Our company places great value in our people, NHK Spring considers our employees to be important assets, and we make great effort in hiring and training them. In order to be a company where each employee’s diverse sense of values can play an active role, we aim not only for diversity, but also enrichment through workplace health and safety and employee welfare.

Human Resource Employment and Development

Basic approach to employment

NHK Spring advocates growth through innovative ideas and practices. We extensively search for employees who have the desire to take on challenges by being unconventional, and overcome problems through teamwork, while maintaining their individuality.

With regards to diversity of human resources, we are actively recruiting women and non-Japanese employees and we also promote the hiring of people with disabilities staff through special subsidiary companies. In addition, we are hiring top athletes whose capabilities enable them to excel in diverse fields, and we support their successful engagement.

Human resources development

As part of efforts toward sustainable growth, our human resource development seeks to improve the quality of both our human resources and capability of organization as a whole. From a human resource standpoint, we begin by fostering an awareness of our corporate philosophy in each and every employee to lay the foundation for them to manifest that philosophy in their own actions. Employees then converse with their senior co-workers about the human resource ideal they should strive to achieve, set capability development goals, and engage in their work toward achieving those goals.

The systematic training each person receives includes group training divided by job-ranking, job type and skill level. They also undergo foreign language and cultural training in the context of global business expansion in efforts to improve the ability to accept diverse values and cross-cultural communication skills.

In terms of organizational strength, to further enhance our competitiveness as a manufacturing company, we offer courses to train leaders in manufacturing site improvement, courses in strategic thinking to practically review business strategies, and courses to cultivate creativity and innovation.

This is a tripartite human resources development effort, in which individuals working on their own growth are cultivated through the power of an organization with the support of a human resources system. Moving forward, we will apply this effort in our whole company.

Recruitment Activities

For recruitment activities for new graduates who will join our company in April 2022, we made advance preparations for the content of all recruitment plans to be handled online in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and conducted a work experience program the new recruits to learn about how NHK Spring operates based on the catchphrase "key parts professionals = manufacturing professionals", and a career interview program with Human Resources Department staff online for those who wanted to know more about our company's working style.

In addition, young and mid-career employees took part in recruiting sessions as recruiters to create a place for open discussions with students. The students are able to hear directly from the young employees who are actually working at the company to get an idea of the corporate climate and atmosphere at NHK Spring. These activities help bring an image to mind of corporate life after recruitment.

Other ways in which we are working to increase the level of awareness of NHK Spring include a disclosure of information on job information websites and dedicated recruiting page set up at the company website.

Company orientation video published online

Promotion of Better Health

Initiatives to promote better health

Our management policy is to "build a safe and secure company and a rewarding and comfortable workplace.” We promote activities to maintain and improve the health of our employees, believing that allowing employees to continue working vigorously in good physical and mental health, will lead to a sustainable increase in corporate value.

１．Health Declaration

NHK Spring Group promotes health management at each group company, and believes that promoting the health of employees and their families is vital. Each Group company and health insurance associations work together to advance health promotion measures, and the presidents of these Group companies have jointly signed the NHK Spring Group Health Declaration.

NHK Spring Group Health Declaration

２．Health management/promotion initiatives

Our group has two policies that we follow in our activities.

①Physical health maintenance
Support employees improving their health self-awareness by providing health measures to keep working vigorously.

②Mental healt
Work to create an energetic and comfortable workplace where employees are healthy both physically and mentally.

３．Health promotion framework

We set up the Central Health Promotion Council in fiscal 2017 to promote healthcare systematically, as subordinate organization of the top-level Central Safety and Health Council, to confirm the policy and implementation status of company-wide health measures and to examine actions to be taken. Furthermore, at each business site, we appoint health promotion committee members and health promotion staff to advance various health measures.

４．Health promotion targets and results

①Physical health maintenance

*1 Since the percentage of obese people is higher in the group with abnormal findings than in the group without findings, it is effective to reduce the number of people with findings by reducing the percentage of "obese" people.
*2 Our company’s smoking rate is higher than the national (Japan) average.

