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Our approach to employee development
To enhance corporate value, we need to ensure that employees clearly understand their role and take the effort to develop their capabilities. We expect our employees to show initiative toward refining their skills, and at the same time 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 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 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.
Development of globally competitive professionals
Status and implementation of education and training system
The Advantest Group makes training programs available to all employees, covering everything from the basics of specific jobs to the latest technological trends. We persistently look for ways to further improve these programs to ensure that they are better geared toward shifts 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 forged and implemented plans for new programs, including the expansion of our global training program.
Our existing training system is designed for the personnel of Advantest Corporation and its affiliates in Japan. However, the need to redesign such systems from a more global perspective in line with the company's integration of Verigy Ltd. has caused us to examine the training regimes adopted by each of our overseas affiliates and discuss new ideas with relevant personnel. With regard to the newly added training programs, we have decided to use both external and internal instructors depending on the particular course, and to conduct effective sessions taught by specialists in the respective fields.
We continued to run the training programs added in fiscal 2011 again in fiscal 2012, due to the favorable responses from those taking part. Meanwhile, we plan to make the training system itself more globally oriented by drawing on the views of both Japanese and overseas affiliates.
| Program | Objective | For | No. of times implemented | No. of trainees |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subordinate Development Training | Enhance management skills | Managers | 1 | 26 |
| Career Development Program | Enhance management skills | General employees | 1 | 18 |
| Problem-Solving Training | Enhance marketing skills | Engineers | 1 | 25 |
| TM Method, Problem-Solving Training (Introductory)* | Enhance marketing skills | General employees | 3 | 64 |
| Technology & Marketing Training | Enhance marketing skills | Engineers | 1 | 15 |
| Global Mindset Training | Enhance communication skills | Managers | 4 | 61 |
| Cross-Cultural Understanding Training* | Enhance communication skills | General employees | 2 | 47 |
| Approaches to Learning English* | Enhance language skills | All employees | 5 | 409 |
| Idea Hacks!* Creative Thinking Workshop | Develop ability to generate ideas | General employees | 2 | 38 |
| Technology Seminar | Acquire knowledge about the latest technologies | Engineers | 104 | 2,235 |
∗ Programs introduced in fiscal 2012
Development of engineers
We place particular emphasis on developing 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 2012, about 100 training sessions were provided, with approximately 2,200 engineers participating. The program now includes seminars hosted by Advantest's senior engineers. Meanwhile, one of the seminars features 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 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.
The new crop of engineers started off learning design basics, followed by conduct device measurement training using actual testers, hands-on hardware training that involves designing simplified testers and hardware development, software training during which they learn about programming, and training in production methods constituting the foundations of manufacturing industries. Through this process they learnt the skills that are required of Advantest engineers. Meanwhile, the new administrative employees received on-the-job training in the sales, manufacturing and administrative divisions to learn about the Group's business and how the divisions are interrelated. In addition, in fiscal 2012, the new administrative members were sent to Singapore and Shanghai for overseas training where they were able to engage in language study and could gain a better understanding of different cultures through interaction with local individuals.
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 value teamwork with other divisions. Our training period for new recruits acts as a key formative phase in their professional development as Advantest employees.
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, while our earlier attempts to attract women have largely fallen short. In fiscal 2012, 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. At the job fair for women, 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.
As a result of these efforts, the percentage of women who joined the company as new recruits in April 2013 was 29.8%. 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, 2013)
Employment and use of global human resources
In recent years, the Advantest Group has sought to recruit a more culturally-aware workforce with outstanding communication skills and the ability to perform well in the global arena as our business becomes more internationally oriented. Meanwhile, an increasingly borderless business environment necessitates that we step up our efforts to achieve more globally-focused human resources development and organizations through active exchanges with personnel from overseas affiliates.
Amid these circumstances, we are working hard to recruit students in other countries and foreign students studying in Japan to better secure a workforce that enables us to remain competitive in the global arena. In addition, we are planning worker exchanges 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 staff members in the course of daily operations and training. Through this exchange program, participating employees are expected to improve their job skills, versatility and adaptability to a range of business environments.
In 2012, Advantest participated in job fairs for students in other countries and foreign students held all over Japan and in Boston 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.
These activities enabled us to recruit students in overseas countries and foreign students studying in Japan. We now plan to extend the global reach of our recruitment activities going forward through further participation in similar job fairs, both overseas and in Japan. 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.
We presently count among our workforce employees from ten countries, while seven of the 22 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 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 such people desiring employment. Our re-employment activities entail deciding on employment packages and job postings most suitable for actively taking advantage of the skills and know-how possessed by older adults.
Users of the re-employment system (Advantest Corporation)
