Principal Themes：Human Rights and Labor

Human Resources Development and Training

DNP is making efforts to support the active role of employees as irreplaceable assets that have helped us achieve innovation. We provide systems related to recruitment, development and promotion of excellent human capital in order to optimize and maximize our human capital while capturing overall trends in society.

Human Capital Policy established to accelerate investments in human resources

Each and every employee is a key component for the DNP Group to create new value toward a sustainable and better future. We are accelerating our investments in human resources to support these employees and transform their awareness and conduct, leading to results that create new value.
We are making these investments based on our desire for all employees to develop strengths and grow as human resources capable of playing an active role both inside and outside the company. This is paired with our belief that when we value our employees, those employees will help our company grow and make society more prosperous. In fiscal 2022, we formulated our Human Capital Policy as a universal and basic approach to our employees.

During the three years since fiscal 2019, we have worked intensively to make our personnel systems attractive from both internal and external perspectives. As the first step in fiscal 2019, we enhanced our promotion systems mainly targeting young employees and human resources with varying careers both within and outside the Group, and carried out system reforms to permit certain side jobs or dual employment. The second step in fiscal 2020 involved facilitating a reform of our organizational culture, including revisions to our award systems, as well as updating our systems to respond to the concept of "equal pay for equal work" as well as support the work styles of senior employees. In fiscal 2021, which marked the third year of these efforts, we again analyzed our work and management styles and implemented diverse and specific personnel systems that accelerate new value creation, such as a dual-ladder career system for middle-ranking executives.

Since fiscal 2023, we are implementing the DNP version of “compensation and related policies that are more closely founded on a job-oriented perspective,” with a focus on supporting autonomous career development so that each employee can acquire expertise and skills that are applicable both within and outside the organization. This unique hybrid personnel system combines the merits of membership-based and job-based systems. We have also strengthened support for initiatives such as challenging preferred job roles based on voluntary aspirations and self-improvement, all of which are grounded on a multi-track role classification system that allows employees to autonomously choose management or specialist roles. We have placed greater emphasis on clarifying the roles and compensation associated with job positions after career choices have been made.

DNP considers Human Capital Policy as the highest concept of our previously communicated policies, visions and declarations regarding people and will keep endeavoring to reinforce and maximize our human capital. We will also cultivate a better corporate culture as well as more actively and effectively invest in people to contribute to the growth diverse individuals and human resources, thereby improving our corporate value.

Kenji Miya, Senior Managing Director

Structure to Promote Management

DNP established the Recruiting & Training Department as the organization that promotes the optimal securing of human resources and the development of active human resources essential for realizing and implementing the Corporate Philosophy and the Business Vision based on this philosophy, while ascertaining changes in the economic and social environments. We are also building and developing even better environments, frameworks, and organizations to ensure each employee can execute his or her role to the fullest and achieve personal growth and self-fulfillment as independent individuals and to nurture an emergent corporate culture as the basis for this.

Pay Grade System / Hiring Situation

Pay Grade System

Each employee is evaluated according to current role and results based on his or her pay grade. Monthly salary and bonus standards are interlocked, while seniority is excluded from evaluation. We revised this system in March 2007. For monthly salary, we introduced “role proficiency salary/role basic salary” and “role attainment salary.” Bonuses are paid on the basis of an “evaluation portion” and “uniform portion by pay grade.”

Hiring Situation

New Graduate Hiring (Non-Consolidated)

We inform candidates of the type of person we are looking for, the steps in our hiring process, and the timing of each step. Also, we assign young employees as recruiting partners to give candidates a real-life picture of our company.

Mid-Career Hiring (Non-Consolidated)

We recruit broadly via the Internet, with no age restrictions. We explain clearly and specifically the job duties of the positions we seek to fill.

Internships (arranged jointly with the Group companies)

In response to the wishes of educational institutions and students seeking experience in the working world, we provide students with opportunities to gain work experience at the DNP Group. In fiscal 2022, long-term internships included 11 students in a business course on one theme, 82 students in a technical course on 35 themes, and 3 students in a design course on 1 theme. Moreover, 1,060 students participated in short-term workshop events. The technical course was held at manufacturing bases in Japan to improve the value of the experience.

Initiatives and Systems for Human Resources Development and Training

DNP believes it is important to realize its Business Vision of contributing to society and to create corporate culture that enables employees to simultaneously achieve personal growth and self-fulfillment. DNP is deploying a variety of measures to create free-spirited and open workplaces that respect individual values, enable people to raise their own abilities, encourage utmost efforts, and that can promote mutual cooperation for deepening dialogue. DNP is focusing especially on enhancing personnel systems that support independently minded employees and training systems that support self-fulfillment.

Various Types of Systems

DNP Value Objectives （DVO System）

To realize "cultivation of team spirit," "visualization of processes and results," and "autonomous career support" as management in the New Normal era, we have transformed the conventional MBO system into the DVO (DNP Value Objectives) system, where in addition to KPI-based organizational objectives, we have set team objectives based on the autonomy and independence of individuals and teams. By operating the DVO system using the objectives, a team meeting and one-on-one meeting as a set, we aim to build trust in the organization and create value.

