Enhance Human Capital Management

In addition to maximizing individual performance and securing and enhancing HR able to generate innovation through increasing employee motivation and eagerness of to take on new challenges, we’re building and strengthening the foundations for employees to demonstrate their maximum performance, by building organizations to strengthen trust between the Company and employees. Furthermore, by fostering a culture to maximize organizational performance, we plan to improve productivity and promote business strategies to help achieve our ideal vision.

 

To realize our ideal vision for 2030, in addition to promoting these HR strategies we also consider it to be important to build the optimal HR portfolio for our ideal business portfolio. Under the leadership of the Corporate Planning Department, which oversees our resource allocation, we’re strengthening our sales capabilities in areas such as market research and sales expansion strategies and launching system optimization in the Sales Division and the Research & Development Center, to enhance R&D and technological capabilities to secure market share in line with market growth by meeting customer needs. We plan continue to enhance internal discussions while seeking to achieve overall optimization of Company systems, targeting the Company’s ideal HR portfolio.
We’re also promoting HR portfolio optimization in terms of both optimal placement and development, through means including enhancements in training programs in our strategic priority domains, such as high-performance materials and digital technologies, and systematically developing HR with the skills needed in these domains.

We plan to maximize individual performance and secure and enhance human resources able to create innovation through efforts to encourage employee autonomy and initiative. To increase employee motivation and eagerness to take on new challenges, we’ve identified establishment of management cycles for leveraging individual strengths as a priority strategic theme. We plan to develop autonomous human resources able to take on challenges and innovate continually by promoting various measures in HR development, evaluation, compensation, and other systems.

To establish and enhance management cycles to leverage individual strengths, we’re focusing on individual growth and initiative in all processes of hiring, placement, training, evaluation, compensation, and retention and enhancing this series of processes. By connecting these to the realization of management strategy, we plan to develop systems for continual development of autonomous human resources who take on challenges constantly, while generating innovation and increasing corporate value.

 

Trend in job satisfaction score

We’ve chosen the job satisfaction score from the employee engagement survey as an indicator of the degree of establishment of management cycles leveraging individual strengths. While the score has been stable since the start of the survey, we aim for continual improvement by further enhancing efforts to establish the following cycle.

Establishing management cycles to leverage individual strengths

Securing human resources for business development

 

We consider hiring activities, on which management cycles leveraging individual strengths are based, to form the foundations for subsequent development and organizational culture and, by extension, business growth. We’re enhancing hiring activities to secure human resources to contribute to our business development.
While traditional hiring activities have been based on individual sections’ staffing plans, we’re shifting toward more strategic hiring activities based on staffing plans formulated from the perspective of Companywide optimization.
With regard to midcareer hiring in particular, we’re shifting from hiring activities centered on filling vacancies to the hiring of experienced personnel able to play roles immediately in accelerating business reforms, for example by securing human resources with knowledge and experience regarding technologies related to our strategic businesses now under development.Furthermore, we are promoting a referral hiring system to hire human resources who are aligned with our values and culture through employee referrals. We’re also considering accepting human resources from abroad using new training and employment programs, to address the structural issue of a shrinking workforce in Japan.

Establishing management cycles to leverage individual strengths

Placing the right people in the right positions

We strive to place the right people in the right positions in order to draw out our human resources’ abilities to the fullest and increase performance across the entire organization.
In addition to promoting appropriate placement to realize our business strategies, we plan to build systems for optimal placement so that both individuals and the organization can demonstrate their utmost performance, through efforts that respect individual career orientations and aptitudes.

HR placement that accounts for individual career orientations and aptitudes

Establishing management and specialist career paths

To support autonomous career-building, we employ a system under which employees can request transfers based on their career plans. This aims to invigorate the organization and provide opportunities for individual growth in line with individual career orientations and motivation to take on challenges.
In some sections, we’ve updated our previous uniform approach to career paths, which assumed that all employees would seek to be managers by adopting a dual-track HR system consisting of specialist careers that contribute to business through advanced expertise and management careers to lead the organization. This system enables assignment to roles in which employees can utilize their individual strengths and aptitudes to the fullest. We plan to expand the scope of this system.
In annual career interviews, we ask employees eligible for subject managerial positions about their future career aims. We also provide training for those at middle management levels through roleplaying and other means to improve the quality of interviews.

