Human Resource Management
NSK’s Approach
◆Policy
The NSK Group Management Principles clearly state that our aim is “to provide challenges and opportunities to our employees, utilizing their skills and encouraging their creativity and individuality.” In acknowledgment of the fact that each employee is a priceless asset, we have committed ourselves to creating “a fair workplace that empowers the individual.” This commitment features three key areas of focus: leveraging a diverse workforce, building more engaging workplaces and providing opportunities for growth.
Maximizing the Value of Our Human Capital
The NSK Group’s MTP2026 tackles three key management issues: “growth with profitability,” “enhancement of managerial resources,” and “ESG management.” In doing so, we seek to realize our corporate philosophy while simultaneously helping to address societal challenges and achieve sustainable growth. As technology and society continue to evolve, we will broaden the perspective of our initiatives and continue to “Change & Go Beyond” to achieve our ambitious goals, with the aim of being a company that is needed, trusted, and relied upon by society. As the business environment in which we operate undergoes significant changes, it is important that we bring together the knowledge, experience, and perspectives of a diverse pool of human resources that can inspire each other in order to energize the organization and enable each member to “Change & Go Beyond.” This will in turn ensure that employees will continue to find fulfillment in their work and generate results as a team. In order to maximize the value of our human capital based on our human resources strategy, which is linked with our management strategy, we have set three goals. Namely, we aim to enable every member of our diverse workforce to make the most of their individuality, continue to expand their potential, and achieve personal growth.
≪Our Vision≫
① A company that attracts diverse human resources
② A company where diverse human resources can develop and grow their skills and abilities
③ Safe and healthy workplaces
◆Examples of Initiatives
① A company that attracts diverse human resources
Diversity as a driving force of the organization
NSK regards diversity as a source of competitiveness. In particular, we have identified the diversification of our management team and career advancement for women as key management issues and are working to develop female managers/managerial candidates.
In Japan during FY2022, NSK revised its action plan according to The Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, and set a target of increasing the number of women in managerial positions and managerial candidate positions to 100 by FY2024 (including major group companies).
As one measure to foster an environment in which women can play an active role, we have launched an initiative in which younger female employees interview women holding key positions across NSK’s business sites, compiling the discussion into articles that are published and distributed throughout the Company to raise awareness of women’s career development. We also continue to work on LGBTQ+ inclusiveness to promote understanding and empathy for hidden diversity. NSK has received the PRIDE Index Gold Award for three consecutive years in recognition of its LGBTQ+ ally initiatives.
In-house publication featuring interviews with women in key positions
② A company where diverse human resources can develop and grow their skills and abilities
Developing Future Management Candidates
We regard the period of young employee development as an important phase for developing the next generation of management candidates. As such, we have created a career development program that rotates young employees to give them career experience as an early development measure and produce a strong talent pool of future management candidates. From 2019, we added an assistant manager course to our NSK Management College, with the goal of encouraging young talent to develop a corporate management perspective from an earlier stage. Regarding appointments to key management positions, the Human Resources Committee serves as the top-level body that approves succession plans for management personnel and human resources investment plans. By clarifying the definition of key posts (talent profiles), we implement globally coordinated succession planning and strategically select and appoint management talent.
Goals for Development of Management Candidates
Development of Digital (DX) Talent
Amid rapid changes in the business environment, NSK defines digital transformation (DX) as a corporate transformation that goes beyond simply introducing digital and IT tools, but instead reshapes the Company’s business approach at a fundamental level. In this regard, we are pursuing DX with a view to transforming our business portfolio and profit structure. It is therefore essential to develop digital talent who can play a central role in promoting DX, and the Digital Transformation Division Headquarters, created in April 2022, is taking the lead in rolling out a company-wide digital talent development program. We are in the process of deploying a training program that fosters a digitally-oriented mindset, with the aim of delivering training to 5,000 employees. To date, 3,000 employees have taken part in the course. In addition, we regardless of age, gender, or nationality, including for management personnel outside Japan. We also conduct talent management by utilizing IT systems to monitor our positions and human resources in real time.
Human Resource Programs and Career Development (related site)
③ Safe and healthy workplaces
Corporate Health and Wellness Management (Promoting mental and physical health)
NSK has been certified as an Outstanding Health and Productivity Management Organization (White 500) in Japan for six successive years. In FY2022, we reviewed and disclosed the NSK Health and Wellness Management Strategy Map, which visualizes the link between health initiatives and our key management issues, based on our belief that employee health is the foundation that supports MTP2026. In addition, we are stepping up our efforts by reviewing the NSK Basic Policy on Health and Wellness (Employee Wellness Declaration), the three pillars of health initiatives, the promotion structure, and other items.
