In our Medium-Term Management Plan for FY2025 and beyond, the Group places the core concept of human capital management as: "At Niterra, the personal growth of each individual is the driving force that fosters their contribution to the sustainable development of the Niterra Group." To achieve this, we will globally promote the following "Niterra Talent Management" initiatives.
First, to support the optimization of our business portfolio, we will globally focus on building a talent portfolio that ensures we have the right people in the right roles at the right time.
Through talent reviews held at our global headquarters and in each region, we will deepen discussions on this talent portfolio. We will then translate these insights into concrete measures for recruitment, development, and appointments, thereby strengthening our diverse talent pool to adapt to the changing business environment.
Simultaneously, we will clarify internal job roles and present clear career paths. This will enable us to achieve: appointments that respect individual aspirations, the provision of fair opportunities, and equitable job assignments.
Through these efforts, we will support the self-directed career development of every employee. By fostering talent who possess strong determination and initiative, we will build a relationship of mutual and continuous growth for both our employees and the company.
The "Optimization of our Business Portfolio" and the "Strengthening of our Management Foundation," as set forth in our Medium-Term Management Plan 2030, are key strategic pillars that support the sustainable growth of our Group.
To ensure the successful execution of these strategies, the growth of our people and organization is indispensable.
Therefore, for 2025 and beyond, which marks the second half of our long-term management plan, we have established a key priority: "Diverse and proactive individuals embody the Niterra Way."
At the core of achieving this priority is our globally promoted "Niterra Talent Management." We will strongly support the growth of every employee and clarify their roles and responsibilities, while also expanding opportunities for them to proactively take on challenges they aspire to. Furthermore, we will ensure their performance and contributions are duly recognized and rewarded.
In addition, to support the realization of our Medium-Term Management Plan 2030, we are currently reviewing our talent development programs to foster talent who embody the "Niterra Way."
Through these HR development initiatives and the promotion of the Niterra Way, we will create an environment where every employee can embody the Niterra Way through daily behaviors such as "Act with purpose, initiative, and determination," "Aspire to be a professional and commit to personal growth" and "Collaborate with diverse talent." Through these initiatives, we aim to achieve our management strategy and simultaneously realize the aspiration embedded in our English company name, "Niterra": to become a company that "brightens the Earth."
Our Group has established a governance system for management to maximize the value of human capital.
The Board of Directors clarifies the authority and responsibility for human capital management by appointing and delegating Representative Directors and the corporate officers, following reports from the Nomination Committee and the Remuneration Committee. Important matters and medium-to-long-term strategies regarding human capital management are deliberated and decided upon at the Management Meeting, and the Board of Directors receives regular reports on their progress and supervises them.
The Human Resources Strategy Dept. is established within the Global Strategy Div. and formulates overall human capital management strategies and basic policies that are closely linked to the management strategy. Based on the overall strategies and policies, the department monitors the Group as a whole to ensure that appropriate human capital management is being conducted, confirms strategic alignment, and identifies risk events.
The Human Resources Dept. of the Business Operations Div. is positioned as the organization that executes the strategy. The department plays the role of providing and executing a series of human capital management functions—including recruitment, development, systems, evaluation, allocation, organizational development, and data analytics—to business companies and Group companies in Japan and overseas, in alignment with the strategy.
Business companies and Group companies in Japan and overseas possess functions to autonomously consider and implement human resources measures optimized for their respective business characteristics and regional needs. To maintain consistency with the overall policies of the Group, we regularly confirm alignment with strategies and policies, monitor the progress of measures, review KPI trends, and communicate management's intentions through multi-layered committees and other bodies led by the Human Resources Strategy Dept. and the Human Resources Dept. of the Business Operations Div.
Human Resource Management SystemNiterra Group recognizes that our its employees are the most important management resource and promotes management focused on human capital by supporting the autonomous growth of our employees, we will build a relationship of continuous mutual growth for both our employees and the company, aiming for a state where every individual maximizes their full potential. From FY2025 onwards, we will drive our human resource management strategy based on the following four key elements.
The first is "Aspiration." Aspiration is the source of power that drives each individual to act autonomously, encouraging employees to create their own future through work by maintaining a strong sense of purpose. Moving forward, we will provide broader and fairer opportunities for each individual to hold and achieve their aspirations.
The second is "Professionalism." We expect employees to embrace the mentality of professionalism by understanding what is necessary for their desired challenges and enhancing their own value. Furthermore, through revisions to our personnel system, we will introduce a healthy level of rigor to ensure that employees receive fair evaluations as professionals.
The third is "Diversity." To ensure that the Company continues to deliver value even amidst rapid changes in the external environment, we believe it is crucial for a diverse range of human resources from various backgrounds to unite and multiply the strength of the team. Going forward, we will foster a corporate culture that enables a broader range of diverse talent to flourish, encompassing differences not only in gender and nationality but also in lifestyles, personality, and values.
