Commitment to Our Employees

The employment landscape is rapidly changing, influenced by factors such as a shrinking workforce, an aging society, shifts in young people's values from "joining a company" to "finding a job", and the dynamic job transfer market. We've responded to these changes by redefining our recruitment strategy. Instead of focusing solely on traditional mass hiring of new graduates, we're emphasizing the creation of a diverse workforce, which is central to our human resource strategy. While we continue to hire new graduates with an eye on maintaining a balanced generational workforce, we're also ramping up the recruitment of experienced personnel, including specialists pivotal for new business development.

Every year, we bring fresh talent into our fold. In April 2023, we welcomed 95 new recruits, and we're planning to employ 100 new graduates in April 2024. To ensure a balanced age distribution and foster diverse talent, our future recruitment strategy will equally target new graduates and experienced professionals. We're increasing opportunities for dialogue through a mix of online and face-to-face interactions during recruitment. To prevent mismatches post-employment, we offer internships and seminars and provide chances to engage with our younger employees, thereby showcasing our company's appeal.

Alongside the traditional mass recruitment of new graduates, we have substantially broadened our recruitment of experienced personnel from fiscal year 2022, adopting a year-round recruitment policy. We hired 77 such individuals in the fiscal year 2022. We're actively seeking candidates with varied experiences, including those seeking their second job after graduation and specialized professionals. Many of our recruits, hailing from diverse industries, are already making significant contributions.

We're committed to employing individuals with disabilities and ensuring their retention. We facilitate understanding of disabilities among our staff through interviews, in-house handbooks, and study meetings. By assigning appropriate job roles, we enable our team members with disabilities to showcase their skills and lead independent lives.

Our reemployment system is designed for those who previously left due to life stage changes but wish to capitalize on the experiences, skills, and knowledge they acquired during their time with us or thereafter. These returnees enrich our company with diverse perspectives.

We've been offering internships since the summer of the third year of university, before the formal selection process commences. By leveraging online platforms, we facilitate participation from students across the nation.

We're actively recruiting contract employees and part-timers nationwide, who wish to demonstrate their skills, build their careers, and strike a work-life balance. Those who join us contribute to various business domains within our company.

Since April 2023, we have implemented a system that determines employee grades based on their assigned mission, starting from the managerial level. By setting specific targets under each mission, we aim to boost employee motivation and performance. In addition, we strive to support each employee in defining their career trajectory and taking proactive steps towards realizing their aspirations.

We're transitioning from a traditional seniority and ability-based personnel system to one focused on the nature of work and its mission. In this context, a mission is not a day-to-day task but a goal each team or employee must achieve to realize our company's vision. We aim to clarify job and skill requirements for each role based on its mission, linking them to employee development, fair evaluation and remuneration, and promotion of self-directed career development. In fiscal 2022, we developed a "mission definition document" as the foundation for these changes, outlining the mission, main KPIs, responsibilities, behavioral traits, and skills required for each role. It also facilitates understanding of individual development needs based on the gap between the defined skills/behaviors and an individual's current capacity. In fiscal 2023, we will strive to deepen understanding and adoption of this document across the company.

To support our mission-centric personnel system, we revisited our evaluation and reward systems. By outlining the behavior we expect from employees and providing clear evaluation criteria, we aim to ensure fair and transparent performance appraisals, moving away from seniority-based reward systems. We've also established a bonus system tied to the company's strategic objectives, encouraging collaborative efforts towards shared goals. In addition, we've introduced multidimensional evaluations such as 360-degree feedback to enhance the objectivity and transparency of assessments.

We believe nurturing talented core personnel is crucial for effective organizational management. We focus on developing these key individuals who will spearhead our strategic implementation. We've initiated a development program for managers, providing web and in-person sessions with the active participation of executives. Furthermore, from the perspective of "right person for the right job", we provide promising young employees with challenging assignments that allow them to envision their future careers.

