Human Capital Development

Basic Approach and Policy

Human Capital Development Toward Building the Optimal Human Capital Portfolio

As a means to secure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, personnel necessary for us to become “Leaders in Innovation,” as upheld in the long-term vision, we are reforming our education and training systems to enhance our human capital through education and reskilling while also bringing in new talent through recruitment. Moreover, for the achievement of the long-term vision, we decided to focus on digital-, women-, global and older personnel-related items as priorities for our human capital portfolio management and are enhancing and improving related training and educational opportunities.

Measures

System to Develop and Educate Human Resources

Nabtesco provides employees with opportunities for practical education. Recently, in addition to conventional level-specific and theme-specific training, online training and on-demand training opportunities have been extensively offered to employees to provide them with more learning options, thereby helping them acquire the skills necessary for their jobs. In addition, employees are provided with an educational system under which they can autonomously choose what to learn according to their own job duties, aspirations and aptitude. Nabtesco thus has nurtured a culture of learning by providing employees with both autonomous and organizational learning opportunities.

Education Scheme (excerpt) (As of July 2023)

Education Scheme (excerpt)

Number of Trainees (Training Provided by the Human Resources Department from January to December in FY2022) (Unit: persons/% attendance)

Training for New Employees 54/100 Training for Employees Being Transferred Overseas 17/100
Entry-Level Problem-Solving Training 52/100 Overseas Position Training 32/100
Upper-Level Problem-Solving Training 29/100 Overseas Language Study (overseas trainees) Postponed due to COVID-19
Training for Newly Appointed Managers 22/100 English Writing Training 10/100
Training for Newly Appointed General Managers 12/100 English Presentation Training 11/100
Training for Newly Employed Mid-Career 55/100 Training on Meeting Skills in an International Setting 4/100
Business Training 67/100 OJT for Newcomers 37/100
Second-Year Report Presentation (head office workers) 23/100 Next Career Training (for 50-year-old employees) 82/100
Career Training for Fifth-Year Employees (for fifth-year employees and their managers) 119/100 Excel-Related Training 33/100
Training on Management Basics 18/100 DX Training 241/100
Dispatch to Business Schools in and outside Japan 10/100 Second Life Seminar 47/92
Advanced Management Program 10/100 Special Training for Women 3/100

Annual total number of participants (for training provided by Human Resources Dept.)

Total hours of training The number of hours of training per person
37,906 hours 15.86 hours

*The total hours of training decreased compared to ordinary years due to the following reasons.

  • Training was postponed due to the effects of COVID-19.
  • In order to make training more efficient, we changed the training system from training targeted at all employees to elective training.

Return on investment in human capital (Unit: %)

  FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Return on investment in human capital 9.1 9.3 9.2 8.6
  • *Return on investment in human capital: Gross sales - (Total operating expenses - Total employee-related expenses [salaries + various allowances])/Total employee-related expenses [salaries + various allowances]

Career Support

In order to help employees develop their careers, we provide fifth-year employees and those who will soon become members of the elderly group with career development training. Moreover, in 2022, we established a contact point for career counseling to support both new employees and those in the elderly group in building their careers. We also provide female employees and non-Japanese employees with a range of consulting services according to their life plans and to their specific problems, respectively.

In 2018, we introduced an internal recruitment system for the purpose of promoting employee career development, organizational revitalization, and effective use of internal human resources. The internal recruitment system is a system to recruit personnel who are qualified for the job openings from among Nabtesco Group employees. In 2023 we eased the requirements to be met for employees to apply for the system. By optimizing job matching and promoting personnel exchanges between in-house companies, we aim to support individual career development and strengthen the organization at the same time.

Image of "Internal Recruitment System" as a Measure for Promoting the Fluidity of Human Resources

Image of "Internal Recruitment System" as a Measure for Promoting the Fluidity Human Resources

Internal Recruitment Results (Unit: persons)

  FY2019 FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Number of job openings 46 36 40 69
Number of applicants 18 8 13 11
Number of successful applicants 4 3 7 0

Development of Experts in Digital Fields

In order to foster innovation in each of our businesses, we urgently need to create a new DX-based business model and have our own internal experts in DX to increase the efficiency of our operational process. At Nabtesco, each employee has their DX level assessed and then receives DX-related training accordingly. We thereby identify personnel who have the potential to meaningfully contribute to DX and help them become experts in the field. In the DX training, trainees are provided with an opportunity to learn the basics for DX, including the basic concept and necessary skills, such as those for product management, soft engineering, innovation, digital marketing, UX, AI and data science.
Specifically, the training will provide participants with more opportunities to improve their innovative skills to hit upon new business ideas and help our entire company to increase its IT literacy. Further, trainees will be able to learn how to automate and increase the efficiency of operational processes and to foster innovation and creativity through DX and apply what they have learned to their business operations for the creation of new value. Moreover, we are enhancing our on-demand training to provide employees with autonomous capacity building and reskilling opportunities toward increasing the IT literacy of the entire organization.

