Murata places great emphasis on employee satisfaction. Based on a policy of respect for human rights and fair treatment of employees, we have created a workplace environment in which our employees can display their abilities in a safe and healthy environment.
Universal and individual human rights are valued and respected at Murata. While respecting the personality and individuality of every employee, we do not allow any violation of human rights by any employee. On that basis, Murata has established a working environment and personnel system free from discriminatory treatment based on race, beliefs, gender, religion, nationality, disease, or other reasons.
Moreover, to raise employee awareness of these issues, our graded training programs include human rights education content. Throughout the Murata Group’s offices and plants, both in Japan and overseas, child and forced labor are strictly prohibited.
Murata provides employees with opportunities in their work that enable them to maximize their potential by using their personal skills. For younger employees, we offer a career development program featuring deployment in diverse roles at various locations, enabling them to plan their careers in line with their personal skills.
For those opting out of managerial channels, we have established a system to facilitate progression as highly specialized professionals, and a system for in-house staff recruitment in which employees select their own career track.
Murata aims to foster people who are self-starters, who value customer satisfaction, who display individuality and a pioneering spirit, and who are skilled at cooperating with fellow employees. We are seeking to enhance the three capacities related to the fostering of human resources as stipulated by our human resource development policy, established in 2008: The capacity to “grow” in the individual, the capacity to “foster” in the workplace, and the capacity to “nurture” as a company.
Looking at our level-based training programs, we focused on management competence in order to enhance the capacity to “foster,” and we engaged in activities that included workplace follow-up. We also continued a factory workshop for new recruits of approximately six months in duration, held to enhance the capacity to “grow.”
In 2010, we began to enhance our program for the education of selected personnel, seeking to foster human resources who will become future business leaders.
Murata Manufacturing Personnel & Industrial Relations Department confirms new employee assignments by taking a second look at each new employee's suitability and desires after one year of assignment on the job.
Moreover, Murata Manufacturing incorporates job and workplace rotation in its career development program for young employees in all occupations. Exposure to different duties and workplaces is intended to help employees discover aptitudes and strengths that they were not aware of, and to have employees apply to their future work the expertise and perspectives gained through the various jobs, workplaces and human relations encountered.
The necessity for specialized personnel with high-level specialist knowledge and technological skills is increasing in all of our fields of business. For example, we seek to develop more sophisticated and diverse functions for electronic components, and to bring together diverse technologies; responses are also demanded to complex international issues, such as intellectual property issues.
In order to respond to these demands, Murata established “Highly Specialized Professional System” in 1998. As specialists representing their respective fields, these highly specialized professionals strive to achieve ever-greater expertise, at the same time helping to foster younger employees in their fields.
Murata will continue to respect the individuality and desires of each employee as we strive to develop and enhance a personnel system that brings self-fulfillment to each employee, while responding to changing times and societal demands.
Murata has implemented an in-house staff recruitment system, with the aim of creating a corporate culture that has the spirit of challenge and independence, by giving employees the opportunities to choose their own career paths. This system also enables the Company to rapidly deploy personnel and structure its organization to meet business needs.
Since Murata’s basis for R&D lies in vertical integration of technologies, specialists in their unique technological fields are also required to maintain extensive knowledge concerning other related fields.
The Strategic Technology Program (STEP*) is Murata's original set of activities for upgrading the abilities of engineers while supporting R&D. STEP seeks to disseminate technologies throughout the Company and build a high-level technological system through flexible inter-organizational small-group activities.
Through STEP, we hold technical forums and lecture meetings, and promote information transmission and sharing among engineers. By means of these initiatives, we seek to promote the further cultivation and fusion of technologies, striving to put Murata’s unique approach to manufacturing into effect. Seeking to foster engineers, we have also held 70 Engineering Education Courses, in which top in-house engineers in each field act as instructors.
