dominate the logistics industry, the Diversity Promotion Department leads the implementation of measures for the advancement of women employees in the workplace, an issue that we will continue to address in promoting diversity.
Members of Nichirei Logistics Group’s Diversity Promotion Department
●Training for Women Who Are Managers or Above (from FY2022)
The results of a survey conducted by the Nichirei Logistics Group revealed that while men rarely have concerns after being promoted to a position, the majority of women harbor a degree of hesitation or concern. Less than one in four women surveyed viewed the increase in discretion as a result of being promoted to a higher position positively. Therefore, we have initiated training for women who have been promoted to provide them with insights about the mindset and work styles of managers. A key feature of this training is that the curriculum inculcates a mindset that enables supervisors to broaden the scope of their responsibilities. Because they take part in the program alongside trainees, supervisors are cultivated as division managers able to support the development of women managers.
●Women-Advance-Meeting (WAM; from FY2023)
Many people in the Nichirei Logistics Group have never seen women working in management positions at distribution centers and cannot imagine a woman having a management career. Therefore, we started conducting WAMs in FY2023 to provide an opportunity for our people to learn about women working as managers, and as an opportunity to build personal networks beyond the worksite. We hold five-person WAMs—comprising two managers and three regular employees—four times a year for 60 minutes each. They are a meaningful, pleasant forum for people to interact and think about their careers.
Yasuyo Shiga
Manager, Komaki DC
Nichirei Logistics Tokai, Inc.
I am not exactly the type to put myself forward, but after being asked several times whether I would like to give it a try, I am now serving as a manager of my second base. My current workplace is a storage-type distribution center, which is different from the management department where I spent 15 years, so in my new position of leadership, I must navigate the daily challenges of many first-time experiences. Through it all, I feel the support of others. There are many people here who are well-versed in logistics in general, and they have been my mentors, kindly teaching me what they know about our work as well as more casual topics.
Through all this, I feel that one part of my role as a manager is to pass along the opinions of employees on the front lines. The front lines at a distribution center consist not just of administrative staff, but also people working in the warehouse and others involved in various tasks. During on-site discussions, new and innovative ideas have arisen from various perspectives. Thanks to the people around me who ordinarily speak up, we can have a lively exchange of opinions in discussions, and I feel that speaking up has made for a better workplace. Since I have received so much support from my colleagues, I would like to encourage others, including women who want to become managers.
For the Nichirei Group to achieve sustainable growth, it is essential to foster mutual trust between each operating company and its employees, so that the company’s mission and vision resonate with its diverse talent, who in turn will be motivated to contribute to their company and their jobs. As a result, the Company can continue to maximize its performance as an organization. The Company has therefore positioned improving employee engagement*1 as a key management issue for helping to increase corporate value, and is focusing on maintaining a consistent, survey-based cycle.
The overall employee engagement score for FY2024 was 68 points. The survey results confirmed support for sustainability management and a high level of awareness of compliance and honest corporate activities. However, they also revealed issues with establishing a smooth operational support system and in communication between management and employees. In addition, gender differences were observed in talent management*2 and performance management,*3 and we will work to correct them.
Improving employee engagement requires not only commitment and leadership from management, but also the active involvement of each employee, seeing it as personally relevant. Group companies and their employees are therefore working to address these issues together.
The Nichirei Group aims to further improve productivity and create a vibrant workplace by welcoming diverse human resources, values, and ideas to energize the organization. In FY2018, we established the Nichirei Group Workplace Reform Policy. Each operating company set goals based on the policy and promoted various initiatives over the five years through FY2022. The Group Diversity Promotion Council and the Group Health Promotion Council were organized under the Group Human Resources Committee as organizations to enhance work satisfaction. These organizations discussed human resource strategies that would contribute to the realization of the sustainable growth of the entire Group, exchanged opinions on measures, shared information, and confirmed progress.
We design flexible personnel systems to create an environment where each individual can demonstrate their abilities and thrive. Creating a comfortable workplace and further improving the skills of diverse individuals will increase our corporate value.
For example, our childcare leave system was already in place before the October 2022 revision of the Act on Childcare Leave, Caregiver Leave, and Other Measures for the Welfare of Workers Caring for Children or Other Family Members, and exceeded its statutory requirements. After the revision, we enhanced our system to provide more options, including the ability to divide childcare leave into installments until the child is one year old.
In FY2024, we introduced a new Company-wide in-house side job system. Our aim is to generate new value through the exchange of knowledge and human resources within the Company, and to help employees improve their skills and develop their careers.
Yuto Nagi
Accounting Services for
Processed Foods Business,
Accounting & Tax,
Nichirei Corporation
Joined the Company in 2021
●Company-wide In-house Side Job System
I have always been interested in HR work, so when there was an opening on new university graduate recruiting for a side job, I gave it a try. Now that my time in the job has ended, in retrospect I think I was generally able to improve two skills. The first was communication skills. In my main job, accounting, most of my interactions are within the Company, but recruiting required me to communicate with students, and it gave me time to think about how to get my point across to people whose underlying knowledge and thoughts are different. The second was planning. In balancing my main job and side job, I became able to make clear in advance what I had to do and by when, and came up with ways to get started on tasks that could be brought forward. In my career going forward, I would like to use the skills I have strengthened and the wider network of contacts I have gained through my side job to broaden the scope of my work.