We have identified a strategic approach to human resources as a cornerstone of our medium-term management plan, with the primary goal of "maximizing employee engagement through fostering a win-win relationship where both the company and employees can thrive".
To accurately assess and depict the level of employee engagement, and to formulate initiatives based on the outcomes with a view to maximize engagement, we initiated the Orico Group Employee Engagement Survey in April 2022. The first survey (April 2022) saw us rated at "CCC", the seventh tier out of eleven. However, in the second survey (December 2022), we moved up a notch to "B". Over the three years leading up to March 2025, our aim is to ascend three ranks to "BBB".
As part of the process, after conducting the survey, we hold meetings to share results with organizational leaders such as department and group heads, office chiefs, and branch managers. Each organization is then tasked with considering and implementing action plans aimed at enhancing engagement. In addition, we're rolling out company-wide initiatives aimed at boosting engagement, such as sharing successful case studies to improve the effectiveness of action plans.

We assure equal pay for equal work thoroughly. To ensure fair evaluations and treatment that are appropriate to missions of employees, we abolished the employment categories of national and regional job transfers and applied the same wage levels. We pay appropriate wages that exceed minimum wages to ensure stable lives of employees. We promise to provide a work environment where every person can be treated fairly and work with a sense of security.

We are dedicated to fostering a workplace environment where every employee can find value and motivation in their work. We have put in place several systems to help achieve this goal.

We've introduced a flexible work system, which allows employees to choose from seven predefined work patterns without any restrictions on usage.

Recognizing that a comfortable work environment is a prerequisite for a vibrant workplace, we conduct a "Labor Time Council" every six months at each workplace. During these meetings, workplace managers and employee representatives discuss ways to reduce overall working hours by enforcing standard work hours and encouraging the use of annual paid leave.

In addition to complying with laws and regulations regarding working hours and the 36 Labor-Management Agreements (the Article 36 Agreement), we also check monthly that non-statutory working hours do not exceed 80 hours or 60 hours for two consecutive months and objectively ascertain working hours, and other key metrics, using entry/exit logs and mobile PC log results.

To promote work-life balance and reduce employees' long working hours, we are also working to encourage employees to take annual paid leave in cooperation with labor and management. As a result, yearly overtime hours worked in FY2022 were 297.4 hours, and the annual paid leave utilization rate was 69.4%.

To create an environment where employees are motivated to work, we are expanding our "Work-Life Balance Support System", which is designed to help employees juggle work and childcare. One of these initiatives is a system that allows employees who find it challenging to work at their current location due to their spouse or family member's relocation or transfer, to request a transfer to continue their work with the company. In 2019, we extended the restrictions on overtime work and child care leave to include children from third to sixth grade. These efforts have earned us the "Kurumin" certification five times, and in 2022, we were awarded the "Platinum Kurumin Plus" for our support of "childcare" and "balancing infertility treatment with work".

Since 2017, we have implemented teleworking as part of our efforts to improve productivity and cater to changing employee values and lifestyles. This approach allows for a flexible work environment unrestricted by location or time. We've established guidelines for communication and meeting etiquette during telework, leading to improved work efficiency.

In 2019, we introduced a system that allows employees to take leaves of absence without limiting the reasons, aiming to boost the motivation of long-term employees and promote work-life balance. This system supports various needs including childcare, eldercare, infertility treatments, overseas studies, career advancement qualifications, volunteering, and other social contributions.

As part of our ongoing reforms to work styles and improvements in the treatment of non-regular employees, we have established a system to hire regular employees. This system aims to provide opportunities for non-regular employees who desire to take on a broader range of tasks and greater responsibilities. Since 2018, we have hired 45 full-time employees through this system, and we plan to continue this hiring approach in the future.

We offer various programs to support our employees' asset building, such as Employee Stock Ownership Plans, Property Accumulation Savings, and Corporate Defined Contribution Pension Plans. Beyond introducing Benefit Station—a welfare service—we also provide housing assistance to ensure our employees can work with peace of mind. Some departments have even adopted a three-day weekend system, and we've implemented telework and flexible work-hour systems, reinforcing our commitment to promoting a healthy work-life balance for our employees.

Additionally, we continuously enhance our support for self-improvement, offering incentives for qualification attainment, language learning assistance, and career design support.

Our employees must lead vibrant lives professionally and personally to realise our fundamental principles. Maintaining optimal physical and mental health conditions for our employees is crucial for balancing corporate and societal values and fostering happiness amongst employees and their families.
Therefore, we have issued a "Health Declaration" and prioritize our employees' health, safety, and well-being, even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. We have implemented various measures, such as workplace vaccinations, to safeguard their health. Additionally, we extend our support for preventive measures like influenza vaccinations. Looking ahead, we will continue to create a company environment where employees can enthusiastically engage with their work.