Establishing management cycles to leverage individual strengths

Developing autonomous human resources

 

To develop autonomous human resources who can take on the challenges of innovation on their own, we provide opportunities for systematically learning the skills the Company needs. Through such opportunities, we’re fostering a culture in which employees can learn and take on challenges on their own while building an environment to support growth through employees taking the initiative in thinking about their own careers.
In addition to improving tiered training programs, we provide diverse learning opportunities by enhancing external training, support for earning official qualifications, and similar measures
To support self-improvement, we provide e-learning, conversational English programs, and similar activities, along with a program to reward employees who earn official qualifications and a program to support professionals seeking to earn a PhD degree.
We’re also expanding the dispatch of employees to external training programs so that they can learn new perspectives and knowledge while furthering external exchange opportunities. The goal is to enhance free thinking and improve problem-solving ability by learning about diverse values through interactions with other industries and fields, in addition to learning specialized skills directly related to our businesses.
In addition to supporting autonomous employee growth by enhancing such educational opportunities, we make employees own strengths and future visions clear through opportunities such as career interviews with superiors, thereby allowing each employee to consider their own careers and grow on their own.
We’re enhancing educational programs for new employees to allow each individual to adapt swiftly to his or her duties and to grow in ways rooted in the corporate culture. When employees join the Company, we provide introductory training on matters like corporate philosophy and corporate culture. We’re enhancing training for practical skills, including business fundamentals, to support seamless execution of duties after placement. We also offer everyday guidance through a mentoring program and on-the-job training (OJT), as well as follow-up training at half- and one-year intervals after joining the Company to review individual growth and help foster career orientation.
We’ve also begun offering training programs to core and young managerial personnel that include elective training on management perspectives, multiple career paths across sections, and challenging assignments. Through monitoring, guidance, and advising by management, we’re striving to create practical managerial human resources who will lead value creation from Companywide perspectives based on autonomy and the spirit of pursuing tough challenges.

Training system (for administrative/technical employees)

Human resource development initiatives for younger employees(Year Seven training)

Despite progress on developing systematic training programs for new hires, younger employees, older employees, and managerial personnel, the lack of periodic training for mid-level personnel has been identified as an issue. To address this issue, we hold meetings in which employees in their seventh year with the Company make presentations to management on their current duties and future challenges.We will continue holding these meetings in the future to strengthen morale among mid-level personnel.

Professional human resource development（Presentation meeting for business improvements in engineering）

In response to the lack of opportunities for presentations on results following engineers’ presentation meetings for new hires, a presentation meeting for business improvements was held for engineering staff. This opportunity to gain a sense of accomplishment involves reporting on business improvements at specific workplaces. We plan to continue holding presentation meetings to achieve business improvements, encourage exchange across sectional boundaries, and strengthen motivation to pursue improvements.

Establishing management cycles to leverage individual strengths

Building evaluation and compensation systems to increase motivation

We’re revising our evaluation systems to maximize employee engagement and performance. By enhancing the existing system of management by objectives to build systems that directly link individual growth to achievement of organizational goals and fairly reflect such contributions in evaluations, we plan to foster motivation to achieve growth among all our employees.
As a first step, we introduced a new evaluation system for the Corporate Center. Through goal-setting process improvements and semiannual progress evaluations, we’re enhancing the link between Company and section goals and individual goals. We also ensure fair evaluations by using objective, highly transparent indicators of factors including achievement and growth. In addition, in meetings with superiors intended to set goals, we encourage individual employees to learn how their work relates to organizational strategies and promote efforts to achieve goals across the organization. We plan to deploy this new evaluation system Companywide next year.
Furthermore, by building a program to reflect in appropriate compensation this evaluation system that employees find persuasive, we plan to increase employee engagement and promote autonomous growth.

