Attracting and Developing Value-Creating Human Resources

Basic Policy

Acquiring Diverse Human Resources that Contribute to the Organization

“Believing in people” embodies our approach to human resources development, one the company has valued since its founding. We support ambitions to venture into new fields, prioritizing above all else confidence in the future and the determination to think, learn and act on one’s own initiative. To recruit human resources, we carry out the following types of activities, hoping to encounter diverse talent.

New Graduate Recruitment (Management Track/General Track)

New graduate recruitment targets students expected to graduate from high school, colleges of technology, university or graduate school. We hire new graduates as global management track employees and non-transfer general track employees.

Mid-Career Recruitment

Mid-career recruitment targets people already in work with business experience. Whenever the company ventures into a new business domain, expertise needs to be brought in from outside. We actively hire people with experience in new domains.

Recruitment of Foreign Personnel (International Associates Program)

The International Associates Program (IAP) is one way we promote hiring of foreign personnel. Under the program, recently graduated foreign nationals come to work in an office in Japan for two years. Dating back more than three decades, the IAP has seen nearly 100 participants hired to date from countries all over the world. Many participants stay on to work for the Alps Alpine Group even after completion of the program. Four people joined the program in fiscal 2024.

Recruitment of People with Disabilities

Alps Alpine also conducts activities with a view to recruiting people with disabilities. We are bolstering recruitment of people with disabilities by expanding employment opportunities, accepting applicants for work experience, and collaborating with outside support organizations.

Hiring Women as Engineers

From a perspective of securing human resources for the medium to long term and finding diverse human resources, we are strengthening our efforts to recruit recently graduated women as engineers. One initiative has been the holding of career workshops for female science students. At these workshops, we explained our in-house efforts to support work-life balance and held a roundtable discussion with women engineers.

Securing Key Production Engineering Personnel

Production engineering personnel help maintain a stable manufacturing framework through the development of production equipment and other facilities. Jobseekers, however, say it is hard to envisage what a production engineer does. To raise the fulfillment rate for production engineering positions, we are working to familiarize students wanting to be engineers with the job by making information sessions more substantial, including with workplace visits.

Review of Recruitment Messaging and Methods

Guided by our newly established Vision 2035, we are revamping our recruitment messaging and visuals so that people can better understand and relate to Alps Alpine’s way of thinking. Our hope is that we get to engage with, and develop alongside, a more diverse range of human resources.

Internship Program Enhancement

To minimize deviation from new graduate recruits’ expectations about working at Alps Alpine and help ease them into their jobs, we are strengthening our internship programs for technical and engineering roles. There are two programs – a job- or business-specific program, and a work experience course. These provide opportunities for prospective employees to gain the real-life work experience they are seeking.

Retention and Development of Human Resources

Onboarding support

Training and assistance is provided at different stages to support the growth and development of new employees.

Retention and Development of New and Junior Employees

New Employee Training

New employee training imparts knowledge essential to everyone joining the company. The training covers the transition from student to working life, the acquisition of basic knowledge and understanding about the company’s culture, and teamwork, and is delivered through lectures and group exercises.
With the aim of enhancing development of software-related human resources, we incorporate DX training. Participants have an opportunity to demonstrate what they learn in the second half of the training period.

Pulse Surveys

Simple employee attitude surveys (pulse surveys) are conducted once a month to aid the retention of new employees. By ascertaining levels of job satisfaction and mental health on a regular basis and quickly following up to address the issues of each person, we help to prevent mental health problems and early job departure.

Manufacturing Training

As a company that manufactures products, new employees undergo one month of manufacturing training in an actual manufacturing operation. The objective is to have new employees think for themselves, looking out for wastefulness in frontline operations and considering ways to produce more efficiently, before applying that experience and know-how in their respective roles.

Third-Year Training

This is training for employees reaching the end of their initial phase of employment in their third year. Employees learn what is expected of them after having reached their third year and they review their own weaknesses and strengths based on a questionnaire completed in advance by colleagues. It gets them thinking about how to proceed going forward, including their career options.
During the training, participants prepare an action plan that they will consciously seek to implement back in the workplace. Drawing on not only their own ideas, but also conversations with one another, the plan takes participants a step closer to achieving expected improvements in role behavior.

