Human Resources

Talent Management Strategy

Basic Policy for Our Talent Management Strategy

Diverse human resources × Challenging themselves, and thinking while taking action

For Yamazen to achieve sustainable growth and development amid major changes in society, we must continue generating innovations that make an impression on customers. This will require us to make best use of (assemble) our comprehensive strengths, and to provide opportunities for challenging ourselves and thinking while taking action based on our diverse knowledge and experience. Building on our Personnel Philosophy of “Cultivating personnel who challenge themselves and think while taking action,” and with our talent management policy of “Employees challenging themselves. Thinking while taking action,” we will further strengthen and expand talent management to enhance our core competencies in human and organizational capital, ultimately improving corporate value.

Overview of Yamazen’s Talent Management Strategy

Personnel philosophy and talent management policy supporting “management of fostering personnel”

The seeds of change can always be found in our contact points with the public. To be useful to our customers, we must take the initiative in cultivating these various seeds to generate new added value, which will in turn make an impression. That is why we believe it is crucial to develop human resources who can autonomously put the principle of “challenging themselves and thinking while taking action”—a concept that we have stressed since our founding—into practice in the workplace. With our Personnel Philosophy of “Cultivating personnel who challenge themselves and think while taking action” at the core of our efforts, we will develop enterprising and daring human resources who can think for themselves to accomplish ambitious goals and overcome difficult tasks. We will also foster a corporate culture that supportsthis objective.

Action Plan for Fostering Personnel: “With All of You”

Creating a foundation for utilizing diverse knowledge and experience: abolishing seniority

To accurately meet the diverse needs that arise from a changing business environment, we must assemble our diverse knowledge and experience to create new value. To realize a comfortable work environment where all employees can work together and play an active role, we have announced the abolition of seniority.

We will change to job-based talent management that starts with people and promote diversity and inclusion in a style befitting Yamazen, assigning the right people to the right jobs at the right pay.

Abolition of seniority

Fundamental reform of senior employee compensation
Promotion system for selecting young employees

By completely abolishing factors such as age, length of service and years of experience in determining compensation and promotions, and compensating people based on their roles, achievements and potential, we will provide situations and opportunities for employees to take on larger roles faster and create greater added value. In other words, a system for realizing the growth of both individuals and the Company.

Participation of women in the workplace

Integration of career-track and noncareer-track positions

As part of our work style reforms, we have abolished employee classifications and now assign roles according to potential and ability so that all employees have the opportunity to challenge themselves and think while taking action in order to achieve results in their respective workplaces. We will promote the active participation of all employees and link workstyle reforms to innovations in ways that generate earnings.

Cultivation and active participation of professional human resources

Introducing a multi-track HR system and combining a high level of expertise with management skills
Establishing a new in-house expert qualification system

Using the multi-track career and position options for developing people in management roles and skilled professionals, we can assign the right people to the right jobs at the right pay through job-based talent management that focuses on people. It also creates diverse value as employees with diverse knowledge and experience challenge themselves and think while taking action.

Action Plan for Fostering Personnel: “Pioneering a New Future”

Introduction of a Yamazen-style system of target management: “Policy on Employees Challenging Themselves While Thinking and Taking Action/Reporting Form”

Only when every employee at our workplaces freely challenges themselves on the questions of how they want to approach customers and tackle their work, and then thinks while taking action, will they generate innovations that make an impression. All employees who are in direct contact with our customers have a deep, first-hand understanding of the diverse needs of those customers, and therefore know the best way to make them happy. That is why, rather than using top-down target management, we have created a system that allows employees to set their own work targets based on Yamazen’s Purpose and Corporate Vision. This system directly links progress and results to their evaluations.

