Employment and Diversity Employment and Diversity

Human Resources Basic Philosophy

We treat our employees — each one an important asset — with respect and fairness. We also support our employees’ diverse lifestyles and individual development, and we are committed to having them grow along with the Company. To protect these valuable assets and increase their value, we drafted our Human Resources Basic Philosophy in September 2000. This document supports proactive human resource development with consideration for fairness and soundness.

Advantest’s Human Resources Basic Philosophy

At Advantest, we consider our employees to be indispensable business assets. We have established the following philosophy that underpins our personnel-related policies, and we are constantly working towards the realization of this philosophy.

1. Focusing on results

   We promote a human resources system that values and emphasizes fair treatment of employees who exhibit a can-do spirit with which they overcome challenges and achieve outstanding results.

2. Taking into consideration the needs of fairness and soundness

   We take constant care to ensure that all of our policies and systems are objective, fair, and sound, so that we can achieve the biggest and best results with our employees as a result.

3. Pro-actively supporting human resources development

   We actively support personnel that strive for self-development through persistent hard work in order to acquire advanced specialist knowledge and a broader education.

Diversity and Equal Opportunity

Diversity Management

Advantest accepts the diversity of its workforce and strives to create a workplace where every employee can achieve their potential and participate to the fullest. As stipulated in the Advantest Code of Conduct, we respect human rights and are determined to eliminate discrimination on the basis of race, creed, gender, nationality, religion, or physical disabilities.

Status of Employment

The Advantest Group pledges in its basic policy to respect the human rights of every employee and eliminate all forms of discrimination on the grounds of race, creed, gender, nationality, religion, physical disability, etc. Moreover, we are eliminating discrimination from recruitment and employee compensation practices, and striving to hire, cultivate, and promote personnel who will shine on the global stage.

The changes in the number of Advantest Group employees have been as follows.

Employee gender and female employees’ share of job categories

	Male	Female	Total	Female employees as % of total
Total	3,853	785	4,638	16.9%
Managers	1,056	65	1,121	5.8%
General employees	2,797	720	3,517	20.5%

*Scope of data: Japan and overseas - all employees (Consolidated)

*As of March 31, 2016

Employee age breakdown

	20～29	30～39	40～49	50～59	60～69
Total	203	421	981	599	3
Male	142	349	861	554	3
Female	61	72	120	45	0

*Scope of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated), regular employees only

*As of March 31, 2016

Employee breakdown by employment category

		Male	Female
Total		1,952	318
Regular employees sub-total		1,909	298
Non-regular employees sub-total		43	20
	Contract and temporary staff	32	12
	Agency workers	11	8

*Scope of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)

*As of March 31, 2016

*Scope of data: Japan and overseas - all employees

*As of March 31, 2016

Number and Percentage of employee breakdown by region

	Japan	Asia	Europe	North America
Total	546	217	166	192
Of which, number and percentage recruited locally and promoted	546 100%	203 93%	162 97%	176 91%

*Scope of data: Japan and overseas - all employees

*As of March 31, 2016

*Managerial staff is defined as staff at Grade 7 or higher on the company’s 10-grade scale.

New graduates hired

	FY2014	FY2015	FY2016
Total	42	22	7
Male	34	17	7
Female	8	5	0

*Scope of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)

Number of turnover employees

	FY2013	FY2014	FY2015
Number of Turnover Employees	102	89	49
Turnover rate	4.7%	3.9%	2.1%

*Scope of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)

Recruitment and Use of Global Human Resources

Advantest’s business has become more global in recent years, and we aim to secure personnel who understand other cultures, have high-level communication skills, and can see business through on the global stage. As the business environment becomes more borderless, it is increasingly necessary to use personnel exchanges with overseas affiliates to promote globalism in our human resources development and corporate structure.

We are putting more effort into hiring foreign students both overseas and in Japan in order to secure employees who can fulfill missions on the global stage. We continue to conduct personnel exchanges with overseas affiliates as a way of giving employees business experience in a global environment. Through everyday business and training in both organizations, technology and know-how are shared, allowing each employee to learn more advanced technology plus adaptive skills for a diverse business environment.

The human resources exchanges with overseas affiliates are implemented frequently at each division regardless of the type of job. Under this program, which is specifically designed to promote interaction among personnel in Japan and abroad, employees participate in the exchange either on a short-term or long-term basis.

These activities have enabled us to recruit a large number of foreign students studying in Japan. We now plan to extend the global reach of our recruitment activities going forward, through participation in events aimed at students studying overseas, etc. Although new employee training is generally geared toward new graduates who join the company in April, we are modifying this to allow all new graduates to take part in the training irrespective of when they start work.

As of March 2016, Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated), counted employees from 10 countries in its workforce, and six of the Company’s 24 executive officers were non-Japanese. We will continue to provide equal opportunities to all promising individuals regardless of nationality while underscoring the need to develop global personnel and global organizations through borderless promotion and personnel exchange.

Promotion and Utilization of Female Employees

We believe in always accepting diverse values and that there is a need to continue to promote change in the corporate culture to encourage active participation regardless of gender, age and nationality. However, as of March 2016 only 13.5% of overall employees and 1.8% of management are women and so expanding the employment of women is a key challenge for use. With the coming into effect of the Act Concerning Promotion of Women’s Career Activities, recognizing the importance of ensuring that employees do not work excessively long overtime hours, Advantest is implementing an action plan aimed at: (1) Bringing the number of people who work excessively long overtime hours (defined as working over 80 hours a week) over the course of a year down to zero; (2) Keeping monthly overtime hours within 30 hours.

At Advantest we hire mainly engineering students where there is a high ratio of men to women, and women were not motivated to take the entrance exam through our conventional recruitment activities. Given this situation we focused on demonstrating the benefits of our company to female engineers and strengthening our appeal to women. We make a special effort to use young female employees during laboratory visits and business facility tours, thereby reducing the distance between us and the female applicants, and we emphasize the activities of female employees in our website and hiring brochure. In addition, at employment events, we explain our systems and career plans for women and describe how Advantest’s female employees play an active role in the company.

Despite these efforts, we were not able to recruit a new female employee partly because we had lowered the number of new hiring in fiscal 2016. Advantest will continue to focus our efforts to increase the ratio of female employees in the future.

Active Use of Older Employees

Since April 2006, when the age at which national pensions are awarded was raised, it has been mandatory to take steps toward employing older workers up to the age of 65. Accompanying this change, Advantest has revised its re-employment system for older individuals and is responding flexibly to older persons’ desire for employment. Our re-employment activities entail deciding on the employment packages and job postings most suitable for actively taking advantage of the skills and know-how possessed by older adults.

Employment of People with Disabilities

Advantest Green Corporation (AGC) was established in September 2004 as a special subsidiary of Advantest for the purpose of promoting the employment of people with disabilities. Since then, AGC has been striving to offer job opportunities for, and continuous employment of, people with disabilities under the slogan, "Support employee independence and achieve social growth in partnership with the local community."

We provide AGC employees with a pleasant working environment in operations such as landscaping, cleaning, reception duties, selling bread, deliveries, and the management of dormitories. Advantest also actively takes part in various activities in partnership with local communities and relevant organizations to create workplaces where all employees, regardless of their disability status, can work comfortably.

To expand employment opportunities for the disabled, we are taking steps to make the workplace environment more conducive to their needs by, for example, standardizing work procedures, introducing equipment replenishment systems, and taking other initiatives to streamline tasks. We are also considering moves into new job categories, bringing vocational trainees on board, holding on-site workshops, and otherwise pursuing initiatives that will carry over to new employment.