Engagement with Employees

Hitachi Cable is striving to develop its human resources through a fair personnel system and various measures, while promoting a work-life balance and other initiatives to provide an employee-friendly work environment.

Respecting Human Rights

\In its Business Ethics Handbook, the Hitachi Cable Group declares that it respects the personalities and human rights of its individual employees and will never commit any discrimination or unjustified acts. Under the basic stance of "not allowing any kind of harassment to occur" and "taking the appropriate measures, including awareness- raising activities and education, in order to prevent various types of harassment from taking place," the Group encourages the prevention of harassment. To be precise, contact persons are assigned at individual offices and workplaces to provide consultation, and awareness- raising activities are conducted as appropriate, taking advantage of the Intranet, in-house magazines and other measures.
Furthermore, Hitachi Cable is providing position-specific and other types of education programs on a variety of human rights-related subjects, such as Dowa issues, discrimination based on ethnicity, disabilities and gender, and gender harassment. Through these programs, the Company is disseminating accurate information and promoting proper understanding of these subjects among its employees, while encouraging appropriate approaches to these subjects.

Human Affairs Systems and Human Resources Development

Improving Management-by-Objectives System and Formulating Role Definitions

To enable employees to promote the enhancement of their ability and skills and to encourage autonomy, Hitachi Cable has continued to update its human affairs systems. The management-by-objectives system was introduced to managerial employees and above in 1995 and has been improved every year by, for example, expanding the coverage to all employees on a major career path.
In FY2009, Hitachi Cable stipulated the roles and requirements expected of line managers in Role Definitions, updated the management-by-objectives system based on this, and restructured and simplified the system to agree with the original goal of management by objectives of "human resources development" and "assessment." The Role Definitions were prepared on the basis of interviews with about 70 managerial employees, including executives, as well as medium-term management plans and other management policies. The goal here is to facilitate workplace management more suitable for accomplishing business strategies by enabling individual line managers to set targets and manage their implementation based on their defined roles.
By integrating Role Definitions and the managementby- objectives system and running its PDCA cycle every year, Hitachi Cable commits itself to "developing independent human resources" and "establishing reasonable assessment systems."

Business-Specific On-the-Job Training

We started a "business-specific on-the-job training" course with new college and university graduates who joined Hitachi Cable in FY2009. Under this new scheme, when each new employee has gained a basic understanding of the department he or she has been posted to, the new employee will then receive on-the-job training at a business department related to his or her department (mainly a plant) for a period of three to six months. The purpose of this training course is to help new employees understand the basic concept of "manufacturing" and operational and supply-chain flows and to raise awareness of the significant responsibility inherent in "manufacturing."
In FY2010, the second year of this scheme's implementation, a total of 64 new employees took the course, deepening their understanding of the operations conducted at the individual departments to which they were assigned. Reflecting on successes and failures in the first year, in FY2010, we designated section chiefs of the departments to which those new employees were assigned as on-the-job training instructors. These instructors worked to promote effective and practical training.
Building on this training system, Hitachi Cable plans to reinforce its educational and training infrastructure, thereby becoming a company with employees who will contribute to the sustainable development of society.

Overseas operations training

Ever since its commencement in 1978, this training system has enabled employees to gain overseas operational experience. The goal of the system is to help participants master the practical command of a foreign language and to attain operational expertise in the international community at local language schools, universities or professional schools while attaining experience at our overseas Group companies. There are one-year and short-term (3 to 6 months) courses available, greatly contributing to the development of human resources with global business capabilities among young to middle-rank employees.

Comment by Overseas Operations Training Participant

Takayuki Kishimoto Global Business Development Office, Global Business Development Planning Department, Global Business Development Group, Hitachi Cable I had long hoped to participate in this training program and was finally able to join the program in my seventh year after joining the Company. I was sent to San Jose, California for about a year. In fact, I was the first participant, throughout the history of this program, to be dispatched to a customer's office, instead of to a Hitachi Cable overseas subsidiary. Naturally, it was extremely difficult for me to adjust to everything new, from work processes and workplace environment to language and in-office relations. At the same time, however, it was a very meaningful experience to try to sell services offered by a Hitachi Cable customer to whom I had previously provided business proposals and sold Hitachi Cable systems. This is definitely something that I would never be able to experience if I had been dispatched to a Hitachi Cable subsidiary. So, for me, participating in the training program was a truly invaluable experience. Today, I belong to the Global Business Development Planning Division and am involved with activities aimed at expanding overseas sales of information- and communication- related systems, particularly in Asia. I feel a sense of fulfillment when the experience and personal connections that I nurtured through the training program actually help me out in my daily operations. I hope to see many young Hitachi Cable employees take advantage of this training program and develop their strengths and international business capabilities.

