Updated in October 2022
In line with Denka Value-Up, we are also focused on pushing ahead with work style reforms in ways that address issues specific to each business unit—from Head Office to sales offices to production bases—to allow every Denka employee to realize their full potential. In response to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus that emerged in February 2020, we formulated in-house guidelines aimed at protecting employee health and thoroughly preventing infection by rallying the entire strength of the Company. Moreover, we continued the distribution of PCs and other devices to enable employees to work from home, an ongoing activity since 2019, while encouraging a switchover to online meetings. As a result, the ratio of employees who work remotely surpassed 80% as of April 2020.
In July 2020, we formulated a Companywide policy for work style reforms (also see page 29), with an eye to securing our responsiveness to the “new normal” in the post-pandemic period. In line with this policy, we are striving to update our working styles to focus on truly essential operations and protect the health of employees and their families. At the same time, we are addressing various issues arising from decreasing opportunities for face-to-face meetings, to this end seeking out alternative methods for conducting employee evaluations, OJT, mental health counseling sessions and other operations that cannot be executed remotely.
In April 2020, we conducted an employee awareness survey targeting the entire workforce. Following the previous survey conducted in fiscal 2017, we strove to improve our workplace environment for employees by reflecting findings from that survey in the reform of various personnel systems. We will similarly strive to carry out systematic measures aimed at creating an environment that empowers employees to achieve success by leveraging the results of the latest survey, including the effect of initiatives undertaken based on findings from the previous survey, to assess the current status of the Company and issues to be addressed going forward.
Based on the feedback from the Employee Awareness Survey conducted in 2020, discussions were held within respective departments. Key topics discussed included areas Denka should focus on, areas respective departments should focus on and the role that each and every employee can play. Two years later in June 2022, we conducted interviews to ascertain the progress of measures and improvements that were made to address these issues.
The results of these interviews will be used to improve the content of the 3rd Employee Awareness Survey, scheduled for the second half of FY2022.
Compared with the previous survey, employees’ overall ratings of the Company’s initiatives have been improving thanks to the thorough revision of the personnel system and the launch of various measures.
| Category | Employee feedback on representative questions | |
|---|---|---|
| Positive feedback | Requests for improvement | |
| Workplace safety | Current status of workplace safety and hygiene and the Company’s policies | |
| Compliance management | High awareness of compliance at workplaces | |
| Workplace communication | Human relationships at workplaces | Cross-departmental collaboration |
| Stakeholder engagement (customer focus) | Relationships of trust with business partners and shared commitment toward social contributions | |
| Operational styles | Efficiency and productivity | Seasonal fluctuations in workload and supervisors’ understanding of diverse work styles |
| Motivation | Awareness of targets | Opportunities for tangible personal growth |
| Workplace management | Leadership, support, equal opportunities and fair evaluation | |
| Liveliness of workplaces | An atmosphere allowing the frank exchange of opinions and enhancing the unifying power of the organization | Creation of an open-minded workplace that rewards those who take on challenges / A culture of tolerance toward new endeavors that defy conventional norms or past experience |
| Management structure | Dialogue with top management, its understanding of the status of frontline employees and feedback from them and encouragement for those who take on challenges | Delegation of authority and speed of decision making |
| Personnel systems, evaluation and wages | Persuasiveness of wages and promotion | Fairness of evaluation, human resource development and wages in comparison with industry peers |
Results of the fiscal 2020 survey revealed overall improvement in employee ratings of the Company’s initiatives from results of the fiscal 2017 survey.
Primary items indicating significant improvement included “workplace safety,” “stakeholder engagement” (customer focus) and “operational styles.” We consider these results to be indicative of the positive effect of communicating strong messages from top management to help employees raise their safety awareness as well as business execution conscious of addressing ESG issues and SDGs. On the other hand, employee ratings for the “liveliness of workplaces,” “management structure,” and “personnel systems, evaluation and wages” were near the standard line. These three items were also identified as matters requiring improvement in the course of the fiscal 2017 survey, and human resource strategies were formulated to address relevant issues. (See page 29 and the right side of page 30.) Going forward, we will promote various initiatives to provide fundamental solutions to these issues while considering the formulation of numerical targets (KPIs) to enhance the effectiveness of such initiatives. In addition, we intend to periodically carry out employee awareness surveys.
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