In line with the October 2022 revision of the Act on Childcare Leave, Caregiver Leave, and Other Measures for the Welfare of Workers Caring for Children or Other Family Members, the Nichirei Group has revised its childcare leave system. Although the Nichirei Group’s system exceeded statutory requirements prior to the act’s revision, the Group addressed the revised regulations by enhancing its system in ways such as establishing childcare leave at the time of childbirth and childcare leave that can be divided into installments until the child is one year old, with both leave systems aimed at men. We also provided more options for taking childcare leave.
Taking this revision as an opportunity, Nichirei Group management met with the labor union to discuss and set a target of 100%* of male employees taking three or more days of absence or leave for childcare. By setting these targets, encouraging men to participate in childrearing and expanding opportunities for women to play an active role in the workplace, we aim to achieve work-life balance for both men and women during their child-rearing years.
Kazuki Matsubara
Manager, Meat and Poultry Products Division,
Procurement and Production Headquarters
Nichirei Fresh
I took childcare leave in two installments for my first child and one for my second. Many of my acquaintances have taken childcare leave, so it was a natural choice when we found out we were having a baby. Honestly, now that I have actually been through it, it was much harder than I had imagined, but childcare is a major long-term undertaking for a family, and I feel that I gained a lot by taking personal responsibility and becoming able to discuss the joys and worries with my wife from the same perspective.
Meanwhile, to deal with my absence from work, because of the nature of my job as a researcher I do much of the work on my own. For that reason, I made an effort to consult with my colleagues at an early stage, share information on projects widely, and complete as much as possible before taking leave. I feel that being the first man to take childcare leave has contributed in no small way to the increase in the number of men in the company who do the same, and I am grateful to everyone who supported me.
Now that I have two children, the places I go on weekends have changed, and my circle of acquaintances at the daycare center and elsewhere has grown. Raising children has given me a different perspective, and by overcoming the daily challenges of childcare, which does not always go as planned, I think I have become more adaptable both at home and at work. I want to continue broadening my horizons and apply them to both my work and private life, so that it leads to my personal growth.
This guidebook focuses on the Nichirei Group’s absence and leave systems for childbirth and childcare, with the aim of helping both men and women achieve work-life balance during childrearing years. The guidebook has sections for women and men that provide information on support for balancing work and childcare, prenatal preparations, and necessary procedures at each stage from childbirth to the return to work.
The Next Generation Development GuidebookTo improve job satisfaction, it is important to provide employees with roles compatible with their career plans. The Group has introduced a Career Declaration System in which all employees assess their career and declare their future career objectives once a year. This information is taken into account when deciding transfers and assignments.
The Group decides salary based on position and job description and does not set differences based on gender. In addition, gender does not play a role in deciding promotions or salary increases.
The Group releases recruiting essentials and all other information on its website, accepts a wide variety of applications, and impartially selects new graduates.
Labor union activities and labor-management cooperation
Number of employees (by type of employment, by level, and by gender)
The Nichirei Group actively promotes the employment of people with disabilities, 35 of whom work at Nichirei Aura Inc., a special Group subsidiary. They are engaged in a wide range of operations, including cleaning of office interiors and maintenance of green spaces at the Head Office, the food factories of Group companies, and distribution centers. The Group will continue to create comfortable workplace environments for people with disabilities.
The Nichirei Group provides training opportunities based on career path planning and development so that diverse human resources are able to play an active role in their respective workplaces, based on satisfying and stimulating work. In Japan, we strive to create workplaces that offer foreign technical interns a sense of job satisfaction. In addition, we provide introductions for foreign technical interns to Group company workplaces in their own countries, and opportunities that enable them to continue their careers utilizing expertise acquired in Japan. Training covers such topics as food hygiene management and occupational health and safety.
Nichirei Foods Inc. revised its personnel system during FY2016 and FY2017, in order to specify which employees are not subject to job transfers. Those who are unable to move to a distant location due to marriage, childcare, nursing, injury or sickness, or other personal reasons, or those who have worked more than a set amount of time, can remain at their desired workplace based on their individual career objectives regardless of reason, and can themselves decide whether they are eligible to be transferred. The revisions were instituted out of respect for the diverse circumstances and preferences of Nichirei Foods employees, and to create workplaces in which all members are motivated to work.
In 2002, the Nichirei Group set up the Senior Staff System to provide employment opportunities for employees on retirement. After reaching the retirement age of 60, those wishing to continue working may do so until the age of 65. At present, we employ more than 100 senior staff members, whose experience and knowledge contribute to Group development.