We are continuing to place priority on the mental and physical health of our employees and their families through a variety of initiatives, including e-learning to raise awareness of health issues, online health fairs, briefings for managers to explain how to interpret and follow-up the results of stress checks in their organizations, and promoting participation in No Smoking Days.
Safe and Healthy Workplaces and Work-Style Reforms (related site)
No Smoking Day poster
Health and wellness e-learning
◆Employee Engagement Survey
Since FY2018, we have conducted biennial employee engagement surveys on a global basis. The survey questions cover a range of topics, from “understanding of the company’s strategy and goals and awareness of their connection to your own work” to “sense of accomplishment in your assigned tasks,” “opportunities for growth” and more. In FY2022, surveys were conducted in Japan and China. Compared to the previous survey results, scores improved for 89% of questions in Japan and for 100% of questions in China. The survey in Japan was sent to more than 16,000 employees (including those of Group companies), with a response rate of 93%. The total number of written responses to open ended questions totaled around 20,000. This represented a high response rate, with the survey provider commenting that this trend was very positive as it indicates that NSK employees are willing communicate their opinions to the Company. We will strive to link this employee feedback to further improvements. To track the progress of our three goals for human capital management, we have established KPIs and targets for all our initiatives, including measures to address issues identified from the survey results. We believe that our aim of maximizing the value of our human capital can be achieved by accumulating the results of each of these initiatives, and we have positioned the employee engagement score obtained from this survey as a composite measure of our performance. We have also established and begun implementing the NSK Engagement Index, a proprietary index consisting of questions from the engagement survey that are particularly correlated to NSK’s goals for employee engagement, as an indicator that more directly expresses the results of each initiative. We are currently studying tracking the NSK Engagement Index as a global score in the future.
System
◆Global Human Resources
The Human Resources and General Affairs Division Headquarters collaborates closely with regional HR departments worldwide on a variety of efforts, all guided by the commitment described above. At the regular Global Human Resources Committee meetings, HR managers from each region meet to report on their regional and national initiatives, share the local challenges they face, and discuss measures to further improve talent management.
Structure of the Human Resources and Geneal Affiairs Division Headquarters
Targets and Performance
◆Maximizing the Value of Our Human Capital: MTP2026 Key Metrics and Targets
A company that attracts diverse human resources
| Key Issues and Initiatives | Key Metrics | Scope*4 | FY2022 Results | FY2026 Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (creating an organization and culture that is inclusive of diverse human resources/values) | Employee diversity ratio (gender, nationality, mid-career hires) | Japan | 13% | 15% |
| Ratio of female managers*1 | Global | 12.5% | Higher than current level |
A company where diverse human resources can develop and grow their skills and abilities
| Key Issues and Initiatives | Key Metrics | Scope*4 | FY2022 Results | FY2026 Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Support for balancing work and personal life (e.g., childcare, nursing care, medical treatment) | Percentage of male employees taking childcare leave | Japan | 72.6%*2 | 70% or higher (FY2024) |
| Introduction/operation of new personnel system | Introduction/ operation of role-based personnel system (managerial level) | Japan | Creation of RD*3 | Promote understanding of system and improve operations |
| Promoting succession planning | Localization rate for key global posts | Global | 73% | Maintain at 70% or higher |
| Reviewing training curriculum and developing a digital-based education and training system | Education and training hours per employee | Global | 21 hours | Increase by 20% |
| Developing digital human resources | Number of participants in basic digital talent development program | Japan | Approx. 2,700 | Develop specialists through company-wide theoretical and practical training |
| Number of participants in intermediate digital talent development program | Approx. 1,000 |
Safe and healthy workplaces
| Key Issues and Initiatives | Key Metrics | Scope*4 | FY2022 Results | FY2026 Target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Health and Wellness | Certification as Outstanding Health & Productivity Management Organization (White 500) | Japan | Certification | Maintain certification |
| Fostering a "look across" culture of mutual safety awareness | Lost-time injury frequency rate | Global | 0.38 | 0.10 |
Maximize the value of our human capital
Global engagement score(target) 70
*1 Percentage of women among managerial positions
*2 Calculated based on the Company’s standard (leave taken within one year from the date of birth)
*3 Role description (clarifies the role of the position and required competencies)
*4 Excludes some group companies