At Murata, we see operating capital as a source of value creation developed by putting company philosophy into practice, and we believe that our human resources are at the core of value creation. In order to continue to create value as an Innovator in Electronics, we will continue to enhance our human capital as we link employee motivation and growth with increasing organizational strength.
Actions toward active participation of diverse human resources
1．Promotion of global job rotation (Transfer overseas employees to locations other than their main sites)
In consideration of future labor shortages likely to occur in Japan, we believe that it is necessary to continue to improve the skills of employees working at sites outside of Japan, and to enhance organizational cooperation at a global level.
Increasing the skills of employees at overseas sites will become an important issue in increasing capabilities at overseas sites and expanding overseas production over the long term. In addition to developing employees through job rotations, we will increase the percentage of overseas local staff with experience working at other sites, and strengthen and develop human resources with global work experience. We believe that expanding production and enhancing on-site capabilities overseas will help to improve our economic value, while at the same time allowing employees to develop new skills faster through actual experience.
Related initiative
Global job rotation system
Anticipating future overseas expansion of our business, Murata is increasing its employment of human resources globally. We are advancing the active utilization of these human resources, and in FY2007 we established a job rotation system that seeks to put the right person in the right place on a global level. This system places employees in Murata locations other than their local region. As of FY2022, the system had rotated a total of 1,162 people.
In the near future, even within the rotation system, we will pay more attention on especially increasing the work experience ratio at other sites for overseas indirect employees. We aim to increase this ratio from 5.3% in fiscal 2022 to 7% by fiscal 2024 and 10% by fiscal 2030, in order to promote the use of human resources with work experience at other overseas sites, and to create opportunities for global interaction. We will manage the organization with a greater focus on autonomy, comprehensiveness, and progress through developing human resources with diverse viewpoints and experiences.
2．Acquisition and active participation of human resources with diverse experiences
At Murata, we believe that evolving the company organization through M&As and acquiring diverse human resources will create new innovations.
With this in mind, we have continued to evolve our organization through M&As and acquiring human resource from outside the company, in order to respond flexibly to changes in our business environment. We will continue to actively hire human resources with diverse experiences and backgrounds in order to arrive at our ideal state of portfolio management, and will continue to develop environments in which these employees can excel.
Link: Establishment of environments and systems that make work more pleasant
Related initiative
Enhancing the job satisfaction of our older employees
The age of retirement at Murata Manufacturing will be raised to 65 in April 2024, in order to maximize the participation of employees. In addition to raising the retirement age, we are preparing opportunities for employees to consider their own careers. For example, we conduct "career management training" for employees who reach 50 years of age. During training, employees list their current experience, abilities, and strengths, consider their personal values and what they want to accomplish, and then prepare a second career plan. Once this training is complete, employees receive personalized support through interviews with career supporters (internal career counselors). Employees are then provided with multiple opportunities as they age to indicate how they plan to work once they reach 60 years of age, so that they can build awareness of what their second career will be.
The company has also introduced an internal recruitment system to provide work opportunities that utilize the knowledge and experience of older employees. This system is meant to match employees with certain knowledge and experience, with specific positions within each organization. Making effective use of the knowledge and experience of older employees helps to keep them within the company and can make work interesting for them even after they reach retirement age.
Employment of physically challenged
Murata is in agreement with the concept of “normalization” of the disabled, which holds that it is desirable for the physically challenged and the able-bodied to both be of use to society, with no distinction made between them. Based on this principle, we are working to expand our employment of the physically challenged and to improve our working environment from this perspective.
In 2020, we established a special subsidiary called Murata Cosmos. With offices in our group companies, we aim to expand work opportunities outside of manufacturing work, such as cleaning offices, washing cleaning uniforms, and operating company cafes.
In addition, we continue to provide seasonal hiring and other opportunities in which diverse personnel can play an active role in a manner which is both mentally and physically healthy, with the goal of realizing an environment in which each individual employee can continue to work in a spirited manner.
Proportion of Physically Challenged Employed at Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd
Promoting an understanding of SOGI
At Murata, we promote environmental improvements which enable people to work comfortably regardless of their SOGI (Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity). During fiscal 2020, we held dialog sessions for officers and department heads to exchange opinions, and also held study sessions for human resources representatives. During fiscal 2021, we held a total of four study sessions on SOGI for supervisors and general employees, with 466 individuals attending. We will continue to hold regular study sessions on similar topics to promote employee understanding. We also continue to implement measures in facilities, such as modifying restrooms and changing rooms so that they are accessible to all regardless of SOGI.
In April 2022, we revised some systems to accommodate diverse partnerships and forms of family, taking SOGI also into consideration. We now apply internal systems and benefit programs to a “same-sex partner” and a person in “common-law marriage” (hereafter, "partner") that are equal to those applied to a legal spouse (i.e., legally-married partner).
Internal systems and regulations applied based on notification by the relevant employee (examples)
Special leaves (marriage leave, nursing leave, leave due to temporary school closure, nursing care leave, childcare leave for a spouse giving birth, bereavement leave)
Congratulatory and condolence payments (wedding gift money, allowance for childbirth, condolence money)
Regulations for absence from work for childcare, nursing care, etc. (leave of absence for childcare, leave of absence for nursing care)
Company housing lending and management regulations
At Murata, we set “respect for human rights and diversity” as one of the key issues (material issues), and we hold dialogue sessions for officers and department heads to deepen their understanding of the issue through opinion exchange, as well as study sessions on SOGI for managers/supervisors and employees in Japan. In order to promote understanding and increase awareness of SOGI in our company, we have also implemented initiatives such as holding lecture meetings, installing toilets adopting universal design, and changing uniform specifications.