Of the 126 trainees who took part in the digital transformation training conducted in 2022 and received their supervisor's recommendation as digital transformation promoters, 67% (85 people) improved their digital skills and 58% (73 people) improved their innovative skills through the training, according to the comparison of results of pre-and post-training assessments.

Empowerment of Women

We are working on the further empowerment of women, regarding it as one of the priority issues that we must address to ensure our organizations have access to a diverse workforce of capable personnel. For such empowerment, we deem it essential to build an organizational culture that focuses on fairness beyond simply implementing general measures to ensure gender equality and to provide both men and women with equal growth opportunities. Based on this belief we are reforming our corporate culture through initiatives such as training intended to help eliminate unconscious bias against female employees.

In FY2022, to give a boost to the next generation of female leaders, we provided special training to mid-career female managerial candidates and their managers. We are thus enhancing support for women’s career development.

Development of Globally Competitive Human Capital

In order to select, educate and retain personnel who can lead global business development, which we aim to promote going forward, we have introduced a short-term overseas training system for young employees to provide them with opportunities to gain hands-on experience in international business. We also provide mid-career employees with an overseas trainee system (to study and work overseas) to develop them into global leaders for Nabtesco.
Furthermore, we are proactively developing human resources at overseas Group companies. Specifically, we are employing a greater number of local people at the companies and provide local employees with a range of education programs to help them improve their skills.

Overseas Training

Training at Overseas NPOs

In order to develop personnel who can work autonomously on a global scale, we annually provide employees with an opportunity to receive overseas training. In the training, participating employees work with overseas companies and NPOs, for which they need to use foreign languages and take a global viewpoint. This experience will later help them achieve their missions and make decisions as necessary.
In FY2021, our employees participated in the projects implemented by multiple NPOs in the Philippines to deal with the issues faced by them, and the employees worked in the NPOs’ multinational teams to find and implement solutions. For example, one of these employees participated in a project implemented by the NPO named “Silid Aralan,” which conducts educational support activities for children from poor families.

Our overseas training is designed to help participating employees to acquire the ability to deal with cultural differences, behave autonomously, independently and proactively and take a broader view of the world and society by experiencing social contribution activities at NPOs.

Voice from a participating employee

For three weeks in June 2021, I participated in overseas training. Specifically, with members of an NPO engaged in educational activities in the Philippines, I worked to launch a cloud funding project to collect money to purchase the devices used for online classes at school, design and create a PR video to raise the public profile of the NPO and make presentations to related parties. Through the experience, I learned the importance of expressing my own ideas without hesitation even to those with different cultural backgrounds and of listening to other people’s ideas and opinions carefully to foster discussions in an open manner, which is indeed essential for mutual cooperation. I have been keeping this in mind since returning to my workplace after ending the training.

Aerospace Company Technology Section1, Technology Department Yuichi Arakami

Aerospace Company
Technology Section1, Technology Department
Yuichi Arakami

Voice from the NPO

The member from Nabtesco greatly contributed to the mission of our NPO, which is to empower people by education. Specifically, he worked for the (1) improvement of our website to collect donations more easily and for (2) cloud funding. He shared frank opinions with staff of the NPO to make great achievements, including collecting more donations to purchase cell phones and tablet terminals and give them to students to enable them to learn online in the face of the pandemic. In cooperation with partners including advertisement companies, we are continuing our efforts to deliver cell phones to more people so that they can learn by using the devices.

Silid Aralan Inc.

Silid Aralan Inc.

Training on Skills for International Meetings

As overseas business is expected to continue to expand, it is becoming increasingly important to develop globally competitive human capital. We introduced a system to register in advance employees slated to work overseas so that we can provide them with essential training in a planned manner. It also builds a database of the experiences of those actually working overseas to share useful information on overseas work among employees, thereby enhancing our entire Group’s global abilities.

