The Story of Sakichi Toyoda
Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Industries Corporation, possessed a strong ambition to contribute to society from his days as a youth. He had devoted his 63-year-long life to invention.
Relationship with Our Associates
We undertake initiatives to enable associates to work safely and with peace of mind as well as to exercise their diverse potentials and play active roles.
Basic Concept of Human Resources Management and Labor Management
Under the spirit of “Respect for People,” Toyota Industries undertakes a range of initiatives based on a relationship of mutual trust and mutual responsibility between the Company and associates. Our basic concept in this area is to develop and leverage the capabilities of associates and the organization to the fullest by promoting the creation of a highly motivated team.
Major Initiatives
Building Interpersonal Relationships
Toyota Industries believes it important to build good relationships between supervisors and subordinates as well as among associates through sufficient communication. Accordingly, we are facilitating communication in the workplace through various measures. Examples include the promotion of active communication between supervisors and subordinates as well as a mentorship system in which more experienced associates take care of younger associates, giving advice about their worries, including those in their daily lives. We are also promoting informal, non-business communication to cultivate a sense of unity in the workplace and throughout Toyota Industries via various events. They include social gatherings organized by each workplace as well as sports days, summer festivals and Ekiden longdistance relay races held jointly by some Toyota Industries Group companies as annual activities. Through these efforts, we are creating a workplace where each associate can thrive.
Increasing Associate Satisfaction
Toyota Industries focuses on creating a workplace that enables individual associates to demonstrate their abilities to the fullest and find their work rewarding and meaningful. While our basic stance is to solve difficulties faced by associates and their grievances about the workplace through communication between supervisors and subordinates, we also listen to voices of associates through Company-wide morale surveys. In addition, we strive to improve working environments by holding comprehensive labor-management discussions on associates’ suggestions gathered by our workers’ union. As we believe ensuring stable livelihoods for associates is another important matter, we are enhancing our welfare program to realize more enriching and fulfilling lives.
Human Resources Development
Toyota Industries recognizes that to achieve sustainable corporate growth associates’ personal growth and improved skills are essential and constitute the most important factor in work motivation. Recognizing that on-the-job training (OJT) through daily work forms the basis of our human resources development, we hold a biannual supervisorsubordinate interview to discuss various matters, including a challenge of achieving the subordinate’s further growth. To complement OJT, we also provide introductory training for new employees, rank-based training for associates being promoted to a higher position and specialized education to cultivate expertise, abilities and skills necessary for carrying out work tasks. We are working to reinforce human resources development by providing a variety of training programs that lead to practical use in the workplace.
■Annual training hours per associate: 5.0 (fiscal 2021)
Supporting Active Roles and Work Styles of Diverse Human Resources
1. Supporting Work-Life Balance
We have been carrying out activities so that associates who are balancing work and family can work with higher motivation and pursue career development. Such activities mainly focus on enhancing systems to support a work-life balance and facilitating an understanding for maintaining a work-life balance.
The enhancement of systems to support a work-life balance includes an on-site day care center; a return-towork (“welcome-back”) system, which allows associates who have left work to care for children and family members or to accompany their spouse for a job transfer to get reinstated under certain preconditions; a shorter work-hour system for childcare; and a leave system and loan system for fertility treatment. Through these systems, we provide an environment for associates to work at Toyota Industries for longer years with peace of mind. As a means to facilitate an understanding for maintaining a work-life balance, we distribute the Handbook for Balancing Work with Nursing Care to associates above a certain age to help them gain knowledge on nursing care and to create a workplace culture that allows associates to seek advice easily. We also regularly hold seminars on balancing work with nursing care for associates and their families and provide newsletters on nursing care to those who are interested.
As a result of these efforts, Toyota Industries received “Platinum Kurumin” certification from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in August 2019 in recognition of our excellent efforts concerning work-life balance as well as a “Family-Friendly Company” award from the Aichi prefectural government in February 2020.
2. Promoting Active Roles of Female Associates
We aspire to let individual associates to thrive in their assigned work and role regardless of gender. Accordingly, we have augmented our efforts to promote greater roles of female associates.
In 2015, we set up a project to promote more active roles for female associates in office work and engineering positions, comprising males and females from different departments. This project was key for the identification of issues and formulation of policy proposals in promoting active roles of female associates, which formed the basis for the development of a Company-wide action plan in clarifying the initiatives for this project. Under the plan, we are moving ahead with efforts to promote even greater roles of female associates.