In addition to these initiatives, by revising our systems, we have also promoted the development of a work environment that encourages individual employees to acknowledge diversity with each other and bring out their own unique strengths.
Activities regardless of nationality, religion, or cultural background
We promote global job rotation to help ensure that our employees come from diverse national, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. We take rational measures to make working environments more comfortable, such as displaying internal information and evacuation routes, expanding our cafeteria menus, and setting up prayer rooms.
3．Provision of diverse career paths
At Murata, we believe that it is crucial to provide diverse career paths, so that our diverse employees can develop as they leverage their unique strengths and specialties.
We are establishing a foundation upon which our diverse employees can develop and excel, through initiating training programs based on duties and roles, and providing career support suited for each generation.
We will also make use of multi-track career paths for management purposes as well as to benefit employees with advanced expertise, and will establish environments that allow employees to excel, in order to promote portfolio management with an eye on changing business conditions and to accelerate management reforms.
Related initiative
Personnel systems to realize multi-track career paths that make use of a diversity range of specialties and experiences
We continue to reward employees who demonstrate leadership and management skills, along with those who contribute to the company with their advanced specialties and experiences, and continue to promote innovation and a desire among employees to continue to work and contribute to Murata, so that employees with a wide range of specialties and experiences can excel. We had previously made use of a "contribution course system" that offers employees multi-track career paths toward management or specialized careers. In 2019, we established our current three-axis system with management careers incorporated within the same system, and continue to enhance operations within the new framework.
We are also working toward establishing career paths where employees can perform mission-critical jobs without having to transfer and change residence, so that our diverse employees can continue to challenge themselves.
4．Promotion of women in the workplace (work without gender discrimination)
Murata has always seen diversity as individuality and has always maintained respect for diversity. This includes diversity that cannot be seen, as well as diversity that can be seen. We believe that this allows employees working at Murata to find value in their work and excel as professionals (ES), which allows us to create and provide value that customers appreciate (CS).
With that in mind, we have continued to hire a diverse workforce, expand systems to provide employees with support both at the home and the workplace, create environments that allow employees to autonomously develop diverse abilities and play an active role, and support the career development of employees. As a result, our female employees have an average of 12.5 years of service, and we have achieved a 100% ratio of taking childcare leave (the ratio of women giving birth in fiscal 2021 and then taking childcare leave).
Murata Manufacturing and our domestic group companies are well aware of issues such as the ratio of women in technical/managerial positions, the ratio of female employees in advanced expertise positions, and the participation of men in childcare.
We believe that tackling current issues with gender discrimination and achieving both CS and ES will lead to innovation.
Related initiative
Enhanced efforts to hire women for technical positions at Murata Manufacturing
We have established a target of filling at least 10% of technical fields in new graduate career-track hiring with women. As mentioned in our company creed, improving skills is crucial for achieving technological innovation, in order to continue to create new value. We continue to focus efforts on hiring women and on establishing environments in which employees can excel, including holding women in STEM seminars at universities, distributing related pamphlets, and conducting work research seminars held by female recruiters.
Ratio of women in managerial positions at Murata Manufacturing
In fiscal 2021, we set of goal of “increasing the ratio of women in managerial positions to 10% by the end of fiscal 2030.” Since 2016, we have focused mainly on DE&I with regard to “diversity of management styles.” Senior management is committed toward increasing the ratio of women in managerial positions in order to accelerate “diversity of management styles.”
We see increasing the ratio of women in managerial positions as both the key to achieving “diversity of management styles” and a management issue to tackle. In fiscal 2022, we held a webinar for middle management on the topic of “diverse management from the perspective of promoting the participation of women in the workplace.”
Women are often a minority at the workplace, which can make it difficult to seek advice on work-related concerns. In order to mitigate fixed notions female employees may have, we held at least 20 networking meetings for small groups, in which female managers also participated. (Fiscal 2022 results)
Ratio of male employees taking childcare leave
We support men participating in childcare, so that they can raise their children according to their own values without fear of gender discrimination. In order for male employees to participate in childcare, we believe that it is important to support them and their families, but also to foment a culture that makes it easy for male employees to take childcare leave and to work in accordance with their own values. We are establishing systems and fomenting such a culture, in order to get more males employees to take childcare leave. Although our original goal was to achieve a ratio of 30%, we already achieved this in fiscal 2022 and are now working toward increasing this ratio. The average amount of leave taken for fiscal 2022 was 40 days.
Gender pay gap
The male-female wage gap compares the wages of female employees with male employees. It is the difference in wages among employees by pay grade, not the difference in wages for the same work. We are working toward training female employees for management positions, as well as making other improvements in this area.
Our group companies are also working with local governments to promote the participation of women in the workplace.
Fukui Murata Manufacturing, Sabae Murata Manufacturing: Companies in Fukui Promoting the Participation of Women in the Workplace
Kanazawa Murata Manufacturing: Companies in Ishikawa Prefecture Supporting Men Providing Childcare
Toyama Murata Manufacturing: IKU-BOSS Corporate Alliance Toyama
We are creating action plans with regard to the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace. Murata Manufacturing domestic group companies are now creating action plans to enhance efforts to hire women, increase the number of women in supervisor positions, and establish balanced work styles free of gender discrimination.
Link: Action Plan for the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (PDF: 212KB) 