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The Human Resource Development Policy

To enhance corporate value, we need to ensure that employees clearly understand their role and make the effort to develop their capabilities. We expect our employees to show initiative with respect to refining their skills, and at the same time we encourage them to effectively leverage their respective strengths in the global business arena as part of our team.

Moreover, exceptional management ability to harness combined group capabilities plays a crucial role in our turning innovative ideas into products and delivering them to the market.

Our human resources development efforts are based on the three policies outlined in the illustration below, in line with the Human Resource Development Policy established in April 2003.

Focusing on the three policies of developing an adventurous spirit among our workers, providing our workers with a cosmopolitan outlook, and upgrading management skills, we conduct human resources development to produce a professional workforce capable of navigating the global business environment. Through this policy, Advantest actively supports employees who work consistently to refine their skills, acquire greater expertise, and broaden their knowledge.

Education and Training System and Implementation Status

Advantest has prepared a training program that anyone can participate in, and where a wide range of topics can be learned, from basic knowledge up to the latest technology trends. In addition, to ensure that this training program adapts to the changing environment, we continue to consider further improvements.

With the development of globalization, in order to adapt to the changes in the wider business environment, we worked to develop a human resources education system in line with the above-mentioned human resource development policy. To make this training even more effective, we are forging and implementing new programs, including the expansion of our global training program. New programs will be delivered by specialists to make them more effective, and we will selectively use in-house or external lecturers depending on the program content.

We plan to restructure our education system by factoring in opinions from overseas as well as those from Japan, thus giving it a more global perspective.

In fiscal 2015, approximately half of all Advantest employees received training of some kind, and the average number of training hours per employees was 8 hours. (These figures exclude initial training for new employees )

Program	Objective	Target	Number of times implemented	Lesson time (hours)	Number of trainees
Subordinate Development Training	Enhance management skills	Managers, General employees	1	10.5	25
New Manager Training	Enhance management skills	Managers	1	7	23
Career Development Program	Enhance management skills	General employees	1	15	10
Career Training	Enhance management skills	Managers, General employees	2	15	56
Evaluator Training	Enhance management skills	Managers	1	8	20
Problem-Solving Training	Enhance marketing skills	Managers, General employees	1	15	24
TM Method, Problem-Solving Training (Introductory)	Enhance marketing skills	General employees	1	15	21
Technology & Marketing Training	Enhance marketing skills	Managers, General employees	1	15	21
Project Management Training	Enhance marketing skills	Managers, General employees	1	15	24
Global Mindset Training	Enhance communication skills	Managers, General employees	1	15	19
Cross-Cultural Understanding Training	Enhance communication skills	General employees	1	7.5	18
Third-Year Training	Enhance communication skills	Third-year employees	1	15	41
English-language Telephone Skills	Enhance language skills	Managers, General employees	2	10	34
English-language E-mail Skills	Enhance language skills	Managers, General employees	1	7.5	20
English-language Presentation Skills	Enhance language skills	Managers, General employees	1	7.5	20
Approaches to Learning English	Enhance language skills	General employees	16 courses	24 hours each	85
TOEIC IP test	Enhance language skills	General employees	2	2	491
IDEA HACKS! Creative Workshop	Develop ability to generate ideas	General employees	1	7.5	14
New Employee Training	Develop basic skills	New employees	1	6 month	22
Technology Seminar	Acquire knowledge about the latest technologies	Engineers	28	2-15 hour each	316

Development of Engineers

We place particular emphasis on educating engineers, with the aim of ensuring that our products continue to underpin leading-edge technologies.

We have created a training program accessible to every employee of the Group and covering a wide range of subjects, from basic knowledge to the latest technologies.

In fiscal 2015, around 30 technology seminars were provided, with approximately 320 engineers participating. The program now includes seminars hosted by Advantest’s senior engineers. For example, one of the seminars featured a lecture on design quality by an employee in charge of design, thereby shedding light on the basic technologies required to maintain and improve product quality based on the speaker's first-hand experiences. The program acts as a means of imparting not only technical knowledge but also Advantest’s “corporate DNA” to successive generations.

