Personnel System / Human Resource Development / Labor-Management Relations

Measures for Management

With an aim of having a common human resources vision shared across the Nikon Group, since the year ended March 31, 2012, we have been working on interviewing the persons responsible for human resources at the major Group companies around the world.

Monitoring Group Companies

Carrying on from 2011, a monitoring survey was conducted in March 2012, aimed at the global management of human rights and labor environments in the Nikon Group.
The survey covered a broad range of content, from questions on human rights and labor environments (such as about child or juvenile workers, labor unions, welfare systems, incidents of discrimination and disciplinary cases) to questions on diversity (such as the advancement of women in the workplace and the employment of people with disabilities). With an emphasis on Group companies in the Asian region, additional questions were surveyed to confirm whether they had sufficient rules in place for human rights and labor compliance.
The results of this round of surveys did not uncover any material problems across the entire Group. Monitoring has allowed us to also understand the real conditions in each country that would not otherwise be possible with quantitative data alone.
We will provide feedback on the results of this survey to each of the Group companies, and we will set appropriate indicators and targets in preparation for the next monitoring survey.
Through these monitoring surveys, we will endeavor to grasp each company's actual conditions and to promote CSR globally.

Human Rights Education

During the year ended March 31, 2011, we provided education on the UN Global Compact both in Japan and overseas. Through this education, we worked to spread understanding of human rights among employees. During the year ended March 31, 2012, we continued to provide the same education, this time to overseas Group companies that missed out previously and to employees in Japan who had not yet taken the e-learning program (including new employees). This education will be ongoing in the future.
At Nikon Corporation, we regularly conduct short courses in the training program for new employees, where human rights education is included with topics such as discrimination and sexual harassment.

Personnel System

Nikon Corporation classifies employees into three levels (Junior Staff, Senior Staff, and Professional / Management) according to their abilities, and clearly states their respective responsibilities. When deciding to promote employees to a higher level, the company conducts an examination to check whether they fulfill the requirements of each level. We have a dual-track system, namely a professional level and a management level, where employees are given the opportunity to choose whether to work as a specialist and make use of their knowledge and skills, or as a manager and exercise their strengths as an organizational leader. Employees who are soon to make a choice between the two can attend career planning sessions and receive support for their career development. Performance-linked grades are also set for each of these levels to create an environment where work can be carried out with a constant awareness of objectives and feeling of purpose. In addition, the company has a system under which subordinates meet with their managers to decide on the targets they will pursue. This system helps employees understand the results of their performance evaluation as well as nurture and develop their individual abilities.

Human Resource Development

Nikon Corporation has built its training system based on the following three ability indicators linked with its personnel system: target setting and achievement ability; communication ability; and educational ability, and offers a range of educational courses and systems for employees to receive skill-up training according to their level and job details. Employees of Group companies in Japan also participate in the training provided by Nikon Corporation. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, Nikon Corporation held a total of 182 stratified training and business skills training courses, which were attended by a total of 6,047 employees. In addition, 195 engineer training courses were held for a total of 2,188 employees. The average Nikon Corporation employee spent 2.07 days in training during the year. Group companies also implement their own human resource development and training programs.

Developing Our Global Human Resources

As business environments increasingly globalize and the demand for human resources with the ability to drive innovation and business expansion in international markets grow more pressing, Nikon Corporation is building the optimal system to develop human resources.
During the year ended March 31, 2011, we introduced the Overseas Foreign Language Training Program to foster talented employees who can play an active role especially in developing countries. Under this program, employees who have been selected by their department leave their jobs for a certain period of time to devote themselves to foreign language training. The training consists of it in Japan for two months and overseas training for four to eight months.
During the year ended March 31, 2011, overseas training was held in China, Russia and Brazil. During the year ended March 31, 2012, the target countries were expanded to include Thailand. Furthermore, up until the year ended March 31, 2011, the total period of training had been set at about ten months. However, during the year ended March 31, 2012, the training program was enhanced by setting an overall range of six to ten months to allow for the times of year when employees are transferred to new posts. So far, the first two groups of trainees have completed the language program, and all of them have taken up local posts at the end of the program. The program being run in the year ended March 31, 2012 is for the third group of trainees. The future goal is to ascertain the needs of the departments and customize the content of the training to bring it in line with the nature of the work following appointment to the new post.
Human Resource Department of Nikon Corporation did groupwide interview the need for the teaching of multiple languages in addition to the current English-language education. Based on the results of these interviews, foreign language training programs were started during the year ended March 31, 2012 for Chinese, Korean, Thai, Russian and Portuguese programs.