In 1981 Murata introduced its Overseas Training Program, which sends young employees abroad. The program seeks to give employees a chance to experience life and work overseas early in their careers, so as to foster engineers and businesspeople who can think and act with an international perspective. Employees in technical positions can enjoy specialized studies at overseas universities and research institutions, whereas office personnel have the chance to do language training in the U.S. or China.
Last fiscal year, the program sent about 25 employees overseas. Employees are selected for the program by recommendation or by calls for applications. In fiscal 2010, employees spent four to six months in North America, Europe and China. In fiscal 2010, the program sent more than 30 employees to study Chinese, and we intend to send around the same number of employees in fiscal 2011, in order to increase our number of Chinese-speaking personnel.
Moreover, to promote the appropriate global placement of personnel, in 2007 Murata established a rotation system for sending overseas employees to the Head Office in Japan and local affiliates in other countries.
This rotation system, which has sent an accumulated total of more than 110 employees as of fiscal 2011, not only enhances the motivation of the dispatched employees, it also encourages a borderless flow of people in each country, helping pave the way for Murata employees across the globe to act in concert toward achieving a singular goal.
To accelerate such developments, we are planning a personnel system suited to global personnel rotation, such as by creating the International Employee Program
Masamichi Andoh
Chief Researcher
Technology & Business Development Unit
Research Center for Next Generation Technology
Research Department
Functional Materials Research Unit
Material Development Management Dept.
Research & Development Center
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
To creatively develop businesses in a changing global market, it is important to build an organizational culture in which the ability and individuality of staff of different backgrounds can be fully utilized. At Murata, we offer our people equal opportunities, in hiring and after they take up their positions. Regardless of gender, race, or physical ability, employees enjoy an environment free from discrimination in treatment or training.
Number of Employees by Region
At Murata, we seek out highly talented staff members who can function on a global stage, regardless of gender. We have actively recruited women and opened up more management positions for them under an initiative to increase female representation at the top.
Murata supports wider roles for women
Based on a philosophy of treating all members of society equally, Murata is committed to expanding employment opportunities and improving the workplace environment for the physically challenged.
In addition to taking on physically challenged new graduates, Murata has long had a policy of accepting mid-career hires. We have surpassed the legal minimum for the percentage of disabled persons employed in the total workforce in each of the last five years. In fiscal 2010, the ratio was 1.85%.
Proportion of Physically Challenged Employed at Murata
We believe we play a role in the development of the electronics industries in, and contribute to the economic growth of, each of the 18 countries worldwide in which our offices and subsidiaries are located. Localized hiring and employment are part of that commitment.
In line with our expansion of overseas businesses, we have increased hiring of personnel in the China and the wider Asia region. To encourage better deployment of local talent, we compiled a three-year localization plan for overseas bases in 2007. We are systematically committed to localization, and have set numerical targets for management-level hires from the local talent pool in each overseas location.
For all regular employees hired locally by overseas facilities, from young employees to senior management, we provide management training to ensure a shared commitment to Murata’s principles and to foster the knowledge and skills needed for their realization.
Managers hired at overseas bases are sent to Japan for management training.
Staff Members Hired at Overseas Bases Dispatched to Work at Murata business locations in Japan
Murata Manufacturing has introduced an in-house staff recruitment system to provide work opportunities that make use of the knowledge and experience accumulated by older employees. Retired employees are also subject to consideration under the system, which is intended to recruit personnel with knowledge and experience relating to designated tasks in each organization of the Company. The idea is to capitalize on the expertise of older employees who can hand that expertise down within the Company, and to provide a workplace where employees can continue doing rewarding work after reaching retirement age.
Murata has a range of support mechanisms for highly-motivated employees who want to develop their career while striking a balance between work and family obligations such as maternity and care of children and elders. In response to the enactment of Japan’s Law for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation, we formulated an action plan from April 2005 that includes improving maternity leave and short-time employment arrangements, introducing special leave for infertility treatment and providing support to encourage paternity leave. A considerable number of employees have used these support systems. Consequently, we have been recognized as a business that meets the basic requirements of the Law for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation, and were awarded the Second Kyoto Prefecture Award for Support for Child-rearing.
