Human Capital Initiatives
Toyo Seikan Group is committed to promoting the development and empowerment of its employees acting across the Group. Since establishing the Toyo Seikan Group Personnel Policy in 2018, we have been engaged in fostering an internal environment that furthers our Management Philosophy built upon four supports: “Achieving self-sustaining growth (Human resource development)”, “Co-creation of diverse talent”, “Work style reform”, and “Health and productivity management.” In addition, for the twin purposes of reinforcing the full power of the group and directing human capital toward improvement in corporate value, in FY2023 we drew up policies on developing human resources and fostering the internal environment. These actions to augment human capital will lead to greater corporate value.
Human resource development policy
Groupʼs corporate and organizational strategies
The Groupʼs corporate strategy aims to increase earnings in new business areas by leveraging the Groupʼs resources while maintaining the profitability of its existing operations. To realize the strategy, we transitioned in 2013 to a holding company structure, establishing and expanding departments responsible for implementing the corporate strategy, streamlining and consolidating operations, and building a governance structure for the entire group. In 2021, we formulated the Groupʼs long-term management vision and have been working to raise awareness of the vision among group members.
The talent we seek
Capabilities we need to achieve our corporate and organizational strategies are largely classified into the following three categories:
- Managing and maintaining the operations of our existing businesses at higher levels (in terms of quality, costs, delivery time and ESG perspectives)
- Building new schemes from the perspective of total optimization for the Group based on the expertise in our existing businesses
- Creating new products, technologies and businesses by leveraging the Groupʼs resources
Our challenge is to first obtain or develop staff who fulfill category A and then increase those who are qualified for category B and C.
Human resource strategy
We have been implementing our human resource strategy to develop the talent we need by taking measures aiming to:
- Increase both the sense of fulfillment of employees (employee engagement) and productivity by promoting human resource management based on the Groupʼs Personnel Policy.
- Create a work environment that allows us to secure human resources for our manufacturing division.
- Maintain a group-wide system for periodic recruitment of new college graduates for major group companies to strengthen competitiveness in recruiting and increase the sense of unity across the Group.
- Promote the sense of unity and the creation of new perspectives through collaborative activities
- Promote mid-career recruitment to obtain talent with diverse knowledge.
KPIs
We have set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) as shown below to realize our human resource strategy.
* The table can be scrolled left or right.
The scores of “employee engagement,” “general health risk,” and “workplace with growth opportunities” are measured with the HoPE Survey, which is provided by HOKENDOHJIN-FRONTIER Inc. The indicator of “employee engagement” consists of three elements: “affective commitment,” “fulfillment of roles (intention/motivation),” and ambition for work.”
Since we have found correlations between EBITDA per employee of group companies and many of the KPIs, including “employee engagement,” we will improve each KPI with our ongoing efforts based on the Groupʼs personnel policy to increase EBITDA per employee, the key goal indicator. We understand that the following four issues are particularly important in achieving the target.
Particularly Important Issues
We understand the following four issues are particularly important: driving engagement of employees who work in the manufacturing division, boosting engagement among employees in their 30s, increasing female manager ratio and eliminating the gender wage gap, and enhancing the sense of unity and talent mobility across the Group.
Boosting employee engagement in the manufacturing division
The population aged 18 years in Japan is expected to substantially fall by 2050, the target year of the Long-Term Management Vision 2050, “The Future, Wrapped for All,” while more young people are expected to go on to university. This will result in a significant decrease in the number of high school graduates who start working immediately after graduation. To attract the young workforce and maintain our operations, we need to drive engagement of employees who work in the manufacturing division in order to raise the employee retention rate and strengthen our competitiveness in recruiting. As employee engagement in the division is strongly affected by long working hours and physical burden, we will take measures to review working shifts to eliminate long working hours and invest in labor-saving equipment to reduce physical burden on workers.
Employee engagement score by division and age in seven major Group companies (FY2023)
Boosting engagement among employees in their 30s
The analysis of employee engagement by age shows that Group members in their 30s have the lowest score among all age groups. Workers in their 30s have a heavier psychological burden due to increased workload but receive less support from their supervisors and colleagues than in their 20s. This makes it difficult for them to have confidence in their own development. To address this issue, we conducted career development programs and career consultations designed for employees in their 30s and their supervisors. We are also considering enhancing career development support for employees in all generations, including enhancing our internal open recruitment program and career self-assessment system.
Increasing female manager ratio and eliminating gender wage gap
The female manager ratio for the Company is 6.7%, while that for 13 major group companies is 4.1% in average, varying from 0.0% to 14.3% among the companies. The significant gaps are due to different levels of progress in their previous efforts for women’s career advancement.
The gender wage gap index, expressed as a percentage of the women’s wage level to the men’s wage level, is 96.4% for the Company, while that for 15 major group companies is 69.6% in average and varies considerably, from 61.1% to 96.4%, among the companies.