Improvements in the Labor Environment via Responses to the Great East Japan Earthquake

Meeting costs simplified chart

With the Great East Japan Earthquake and the subsequent planned blackouts, the year ended March 31, 2012 forced us to think about the way we work.
Immediately after the earthquake, Nikon Group companies in Japan set about confirming the safety of their employees and damage to their houses. In addition, to take care of those employees affected by the earthquake while travelling on business and other employees who found commuting to work difficult due to transportation disruptions, and in response to planned blackouts and restrictions on the use of electricity, we made a number of decisions on our working hours framework, for instance adopting a rotating basis for our operations during the summer months. We also established a new system of special leave for employees participating in reconstruction support activities in affected areas, and we provided assistance to help with transport and accommodation costs.
Furthermore, in response to the planned blackouts, we could not take across-the-board action because each workplace district had a different pattern of blackouts. Furthermore, power supplies were being cut during prescribed working hours, and power outage patterns were only being announced just before they came into effect. For these reasons, we expanded our flexible working arrangements. As for operating on a rotating basis during summer, in order to mitigate the childcare and nursing care costs incurred by workers for whom weekends and national holidays had become prescribed working days, we provided assistance to help cover childcare and nursing care fees. In this way, this was a year when we reviewed the work-life balance.
Every year, Nikon Corporation runs the Working Hours Campaign from autumn through to winter. During the Working Hours Campaign for the year ended March 31, 2012, we surveyed workplace managers, and we reacquainted them with raising awareness for the curtailment of excessive overtime work and with ensuring prior application and prior directives for overtime work. Furthermore, the Personnel Department collected information on difficulties in managing employees' working hours, and conducted awareness-raising activities on a case-by-case basis for workplace managers found to be in need. In addition, in order to raise awareness for costs, we prepared a simplified chart on meeting costs, and posted it in the meeting rooms at workplaces.

Labor-Management Relations

Nikon Corporation has two labor unions, each comprised of Nikon Corporation's regular employees: the Nikon Labor Union (a member of the Japanese Association of Metal, Machinery, and Manufacturing Workers (JAM), which is mostly made up of small and medium-size companies in the metal industry), and Nikon Chapter of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers Union (JMIU).
As of March 31, 2012, the Nikon Labor union has 5,049 members and the JMIU Chapter seven, which totals 5,056. The company and the unions discuss various issues related to the labor environment, hold joint study meetings, and exchange opinions as necessary. At Nikon Group companies in Japan, Nikon Labor Union chapters and employee-elected representatives serve the same function. At overseas Group companies, problem solving is facilitated either by the company's in-house union, through membership in an outside labor union, or at companies with no labor union, through information sessions held for all employees, discussions with employee groups, or one-on-one talks with individual employees. As a result, labor-management relations at this moment are largely in good condition.
When a substantial change is made to an employee's job, the Nikon Group discusses the matter with his / her union or employee representative, obtains its prior approval, and then takes time to communicate it to the employee. In the year ended March 31, 2012, following labor-management discussions at a number of Group companies, operations were run on a rotating basis during summer as a countermeasure against the demand for electricity, and other power-saving measures were implemented. Some personnel systems were also revised at the Group companies.