Evaluation system

We are promoting DNP Value Objectives (DVO System) that define “organizational objectives” based on KPI and “team objectives” based on team autonomy. Initiatives and results are checked and managed during the term in real time through weekly team meetings and one-on-one meetings. Premised based on a system that enables evaluations of “expected roles and results toward reaching the organizational objectives,” “actions and processes,” and “contents relating to human resources development,” comprehensive evaluations by element are conducted at the end of each term, including objective progress and fulfillment of expectations by profession and class according to role level tables.

In-House Recruiting System

To effectively utilize human resources and invigorate our organization, we promote open recruitment within the Group of experienced human resources with specialized skills for developing products, technologies, businesses and new solutions in accordance with the DNP Group’s business strategies. In this way, we provide employees with opportunities for independently selecting a workplace. 155 people were recruited and 80 transferred in fiscal 2022.

Self-Reporting System

This is a system under which employees envision their own career development while self-realization steps and workplace transfers desired by the employee to achieve this are entered onto a "self-reporting form" and reported to their superior once a year. This system also spurs the desire of employees toward self-development and enables them to acquire independent practical skills while raising the awareness of managers regarding guidance for and development of their subordinates. 251 people were interviewed and 109 transferred in fiscal 2022.

FA System

This system enables employees to improve their own careers by proactively seeking job transfers from across the DNP Group companies to jobs and departments that are different from the present. 10 people made declarations and 4 were transferred in fiscal 2022.

In-House Study Abroad System

This is a system under which employees, based on their own intentions, accumulate experience in other departments for a certain period of time and then return to their original departments and expand the range of work handled while raising quality utilizing the experience and knowledge and skills acquired in these other departments.

System for Encouragement of Qualification Acquisition

This system pays incentives to employees who successfully acquire specialized knowledge, skills, or qualifications needed for their jobs (covers about 130 types of qualifications, up to 100,000 yen). 778 people (388 in DNP non-consolidated) used the system in the DNP Group as a whole in fiscal 2022.

Specialist Work System

This system provides special compensation to employees who possess an extremely high level of outstanding specialties and who are highly valued inside and outside of the company. Though we had titles Fellow and Chief Specialist depending on the level of the specialty in the past, we have added Principal Specialist since FY2021, resulting in three stages for the titles in total.

  • Fellow
    Those Chief Specialists with outstanding character who have earned socially authoritative awards and those who have made remarkable achievements are certified as fellows. We expect that this will encourage employees to pursue a career path toward the achievement of fellow, the top title in the specialist work system. 1 person was certified in fiscal 2022, making it a total of 3 since the system was created.
  • Chief Specialist (Chief Researcher, Chief Planner, Chief Engineer)
    We accept certification applications for self-recommendations and other recommendations once a year from employees who utilize their extremely high degree of expertise and work actively inside and outside the company and evaluate and certify them based on Certification Standards set for outcomes, external evaluations, internal evaluations, and competency evaluation. 8 person was certified in fiscal 2022, making it a total of 59 since the system was created.
  • Principal Specialist (Principal Researcher, Principal Planner, Principal Engineer)
    We certify employees who utilize their high degree of expertise and work actively in each department once a year. 117 people were certified in fiscal 2022.

ICT Professional System

This system appropriately treats and motivates ICT professionals such as by providing a special allowance to project managers who handle projects of a certain size or larger.

Career Counseling Center

We provide employees with face-to-face and online counseling regarding their thoughts about their careers, how they approach the future, work-life balance, and problems at work. Moreover, we regularly hold caregiving consultation meetings for employees who are worried about caregiving, attended by care specialists. In fiscal 2022, in addition to the head offices (Tokyo), which has a permanent career consultation office, on-site consultation meetings were held at seven locations across Japan, allowing for 480 consultations.

Meister System

Introduced in 2001, this system is focused on our manufacturing technicians who possess valuable professional skills. This system is geared to getting back to the roots of the manufacturing industry by recognizing the importance of professional skills and thereby providing training, evaluation, and benefits. Among the three requirements for Meister certification consisting of "specialized knowledge, skills, and creativity," "reputation and trust," and "leadership," we have positioned "leadership" as a particularly important evaluation item given that the purpose of the system is to hand down skills. 1 person was certified in fiscal 2022, making it a total of 81 since the system was created.

Award System

In fiscal 2020, we redesigned our earlier company-wide commendation system as the DNP Award to accelerate the increasing of employee motivation and the creation of new value to realize a sustainable, better society and well-being lives. We have improved our efforts to recognize outstanding activities from the perspective of value creation and to share the knowledge across the DNP Group. Moreover, we have Anniversary Awards as a program for honoring many years of service and provide a 10-year service award, a 25-year service award, and a retirement award.
In August 2023, a ceremony was held to present awards primarily for initiatives during fiscal 2022, with two First Prizes and four Prizes for Outstanding Performance being presented as DNP Awards, along with anniversary awards to 1,719 employees who have worked for 10 or 25 years. Moreover, the new Health and Wellbeing Award also celebrated initiatives for “enhancing organizational culture and organizational and team ability,” which are the basis for value creation.

Training Program

To develop human resources who provide value to society, DNP has set up a dedicated department for human resources development at its head office. With initiatives centering on this Recruiting & Training Department, and based on the annual training plan, the head office divisions and the business units promote collaboration and carry out employee training through level-specific training and job-specific training, business skill training, theme-specific training (screening/selection), plus e-learning and distance learning.