We have established a company-wide Health Committee to protect the health and safety of our employees. We hold Health Committee meetings not only at our headquarters, but also at each branch office, where we appoint health managers and health promoters. We carry out emergency preparedness activities, such as disaster drills and e-learning educational activities, raising awareness of occupational accidents, implementing preventive measures, conducting workplace patrols, and installing AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators). Disaster drills are regularly conducted at each base.

We have established the Orico Helpline, a whistle-blowing system, to promptly identify and appropriately respond to any irregularities/violations of procedures, information leaks, harassment, collusion with business partners, or other potentially illegal activities at our Company and Group companies. All employees carry a card with contact information to report or consult with the helpline whenever they have a problem. Two contact points, one within our company and one outside our company, have been established, both of which can be used with guaranteed anonymity.

In addition, we regularly conduct top-level and position-specific trainings for directors, department managers, and others to prevent harassment and promote awareness of human rights. The trainings are based on the "Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights" formulated by the United Nations. It includes case studies of harassment and what to do if harassment should occur, as well as educating executives and employees on specific harassment prevention. These training sessions are conducted company-wide online, and top management and the entire company are trained on the significance and importance of harassment prevention and human rights initiatives. They are designed to promote an understanding of international trends with respect for human rights and improve human rights literacy.

We respect workers' rights to freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining and strive to improve the work environment. Since 1982, we have had a union shop agreement in place with the "Orient Corporation Labor Union". All regular employees, except for those in managerial positions and others whose roles, considering their responsibilities, preclude union membership based on individual agreements, are part of this union.
Our "Collective Bargaining Agreement", concluded between our company and the labor union, covers matters related to (1) working conditions, (2) the initiation, renewal, and termination of employment contracts, and (3) other matters considered necessary by both the company and the union for collective bargaining. Furthermore, we regularly share with our staff and group companies the demands of the spring labor offensive and the details of agreements concluded by the labor union.

Executive Officer in Charge: Hideyuki Matsuoka (Managing Executive Officer)
Secretariat: Human Resources Department

We've established a process that encourages sincere dialogue and mutual understanding between the company and the labor union, leading to an agreement on matters requiring collective bargaining, starting with working conditions. In recent years, we've conducted collective bargaining sessions with the labor union to review various work style reform systems. In addition to collective bargaining, our company also initiates biannual discussions between labor and management at each business site, focusing on "Promoting the Acquisition of Paid Leave" and "Reducing Overtime Work" as part of our work style reform efforts.

We foster communication between "management and employees" and "among employees" using various methods, both online and offline.

We maintain an internal portal where employees can freely share information. This platform serves as the primary source for internal updates and includes not only service and business-related news, but also information on welfare benefits and club activities. We encourage daily flat communication and opportunities for employees to exchange information. When management communicates important messages to employees, we ensure the information is distributed evenly.

We hold "town meetings", interactive events where employees share important information about our vision and business strategies with executives, including the president, in a blend of online and real-world settings. After each meeting, we conduct a survey and use employee feedback to inform executive decisions.

We annually recognize projects that contribute to our culture of fostering highly effective human resources and overall business strategy, such as "President's Award" and "Orico Challenge Cup". We honor the employees involved in these projects, share the winning projects throughout the company as best practice examples, and award a cash prize to each project team. Individual recognition is also granted at the department and group level, celebrating many employees for their achievements.

We express our gratitude for the longstanding contributions of our employees to the company by honoring employees who have served for 20 and 30 years every year on the company's anniversary (December 27).

Each headquarter group recognizes individuals or teams from the sales offices whose contributions have improved performance or business operations.

We publish a quarterly booklet called "Orico Club" highlighting important company-wide topics and notable contributions. It's distributed to all employees, helping each department share their contributions to company management through engaging and easy-to-understand communication.

Our clubs carry out activities aimed at promoting employee health, improving cultural pursuits, and fostering camaraderie among employees.

Both our company and employees aim for active engagement with society in our roles as corporate citizens, consistently striving to make meaningful contributions through various social initiatives. We emphasize the autonomy and sustainability of these activities, considering their public benefits without intending for advertising or promotion and ensuring that our employees are entirely on board and satisfied with these initiatives