②Mental health

* To prevent and detect mental health problems in their early stages.

The target of reducing leaving days by mental health problems, was cleared in fiscal 2020, we set new target for fiscal 2021, and we continue activities to reduce the number of leave days.

５．Health promotion issues and measures

①Physical health maintenance
Issue: Fostering a mindset among employees of taking personal initiative in caring for their own health
Measures:

• Members of the Central Health and Safety Council carried out activities themselves to reduce BMI. While publicizing company target values in the internal company newsletter, we reported on the efforts by the Council members and their results, while delivering messages to elevate employee health self-awareness.
• We have been bringing visibility to employee health by installing body composition and blood pressure meters, while also raising awareness of doing more exercise as a result of distributing activity meters to employees.
• We implement nutritional education using cafeteria facilities at each business site. While sharing information companywide on of these efforts, we also held an exchange of opinions in the Health Promotion Members’ Conference.
• Each employee whose various diagnostic health exams produced abnormal results is referred to the medical staff at each business site to receive guidance on how to improve.
• Activities to reduce smoking rates include quit-smoking education using visual and audio learning materials, as well as in-person counseling support for those who wish to quit smoking.

②Mental health
Issue: Having all employees understand mental health problems, and creating workplaces conducive to fulfilling work
Measures:

• Group training, morning assembly, self-care and line care education using e-learning.
• Workplace improvement using stress checks in group analysis.
• Those with mental health issues participate in regular interviews with medical staff, and receive support.

●Holding KENKOM health events through the Health Visibility Program

As part of our physical health measures, we are developing a "health visualization program" based on the measurement of steps walked, body composition and blood pressure, which employees can enjoy and voluntarily engage in.

We have set a target measurement rate of 20% and a participant measurement rate of 70% as indicators for evaluating the measures, and the health promotion officers and nurses at each office are working together to promote these measures.

In fiscal 2020, we continued to implement step count transmissions, body composition monitoring, and blood pressure measurement from September to the end of January of the following year. In addition, a variety of incentives (points for continued measurement, points for new enrollment, points for resuming use, etc.) will be offered to encourage new participants and employees who have not used the system for a while. We held a 5-month long event where people could enter a prize drawing with their points. As a result, 1,500 people earned points and 365 people became new members.

From March 2021, we held an inter-plant event for the first time in which each plant competed in the average number of steps taken during the event period. 1,300 people participated in the event.

As a result of the event, the average number of steps taken by members of the entire company increased by about 5% compared to before the event, and the average number of steps taken by employees at all plants increased, making it a very exciting event.

In October 2020, we held an event for health insurance association members called "Everybody Walk" using the kencom health app. Employees of Group companies also participated in this event, using their own smartphones to form teams with their close colleagues to compete in the number of steps taken.

These kinds of events are expected to stimulate communication among employees, establish walking habits and the habit of taking measurements to check the condition of the body, and lead to the understanding and improvement of health conditions, and ultimately to the promotion of employee health.

All members of the Shiga Plant team who won the inter-factory walk event were given prizes.

●Athlete employees provide information on how to stretch at home

In response to the decreased opportunities for physical exercise during the COVID-19 pandemic, our athlete employees provided information to employees on stretching and core training methods that can be done easily at home in our company newsletter. As the easy stretching exercises require only a small space, they are expected to be effective in recovering from fatigue, promoting basic metabolism, and preventing injuries.

Stretching to improve lumbar pain, by an athlete employee in the company newsletter

●Nutritional education in employee cafeterias

NHK Spring implements measures to promote health through eating in cooperation with employee cafeterias and public health nurses.

In the company cafeterias at each plant, information about the ingredients of the menu items (calories, salt, carbohydrates, etc.), proper amount of intake are displayed and offers menus and seasonings with less salt and calories. Each effort will be shared throughout the company, and the entire company will work to improve health by utilizing the company cafeteria.