Since fiscal 2017, we have held a seminar for a cumulative total of more than 1,400 managers who directly engage in the mentoring and development of associates. Starting from fiscal 2020, we have been conducting enlightenment activities to foster an understanding of the environment in which associates, both male and female, having limited working hours due to nursing care or childcare are working. We have also worked to raise awareness of human resources development that takes into account their life events.
In order to create an environment to allow associates who are balancing work and childcare to work with higher motivation and pursue career development, we have enhanced our programs to support the early return to work from a break in their career. Efforts include a full-day work-at-home system launched in October 2016; pre-maternity leave seminars started in December 2017 for associates and their spouses to think about a way of working after returning to work; and a financial aid system for day care costs adopted in April 2018 for associates working while taking care of infants younger than one year old.
As a result of these initiatives, the number of female managers has steadily increased. In October 2016, we received “Eruboshi (“L Star”: L stands for Lady, Labour and Laudable)” certification, which is given to companies making excellent efforts in promoting female engagement in the workplace, from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In November 2019, we also received an “Excellent Company” award from the Aichi prefectural government under its “Female-Friendly Company” certification program.
Looking ahead, we will continue to make efforts to improve workplaces to offer females a wider range of jobs and higher quality of work and maintain initiatives started in fiscal 2020 to promote active roles of female associates in production operations. We will also support the creation of a better working environment to enable all associates working under time constraints to fulfill their individual potential.
【TOPIC】Promoting More Active Roles of Female Production Associates
We aspire that all associates engaging in production operations fully work and take active roles until an older age. In order for female associates to do so, we need to overcome issues of gender-related differences in physical strength and frame as well as the challenges of working during pregnancy, after giving birth and while raising children.
As a means of doing so, we formed a Female Working Group and Job Level Working Group in fiscal 2020. These groups have been working to review current issues, identify countermeasures and formulate an action plan for the next and following fiscal years. In fiscal 2021, we held a work style seminar for female associates, during which female production associates explored experiences and work styles necessary to continue thriving in their own way and created a plan themselves. We also held a seminar for supervisors on nurturing female subordinates, giving them an opportunity to think about how best to support their subordinates.
3. Employment of Persons with Disabilities
We respect the idea of people with and without disabilities working together and sharing life and work values. Under this basic policy, we continue to employ persons with disabilities every year. They are assigned to a variety of sections and work with other members to perform their designated tasks.
■Ratio of associates with disabilities: 2.40% (non-consolidated)
4.Creating a Work Environment for Older Associates
In order to enable older associates to work and take active roles in production operations, we have been focusing on creating a better, less physically stressful work environment for them. Recent efforts include setting up standard procedures for the handling of heavy objects and a work environment that makes it easier for older associates to work, and improvement in processes in production lines with the development of a work analysis system that evaluates work posture using videos. In addition, we hold “Seminars for an Active Life” for associates reaching the age of 50 and 55 to give them an opportunity to envision life and work for the next 10 years.
Efforts Related to Respect for Human Rights
Toyota Industries believes it essential to ensure that we do not infringe human rights of all of our stakeholders involved in business activities, including associates. It is equally important to take appropriate measures to rectify the infringement and fulfill our responsibility if human rights are negatively impacted in our business activities. In respecting human rights, it is crucial that every associate has a correct understanding of these rights. As such, we undertake human rights enlightenment activities through new employee education and rank-based training.
We also recognize that non-Japanese associates working in Japan are more susceptible to human rights-related troubles due to language barriers as well as different living and working environments in Japan and their home countries. To protect such associates, we conduct human rights due diligence concerning their employment on our consolidated subsidiaries in Japan.
Basic Perspective on Safety
Based on the idea of building “a homelike atmosphere at work that is warm and friendly” as stated in the Toyoda Precepts, we formulated the Safety Vision in 2013 after holding repeated discussions on the “basic stance on safety” and “optimal safety we seek.” The vision has been instilled at all bases in the Toyota Industries Group.
| Safety Vision Each and every associate in the Toyota Industries Group, guided by the spirit of our corporate creed, aims to create a corporate culture that places a top priority on maintaining safety in all areas and focuses on mutual courtesy and safety as well as realizing workplaces where associates work each day with a sense of happiness and pride. |
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Structure for Promoting Safety and Health
Under our basic policy of placing a top priority on safety, we have been striving to eliminate industrial accidents and occupational disorders.As part of such efforts, we have established the necessary committees, including the Central Safety and Health Committee and Plant Safety and Health Committees.
Occupational Safety and Health Management System
In accordance with the concept of an Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OSHMS), we have established a required management structure in each plant (or business division) headed by a general safety and health manager (senior executive officer or another executive) and have been carrying out safety and health activities on an ongoing basis from human, object and administrative standpoints based on risk assessment.