Establishing management cycles to leverage individual strengths

Steadily building up human capital

We regard employee retention to be a key factor for organizational vitality and long-term value creation.
To retain employees, in addition to building environments in which employees can grow with peace of mind in doing rewarding work, we’re also striving to develop environments that promote individual initiative and retention, focusing in particular on midcareer hires, who bring new perspectives to the organization, and senior employees who contribute a wealth of knowledge.

Supporting midcareer hires

 

To accelerate business reforms, we’re enhancing the midcareer hiring of human resources with diverse expertise and developing introductory training, as well as career support programs for midcareer hires—efforts intended to allow these newcomers to demonstrate their abilities to the fullest after joining the organization.
Our goal in promoting seamless adaptation to our organizational culture and integration into Company networks is to invigorate the organization with employees capable of quickly establishing themselves within their positions and making contributions.

Supporting senior employees

We recognize that senior employees, who, due to their years of service can provide insights through their amassed experience, are key assets to raising our competitive strength. As their roles continue to grow we’re redefining the expected roles of each senior employee and plan to reform related systems over the course of FY2026. In addition to providing roles where individuals can demonstrate their motivation and abilities regardless of age, along with remuneration that adequately reflects their responsibilities, we will support career design that accommodates flexible work styles and strengthens engagement.

To ensure that all employees can demonstrate their abilities to the fullest, it is vital to build strong relationships based on trust between the Company and its employees. We build environments in which employees can continue to work with a keen sense of motivation, in safety and good physical and mental health, as an important theme in creating workplace environments for leveraging our people.

 

One element of the Mitsubishi Steel Group’s Corporate Philosophy states, “We are committed to creating a pleasant and vigorous work environment, embracing a diverse workforce with various talents to achieve their full potential.” We implement activities intended to realize this philosophy, seeking to be a company in which our diverse group of employees can work with peace of mind and take on challenges with a sense of vitality.
While taking steps to prevent worsening and reoccurrence of conditions for employees identified to have health issues in regular checkups or complete medical examinations, employees with mental health concerns, and employees being treated for diseases, we are also promoting prevention of lifestyle-related illnesses to help healthy people stay healthy, as we group and respond to health risks by category.

Based on the “Safety First” principle, the Group strives to build safe, healthy, and comfortable work environments for its employees. Under the Back to Basics slogan, the Group creates numerous opportunities to promote safety activities based on heightened risk sensitivity and a return to the fundamentals.

Our responses

In addition to existing safety patrols, we’re striving to promote safety awareness and improve technical capabilities through contests and in other ways.

Safety results

Incidence rate of accidents involving suspension of operation

Occupational Health and Safety

We place the highest priority on the health and safety of our workers and provide a sustainable, supportive work environment by assessing workplace risks and implementing appropriate countermeasures based on the assessment results. Through effective occupational health and safety (OHS) programs, we minimize the risk of workplace accidents and occupational illnesses and fulfill our social responsibilities, thereby contributing to local communities and other stakeholders. Our concrete activities focus on three key themes.

　1.Risk assessment
　2.Training and drills
　3.Monitoring and improvement

1. 1Risk assessment
2. We implement risk assessments for occupational health and safety regularly and as needed
   In particular, in the event of an accident, we undertake risk assessment of similar work at all facilities, including the one affected by the accident, to identify and eradicate sources of danger and consider mitigation measures.
3. Number of risk assessments conducted
   

   	FY2021	FY2022	FY2023	FY2024
   Safety	46	103	80	61
   Chemicals	13	13	12	798
   Total	59	116	92	859

   ＊FY2024 - Risk assessment scope expanded to 894 substances
4.  
5. 2Training and drills
6. We hold initial training on new assignments, safety training for third-year employees, and safety manager meetings to share information on amendments to laws concerning health safety, to raise awareness among supervisors and all employees at each facility. We also hold activities regular evacuation drills and various related competitions and contests every year.
7. Training AchievementsFY2024
   

   Safety	Health	Others
   65	5	112

   ＊Others include training for new employees, managers, and workplace supervisors to improve their management skills.