Initiatives to Promote Diversity

Promoting Diversity in Human Resources

Hitachi Cable promotes diversity management to integrate the ability and value of diverse human resources into one to invigorate the entire organization, regardless of personal attributes (gender, age, nationality and physical/mental challenges.)

Expanding Opportunities for Female Workers

Currently, the ratio of females having managerial roles at Hitachi Cable is rather low when compared with other Hitachi Group companies and major global companies, and we are somewhat behind in terms of the active roles that females play within the Company.
For this reason, we set a target of promoting the employment of females taking a major career path so that the ratio reaches 20% among all the newly employed candidates planning to take a major career path. Thus, within the last ten years, the number of females planning to take a major career path has increased fivefold. We continue to enthusiastically employ female employees on a major career path and promote the education and development of female candidates for managerial posts.
In becoming a company that can fully offer opportunities for women to exert their abilities and skills, it is essential to improve the work process and environment. This includes changing work attitudes among male employees, enhancing various systems to support a work-life balance and diverse ways of working, and promoting understanding of this initiative throughout the Company. Hitachi Cable will continue to take a wide range of initiatives so that employees can work with vigor, regardless of race, religion, age, or gender.

Promotion of Employment for the Physically and Mentally Challenged

By the end of FY2008, Hitachi Cable, on a non-consolidated basis, succeeded in offering jobs for people with disabilities at a higher proportion than the 1.8% set by the government. The ratio in FY2010 was 1.86%, and the ratio on a consolidated basis stood at 1.92%. We continue to make efforts to expand the range of job functions available for the physically and mentally challenged, improve working environments and secure more employment opportunities for them.

Work-Life Balance

In order to enable employees to choose the ideal way to work in accordance with personal values and family conditions, a wide variety of alternatives are available. For childbirth, nursing and child rearing, and family care-giving, employees can take advantage of the temporary leave system, shorttime work system, and childbirth leave system. Hitachi Cable has also established a system to reemploy workers who left the Company for child rearing and nursing. The Company has also introduced a "volunteer vacation system." Under this system, employees may take leaves and participate in volunteer activities by taking advantage of the discretionary work and flextime systems and their paid holidays. Through this and other systems, we have established flexible working conditions. In addition, in FY2010, Hitachi Cable launched a "Change the Way of Working" initiative aimed at facilitating the realization of the optimal work-life balance for individual employees.

Comment by Nursing/Child Rearing Leave System Applicant

Mari Sunagawa Kansai Regional Operation, Hitachi Cable I used a year and a half of childbirth and nursing and child rearing leaves. Thanks to this system, I could prepare myself better for the delivery of my first baby, a bouncy little boy. Since returning to my office from these leaves, a year has already passed. But right after I returned to work, my boy had trouble getting used to the day-care center, and I took many days off due to a fever he developed. So I was worried about whether or not I would be able to continue working. However, when we used the daycare center, I was allowed to make use of the short-time work system. I could leave the office at 3:30 pm, pick up my boy and thus be with him as much as possible. To make things much easier, my boss was so very considerate, telling me to prioritize family matters. Such kind words from my boss and the help of my colleagues supported me. It was only with their support that I was able to keep going during the first year after my return. Now that I have gained confidence in balancing nursing and child rearing with work, we are thinking about having another baby.