Developing Human Resources Through Training

Alps Alpine provides a variety of training programs to assist employees along their envisioned career paths.
We strive to foster a corporate culture where employees keep growing through learning – each person augmenting their skills and expanding their knowledge. In addition to essential level-specific training adapted to the individual’s career stage, teaching them business and management skills, we offer elective training for those with an interest in a particular area, and engineer training for the purpose of raising the basic engineering capability of engineers.

Education and Training Framework（Alps Alpine Co., Ltd.）

Support for People Management

Practicing and Promoting Dialogue-Based Management

Dialogue and mutual understanding among senior executives, managers and employees are vital for bringing out the strengths of diverse and autonomous individuals, allowing us to achieve the best possible results as an organization along with sustainable corporate growth. New manager and new senior manager training is provided to employees taking up additional managerial responsibility to strengthen their understanding of the role and their management abilities. Newly appointed managers also get to better acquaint themselves with the philosophy of founder Katsutaro Kataoka and Alps Alpine culture through a visit to the Alps Alpine Culture Museum “Shoshikan” housed inside the founder’s former private residence.
In fiscal 2023, training for the purpose of communicating roles and expectations was extended to assistant managers, who are leaders in the workplace and represent the company’s core. Our aim is to have management personnel interact closely with each employee and push them to challenge themselves.

Expansion of Support for Diverse Value Creation

Enhancing Training for Development of Value-Creating Human Resources

Alps Alpine has designed and introduced an original development program to help employees enhance their capacity for self-transformation – allowing them to flexibly adapt to change in an age of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity – and acquire the capacity to create value. Around 15 mid-level and junior employees selected through an internal application process took part in the program. They examined the company’s core competencies and endeavored to enhance their powers of perception. As outputs from the training, they presented the discoveries they made during the program, and a “declaration of transformative action,” as well as a new business concept proposal. Participants will continue to work on developing a mentality for devising business concepts and enhancing practical skills, thereby contributing to ongoing value creation.

Human Resources Development by Functional Headquarters

Engineering Headquarters

A diverse range of courses covering introductory, basic, applied, and specialized content are provided to match the skill level of the engineer. In fiscal 2024, a total 3,400 employees sat 188 courses. Development of highly specialized human resources in the software domain is considered a key challenge and we have been actively deploying educational initiatives accordingly. As an example, we help employees acquire advanced practical work skills through an artificial intelligence and data science course, run in collaboration with Institute of Science Tokyo (Science Tokyo), and education about development approaches, including model-based development, as required for software-defined vehicles. Furthermore, we are strengthening engineer training by providing effective, structured, and ongoing (including on-demand) opportunities for learning about basic theory (e.g. the four fundamental forces (mechanics), electrical circuits, and mathematics), drawing examples from in-house products. Through such activities, we aim to develop human resources who can flexibly and continually adapt to highly changeable market environments.

Production Headquarters

Training relevant to career development is provided mainly to junior-level employees working in a manufacturing setting. By helping employees feel invigorated in their jobs, with the ability to perceive their own progress, we enjoy a higher level of employee engagement. We also undertake specialized “pro activity” education, such as precision mold machining and micromachining of parts, to realize high added value in manufacturing. “Pro activity” is arranged in a way that allows many employees to keep polishing their skills, including through a certification system.

Sales & Marketing Headquarters

“Sales University” seminars are regularly held to improve employees’ sales skills and knowledge of products. A diverse range of themes are covered, including Alps Alpine product knowledge, marketing matters, financial matters, information systems, and market-specific trends, such as software-defined vehicles. We also provide a variety of education programs, including training for first- and second-year employees to teach sales basics, training for junior employees to have them consider a career in sales and increase their motivation, and also measures to heighten employees’ management capability.

• Attracting and Developing Value-Creating Human Resources
• Fostering a culture that empowers individuals (Work Environment)
• Fostering a culture that empowers individuals (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion)
• Respect for Human Rights
• Workplace Environment, Health & Safety