Ensuring a Safe and Fulfilling Workplace Environment

Basic Approach

Nifco places the highest priority on the safety and health of its employees, and is working to strengthen occupational safety and health and create a rewarding work environment so that each employee can fully demonstrate their abilities.

Employment, working conditions and social protection

Aiming to be a company where all employees can work according to their motivation and ability, we have established internal rules and manuals, including compliance with Japanese laws and regulations related to employment and labor. Regarding major changes in our business, we hold dialogues with employees through employee representatives and employee briefings. We are also committed to the social protection of our employees, including the elimination of intentional or discriminatory dismissal practices and the protection of personal data and privacy.

Health and safety at work

Nifco has established Occupational Health and Safety Policy and set of safety and health management rules. To ensure the safety and health of employees, these rules seek to eliminate unsafe elements in work environments and involve implementing comprehensive, planned measures for preventing workplace accidents. They also aim to actively maintain and improve the health of employees.

Establishment of a Safety and Health Management Committee

The Safety and Health Management Committee, which meets at least once a month at each site, discusses the matters shown on the right, and works towards creating safe workplace environments.

• Fundamental measures to prevent danger and health hazards to employees

• Creation of plans for implementing safety and health education

• Regular medical check-ups and measures to take based on the results of those check-ups

• Preventing danger and health hazards associated with newly adopted equipment, facilities, and raw materials

Number of workplace accidents

In the event of a workplace accident, responding immediately is the first priority. Steps are then immediately taken to prevent reoccurrences.
Information gathered from any accidents is shared with other business sites. And based on the information, voluntary inspections are carried out to make sure that similar risks and hazards do not exist at other business sites.

Occurrence of workplace accidents

(As of March 31, 2023, Nifco non-consolidated)

Mental health

Once a year, employees undergo a stress check to ascertain their mental health status, and their departments are informed of the results of the check. Additionally, in anticipation of employees experiencing difficulties, we have established support systems including the appointment of industrial physicians specializing in psychiatry, interviews once a month, the establishment of an outside counseling service, and support for employees who are on leave.

(As of March 31, 2023, Nifco non-consolidated)

• *

  Includes persons on mental health and other medical leaves of absence

Creating a rewarding work environment

Aiming to create a rewarding work environment that leads to corporate growth and increased employee motivation, we are promoting reforms in the way we work and implementing a variety of measures.

Reduction of working hours

From FY2022, we have reduced the prescribed working hours from 8 to 7.75 hours and expanded the flextime system, which had been introduced in some areas, to all workplaces not directly involved in manufacturing.
With regard to overtime hours, we continue to set a goal of limiting overtime hours to 30 hours or less per month, and the entire company is working continuously to achieve this goal.

Introduction of a telework system

We introduced a telework system throughout the company to meet the latest working style trends.
Those who wish to do so may telework for a set number of days after consulting with their supervisors.
Currently, nearly half of the back-office departments are implementing this system.

Promoting the use of paid leave

In FY2021, we reviewed our leave system to improve employees’ work-life balance by expanding the scope of use of the accumulated paid leave system and refreshment leave.
The paid leave utilization rate was 80.1% against a target of at least 80%. However, 100% was achieved for the 5-day per-year requirement that went into effect in April 2019.

Acquisition of Annual Paid Leave

(As of March 31, 2023, Nifco non-consolidated）

• *

  De¬nition of taking paid leave: Number of days of paid leave taken for the relevant scal year/Number of days of paid leave granted for the relevant year
  (Applicable: regular employees, contract employees, and part-time employees)

Conducting an employee engagement survey

We launched the Employee Engagement Survey in 2020 because we believe that improving employee engagement leads to higher employee job satisfaction, company productivity, business performance, etc.
Following the results of the first survey conducted in 2020, improvements in each global organization have been implemented over the past two years. For the second survey conducted in 2022, we were able to obtain responses from 78% of employees by allowing them to access it via their smartphones and expanding participation to include employees in the manufacturing sector. It contained sixty questions in 12 categories, including innovation, operational efficiency, and communication and collaboration. The overall positive response rate was 75%. Compared to the previous survey, scores improved in all categories, with an overall improvement of 4%. We will continue to take measures globally to improve the regional characteristics of our business.

Various systems and welfare benefits

Nifco has created a variety of systems to encourage all employees to play an active role in the company.
These include maternity leave, childcare leave, nursing care leave, family care leave, a shortened working hour system, and shifted starting or finishing times for employees with children up to the end of the third grade of elementary school, promotion of support employees to full-time employees, reemployment after retirement, various types of social insurance, defined-benefit pension, defined contribution pension plan, employee savings program, employee shareholding association, housing loan system, retirement pension, membership-based benefit services, and scholarship repayment support system.