In fiscal 2008, we held a “Children's Visiting Day” on which employees' children are invited to the workplace of their parents. From 2009, we contracted with an external company and established a child-minding support system for employees with children of elementary school age or below whose spouse also works. We also have a system under which employees with children are able to reduce their working hours by up to two hours per day; from 2010, we will expand the employees to whom this system applies from those with children up to their third year of elementary school to those with children up to the age of graduation from elementary school. Looking ahead, to promote the use of systems to help employees strike an appropriate work-life balance, we will establish guidelines and further improve such systems.
About the Law for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation
A law was formulated in July 2003 and enacted in April 2005 to promote healthy bearing and raising of children to support future societies. It obligates companies to have action plans to create environments and working conditions that enable employees to keep a balance between work and family life.
To Grow as a Mother and Person
I took one year of childcare leave. Although raising a child is tougher than I expected, I had a precious time feeling refreshed and fulfilled, since I learned a lot of valuable lessons that were different from those obtained in the workplace.
I was happy to be able to return to work after having dedicated myself to childcare for one year. I wish to grow as a mother and as a person, valuing what I learn from meeting with many people while raising my child and pursuing my career.
Tomoko Hirohata
Product Engineering Sec.
Sensor Product Div.
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
From 2010, in addition to our existing discretionary work plan for technical specialists, we have introduced the Murata Increasing Productivity System as a new discretionary work plan, this time for planning duties. The aim of the new system is to realize increased productivity by means of a self-directed work style, and at the same time to thoroughly implement health management and attempt to prevent the normalization of long working hours. Applicants for eligibility state their case to the Personnel & Industrial Relations Dept., which makes the final decision on whether they qualify, based on the perceived necessity of vesting in the applicant decision-making powers concerning the execution and duration of the work.
The Japanese Electrical Electronic & Information Union has member labor unions within Murata Manufacturing and certain subsidiaries. All employees, excepting management, of all these companies are members of the unions.
We strive for corporate development from the standpoint of labor and management, and for stability in employee lifestyles, recognizing that labor disputes can be fundamentally resolved through mutual understanding and trust. Labor-related systems and standards are set, changed and reviewed through discussions with the labor unions, and are carried out on a basis of mutual agreement. At subsidiaries with no labor unions there are employee associations or similar organizations, to which every employee outside of management belongs. These groups discuss and exchange views with top management and facilitate communication among employees. Meetings are held from time to time, to explain labor-related systems and standards to management and newly appointed officers, who do not belong to unions or employee associations.
In addition to the legally mandated annual paid leave systems, Murata has established two other systems: special paid leave for self-fulfillment and special leave to support self-development. The former system allows employees to save two days of annual paid leave per year from the portion that would have expired if not taken after two years and apply the accumulated leave toward relaxation, volunteer work, care for the elderly, nursing, medical treatment, child raising or similar purposes. The latter system supports individual career advancement by paying 30% to 100% of base salary to employees who take time off work to focus on studying or to take courses overseas with the aim of obtaining required certifications.
In fiscal 2008, jointly with labor unions, we established a special committee on working hours. The committee has continued discussions regarding future direction and policy toward increasing use of annual paid leave and reducing total hours worked per year.
Sexual harassment is a breach of Company policy and a serious human rights violation that lowers employee motivation by degrading workplace environments. Seeking to maintain comfortable workplace environments free from such acts, we have formulated a Basic Policy on Preventing Harassment that clearly states that we do not tolerate sexual harassment or power harassment, that we will take decisive action in the case of incidents of harassment, and that we will protect the rights and the privacy of victims of harassment.
In addition, we hold sexual harassment and power harassment workshops for senior staff members. The workshops show specific examples to clearly elucidate the definition and forms of sexual harassment and power harassment, measures to prevent occurrence, the handling of victims and perpetrators, and the actions each employee should take.
