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Our approach to employee development
To enhance corporate value, it is important to ensure that employees clearly understand their role, and make efforts to develop their capabilities. While employees are expected to refine their skills independently, they are also expected to work in a global arena as part of a team.
Moreover, in the process of turning innovative ideas into products and delivering them to the market, good team management skills are also indispensable.
Our human resources development is based on the three policies outlined in the illustration below in line with the Advantest 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 improving the quality of management, we conduct human resources development to develop professional employees with global-level skills. Through this policy Advantest actively supports employees who work consistently to refine their skills, acquire greater expertise, and broaden their knowledge.
Development of globally competitive professionals
Status and implementation of education and training system
Advantest Group has training programs open to every employee to teach them everything from the basics of a particular job to the latest technological trends. We are constantly studying improvements to these programs so that we can adopt new training systems in response to changes in the business environment.
Furthermore, during fiscal 2011 we identified the qualities required of employees to meet the needs of our business strategy in response to the rapidly changing business environment and our own globalization, and have created a training system that will help develop such qualities. To make this training even more effective, we have planned and implemented plans for new programs, including the expansion of our global training program.
Our existing training system is designed to train the personnel of Advantest Corporation and its affiliates in Japan. However, because this system needs to be redesigned from a more global perspective in consideration of the inclusion of Verigy Ltd. in the scope of consolidation, we have examined the training systems adopted by each of our overseas affiliates and interviewed the relevant personnel to get new ideas. With regard to the newly added training programs, we have decided to use both external and internal instructors depending on the program course and to conduct effective programs taught by specialists in the respective fields.
The new training programs were implemented on a trial basis in fiscal 2011. As surveys conducted after the program showed that many attendees found the programs useful, they will be provided again in fiscal 2012. With regard to the new training system, we plan to finish developing it by incorporating the views of both Japanese and overseas affiliates to make the system more global-oriented.
| Program | Objective | For | No. of times implemented | No. of trainees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subordinate Development Training | Enhance management skills | Managers | 2 | 40 |
| Mental Wellbeing Training | Enhance management skills | Managers | 14 | 403 |
| Sexual Harassment and Abuse of Power Prevention Seminar* | Enhance management skills | Managers | 1 | 59 |
| Project Management Training* | Enhance management skills | General employees | 1 | 24 |
| Career Development Program | Enhance management skills | General employees | 1 | 15 |
| Problem-Solving Training | Enhance marketing skills | Engineers | 3 | 67 |
| Technology Marketing Course | Enhance marketing skills | Engineers | 2 | 33 |
| Global Mindset Training* | Enhance communication skills | Managers | 2 | 30 |
| Business Communication Training* | Enhance communication skills | General employees | 3 | 37 |
| Cross-Cultural Understanding Training* | Enhance communication skills | General employees | 2 | 54 |
| Confidence Improvement Training* | Enhance communication skills | General employees | 1 | 15 |
| Technology Seminar | Acquire knowledge about the latest technologies | Engineers | 92 | 2,084 |
∗ New programs introduced in fiscal 2011
Development of engineers
To ensure our products can continue to support technology on the leading edge, we place particular emphasis on the development of engineers.
We have created a training program in which every employee of the Group can participate. It covers a wide range of subjects, from basic knowledge to the latest technologies.
In fiscal 2011, about 90 training sessions were provided, with a total of approximately 2,000 engineers participating. The program includes seminars hosted by Advantest's senior engineers. For example, at a seminar on design quality, an employee in charge of design delivers a lecture, based on his own experience, on the basic technologies required to maintain and improve product quality. Through this program, not only technical knowledge but also Advantest’s DNA is passed on to successive generations.
New employee education and training
Advantest’s training program for new employees starts with a month-long combined group training course, which teaches new employees the basics of working life. After this, new employees receive production training — the foundation of the manufacturing industries — at our factories, as well as separate training for engineering jobs and administrative jobs.
