Create an Open, Flat, and Agile Corporate Culture

Initiatives Aimed at Increasing Employee Engagement

We aim to co-create with our employees a better company, one in which all employees can thrive and feel rewarded, and we are working to stimulate internal communication to this end. We create a safe and secure environment where everyone can speak openly and freely and stimulate robust internal communication to enhance the growth and engagement of every employee. We consider this to be the foundation for ensuring that everyone fully understands the company-wide and department-specific targets.

To foster this sort of corporate culture and enhance employee engagement, we rolling out various measures, including an Employee Engagement Survey which is conducted once a year to regularly and quantitatively assess the status of employees and the organization, identify issues, and lead to measures for improvement; the Next Forum where employees and management can directly discuss, exchange opinions on, and make proposals about company-wide issues; and Townhall Meetings in which members of management directly explain the state of our business to employees.

Efforts to improve workplace culture and engagement
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出光興産, DFF Inc.

Dialog Between Management and Employees

Next Forum initiatives

Next Forum is a company meeting for employees and management to directly discuss, exchange opinions on, and make proposals about company-wide issues with the aim of co-creating a better company. Meetings are held twice a year, and forum members (a total of approximately 100 members from all 47 departments) selected from each department gather opinions from the workplace and directly communicate with management. Meetings in FY2022 were held in September 2022 and February 2023.

Engaging in a series of dialogs with management through the Next Forum venue and taking concrete action fosters a sense of involvement in forum members and this is leading to a real sense of change among employees. In FY2023, we will further expand opportunities to provide information to forum members and improve their skills so they will be able to present more concrete proposals to management in order to transition into phase of taking action on company-wide issues that were identified in FY2022. By doing so, we will implement activities that are linked to our human capital strategy and forum members will feel involved in management and gain a sense of growth and engagement.

Numerous actions taken based on Next Forum dialogs are leading to improvement on company-wide issues and the opinions of employees are reflected and acted upon in company-wide activities. We have implemented numerous measures such as townhall meetings to provide opportunities for employees to learn about company policies and the views of management; workshops for general managers, deputy general managers, and managers to stimulate communication among departments; expanding the information and support needed for career-building; and disclosure of the careers of general managers.

We will continue to provide an environment where all employees can grow and achieve self-actualization, and always derive a sense of engagement and pride in their work.

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The Next Forum in October 2023

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Employee engagement survey

Placing emphasis on maximizing the growth and engagement of people, we conduct an employee engagement survey once a year to quantitatively and continuously analyze employees’ engagement, mutual trust, and unity, and to grasp the state of our organization. The results of the survey are fed back to management and all employees. Then they are analyzed in detail, and specific action plans are formulated and implemented based on it. The results of these analyses and plans are then confirmed in the next year’s survey. This is the PDCA cycle.

Overview of FY2023 employee engagement survey
Survey period Late July–early August 2023
Scope A total of 11,522 people at Idemitsu and 29 affiliates and subsidiaries in Japan and overseas
Response rate 96.1%
Features of the FY2023 survey We can see an improvement in the “Engagement Score” we use as an indicator. The gap in the scores between those with different attributes (especially gender and age group), which has been issue, has shrunk overall.
We believe that we have been successful in deploying detailed measures for those with each type of attribute. In particular, the scores of young employees (those in their 20s and 30s), many of whom work at refineries and complexes, have improved significantly. We believe this is a result of the DE&I Committee’s initiatives and taking career-related measures to support the growth of individuals. We will continue to identify the essential issues through dialogue between management and employees to lead to appropriate actions in the future.
Engagement score (gender)
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Engagement score (age group)
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Toward maximizing employee engagement

The chart on the right shows the trend of scores for the six issue items that we place particular emphasis on over the five-year period beginning in FY2019. FY2019 is the year when Idemitsu Kosan and Showa Shell Sekiyu integrated their businesses and made a new start. All items improved overall, but the breadth of improvement in “DE&I” was particularly strong.

“Employee Engagement Score” is highly correlated with “Management Philosophy/Strategic Policy,” “Opportunities for growth,” and “DE&I.” We believe that a concentrated approach to the issue items that are less satisfactory than those in general industry, based on the correlation with the “Employee Engagement Score,” will lead to further improvement of employee engagement.

Our six key issue areas of emphasis
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Townhall meetings

Townhall meetings are held to provide opportunities for employees to engage in dialog with management and learn about company policies and the views of management. Questions gathered from employees in advance are answered by members of management at townhall meetings and they also answer questions via online chats.

In addition to the biannual townhall meetings, mini townhall meetings are held to explain financial results and to allow direct dialogue between controlling officers and employees of business departments.

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Mini townhall meeting in the business department

Exchange of opinions with employees on HR policies

We strive to comply with all applicable labor laws and regulations at home and abroad and to create workplace environments in which all employees can concentrate on their work with assurance and satisfaction. Based on the Labor Standards Act, an employee representative creates written opinion statements accompanying the formulation of or amendment to labor agreements and/or the rules of employment.

Dialogues between employees and the Company and notifications of changes to various HR measures, including the rules of employment, are conducted mainly at the Next Forum and employee briefings.

In addition, Idemitsu’s labor union named Forward Together with Our Energy (FTOE) regularly holds labor-management discussions related to the Company’s management situation, vision, policies, workplace environment, and more. Through these efforts, we aim to develop policies that are highly acceptable by employees, including various HR initiatives, salary levels, labor conditions, and welfare benefits. We are also considering soliciting public comments from employees when designing HR systems in the future.

出光興産, DFF Inc.

Promoting an Open, Flat, and Agile (OFA) Corporate Culture

Promotion of Activity Based Working (ABW)

We will respond rapidly and flexibly to all changes in the business environment and achieve our business goals. We are pursuing Activity Based Working (ABW) to rise to the challenge of increasing the productivity, engagement, and creativity of each employee, as the driving force behind that. ABW signifies “at any time, at any place, with anyone” and means establishing an environment where employees can independently choose the working style that is optimal for them, regardless of time or place.

We have been promoting Activity Based Working (ABW) to improve employee productivity since relocating to Otemachi Head Office in December 2020. We collect the opinions of our employees through a questionnaire every year. We then reflect those opinions in the office. We launched the Otemachi Office Improvement Project to enhance our office improvement structure in FY2023. We established guidelines which describe how to use each space in the office in July 2023. These guidelines ensure everyone is able to effectively use each space. In addition, we are working on a daily basis to create an even more comfortable working environment for our employees. For example, we provide office guidance for employees who have transferred to the office and change spaces which are used only infrequently. We are pursuing ABW in each complex and business site, in addition to the Head Office.

写真

The Otemachi Office Improvement Project

出光興産, DFF Inc.