Employment and Diversity Employment and Diversity

Employment and Sustainability Targets

• Approach to "Employment" Sustainability Targets
• Approach to "Diversity and Equal Opportunity" Sustainability Targets

Approach to "Employment" Sustainability Targets

Human resources constitute the core part of business activities. Advantest believes that becoming a company where diverse human resources are continuously employed and work actively is important to enhance the corporate value.

Approach to "Diversity and Equal Opportunity" Sustainability Targets

Advantest recognizes the importance of developing a workplace where individual employees accept diversity, eliminate discrimination, show their maximum performance, and work actively to gain social creditability and enhance the corporate value.

Human Resources Basic Philosophy

Advantest respects employees, who are valuable assets to the company, and evaluates them fairly. Advantest is supporting the diverse lifestyles of employees as well as the growth of individual employees so that they grow together with the Company. Advantest established the human resources basic philosophy in September 2000 to protect these valuable assets and enhance their value, and is implementing various human resources measures, such as ensuring fairness and consent and actively supporting human resources development.

Advantest also supports the United Nations Global Compact 10 Principles, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and is paying adequate attention to these principles of human rights and labor in its business activities.

Advantest's Human Resources Basic Philosophy

Regarding its employees as valuable management resources (assets), Advantest has formulated the following policies for implementing various human resources measures and has been making continuous efforts to achieve them.

1. Performance-based personnel system

   Advantest will promote a personnel system where employees who overcome difficulties and achieve innovative results by challenging themselves are highly evaluated and fairly treated.

2. Fairness and consent

   Advantest will ensure that all its policies and systems are objectively fair and gain consent from employees, so that the maximum and optimal results can be achieved with these policies and systems.

3. Active support for human resources development

   Advantest will actively support employees who make continuous efforts to refine their skills, acquire greater expertise, and broaden their knowledge.

Diversity Management

Active participation of each employee is crucial for a company's sustainable growth. Thus, Advantest has "INCLUSION AND DIVERSITY" as one of its core values. We believe that creating a comfortable and inclusive workplace environment and instilling working practices that maximizes employee capabilities while balancing work and home is imperative to a company. Under this philosophy, Advantest actively works to create a workplace and corporate culture that allows each employee to maximize their capabilities and individuality, and continue to work with great enthusiasm.

Employment Data

Advantest Group has formulated a basic policy to promise that it respects the human rights of individual employees, eliminate discrimination based on race, gender, age, nationality, religion, social status, disability, disease, sexual orientation, and so on. Advantest is also eliminating discrimination in employment and promotion and actively employing, developing, and promoting personnel who can play a leading role in global situations.

The graph below shows the trends in the number of employees.

Employment data

Number of employees by region

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group

Number of managers by region

		FY2017			FY2018			FY2019
		Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Percentage of female employees	Percentage by region	Number of locally recruited employees	Promotion rate of locally recruited employees
Japan	Japan	513	11	524	503	12	515	483	13	496	2.6%	42.1%	495	99.8%
Overseas	Asia	202	40	242	210	40	250	218	40	258	15.5%	21.9%	244	94.6%
	Europe	163	14	177	170	16	186	183	17	200	8.5%	17.0%	194	97.0%
	North America	176	19	195	187	19	206	204	21	225	9.3%	19.1%	217	96.4%
	Overseas total	541	73	614	567	75	642	605	78	683	11.4%	57.9%	655	95.9%
Total		1,054	84	1,138	1,070	87	1,157	1,088	91	1,179	7.7%		1,150	97.5%

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group

*Definition of managers: Level 7 or higher in the 10-level qualification system. In this 10-level qualification system, Job Levels 1 to 6 are applied to general employees and Job Levels 7 to 10 to managers.

*Figures marked with the symbol are assured by KPMG AZSA Sustainability Co., Ltd.

Number of employees by type

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group

Number of employees by age

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group (full-time employees only)

Number of new employees

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group (full-time employees only)

Employee turnover

		FY2017			FY2018			FY2019
		Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Male	Female	Total	Percentage of female employees	Percentage by region
Japan	Japan	32	8	40	28	5	33	32	12	44	27.3%	30.3%
Overseas	Asia	30	4	34	37	4	41	34	11	45	24.4%	31.0%
	Europe	24	1	25	22	7	29	18	1	19	5.3%	13.1%
	North America	21	6	27	32	5	37	29	8	37	21.6%	25.5%
	Overseas total	75	11	86	91	16	107	81	20	101	19.8%	69.7%
Total		107	19	126	119	21	140	113	32	145	22.1%
Turnover rate		2.90%	2.65%	2.85%	3.21%	2.79%	3.14%	2.95%	3.99%	3.13%

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group (full-time employees only)

*Figures marked with the symbol are assured by KPMG AZSA Sustainability Co., Ltd.

*From December 2019, the method of aggregating the number of employee turnover has been changed from including month-end employee turnover in the number of employee turnover on that month to including them on the next month.

Employment and Utilization of Global Human Resources

In order to further expand its business globally, Advantest has been recruiting personnel who have deep cross-cultural understanding and communication skills and can work in a global arena, and in response to the increasingly borderless business environment, Advantest has also been committed to building systems and hiring, nurturing, and assigning personnel through a global perspective to promote the globalization of human resources development and organizations through personnel exchange among group companies. For instance, Advantest will continue personnel exchange among group companies so that employees can experience working in a global environment, and share their skills and know-how through routine work and training in each organization so that individual employees can acquire more advanced skills, including skills to adapt to various business environments.

