Human resource development

We established our Policy for Human Resources Development in October 2022 and announced it inside and outside the company. We are developing employee education and training plans based on this policy. We will ensure that all employees know and familiarize themselves with this policy through various training programs.

Due to the declining birthrate and aging population, Japan’s working population is predicted to decline at an accelerating rate in the future. In particular, in rural areas where many of our bases are located, the decline in the working population is greater than in urban areas, and the impact is severe. For this reason, securing human resources has become an urgent issue for our Group. Initially, we will expand the scope of our hiring activities and step up Groupwide efforts to support hiring at each location and share know-how. We will also continue to conduct regular interviews with young employees, among other efforts, to motivate employees and improve communication between supervisors and their team members. In addition to encouraging the steady growth of new employees through systemized training throughout the workplace, we intend to raise employee engagement by introducing surveys for all employees.

As part of our efforts to secure human resources, the cornerstone of our business development, we work to strengthen our recruiting capabilities at each of our Group companies. At a meeting of labor relations managers, we shared the concept of planned recruitment, how to develop a recruitment plan, good practices in handling recruitment among Group companies, and actual recruitment know-how, and promote the creation of a system for planned recruitment at each company.

The retention rate for fiscal 2024 is 89%, falling short of the target of 100%. One of the reasons for employees leaving their jobs is a mismatch between their desired workplace, what they actually do in their work, and working environment after joining the Company. To prevent such mismatches, we are taking measures to provide prospective employees with specific information about the actual job details, work environment, corporate culture, living environment, and other aspects so that they are satisfied with the job. In addition, after joining the Company, we conduct interviews before assignment and in the second year. In addition to the second-year interview, we follow up with individual employees based on their specific situation to improve the retention rate.

Starting in fiscal 2022, we have started conducting a job satisfaction survey to collect employee opinions. The fiscal 2024 survey was conducted from January to February 2025 by collecting responses via the Internet, achieving a high response rate of 94%.
The responses showed that while satisfaction with items related to personnel evaluation was high, satisfaction with items related to career development was relatively low. In light of these results, we will consider measures such as the introduction of career education programs in hierarchical training.

The respondents of this survey are employees of DOWA Holdings and the five major operating companies.

At the DOWA Group, based on the principle of “evaluating employees on their ability to work autonomously,” we are working for fair evaluation and treatment under the following policies. The training of evaluators and those being evaluated is positioned as a Groupwide initiative, and we therefore strive to create opportunities for continued learning, with appropriate evaluation, treatment, and training.

• For evaluators and those being evaluated, deepen understanding of the standards and structure of the system and utilize appropriate evaluations and training.
• While sharing organizational goals and getting an understanding of the abilities and behavior required of employees’ according to their position, try to improve their work performance.

The personnel evaluation system applies to all permanent employees employed by our Group companies.
Under the compensation system, annual compensation is determined based on the philosophy of “evaluating employees based on their ability to perform their work,” taking into account individual capabilities, behaviors, and performance. Bonuses are determined through personnel evaluations based on each employee’s individual work plan, which is formulated in accordance with our job grade standards. In addition, by linking the standard bonus amount to company performance, we aim to enhance employees’ sense of participation in management.

Furthermore, we conduct employee interviews to comprehensively understand each employee’s career aspirations, abilities, and aptitudes, and utilize the results for placement and transfer planning. We have also established an employee recognition program to honor departments and individuals who have made outstanding contributions or achievements for the Company.

For these personnel evaluation systems to function effectively, we believe that fair and impartial evaluations based on a proper understanding of the evaluation system, as well as feedback from both evaluators and those being evaluated, are essential. Accordingly, we provide education through briefings for non-evaluated employees and training programs for evaluators, thereby promoting employee development and growth.

The Company has adopted an employee shareholding plan as a medium- to long-term incentive for its employees. Under the Company's employee shareholding association system, employees (including those of Group companies) join the shareholding association on a voluntary basis and jointly purchase the Company's shares with contributions from their monthly salaries and bonuses and incentive payments from the Company, and their share is allocated according to the amount of the member's contribution. The scheme is open to all permanent employees of Group companies in Japan and is operated as part of the welfare system, with the aim of contributing to medium- to long-term asset building.

The Group’s major manufacturing sites have company housing and dormitories for single employees. In areas where company housing or dormitories are not available, the Company provides rented housing to employees. In recent years, company housing and dormitories for single employees have become outdated, and we have been sequentially rebuilding or outfitting them to ensure comfort by improving the living environment and stimulating interaction among employees.

To realize a sustainable growth organization, our Group is committed to developing human resources who are proactive in learning and bringing about change. In an era when the external environment is changing rapidly and it is difficult to find the right answers, it is important to create an organization where each employee can maximize their abilities. For new and young employees, we will shift to education that enhances individual expertise. Additionally, we will develop a platform that employees can access whenever they want to learn, and build a system that fully supports employees’ independent learning.

From new employees to managers, the DOWA Group has established stratified education according to job classification and have set up an educational system of selective education in order to nurture the next generation of leaders at each level of the organization. In fiscal 2022, we reformed our internal education system, shifting from focusing on group training to selective training. Specifically, we launched a selective education system with a high degree of freedom, to emphasize employees’ motivation to learn and create a culture of self-directed learning.
In fiscal 2024, we created education guidelines to encourage employees to take classes through our selective education system. We have created a system that organizes the knowledge and skills that employees need at every stage, so that each employee can consider and actively learn the knowledge they need to gain, or have the option of gaining, at each stage.

In line with our human resources development policy, we have introduced selective education to provide fair opportunities for those who are willing to learn. Selective education allows all DOWA Group employees to learn in the areas they want to learn, when they want to learn and regardless of their location. A variety of content is available, including distance learning, e-learning, web-based English conversation and online training, to support employees' desire to learn.
We also support employees' self-improvement through a variety of other programmes, including support for qualification acquisition, such as covering the costs of TOEIC examinations for all DOWA Group employees.

Starting from fiscal 2023, we have established a new support system for obtaining doctoral degrees for employees, aiming to enhance the expertise of our technical staff and systematically develop talent capable of leading the Group with a broad perspective. This program is targeted at technical employees both fresh and well-seasoned, who are expected to become core members of the Group in the future. Employees who pass the internal selection process receive support from the Company, including pre-admission education programs, educational expenses, entrance fees, and tuition fees. In the two years since fiscal 2023, five technical staff members have entered graduate school through the program.

Every year, DOWA Holdings hires approximately 50 new employees. The first form of education for these employees is new-hire training. This is an important program that forms the basis for our human resource development, a support structure for the Company. Our basic policy for this training is to “cultivate full-fledged people within three years of joining the Company,” with the goal of developing “autonomous human resources.” The Company does not hire for any specific job type or business. Since people joining the Company will branch off into a variety of careers, we treat the first three years of employment as an intensive training period for new employees. To facilitate future career development after this period, we have also systematically established a human resource development system that combines a curated collection of group training programs with on-the-job training (OJT).

Our training center was fully renovated in March 2023. In implementing this renovation, we restored functions that had deteriorated over time and improved the facility to accommodate online training courses in the rooms, strengthening the function of promoting employee interaction. Since the renovation, we have also resumed face-to-face training for the first time in around four years, also due to the relaxation of basic measures for COVID-19 by the government.