The fourth is "Incentives." By providing incentives based on role and performance and offering fair opportunities, we will create a healthy competitive environment that encourages ambitious growth among individuals. This approach will ultimately attract and retain outstanding talent both internally and externally, contributing to sustainable growth and development.
From FY2025 onwards, we will drive Niterra Talent Management with the core principle of human capital management being: “At Niterra, the personal growth of each individual is the driving force that fosters their contribution to the sustainable development of the Niterra Group.”
To achieve this, we will support the autonomous career development of each employee by clarifying in-house jobs and outlining clear career paths. Specifically, we will implement "Global Grading" to measure core positions across the Group using a common standard, and "Global Job Posting" which publicly discloses internal positions based on the grading, enabling employees to apply for internal transfers by raising their hand.
As of the end of March 2025, our Group has 62 overseas locations, with overseas sales accounting for over 80% of total sales, and personnel at overseas subsidiaries making up over 40% of the Group's total employees. In this internal environment, we are introducing Global Grading as a part of our human capital management initiatives. By setting a common grading for core positions in both domestic and overseas Group companies, we aim to clarify the value of each job and further strengthen the optimal placement of personnel across the entire Group. Specifically, we will identify core positions and their corresponding key talent across our group companies in Japan and overseas. By enhancing strategic development planning and appointments and ensuring effective succession planning, we will contribute to the sustainable enhancement of our corporate value.
To encourage our employees to develop their career autonomously, we will introduce the global job posting system during the period of the Medium-Term Management Plan 2030. This system will disclose the job descriptions for core positions, both domestic and overseas, internally, allowing employees to express their aspiration to be transferred. After a selection process, the official appointees will be decided.
Although we have previously implemented an internal job posting system, its company-wide adoption faced challenges, as the disclosure and utilization of open positions were often limited to specific departments. During the period of the Medium-Term Management Plan 2030, we will include overseas positions into the posting system, which allow our employees to map out career paths that include overseas experience. In addition, we will expand the disclosure of domestic positions and increase the number of attractive internal job openings, as we strive to attract and retain top talent.
In 2017, our Group has reorganized and formulated the fundamental philosophy that has been valued since the establishment of the Morimura-gumi, the foundation of the Morimura Group, as the "Niterra Way" (formerly the "Nittoku Way"). Approximately ten years after its formulation, we recognize the challenge that its alignment by domestic and overseas employees is still halfway complete.
As we actively pursue business diversification and global expansion, our organization is becoming increasingly diverse. We believe it is crucial for the "Niterra Way" to serve as the unifying foundation that connects this talent.
Therefore, it is essential that this philosophy is deeply instilled and actively embodied by every employee.
In order to support employees' independent career development, we have a system in place for implementing the “Career Design Cycle.”
Specifically, in the “WILL” step, participants think about what they want to achieve and what they want to be through a system called “My Career,” in which they discuss their own careers with their supervisors every year. In the “CAN” step, the skills that need to be developed are identified using a skill map, and the role expected in the “MUST” step is connected to the “WILL” and “CAN” of the individual. We implement a career design cycle that involves regular interviews and daily 1-on-1s with the workplace supervisor to ensure that the two parties are on the same page.
We have systematized educational content to support the realization of designed careers, and with regard to core skills, we provide employees with opportunities for self-improvement by making a list of recommended training programs according to the skills they wish to develop and making them available to them.
In the process of the career design cycle, we have established a career consultation service so that employees can consult with us at any time if they have any concerns about their daily work or careers. Employees who are qualified as career consultants provide one-on-one counseling and support to help the clients find answers on their own.
To adapt swiftly to changes in the business environment and transform our talent portfolio, we are actively promoting mid-career hiring (including for managerial roles), focusing primarily on Corporate divisions, new business divisions, and IT departments.
We are proactively hiring foreign national employees to foster the active participation of a diverse talent pool in response to accelerating globalization. We continuously recruit foreign nationals for new graduate positions, and in recent years, we have focused on hiring individuals with specialized expertise from overseas universities, in addition to international students at universities in Japan.
Furthermore, we are dedicated to increase the hiring ratio of women employees and individuals with disabilities. Diverse talent, including experienced professionals and foreign national employees, thrive in workplaces across the company, advancing our company-wide commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I).
Our company utilizes a fair and equitable personnel system that rewards achievements and challenges, of factors such as age or gender.
We have introduced a compensation structure that reflects the performance of an employee's respective division.
This system encourages each employee to focus on delivering outcomes that contribute to our business and performance, thereby driving greater operational efficiency.
