The Group is aiming to optimize its business framework and heighten its corporate value by developing professional human resources through human resource cultivation systems of all kinds and by building a workplace environment where they can exercise their capabilities to the fullest.

Training Tailored to Areas of Expertise and Occupations

The Group implements training tailored to employees' areas of expertise and job performance, thereby enabling them to gain extensive knowledge and acquire specialized skills in their respective fields. Meanwhile, the Group actively encourages its employees to participate in external seminars on specialized subjects, and to gain public qualifications. The Group also endeavors to develop professional talent equipped with extensive knowledge of cutting-edge technologies and social trends by supporting their involvement in educational organizations and academic societies outside of the workplace.

Based on the system of assigning grades by function that is used in the Group, grades are set according to the magnitude of the role the employee is expected to fulfill. By assessing personnel results and behavioral characteristics in accordance with the personnel evaluation system, we are endeavoring to provide employee guidance and cultivation, develop their capabilities, and optimize their assignments. At the same time, this serves to provide fair and equitable treatment in terms of wages, bonuses, retirement benefits, and so on, and in establishing an environment wherein motivated employees can participate proactively with a sense of security.

Interviews are conducted between immediate supervisors and their subordinates on a twice-yearly basis, in addition to the daily communication that takes place between managers and their employees. In the interviews, managers provide feedback to employees regarding their work, achievements, points for reflection, and findings of performance evaluations, as well as advice based on their self-reports, and confirm and share the goals they have set.
Meanwhile, supervisors also provide their assessments with respect to the self-analysis. The process of undergoing straightforward performance assessments by their supervisors enables employees to scrutinize themselves on a regular basis, thereby helps fuel their motivation for proactive career development.

The Furukawa Company Group does not engage in any discrimination regarding human rights, beliefs, gender, disabilities, and so on in employment, and we endeavor to provide equal opportunities for all. Because Group businesses extend into a variety of fields, we are taking measures to stabilize our employment by formulating staffing and personnel plans with a clear view to business expansion and productivity increases, including in Group companies.

The Company is continuing to actively hire and involve women. We created the Action Plan for Promoting Support for Female Employees on April 1, 2016, and we are gradually upgrading various systems that are designed to support active participation by women. We are also upgrading systems for the support of employees raising children by classifying a portion of childcare leave as paid leave.

As part of measures to support rearing of the next generation, we have formulated and implemented a General Business Owner Action Plan. At the same time, we are promoting improvement of the workplace environment to make it easier for people to take part in childcare and home care.

The Group promotes hiring people with disabilities in various workplaces and for various types of work, thereby promoting their independence and participation in society.

Given its active pursuit of overseas expansion, the Group does not base its recruiting decisions on nationality. Moreover, we strive to deepen partnerships that transcend nationality as we promote a spirit of mutual respect for individual differences.

Our employees who are stationed in regions with environments differing greatly from Japan's are more frequently subject to the risk of accidents, incidents, disasters, illnesses, and so on that are unique to those regions. They also face language problems, and their lack of familiarity with the local environments reduces their ability to deal with risks. The Group therefore makes every effort to mitigate their risks by such means as preparation of emergency response manuals, education of employees, and thoroughgoing implementation of crisis management frameworks and systems for confirming the safety and whereabouts of employees. Company representatives who are accompanied by family members at their overseas stations must also be concerned about the health of their families and the safety of their everyday life. At the Group, we have systems of all kinds to support the overseas life of accompanying family members as well by means of health examinations, assistance with educational and learning expenses, shipment of goods from Japan, and other such services.

The mandatory retirement age was raised from 60years to 65years on April 1, 2020, in order to stabilize the employment of elderly people and expand their opportunities for work. Going forward, we anticipate that these people, by passing on the technical knowhow they have acquired over many years, will proactively participate in cultivating mid-level and younger employees as well as in other ways.

The Group is taking active measures to assure its employees' health in body and mind as well as to realize their work-life balance through its efforts to correct long working hours and ensure that working hours are appropriate. As part of its measures to support cultivation of the next generation, not only does the Group formulate and execute a general employer action plan, but it also promotes improvement of the workplace environment to make it easier for employees to take part in child rearing and nursing care.

In the Group's health management divisions, employee health is managed by periodic health checkups, special health examinations for employees with designated duties, and so on. They also provide health guidance based on health checkup results and give support for promoting employee health. We are also taking steps to arrange separate in-house smoking areas based on the intent of the Health Promotion Act, and we are making every effort to prevent second-hand smoking.

In addition to health guidance based on the results of periodic health checkups and other such care, the Group is cooperating with industrial physicians, personnel and labor affairs representatives, and employee supervisors, and also coordinating with specialized institutions and medical specialists outside the Group, to continue its assistance for mental health care and support for employees returning to the workplace. The Group has also created a Furukawa Company Group Mental Health Promotion Plan and sets concrete targets for becoming a corporation that maintains mental health while providing a safe and pleasant place to work. To this end we are continuing initiatives in each part of the Four Areas of Care.