Lecture on frozen foods during a virtual factory tour
Senior staff member teaching elementary school students about food
Hirohisa Matsushita
General Manager, Quality Assurance
Nichirei Biosciences
I joined the company as a research and development employee, and later when the research institute was divided into foods and medical products, I was assigned to the medical products department. There I developed and commercialized an antigen test kit for new strains of influenza from scratch. Next, I was transferred to the Head Office and assigned to Quality Assurance, where I am today. For the past 10 years, I have been participating in diagnostic industry organizations, the first in the company to do so, and I have been a leader in some of their activities. For example, to help resolve issues with companion diagnostics, I participate in discussions on how the diagnostics should be used so there is no confusion in a medical setting. Through these discussions, I became involved in issuing notifications. Regarding regulation of clinical trials, I conduct discussions with government agencies, pharmaceutical associations, medical institutions and others, with the aim of achieving sound development of the industry and a better medical environment for patients.
I became eligible for retirement two years ago, but my role has not changed. During that time, I have become more aware of training my successor. I feel that my ability to establish a foundation for Nichirei Biosciences’ activities in industry organizations will be a link to the next generation. I would like junior employees to broaden their network in the industry to get a sense of its current direction, and use this as an opportunity to think about what the company should be, as well as a chance for self-improvement.
In April 2018, Nichirei opened an in-house daycare center at its Head Office, located in the Tsukiji district of Tokyo’s Chuo Ward. This is one of the Group’s workstyle reforms, designed to enable the early return to work by those employees raising children and to support a work–life balance.
In an effort to assist members of the community, by helping alleviate the problem of long waiting lists at childcare facilities, we are also accepting a fixed number of local children at the daycare center.
Daycare children visit the workplaceThe Nichirei Group supports employee activities through its volunteer leave system.
The Nichirei Group considers its employees to be irreplaceable and refers to them as "human assets" rather than "human resources." (Only for Japanese notation) By accepting diverse human resources, values, and ideas and revitalizing the organization, we aim to further improve productivity and create an energetic workplace. In 2017, we established the "Nichirei Group Workplace Reform Policy," and each operating company set targets based on this policy and promoted various initiatives over the five years through FY2022.
The Group Diversity Promotion Council and the Group Health Promotion Liaison Committee were organized under the Group Human Resources Committee as organizations to promote the "enhancement of job satisfaction." These groups discussed human resource strategies that would contribute to the realization of sustainable growth of the entire Group, exchanged opinions on measures, shared information, and confirmed progress.
| Enable Diverse Working Styles | Provide working condition options | Employees shall have a certain degree of freedom to choose their workplace and working hours, to suit personal circumstances. Systems to maintain these conditions are to be put in place. |
|---|---|---|
| Set up systems to prevent disruption of employee careers | Systems are to be established to prevent employees’ careers from being disrupted or ended because of such circumstances as childbirth, childcare, nursing care, poor health, relocation of a spouse, or disease. | |
| Prevent excessive working hours | Through collaborative labor and management initiatives for workplace improvement, working hours shall be limited to levels that allow each employee to demonstrate their ability and perform satisfying work in good health. | |
| Ensure Equal Opportunity | Promote the advancement of female employees | Female employees shall be given the same opportunities as their male peers and offered necessary training in recognition of their value to the Nichirei Group. |
| Provide stimulating employment opportunities for people with disabilities | Job positions and employment opportunities for people with disabilities shall be created to allow them to earn a living through stimulating work, with a vision to ultimately eliminate the distinction between people with or without disabilities in society. | |
| Create employment opportunities for older people | As people live longer, healthy lives, opportunities shall be created to allow older people to play an active role in the workplace by drawing on their particular skills bearing in mind individual working styles and values. | |
| Policy | Ideal State | Priority Measure |
Main Activity | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | |||
| Enable Diverse Styles of Working | Employees shall have a certain degree of freedom to choose their workplace and working hours, to suit personal circumstances. Systems to maintain these conditions are to be put in place. |
Provide working condition options |
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Expansion of Satellite Offices in the Logistics Group
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| Systems are to be established to prevent employees’ careers from being disrupted or ended because of such circumstances as childbirth, childcare, nursing care, poor health, relocation of a spouse, or disease. | Set up systems to prevent disruption of employee careers |
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Care-giving Seminar (held online)
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| Prevent Excessive Working Hours |
Through collaborative labor and management initiatives for workplace improvement, working hours shall be limited to levels that allow each employee to demonstrate their ability and perform satisfying work in good health. | Promotion of paid leave |
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Continued implementation of overwork measures through labor-management cooperation Average paid leave rate: 68.3% |
| Ensure Equal Opportunity | In providing employees with equal opportunities and education, we support their development into a valuable force for the Nichirei Group. | Promote the advancement of female employees |
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| Diversity and inclusion |
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| Job positions and employment opportunities for people with disabilities shall be created to enable them to earn a living through stimulating work, with a vision to ultimately eliminate the distinction between people with or without disabilities in society. |
Provide stimulating employment opportunities for people with disabilities |
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| As the healthy life span of people becomes longer, we will create workplaces that enable seniors to leverage their distinctive experience and play an active role reflecting their individual values and workstyles. |
Create employment opportunities for older people |
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