In order to make personnel exchange easier, Advantest has been globally implementing the "Global Transfer Policy," a system that offers fair treatment and enables personnel exchange on a global level, regardless of job type.

As of March 2020, 10 out of 24 executive officers, who are management personnel, have foreign nationalities, and employees from nine countries are currently working for Advantest Corporation. Advantest will give fair opportunities to talented personnel, regardless of their nationality, and promote global personnel development and organizational globalization through borderless personnel recruitment and exchange.

Promotion and Utilization of Female Employees

Advantest always accepts diverse values and is promoting the creation of a corporate culture where everyone can work regardless of race, gender, age, and nationality. However, as of March 2020, the percentage of female employees to total employees is 19.6%, and the percentage of female managers to total managers is 7.7%. For Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated), the percentage of female employees is 14.1%, and the percentage of female managers is 2.6%. Increasing the numbers of female employees and managers is an urgent task.

Advantest has been recruiting students with technical background, which caused the percentage of male employees to remain high and has not motivated female students to take entrance exams for Advantest in the recruitment activities. In light of these circumstances, Advantest has been strengthening public relations activities for females with a focus on conveying the attraction of Advantest to female students, particularly those with technical background. Information on active women in the workforce has been disseminated through corporate websites and recruitment brochures, and at recruitment events, Advantest explained about programs and career plans for female employees and introduced how female employees are working in Advantest.

With regard to the percentage of female managers, Advantest has set a goal of exceeding the average per industry in fiscal 2018 in the General Business Operator Action Plan according to the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, and has been promoting various activities to achieve the goal. Advantest recognizes that female employees face various changes in many stages of their lives. We actively promote support programs for balancing work and home life, enabling flexible ways of working according to each individual's situation. We encourage active participation of women in the workplace, by continuing to develop an environment in which female employees will be able to continue work for long periods of time.

Advantest will progress on with initiatives to raise the female employee ratio and establish systems for long-term employment toward increasing the ratio of female employees in management positions.

Active Utilization of Senior Employees

Advantest revised the re-employment program for employees who retire at the age of 60 that had been introduced for the utilization of senior employees following the amendments to the Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons in April 2013 and the increase of the minimum age for pension eligibility by the government. Advantest is actively utilizing the skills and know-how of experienced employees by employing senior personnel steadily and treating and assigning them to jobs with consideration towards their past experience and assigned positions during their working years. In addition, Advantest has established a system to reflect each individual's achievements in their wages to motivate senior personnel and expect them to produce results that match their wages. Furthermore, in fiscal 2018, Advantest introduced a system where employees are allowed to reduce their working hours or days as desired and have a second job on non-working days; two employees have reduced their working hours and three employees have reduced their working days under this system. Advantest believes that this system will allow senior personnel to work more flexibly according to their lifestyles, contributing to further enhancing the work-life balance.

Trends in the number of employees who use the re-employment program

　*Boundary of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)
Advantest is tallying the number of employees who have started using the re-employment program.
(These numbers do not include those who have been using the program since the previous year.)

Employment of the Disabled

In order to promote the employment of the disabled, Advantest established a special subsidiary company, Advantest Green Corporation, in September 2004. Since its establishment, this company has been working to promote the employment of the disabled and encourage them to continue to work for a long time under the slogan of "Independence of individuals and growth of society."

Its core business includes landscaping, cleaning, reception work, delivery, sale of bread, and management of dormitories. Advantest Green is providing workplaces where its employees can work comfortably. Advantest Green is working actively with local communities and relevant organizations to develop workplaces where the disabled and non-disabled people can work together.

In fiscal 2018, an Advantest Green's disabled employee was awarded for his achievements. This award is given to those who have overcome their disability and achieved excellent results as model professionals. The hard work that the employee has put in for many years has led to this great result.

Advantest's employment rate of the disabled is 2.66% in fiscal 2019, exceeding the mandatory employment rate. Advantest will be actively promoting the employment of the disabled to address a future amendment to the mandatory employment rate.
In detail, Advantest will promote initiatives such as standardization of work procedures and work visualization to create a work environment in which employees with disabilities will be able to work to their full potential, and also refer our workplace as one in which people with various disabilities can actively participate to outlets such as special-needs schools. Furthermore, Advantest is considering creating new job categories, and will promote activities that lead to new employment, such as accepting apprentices and holding workshops. Advantest also actively implements initiatives to expand systems for goals and awards to enhance motivation such as "meaningfulness" and "satisfaction," and to support independence, including relocation to group homes, with the aim of retaining employees with disabilities. Additionally, Advantest assigns qualified staff including job coaches and counselors for the disabled to each workplace, along with conducting regular four-way meetings with family or individual lunch meetings for early detection and information sharing on issues, to offer workplace support catered to characteristics of employee disabilities.

Currently, 10 highly motivated, disabled employees are working in overseas affiliated companies.

Trends in the percentage of disabled employees

*Boundary of data: Advantest Group (Japan)

*FY2019 figure is assured by KPMG AZSA Sustainability Co., Ltd.