Yamazen’s philosophy of thinking and taking action in performance evaluation and introduction of competency

At its core, Yamazen’s DNA has been passed down from generation to generation. This DNA is reflected in Yamazen’s philosophy of thinking and taking action, which employees apply in their daily work. This philosophy also manifests as characteristics of thoughtful action. To efficiently leverage this philosophy and support talent development, we interviewed high-performing employees in each business division, extracted common traits of thoughtful action, compiled them as competencies, and introduced competency-based evaluations. By clearly defining required capabilities for the Company as competencies, employees are encouraged to proactively work on skill development, enhancing the quality of management and promoting growth. Employees are encouraged to consciously model these competencies in their work, enabling quicker achievement, personal growth, and recognition for their contributions to the Company, creating a positive feedback loop. We also incorporate competencies into our recruitment process. Yamazen’s DNA will continue to be passed on in perpetuity.

Initiatives

Efforts to Institutionalize Competencies

Global Expansion of our Philosophy: “Employees challenging themselves. Thinking while taking action.”

We held meetings to embed Yamazen’s Purpose and Corporate Vision among local staff at the ASEAN Regional Headquarters (covering subsidiaries in Thailand, India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia) and the China Regional Headquarters (covering subsidiaries in Shanghai and Shenzhen). We conducted discussions, presentations, and various other initiatives to help employees connect with our Purpose and Corporate Vision. At the China Regional Headquarters, we are advancing a locally led talent management transformation project, having local staff engage in in-depth discussions so that they feel a personal connection with the Yamazen Group’s Management Philosophy, Purpose, and Corporate Vision. It also involves formulating and implementing new organizational and human resources strategies. They are contributing to continuous promotion of our growth strategies. This is not simply an initiative for promoting diversity. We will continue the global rollout of our unique approach to talent management with the aim of unifying our values and realizing our Purpose of “Pioneering a new future, with all of you.”

Information current as of October 2024

Diversity

Promotion of Diversity & Inclusion

Yamazen vigorously promotes Diversity & Inclusion initiatives as a management strategy based on its Management Philosophy of “Management of Fostering Personnel (To make active use of personnel, and to foster independent and virtuous employees).” By proactively recruiting and developing the skills of human resources who possess a wide variety of knowledge and experience, and by providing them with opportunities to play an active role, Yamazen is working to create an environment in which all employees, regardless of gender, can develop their own expertise and eagerly participate while maximizing their skills, and aims to be an attractive company that is even more rewarding for our employees.

Promoting Women’s Careers

General Employer Action Plan Based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children and the Act on the Promotion of Women’s Active Engagement in Professional Life

1. Plan Period

Three years from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2028

2. Company Issues

Work assignments for women are biased
There are challenges in creating employment conditions conducive to work-life balance

3. Goals, Initiative Details, and Timeline

Goal 1: Transfer women to new positions to expand work domains (100 women over three years)

Goal 2: Decrease monthly average overtime hours by 10% or more annually to create a better work environment

Goal 1: Initiative Details and Timeline—Starting April 2025

Identify issues and consider measures for expanding work domains, and establish systems to monitor implementation status and systems for reporting to board members.
Using talent management, map and pool female candidates for management positions and conduct planned HR development and appointments.
Monitor improvements in DE&I survey scores.

Goal 2: Initiative Details and Timeline—Starting April 2025

Implement workplace-specific work reduction initiatives under the command of top management.
Share effective initiatives across the company.
Improve the take-up rate for flextime and change employee attitudes to achieve more efficient working styles.

Initiatives

Leader Training Program for Next-Generation Women Leaders

Transforming to People-Centered Management—Toward a More Vibrant Yamazen for Women.
This training, which 32 participants joined on a voluntary basis, is part of a three-year program aiming to build a company where everyone can maximize their unique strengths (diversity). Through skill-building and mindset training, we focus on expanding the areas in which women employees can thrive. The program includes career building, logical thinking, finance, business models, and leadership, as well as roundtable discussions with management to deepen interactions. We also provided diversity management training for the supervisors of participants, equipping them with knowledge on organizational management that leveraged diversity and mindsets and skills for developing women managers, to create an environment where trained women can truly excel with the understanding of their teams and supervisors.