Sustainability
Human Capital Management
Basic Approach
The NGK Group is reforming our business structure by establishing Five Transformations we must implement to realize what we want to be in 2050 “a company to contribute to carbon neutrality and digital society with our unique ceramic technologies.” Among these Five Transformations, we have placed our response to ESG issues at the core of our management. We recognize that human resources are a form of capital instead of a cost. Based on this recognition, we believe that maximizing the value of our human resources by linking our management strategies and human resource strategies will lead to an improvement in our enterprise value and growth.
We formulated the NGK Group Human Capital Management Policy, as well as the Human Resource Development Policy and Workplace Development Policy which embody it, in June 2023. This was based on the recent increase in requests for the disclosure of information from society relating to human resources and the NGK Group Vision.
It is none other than each one of our employees who will create new value for a sustainable society by implementing the Five Transformations to realize the NGK Group Vision: Road to 2050. We will maximize the abilities of our employees by providing rich and vibrant workplace environments to boost the human resources who will take on the challenge of transforming the NGK Group.
NGK Group Human Capital Management Policy
Promotion Structure
The NGK Group shares the NGK Group Human Capital Management Policy as a group-wide guideline and promotes human capital management over our entire group. The HR Committee deliberates various personnel policies based on the NGK Group Human Capital Management Policy. It then reports to the Board of Directors at least once a year on the matters it has determined to be important among those it has reached a decision on upon its deliberations and results in the fiscal year.
The NGK Group has sites around the world. Accordingly, we believe it is important from the perspective of effectiveness to formulate and operate strategies and policies to realize our Human Capital Management Policy in line with the situation and sense of issues faced in each of our group companies. We will continue to ensure the instillation of our Human Capital Management Policy by carefully communicating with the personnel departments at each of our sites about the policies and activities to suit each of them in the future.
Promotion Structure Chart
Initiatives to Disseminate Human Capital Management Policy
In FY2023, to ensure dissemination of our Human Capital Management Policy, we featured a special article about it in the internal newsletter for employees and Group companies in Japan. This article introduced the background and intentions behind the policy in an accessible way.
The General Manager of the Human Resources Dept also visited all 13 of our Group companies in Japan (some visits were conducted online) to engage in dialogue with the presidents and human resource officers of each company about our Human Capital Management Policy. Through these efforts, they gained a shared understanding that the key point was to create an organization and environment that encourage employees to want to continue to grow and flourish, and do so in a manner adapted to the situation of each Group company and location. They also confirmed that, while the skills and expertise required of each job differ, the basic mindset needed is the same regardless of role or position. For our Group companies outside of Japan, we conducted activities to build a shared awareness of these policies with eight companies in Asia and North and Central America. In the future, we hope to visit our Group companies in Europe, create opportunities for sharing policies, and work towards further dissemination.
Consideration/Establishment of New Key Personnel System
In order to implement the Five Transformations espoused in the NGK Group Vision, it is essential to further enhance our human resources going forward. We will revise our Key Personnel System as part of our measures to foster the kind of talent and create the kind of workplace environment we should strive for as stipulated in our Human Capital Management Policy. We aim to maximize the capabilities of our in-house personnel and boost our competitiveness in recruiting talented individuals from outside the company. The new system is based around the concept of improving transparency, fairness, and validity, and promoting autonomous action. We are aiming to inspire and strengthen actions that lead to innovation and taking on challenges by supplementing our existing “Performance Evaluation” with a new “Behavioral Evaluation” based on competency, and reflecting the results in employee compensation. Starting in FY2024, we are introducing it first for non-executive employees who are 58 years-old or above, and plan to expand it to all key personnel in FY2025.