1. 3Monitoring and improvement
2. We hold quarterly meetings of safety managers at three sites in Japan and two affiliates companies to share information with the head office secretariat.
   We also hold monthly health and safety committee meetings at each facility and plant health and safety patrols to identify dangers and check on the status of corrective measures. To improve the workplace environment, we conduct follow-up interviews.
   Each committee receives health support based on discussions with industrial physicians and public health nurses, to address overwork and mental-health conditions.
    

Employee meetings for safety

Periodic meetings are held among employees in charge of safety at business sites in Japan, including Group companies. In those meetings, employees exchange opinions on safety and strive to raise the levels of safety management and share information and awareness of related issues.

Safety meetings

We have begun holding safety meetings following accidents to allow other business divisions and the secretariat to investigate reports from the business division involved concerning the causes of and responses to the accident. These meetings seek to enhance organization-wide safety efforts through communication across sectional boundaries

Examples of individual facilities’ safety activities

• Five S contest

  Regular five S contests are held to promote autonomous safety and to ensure that safety fundamentals based on the five S activities take firm root.

• Forklift competition

  The annual forklift competition is intended to improve forklift drivers’ technical skills and promote awareness of safe operation.

• KYT contest

  The annual KYT contest boosts employee skills in predicting danger in everyday work.

• Slinging contest

  The annual slinging contest is intended to improve participants’ skills at slinging work (moving heavy loads using cranes), a dangerous task that requires special skills.

 

 

 

 

Creating workplace environments for leveraging our people

Improving working environments (facilities, equipment, systems)／Promoting diverse work styles

Annual paid vacation taken (nonconsolidated)

Another important theme is investing in comfortable working environments that allow employees to perform at their best. In particular, last year’s engagement survey identified improving the environment at manufacturing workplaces, the core of our businesses, as an important Companywide issue. We plan to invest a total of 0.5 billion yen in systematic heat countermeasures and facility maintenance at each manufacturing facility.
In addition to these improvements in the physical environment, we’re building systems to support diverse work styles. Measures include enhanced childcare and long-term care support programs, establishing a system to reduce working hours, and remote work regulations.
In recent years, we’ve tried to increase the percentage male employees who take childcare leave when their spouses give birth. The percentage of eligible men taking childcare leave in FY2024 increased to 50% (100% including our independent program of time off for childcare), while the number of men taking childcare leave for periods of three to six months is also increasing.
In response to issues identified in the long-term care leave and time off systems that may have impeded their use, we’re proceeding with efforts to encourage use with an external agency. These efforts have begun to generate results, albeit slowly.
Since FY2022, we’ve set a target of 75% of annual paid vacation taken. Through the Plus One Campaign that makes it easier to take paid vacation before and after holidays and other measures, we’re laying the foundations for a workplace culture that makes it easier to take paid vacation.

Childcare Leave Regulations

Leave period	Extendable up to the end of the fiscal year which the child turns 3 years old
Actions taken if the employee does not wish to take childcare leave	Exemption from overtime work upon request until the child reaches the age of 3 years
Nursing leave for children	Until the 6th year of primary school : Up to 5 days/year for one child; 10 days/year for 2 or more children
Shortening of prescribed working hours	Until the 3rd year of primary school: Prescribed working hours may be shortened to 6 hours/day (shifts adjusted on a case-by-case basis)
Exemption from overtime work	Exemption from overtime work until the child reaches the age of 3 years
Limitations on overtime work	No more than 24 hours/month, 150 hours/year, until the child begins primary school
Limitations on late-night work for childcare purposes	Exemption from late-night work upon request until the child begins primary school

Creating workplace environments for leveraging our people

Ascertaining employee opinions and making improvements

Holding townhall meetings

We’ve held townhall meetings since 2022. These meetings, in which members of top management communicate directly with employees, are helping to improve employee engagement through mutual trust based on direct communication of management policies and sharing of employees’ feelings and opinions from everyday work.