Major Safety-Related Initiatives
Thorough Safety and Health Education
In order to cultivate knowledge, awareness and the skills necessary to prevent industrial accidents and occupational disorders, Toyota Industries proactively provides safety and health education, including education designed to foster a safety culture, education required by law, rank-based education and job-category-based education.
Safety and Health Activities for Business Partners
As part of activities to prevent accidents (fires and explosions) and industrial accidents involving business partners on thepremises of Toyota Industries, we have established the Safety and Health Council with subcontractors located on our premises to jointly create a comfortable working environment by sharing information on accidents and disease prevention activities of Toyota Industries.
Using past accident cases as a reference, we periodically share various information, including matters that should be observed to prevent similar accidents, with subcontractors of outsourced work. We also request their cooperation to perform risk assessment in the construction work planning stage to identify associated risks. In addition, we encourage them to always discuss in advance a safe work method with the departments of Toyota Industries planning a construction project.
Efforts against Serious Accidents
In 2019, a serious accident occurred at a Toyota Industries plant during the product quality assurance process due to the defective structure of equipment. We subsequently made efforts to identify deficiencies and undertaken measures to prevent recurrence. In fiscal 2021, we continued to concentrate on the implementation of physical measures. As an example, in May 2020 we introduced a mechanism to always cut off power when an operator accesses a machine while disabling its safety device.
In addition, we have built a system to definitively prevent serious accidents when installing or retrofitting equipment, which includes visualization of stop control and safety feature checks by inspectors possessing the required skills, as an effort to improve the safety assurance of equipment.
We will continue to work toward the development of safe workplaces and safety-oriented human resources based on an approach of the Toyota Production System (TPS), which is to always shut down a machine when something is wrong and take fundamental measures to remove the root cause.
Labour and Welfare
Labour and Welfare
Major Health-Related Initiatives
As a task for the medium term, we are promoting health improvement of associates, mainly focusing on prevention of lifestyle diseases and mental health support activities, to counter risks of health problems associated with aging and greater stress. Through these efforts, we help associates to work and take active roles over the long term.
Prevention of Lifestyle Diseases
As a collaborative initiative of Toyota Industries, its workers’ union and health insurance association, we conduct periodic age-based health education for all associates (every five years, from the age of 30). To provide motivation for better health, we feed back to associates the results of an annual health checkup along with advice to improve lifestyle habits.
In fiscal 2020, we started providing such information as physical fitness propensity scores and countermeasures, how physically fitted for work, assessment of physical fitness age and recommended exercises to increase motivation for promoting physical fitness.
For preventing and ameliorating symptoms of metabolic syndrome, we provide health promotion guidance to associates at the age of 39 or younger in addition to specific health guidance required by the Japanese government. By doing so, we encourage associates to improve lifestyle habits early on.
Mental Health Support
As part of mental health support activities, we have in place a system to offer early consultation through a health-related hotline. Other activities include upgrading our self-care/line-care education to prevent new cases of mental health problems and operation of a return-to-work support program for persons on long-term leave for prevention of relapses.
We have successfully achieved positive results through these activities.
In fiscal 2021, we put particular emphasis on line care and encouraged supervisors to use check sheets and check cards to develop skills to recognize the sign of a problem of subordinates who report directly. Through this effort, we have worked to instill a culture that will lead to increased awareness and action. Under the stress check system introduced in fiscal 2017, we again conducted a check on all associates in fiscal 2021 and fed back the check results to all participants and workplaces with suggestions for improvement. We also set up an individual interview with a doctor for those wishing to do so and provided improvement support as necessary to individual workplaces. As a means to feed back the results to workplaces, we operate an ITbased Workplace Check Results Viewing System that allows the users to perform a precise search of results and tips for improvement.
【TOPIC】Included in White 500 for Four Consecutive Years
For its efforts related to the health of associates, for the fourth consecutive year Toyota Industries was recognized in the large enterprise category of the 2021 Certified Health and Productivity Management Organization Recognition Program (White 500) jointly promoted by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi.
Response to COVID-19
In accordance with the Risk Response Manual, which has been formulated to prepare for an emergency, Toyota Industries has established a COVID-19 Response Headquarters and has been collaborating with health centers and other public agencies to counter the pandemic.
We have developed and distributed a response manual specifying procedures to follow when infection occurs in a workplace. Our basic COVID-19 protocols also include checking body temperature every morning, frequent hand washing and avoiding the 3Cs (closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings) as well as working from home. We will continue to collect relevant information and implement measures corresponding to the latest developments regarding the infection status.