New Employee Education and Training

Advantest’s training program for new employees starts with a month-long, combined-group segment covering the basics of working life. After that, the new recruits are put into one of two occupation-specific training regimes, depending on whether they have been hired for engineering or administrative job assignments.

Engineering employees undergo “basic technology training” to learn the basic knowledge required, starting with the basics of design and then the methods for using products, quality assurance, and intellectual property etc., and go on to learn the necessary skills as Advantest engineers through “"manufacturing training”" (the basis of manufacturing), hardware (electrical, mechanical) and software development “development and practice training” New administrative employees do training in the three fields of sales, production, and management, to get an overview of the Group’s business and how the divisions are interrelated.

By having new employees experience various areas of company operations in this way, we are able to ensure that they will clearly understand their own roles, and will recognize the importance of teamwork with other divisions. Our training period for new recruits acts as a key formative phase in their professional development as Advantest employees.

Fair Evaluation and Treatment

The Advantest Resource Management System (ARMS)

At present, our overseas sales ratio is over 90%, and among our 4,638 employees, more than 40% (2,063) are in overseas affiliated companies, making Advantest a global company. Given this structure, we introduced the Advantest Resource Management System (ARMS), a unified human resources system, in April 2012. ARMS promotes cooperation among multiple bases around the world, as well as smooth personnel exchanges and transfers.

Under ARMS, the unique job classification systems decided on by Group companies in each country have been replaced by a new 10-level job system that is common to all. In this system, job levels 1 to 6 are for general employees, while levels 7 to 10 designate management positions. There are two management paths in this system: one for “people managers”, who manage budgets and deal with staff merit and labor issues, and one for “functional managers”, who tend to business and ensure that operations are carried out properly. Line managers with subordinates are assigned to the first path, and all other specialists are assigned to the second. With these two lines for advancement, we ensure that diverse personnel have opportunities to develop as managers.

We also apply common global rules to our pay scale, including basic pay and bonuses. Previously, for example, bonus payments in each country mainly reflected the performance of Advantest’s subsidiary or affiliate in that country, but under the new system bonus payments reflect the Company’s consolidated earnings. Starting in fiscal 2012, we have applied a new system of evaluating employee performance. No matter where Advantest employees work, they can now be evaluated and rewarded according to a common global system, with every employee receiving an evaluation/cultivation interview at least once a year.

Four years have passed since we introduced our global human resources system, during which time efforts have been made to increase the number of employees seconded from Japan to overseas postings and the number of personnel exchanges with overseas affiliates; this system has contributed to invigorating the organization and improving corporate performance.

Meanwhile, the new human resources framework offers labor management flexibility in setting up working hours, telecommuting arrangements and other job specifics, so that managers can more aptly address such matters directly in accordance with the laws and regulations of their respective nations and in line with local employment practices.

Starting from fiscal 2014, we have established a global personnel database, which is effectively utilized for project team composition and smooth personnel changes on a global scale. Beginning in fiscal 2015, we began using a new global personnel evaluation system to replace the existing personnel evaluations. In the future, we will be setting up human resource development schemes with a worldwide reach, promoting employee diversity through active efforts to hire and promote employees with differing backgrounds, and taking decisive steps toward forging an employee recruitment strategy that accords with the business strategies of our operations in diverse countries.

In the spirit of establishing ourselves as a truly global company going forward, Advantest will continue to work hard to create a professional business environment where every member of a diverse Advantest Group workforce can make the most of his or her individual capabilities.

Pension system

Domestically, Advantest employs a point system to determine retirement benefits. We have also introduced a prefunded company pension system with defined benefits. Management of pension assets is entrusted to the Advantest Corporate Pension Fund. Retirement benefits are divided into lump-sum payments, which are paid by the Company, and the pension fund portion, which is paid out according to years of service. In both cases, Advantest shoulders 100% of the cost.