To address these issues, we have set a target female manager ratio of over 14% for the Company and over 6% for seven major group companies as well as a target gender wage gap of over 80% for the seven major group companies for fiscal 2030. Toward the targets, in fiscal 2023, we established the Diversity Working Group under the Human Rights & DEI Subcommittee. The new working group aims to improve the situations across the Group through proposing measures based on the good practices shared among group companies and working together among its members.
As shown in the table below, the gender wage gap for regular employees is larger in total salary than in basic salary. While the gap indicator for basic salary is around 90% for both managers and non-managers, those for family and housing allowance and overtime and shift differential pay vary and are much lower (meaning larger gaps). The low female manager ratio also causes the gender wage gap for all regular workers to be wider than that for managers only or for nonmanagers only.
Going forward, we will continue to work to fill the gender wage gap through the following measures: achieving more recruitment, higher retention rates and more leadership positions for female workers (with more effective career development support for internal promotion and more mid-career recruitment for leader positions); reviewing the conditions to pay family and housing allowance; and reducing male workers’ long-hours working.
Enhancing the sense of unity and talent mobility across the Group
In pursuing our corporate strategy, we need to develop the sense of unity among group members and boost the mobility of talent across the Group. To this end, we have set key performance indicators of "awareness of the Group's philosophy and vision" and "percentage of key personnel with work experience at other group companies." The “key personnel” refers to candidates for futures leaders selected within major group companies. Raising group members' awareness of the long-term management vision formulated in 2021, we will develop group-wide workforce plans for each occupational category to promote talent mobility across the Group.
Creating better internal conditions for human resource development
- The Group has put in place the Next- Generation Management Training Program for general managers, the Toyo Seikan Group Business College (TSGBC) for managers, a standardized personnel management system, and IT infrastructure (including a talent management system and a mental health evaluation system). Starting with our 2021 recruitment, we have implemented a group-wide system for periodic recruitment of new college graduates for major group companies, aiming to secure talent and foster our future leaders.
- In line with our human resource development policy, we will conduct a review of shift working, invest in labor- saving equipment, and change the conditions under which family and housing allowances are paid. We will also conduct career development programs designed for each age cohort, provide more opportunities for open internal recruitment and career self-assessment, and promote workforce planning to enhance human resources in each occupational category.
Indicators and Targets for Our Material Issue “Respect for Employees”
- The table can be scrolled left or right.
| Materiality | Target FY | KGI | Results | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2022 | FY2023 | |||
| Ratio of female managers*1,3 | 2030 | Higher than 6% | 3.4% | 4.4% |
| Ratio of female hires*3 | 2025 | Higher than 30% | 22.4% | 17.5% |
| Male-female difference in average years of continuous employment*2,3 | 2025 | 3 years or less | 3.4 years (males: 18.7 years, females: 15.3 years) |
3.1 years (males: 18.3 years, females: 15.2 years) |
| Retention rates both for male and female workers who were hired between 9 to 11 years ago*2,3 | 2025 | Higher than 70% | Males 64.5%, females 50.0% (Total 61.8%) |
Males 62.3%, females 50.5% (Total 60.5%) |
| EBITDA per employee*4 | 2025 | 5,500 thousand yen or more | 3,020 thousand yen | 4,540 thousand yen |
| Employee engagement*3,5 | 2025 | 52.7 or more | 50.7 | 50.8 |
| Awareness of the Group’s philosophy and vision*3,6 | 2025 | 80% or more | － | 51% |
| General health risk*3,5 | 2025 | 100 or less | 103 | 103 |
| Workplace with growth opportunities*3,5 | 2025 | 52.9 or more | 51.9 | 51.8 |
| Ratio of core employees with experience at other Group companies*3 | 2025 | 60% or more | 54.6% | 59.1% |
| Number of workers whose monthly overtime exceeded 45 hours*3,7 | 2025 | 2.7 persons | 5.7 persons | 5.0 persons |
- As of April 1 of each following fiscal year.
- As of March 31 of each following fiscal year.
- The seven Group companies are: Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, Ltd.; Toyo Seikan Co., Ltd.; Toyo Kohan Co., Ltd.; Tokan Kogyo Co., Ltd.; Nippon Closures Co., Ltd.; Mebius Packaging Co., Ltd.; and Toyo Glass Co., Ltd.
- The amount is calculated by dividing consolidated EBITDA by the consolidated number of employees.
- We use the HoPE Survey, which is provided by HOKENDOHJIN-FRONTIER Inc. “Workplace with growth opportunities” is an indicator to determine whether a workplace empowers employees to envision their own career paths and future growth and to engage in work independently and proactively.
- This indicator shows the percentage of employees who answered, in the HoPE Survey, that they “understand” or “understand to an extent” the Group’s philosophy and vision. We will disclose the indicators from the FY2023 results.
- This indicator is the average of the monthly number of workers who fall in this category per 100 workers for each fiscal year, calculated excluding managers. The results for FY2022 have been corrected from those disclosed in the previous year’s report due to errors.