Employee engagement surveys

Trend in total employee engagement survey score

We undertake annual employee engagement surveys to identify based on objective criteria the strengths and weaknesses of our organization. The score from the third survey, conducted in FY2025, showed steady improvement from the first survey and clear signs that organizational improvements are starting to generate results.
At the same time, while a steady improvement trend was apparent on the topics of working environments (facilities, equipment) and communication between superiors and subordinates, which had been identified in the first survey in FY2023, we recognize that these remain important topics and plan to implement ongoing improvement measures.

We hold meetings to share with managerial personnel the findings of the engagement survey, and consider various issues identified through the survey in each section. In addition to providing learning opportunities through means such as analyzing survey results and formulating action plans, we also gauge the results of measures taken through regular focused surveys to gather opinions on individual items in the action plans. By holding discussion meetings for staff promoting the plans in individual sections and providing opportunities to consult with outside experts about issues and concerns in promoting the action plans, we’re pursuing solutions to the issues identified in engagement surveys on not only a Companywide level but also the section level.
The results of these engagement surveys are reported to management meetings and the Board of Directors and summarized in internal media.

HR strategy (３) 　Fostering a culture to maximize organizational performance

We believe building an organizational culture that welcomes the efforts of any member to take on the challenges of reform, while maximizing individual strength and respecting diverse individual properties and values, is the source of innovation. To foster a culture that maximizes organizational performance, we’re developing environments in which diverse human resources can demonstrate their abilities with peace of mind (DEI promotion) and developing middle management personnel who put such efforts into practice and draw out the individual strengths of each and every subordinate.

 

Priority strategic theme　DEI promotion（Securing and increasing diversity）

In addition to the active midcareer hiring of professionals from different industrial and cultural backgrounds, we’re focusing on developing an environment in which female employees can thrive.
Using various diversity-related percentages as metrics, we are building an organization that can generate innovation through a diversity of human resources characterized by different backgrounds and outlook, who demonstrate their abilities to the fullest, regardless of attributes such as gender, age, nationality, midcareer status, and disability status.
In particular, to promote the role of women in the workplace, we’re aiming to increase percentages of women employees and managers and conducting activities such as diversity training for managers and training for women managers (including candidates).
Thanks in part to these initiatives, the percentage of managerial candidates accounted for by women has risen sharply, from 1.8% in FY2022 to 9.8% in FY2024, reflecting the progress made on the training of female human resources for the next generation of management.
We’re also planning to accept human resources from JATIM in Indonesia at domestic facilities in Japan, thereby creating more opportunities for interaction with diverse human resources while training Indonesian staff and strengthening collaboration with global facilities.

 

Priority strategic theme　Strengthening middle management

Trend in score on satisfaction with superiors

Members of middle management play important roles in maximizing diverse individual strengths and transforming them into organizational power. At the same time, the engagement survey has shown important issues remain in the areas of communication between superiors and subordinates and subordinate development. In response, we’re enhancing efforts to train managers capable of interacting with subordinates as individuals and making the most of their abilities and motivation.
We identified the employee engagement survey’s score on satisfaction with superiors as a metric for gauging the degree of success of these efforts. We will strive continually to improve this score by raising the quality level of management through training and other initiatives.

Strengthening management thinking / strengthening management skills

We’re strengthening subordinate development through training based on roleplay, an approach that seeks to teach effective communication practices for encouraging subordinates’ autonomy and maintaining their motivation while also measuring and identifying issues in individual levels and improving the quality of management.
We’re striving to foster a leadership mindset among managers based on a deep understanding of the importance and social meaning of inspiring the best from diverse subordinates and encouraging awareness reforms as future leaders. To build relationships based on trust with subordinates and improve skills for supporting their growth, we provide opportunities to master practical skills such as listening and feedback. We support putting the skills learned to practical use in regular one-on-one meetings and other opportunities to improve the quality of management in the field.