Health and Safety

Safety Management

We endeavor to maintain high levels of health and safety standards and further improve them under the basic principle of "Protecting the health and safety of employees comes before all else."
In the area of safety management, we have established an employee health and safety management system and, accordingly, promoted related activities in a voluntary and systematic manner. To raise safety awareness in all workplaces, we are conducting risk assessment with the participation of all employees, facilitating communication through morning assembly and meetings and implementing regular safety inspection by managerial staff.
In addition, we are strengthening safety education and training and the provision of safety-related information. For example, we are providing safety training through disaster identification drills and video learning. We are also implementing safety education programs designed for inexperienced workers using materials based on past disasters and incidents, while offering employees safetyrelated information through the weekly Safety News magazine and the health and safety Intranet website.
In addition, with the aim of improving the level of safety management on a Groupwide scale, we are promoting information-sharing throughout the Hitachi Cable Group, while coordinating Groupwide safety activities.

Countermeasures against Disasters

Hitachi Cable sets December as "Disaster prevention awareness month" to raise anti-disaster awareness and to improve the disaster prevention management system. In September, we run drills to prepare for a major earthquake at our works. Also, we continue to provide various kinds of traffic safety activities for employees. These include traffic lectures, inviting law enforcement officials as speakers, providing education for new car owners who commute to work and training sessions using driving safety demo cars (touring vehicles equipped with safe-driving educational facilities).
All works of the Hitachi Cable Group have established an internal firefighting team that regularly takes part in firefighting drills to prepare for unexpected fires. In addition, both domestic and overseas Group companies conduct a comprehensive range of activities to raise employee awareness of disaster prevention.

Health Management and Mental Healthcare

Stress coping training

To protect the health of employees, Hitachi Cable works to control employees' hours of service, while providing opportunities to take regular health checkups and complete medical checkups as well as health guidance based on the results of these checkups. Meanwhile, we urge health insurance unions to introduce such mechanisms as reference services to specialist doctors and telephone health consultation. Through these mechanisms, we have built an environment where employees can work with a sense of safety and security. In recent years, mental healthcare for employees has become a critical issue for Hitachi Cable. In order to enable the prevention, or early detection, of mental health problems in employees, we are striving to enhance workplace communication and mental health education. In particular, Stress Coping Seminars are frequently held to counsel individual employees on ways of reducing stress so that they can work happily and productively. We are encouraging young and middle-aged employees to take the seminars. Also, in order to help employees solve a wide variety of mental health-related troubles through consultation, we collaborate with medical institutions within the Hitachi Group. Furthermore, the Company has established a program to assist employees who took long-term leaves due to mental healthrelated problems in returning to work and preventing a recurrence.

Sound Labor-Management Relations

At Hitachi Cable, all employees, except managerial staff, belong to a labor union. To promote communication between employees and management, refine corporate management, improve business development and enhance working conditions for employees, Central Management Committee meetings between representatives from the Head Office and Labor Union Headquarters and Works Management Committee meetings between representatives from each business site and Labor Union branch office are held twice a year.
In addition, when establishing, amending or abolishing various systems related to labor conditions, Hitachi Cable and the Labor Union establish task forces for discussions, making efforts to maintain and strengthen sound and favorable labor-management relations.
During FY2010, the Company and the Labor Union particularly focused their discussions on such subjects as the "Change the Way of Working" initiative and the establishment of a labor-management committee aimed at reducing the total working hours, while promoting related activities.

Employee Benefits and Welfare

In order to make the lives of employees and their families more affluent and stable, Hitachi Cable offers a comprehensive range of measures to support them. In 2003, as one of the employee benefits and welfare initiatives to support self-help efforts and the independence of employees, the Company introduced the "Cafeteria Plan System" (selective benefit and welfare system). This system offers options to meet the different lifestyles and needs of individual employees such as "ability and skill development," "child rearing," "nursing" and "health building," in addition to such conventional benefits as dormitories for single employees and company-run houses and provision of medical services for employees. Within a range of points that each employee has earned ("Cafeteria Points"), he or she can choose the type of support wanted when necessary.

Life Plan Support

In this day of declining birthrates and an aging population, and as lifestyles in old age become more diversified, having a definitive life plan is becoming more and more important. Hitachi Cable provides information to serve as the basis for life planning after retirement (retirement benefits, company pension, welfare pension, health insurance, employment insurance, etc.) and hosts Life Plan Seminars as an opportunity to think about one's current work style and one's lifestyle after retirement.