At the Yokohama Office, a healthy menu is provided under the supervision of athletic employees who have Food Meister qualifications. Each month, we set a theme related to dietary education and place displays on tables to raise awareness of health promotion through food among employees who use the company cafeteria.

“One plate, balanced menu”, served from FY2020 at our Yokohama Office cafeteria

Workplace Health and Safety

Occupational health and safety initiatives

We introduced a Workplace Health and Safety Management System in fiscal 2000, and it was rolled out Company-wide in fiscal 2003. We have taken the following measures to eliminate occupational accidents to achieve zero hazards:

• Appropriate actions of top management:
  Members of top management at each business site vigorously promote health and safety activities while checking on actual conditions in the production workplace.
• Risk assessment:
  Methods of discovering, mitigating and eliminating potential workplace dangers and hazards.
• Risk prediction:
  Training to obtain knowledge of dangers and hazards to prevent occupational accidents before they happen.
• Health and safety training:
  Education undertaken to acquire the knowledge necessary for health and safety activities, including laws and regulations, for the purpose of preventing occupational accidents.
  In addition, we are in the process of assigning safety subassessors to each production division to achieve even higher levels of intrinsic safety.

The rate of days lost through injury has been lower than the average for all industry and manufacturing industry in recent years due to the results of these activities. Going forward, we intend to apply the PDCA cycle to the occupational safety and health management system appropriately for continual further improvement.

The lost time injury frequency rate represents the probability of lost time injuries per one million working hours.

Work-style Innovation

Smart Work Project: NHK Spring Work-style Innovation

We launched the Smart Work Project as a work-style innovation initiative in fiscal 2018 by prioritizing a safe, secure company as well as an enthusiastic and work-friendly environment above all else.

We believe the establishment of an environment which furthers operational efficiency and the active participation of diverse human resources helps the growth of each individual and the development of our company while prioritizing better physical and mental health of employees.

To improve operational efficiency, we use software (RPA) to take advantage of technology to automate some standard work processes conducted on computers, utilize online conferencing systems, and revise meeting structure. In April 2021, we introduced a telecommuting system and a core-free flex system to provide more flexible working styles. We will continue to advance these efforts in the future in order to achieve higher work efficiency.

●Work-life balance

At NHK Spring, we have put in place a variety of vacation schemes to help harmonize private life and work. We have set targets for annual paid leave between labor and management to promote the use of paid leave, and have also created an environment in which it is easy to take condolence leave, childrearing leave, and family support leave.

Annual paid leave utilization rate: 99 ％ 　(Result as of end of March 2021) Average number of paid leave days utilized annually: 16.3 　(Result as of end of March 2021)

* In fiscal 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we closed our offices temporarily.
In consideration of its impact, in fiscal 2020 we managed the number of days of annual paid leave to be taken by multiplying the number of months without temporary leave by 1.5 days.
(Under normal circumstances, we have set a target of 18 days of annual paid leave per year.)

Labor-Management Relations

Active communication between labor and management

NHK Spring holds the Central Labor Management Council at a Company-wide level, and Local Labor Management Councils at each business site every year to examine various conditions and share information with labor unions.

Additionally, we have set up conferences on overtime work, conferences on production plans, occupational health and safety conferences, and other regular councils to engage in a timely debate between labor and management.

NHK Spring and the labor union have also built fair and stable relations between labor and management and entered into a comprehensive labor agreement covering overall working conditions and labor-management relations for the purpose of corporate growth and a better life for union members. The labor agreement is published in both print and online mediums so that all employees can view the latest working conditions at any time.

NHK Spring has also entered into various other labor contracts, such as agreements on overtime work and holiday work (statutory) as well as agreements related to promotions, raises and bonuses. In addition, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are implementing measures such as inoculation in the workplace, testing for positive results, and handling cases of close contact, with the safety and security of our employees as our top priority.

At the Central Labor Management Council