We organize regular trainings for English writing, presentation and developing skills for meetings in an international setting, as well as an intensive study camp for English conversation to provide our employees with opportunities to gain and improve basic English language skills required for global business communications. In FY2012, we introduced the “Overseas Trainee Program” for mid-career employees, in which our employees can study and work aboard. In 2017, we also introduced short-term overseas job training involving younger employees to create a space where they are able to gain practical experience in global business from an early stage.

Training to develop skills for meetings in an international setting

Training to develop skills for meetings in an international setting

Empowerment of Older Workers

For the optimization of human capital, we aim to empower all our employees to make meaningful contributions. To this end, we focus on providing employees aged 50 and older, who represent a large age group at Nabtesco, with environments where they can exert the full range of their abilities. In 2021, we offered next career training to employees in that age group to provide them with an opportunity for reskilling so that they can bring their abundant experience to bear in working on new tasks.

Improving Basic Skills of Young Employees to Immediately Become an Effective Workforce

We provide new graduates who have joined the company with intensive training in a planned and systematic manner during their first two years of work, deeming this time to be optimal for enhancing their basic skills. Specifically, we provide them with annual training programs in consideration of their individual growth stage, thereby helping them to improve year by year.

We also give new employees on-the-job (OJT) training, believing it to be important to offer them hands-on work experience so that they can become an effective members of the workforce as soon as possible. Under the OJT system, OJT staff members provide careful instructions to individual trainees, while the trainers themselves also receive training to maintain their high ability to provide such instruction. In addition, a common training plan worksheet designed to visualize the contents and progress of the training is used for all trainees to create a uniform, high-quality training environment.

In their third year of work, after the basic skill improvement period ends, we dispatch all employees who have graduated from university to an overseas training (e.g. intern) program in order to develop human resources with a self-sufficient spirit through cross-cultural experiences.

Second-Year Research Report & Presentation

Second-Year Research Report & Presentation

Development of candidates for top executives

The Nabtesco Group is implementing the Management Advanced Program (MAP) to develop candidates for top executives through selective training. Under MAP, trainees will enhance their skills for rational organizational management and deepen the understanding of themselves. Specifically, they will improve their leadership skills from the viewpoint of managers and learn about management strategy and technovate strategy to create new ideas and business models for the enhancement of their organizational competitiveness.

Also, through this training program, trainees can make exchange and share experiences and ideas with managers of other companies to build new interpersonal ties. Since the program was introduced two years ago, 20 people have attended it in total, including eight among a total of 96 departmental managers and one who is now serving as an executive at one of Nabtesco Group companies located outside Japan.

Development of Human Capital at Overseas Group Companies

We are proactively endeavoring toward the development of human resources at Group companies outside Japan. For example, we are actively employing local human resources and implementing various training programs aimed at improving the skills of locally hired personnel. In China, we provide business management trainings for executive candidates at business locations to promote the appointment of locally employed staff for managerial positions and from this talent pool, appoint the presidents of Group companies outside Japan. In addition, we offer an OJT-based training programs designed for skill enhancement, in which employees of overseas Group companies are assigned, for a certain period of time, to factories in Japan belonging to various business segments, including the railroad vehicle equipment, hydraulic equipment, commercial vehicle equipment, and automatic door businesses.

By offering opportunities to deepen their understanding of the Nabtesco Group’s corporate culture and The Nabtesco Way that supports it, and to learn specialist skills, we are developing workers who can contribute to economic development in their home countries. We will continue these efforts to reinforce our overseas operational bases and to contribute to the economic and social development of the countries in which we operate.

Proper Evaluation of Personnel

We ensure that all of its employees are evaluated properly, and these evaluations are reflected in decisions regarding bonuses, promotions and pay raises. Evaluations are conducted based on the level of achievements made against the targets set at the beginning of the term, and the evaluation items include business performance, capabilities and motivation.

Under the development and evaluation system for general employees, these employees are evaluated in terms of their business performance, capabilities and the level of their compliance, including compliance with the code of conduct in a comprehensive manner.
Under the personnel evaluation system for managers, the managers are evaluated in terms of their achievements, behaviors and compliance, including compliance with the code of conduct. Moreover, managers are also evaluated for their contribution to raising compliance awareness within the organization and for their information communication about compliance. In order to ensure the transparency of such evaluations and help employees understand the details, we provide them with opportunities to talk with their managers face to face at least twice a year.