At the beginning of each term, individual goals aligned with organizational objectives are set through initial interviews. Daily progress is tracked through one-on-one meetings and progress reports. Medium-Term interviews are then held to review performance in the first half of the term and discuss the approach for the second half. Finally, a formal performance evaluation is conducted during the end-of-term interview. By providing feedback on evaluation results and advice from managers, we support continuous performance improvement and future career development.
For core (managerial) positions, we employ a role-based grading system. By setting role ranks and compensation based on the required responsibilities, we ensure a transparent structure where compensation aligns directly with the actual role performed.
Furthermore, we have abolished seniority requirements for promotion, not only for managerial roles but also for general staff positions. This promotes the early advancement of high-performing individuals, regardless of tenure.
Core positions are designated as either Managerial (M) positions or Specialized Professional (SP) positions.
This structure allows M positions to focus on management and SP positions to concentrate on applying their expertise, leading to more efficient business operations. By clarifying individual roles, we accelerate innovation, ensure "the right person in the right role," and facilitate the achievement of our organizational goals.
We have established various award systems to encourage employees to engage in various activities.
The NITTOKU BX AWARD is an internal contest designed to recognize employees who embody the spirit of “Beyond ceramics, exceeding imagination” and exhibit the mindset of Nittoku Way. Established in FY2021, the award aims to promote understanding and dissemination of the “Nittoku Way” and the “2030 Long-Term Management Plan NITTOKU BX,” encourage “unprecedented changes,” and recognize individuals who “speak of dreams and make them come true.”
We invite submissions for activities that have achieved unprecedented changes or are currently making efforts to achieve them, as well as activities that contribute to society or the NITTOKU Group. From among the activities submitted by employees, we select excellent activities and award the President’s Prize (one per year from all activities) and the Excellence Awards (top ten every six months).
To encourage employees’ inventions related to patents, utility model rights, or design rights, we recognize employees whose inventions demonstrate creativity, possess high technical value, and are considered to make a significant contribution to our company. These employees are rewarded with cash incentives.
The Niterra Group recognizes that respecting the diverse individuality of each person and enhancing their motivation and capabilities is essential for the sustainable growth of our people and organization. Based on this belief, we have positioned the enhancement of employee engagement as a critical management issue and are promoting it throughout the company. Through the engagement survey conducted every year, we visualize "the state of our people and organization" quantitatively and qualitatively, clarify current issues, and consider and implement concrete measures to realize a better state. In this process, the HR division takes a central role in aligning understanding across the company through discussions with executives and sessions to share initiatives with general managers and managers. At the same time, each workplace takes the lead in holding workshops where all members take ownership and consider initiatives to create a better workplace. As a result of these activities, engagement has steadily improved, rising from 3.30 at the end of FY2022 to 3.48 at the end of FY2025. We will continue to work as a united Group to enhance employee engagement toward the growth of our people and organization.
In the new Medium-Term Management Plan starting in FY2025, the employee engagement score will be designated as a KGI (Key Goal Indicator) for our talent strategy. Until now, we have measured overall satisfaction based on hygiene factors, such as ease of working, and motivation factors, such as "job satisfaction." However, a key challenge has been that scores for "job satisfaction" items remain low compared to the improvement in overall satisfaction resulting from enhancements to the working environment, such as health and productivity management. Therefore, moving forward, we will promote optimal talent management ("right person in the right place") and focus on items related to "job satisfaction" (e.g., sense of fulfillment in work, sense of fit, and loyalty to the company). We aim to raise this score from a company-wide average of 3.37 at the end of FY2025 to 3.56 or higher by the end of FY2030. We will achieve these goals by implementing various measures under Niterra Talent Management.
Furthermore, while the engagement survey results have been used as one of the indicators for calculating executive bonuses since FY2022, "employee engagement" will also be introduced as an indicator for performance-linked stock compensation for executives starting in FY2025. By doing so, we will clearly position the enhancement of engagement as a key management indicator and accelerate our human capital management toward the sustainable growth of the entire Group.
We were honored to receive the excellence award of “6th Platinum Career Award” (hosted by Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.), which recognizes initiatives to support employees' autonomous careers.
The “Platinum Career” is a career vision characterized by three elements: long-term perspective (career development that continues regardless of age), autonomous learning (career development in which employees actively learn and gain experience on their own), and solving social issues (career development with an awareness of the need to solve social issues through business). The “Platinum Career Award” is designed to promote this philosophy in society by recognizing companies that support the development of platinum careers for their employees.
We received the Excellence Award out of a total of 116 companies that applied for the award, in recognition of its “high attendance rate (99%) for DX literacy training,” “visualization of employee skills and provision of learning opportunities for missing skills,” and “fostering awareness and information disclosure of career autonomy