At Murata, we regard CS and ES as important management values. In addition, we seek to be a company that creates and supplies value that is recognized by our customers, and one whose employees are satisfied with their work and shine as professionals in their jobs. To determine whether we are genuinely making progress in this direction, we conduct surveys once every two years to make our level of achievement of these goals more visible. In the third survey, conducted in 2009, twice as many employees responded that “Our workplace is airy, and we share a philosophy and are committed to realizing our targets” than was the case in the first survey, conducted in 2005. This shows that our efforts to date have not been misdirected. In future, we wish to increase opportunities for managers and workers to mutually discuss their dreams, and to make further progress in creating a workplace in which satisfaction and growth can be realized.
CS and ES
To us, CS means Making the efforts to have our customers consistently recognize the value we offer, and ES means A workplace environment in which the employees find their work challenging and in which they can continue to grow. We seek to be constantly aware, as individuals and as an organization, of CS and ES in our daily work.
Murata has a reward system regarding new technologies developed by employees. Employees are rewarded under certain conditions, such as when a patent application is filed, a patent is granted, a patent is used internally, or Murata receives a patent royalty payment.
In evaluating patents, a review is undertaken by an “Invention Reward Reviewing Committee”. There is also a rule to accept objections from the employees against the review, in order that a fair evaluation is ensured. In fiscal 2010, a total of 3,523 employees were rewarded under the system.
Murata issued Occupational Health and Safety Policy in March 2010, and we are striving to provide our employees with a workplace environment in which they find it easy to do their jobs.
Through its business activities as a manufacturer of electronic components, Murata seeks to contribute to social development.
To this end, we position the health and safety of every individual employee in our business activities as our top management objective, and work to provide a safe and comfortable working environment enabling them to take good care of mental and physical health.
Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
President and Representative Director: Tsuneo Murata
Seeking to further enhance our occupational health and safety activities, we are proceeding with the introduction of an occupational health and safety management system based on the standard OHSAS 18001.
Our headquarters in Japan received external certification in December 2010.
Overseas, two of our bases in China, in Wuxi and Beijing, received external certification in 2007 and 2010, respectively.
We intend to extend this system to other Murata Group production bases, and plan to have successively introduced it to all our bases by the end of fiscal 2012.
In fiscal 2010, the accident frequency rate at Murata Group facilities was 0.37%.
Frequency-rate trend of industrial accidents
At Murata, we strive to create a work environment in which all employees feel mentally and physically healthy, and are able to perform their work making the greatest use of their individual abilities.
At Murata, we offer day-to-day consultations with industrial physicians and health nurses, in addition to health guidance based on the results of periodic check-ups, in order to help our employees to maintain or improve their health. Given recent increases in health awareness with the advent of metabolic syndrome and other conditions, we have also introduced light exercise classes, support for quitting smoking, classes in how to eat a balanced diet and other initiatives to support our employees in considering their own health and attempting to manage it themselves.
Long working hours can cause a variety of health problems, including brain and cardiac disorders. At Murata, employees who work more than a specified amount of overtime per month receive physical and mental health checks and consult with an industrial physician.
Murata offers mental health management measures by specialists such as mental health consultations, providing help to employees experiencing mental health problems, and also by conducting mental health education. We also contract an external consultation organization (EAP organization) to offer health consultations to employees and their families in complete privacy.
We are also introducing a “Return to the Workplace” program, which will provide support to employees who are on leave due to mental health problems, assisting them to adapt to the working environment and return to their normal job at an early stage.
Mental health education for new company employees
Opening the “Door to the Future”
Since I joined Murata, I have engaged in R&D, product commercialization and its discontinuance, spending the first half of my career life working as a chief engineer in development of a product. Hoping to contribute to the Company by making another success in the second half of my career life, I submitted a research theme to the “Door to the Future” project. The theme was adopted and currently I’m carrying on a singlehanded battle, putting it into practice. I had to begin with creating a system in a quite different field, but now I’m vigorously pursuing research thanks to help from many supporters inside and outside the Company. Passion is the primary source of energy for research. I believe that the “Door to the Future” is a wonderful project that enables us to embody our passion for research.