VOICE: Our employee engagement survey

Management has been running VOICE, an engagement survey asking for genuine feedback from all employees worldwide, since fiscal 2016. This is an initiative for OMRON’s continued sustainable development, allowing management to gauge our Company’s appeal as a workplace, understand and identify management issues, and take action on these issues.

From fiscal 2018, we have incorporated the Sustainable Engagement Index or SEI, which statistically examines growth in performance and the Company’s attractiveness.

Our management team uses scores based on analysis of the aggregate data as well as the free comments that communicate what our employees really think to monitor issues, understand and identify monitoring outcomes as management issues, hold thorough discussions aimed at their resolution, and continue reforms.

In fiscal 2021, we promoted various initiatives to address certain issues, including those related to operational efficiency and performance management. These issues had been raised in employee feedback obtained from our global engagement survey. The actual survey was conducted in January 2021 and targeted 21,287 employees, with a response rate of 90%. The following are some of the major improvements made based on the survey results.

1. IT infrastructure

• Redesign core IT systems (introduction of systems for global HR management and for travel expense reimbursement/indirect material procurement)
• Expand telecommuting and other flexible work styles by using Microsoft Teams

2. Rules and business processes

• Review business decision-making and work processes at each worksite
• Review and promote job-based performance evaluation systems (mainly in Japan)
• Review compensation systems (including introduction of medium-term performance-linked stock compensation scheme)

3. Strengthening management capabilities

• Use 360-degree feedback to identify issues faced by managers and conduct training to improve feedback processes (Approximately 1,000 managers from all over Japan)

In addition, more than 230 other problem-solving initiatives have been actively implemented globally on the basis of the survey results.

In September of fiscal 2022, an engagement survey of approximately 20,000 employees will be conducted to determine what changes these initiatives have brought to our organization. In addition, we shall also identify any new management issues.