In training by occupation, engineering staff members start off by learning design basics, and then conduct device measurement training using actual testers, hardware training that involves designing simplified testers and hardware development, and software training during which they learn about programming. Through this process they learn the skills that are required of Advantest engineers. Administrative employees receive on-the-job training in the sales, purchasing and administrative divisions to learn about the Group’s business and how the divisions are inter-related. Currently, we are considering dispatching employees abroad for training for the purpose of language study and gaining an understanding of different cultures through exchange with local people.
By having new employees experience various areas of company operations in this way, it is ensured that they will clearly understand their own roles, and value teamwork with other divisions. This is a very important period for new employees at Advantest.
New employee training
Leveraging diversity in human resources management
Advantest values the diversity of its workforce and strives to create a workplace environment where every employee can achieve their full potential.
Advantest respects the personal values of individuals and promotes a corporate climate in which all employees can be fully engaged regardless of their gender, age, or nationality. Recognizing, however, that women remain underrepresented in our workforce (accounting for 13.6% of all employees and 1.7% of all managers), we identified a need to increase the recruitment of women in fiscal 2011.
The overwhelming percentage of new graduates employed by Advantest has traditionally been male engineering majors and our earlier attempts to attract women have largely fallen short. In fiscal 2011, therefore, we participated in a job fair for women and planned and held a site tour to raise awareness of the advantages of working at Advantest among prospective female recruits, specifically engineering students. We organized a job fair specifically targeting women. At the fair, we met with a large number of students and explained Advantest’s workplace environment, possible career paths, and various programs, highlighting the areas in which female employees currently excel. In December, we also conducted a tour of Gunma R&D Center for female engineering students from around the country. Female employees that actually conduct development work held discussion meetings, during which they gave talks on developments in cutting-edge technologies and their daily lives.
As a result of these efforts, the percentage of women who joined the company as new recruits in April 2012 was 27.5%. We will continue our efforts to increase this figure.
No. of new graduates employed (Advantest Corporation)
No. of male and female employees (Advantest Corporation)
(As of March 31, 2012)
Employment and use of global human resources
In recent years, it has become increasingly necessary for the Advantest Group to strengthen its recruitment of culturally aware workers with outstanding communication skills and the ability to perform well in the global arena as our business becomes more globally oriented. In an increasingly borderless business environment, there is a need to accelerate the globalization of human resources development and organizations through active exchanges with personnel from overseas affiliates.
Under these circumstances, we are promoting the recruitment of students in other countries and foreign students studying in Japan to expand the workforce and remain competitive in the global arena. In addition, we are planning exchanges of human resources between Advantest Corporation and its overseas affiliates to allow employees on both sides to work in different cultural environments and share knowledge and expertise with local employees through daily operations and training. Through this exchange program, participating employees are expected to improve their job skills, versatility and adaptability to a range of environments.
In 2011, Advantest participated in job fairs for foreign students held all over Japan to boost recruitment of international employees. We also timed induction activities for each overseas student to coincide with their graduation and start date, taking a more flexible approach than in the past to help ease them into their new environment.
The human resources exchanges with overseas affiliates are implemented frequently at each division regardless of 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.
As a result of these activities, we were able to recruit students in overseas countries and foreign students studying in Japan through the job fairs. We plan to participate in similar job fairs, both overseas and in Japan, to further globalize our recruitment activities. Although new employees training is generally geared toward new graduates who join the company in April, we are modifying this to allow all new graduates to take the training irrespective of when they start work.
We presently count among our workforce employees from ten countries and four of the 17 executive officers at Advantest Corporation are non-Japanese. We will continue to provide equal opportunities to all promising individuals regardless of nationality while underscoring the need to develop a global perspective and global organizations through borderless promotion and personnel exchange.
Active use of elderly employees
Since April 2006, when the age at which national pensions are awarded was raised, it has been mandatory to gradually employ elderly persons up to the age of 65. Accompanying this change, Advantest has revised its re-employment system for elderly persons and responded flexibly to individuals desiring employment. In our re-employment activities, we decide on an employment package and posting most suitable for actively taking advantage of the skills and know-how possessed by elderly persons.
Users of the re-employment system (Advantest Corporation)
