Strengthening Diversity and Human Capital
Policy and Strategy
IINO Group Human Resource Policy
At the IINO Group, our Code of Conduct states that "in all our transactions, including hiring, we will never discriminate against anyone due to nationality, race, religion, age, gender, or any other unjust reason." "We will respect human rights in the workplace to maintain an environment in which all employees can work comfortably." In addition, our mid-term management plan describes management that aims to improve corporate value through solutions to social issues (Sustainability management). We believe that cultivating, retaining, and utilizing talented human resources is an important foundation for putting sustainability management into practice, and we have worked to enhance our training programs while developing a workplace environment conducive to a diverse range of human resources.
We have also translated our management philosophy and Code of Conduct into English and made it available on the Company website to communicate and disseminate our values among IINO Group employees working around the world.
We create employment not only in Japan but overseas. At our local subsidiary in Singapore, we employ local staff from Singapore as well as from neighboring countries, and we provide scholarship programs and opportunities for on-board learning to our seafarers from South Korea, the Philippines, and Myanmar.
Shipping Business
Basic Views in Shipping Business
IINO Group regards safety as the foundation of its business operations. The key to ensuring safety in the Shipping Business is the seafarers who work on board. Securing and training seafarers is an important initiative for the Group to become a resilient organization, and the Company is promoting the following measures to cultivate human resources and develop a comfortable workplace environment.
Basic Views in Onshore
In line with the human resources policy set by the Company of "Management in small numbers," "Promotion of motivation enhancement and activation," and "Viewing each person in detail," we are actively tackling personnel and career development in consideration of each individual employee's needs and aptitudes, while also giving them a wide range of knowledge and experience to enable them to boldly challenge themselves in a new age.
Real Estate Business
Basic Approach to Real Estate Management
In managing the Real Estate Business, the Company endeavors to step up its efforts concerning human resources toward the realization of a sustainable society. The IINO Group practices strict office management designed to provide those working in offices with a safe and healthy environment, prohibit forced labor and child labor in keeping with the Labor Standards Act, and thoroughly eliminate discriminatory practices in employment as set forth in our Code of Conduct.
Initiatives
Development of Human Capital in the Onshore
Developing a Comfortable Work Environment
As measures aimed at seafarers, we implement a number of initiatives to improve and support the working environment for seafarers who conduct operations away from family on ships that are active 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Measures to improve and support the working environment
| Management of labor and rest time | To secure adequate rest time, the vessels managed by the Group have management systems to track labor and rest time online, and rest time for the crew is monitored and managed. |
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| Measures to prevent overwork | Crew workloads are controlled by monitoring labor and rest time for the crew on each ship and implementing measures such as providing additional crew members in cases where overwork is projected. |
| Installation of ship-based Wi-Fi | Each ship has ship-based Wi-Fi environments installed that can communicate at all times, providing an environment where the crew can utilize their own smartphones to communicate with family and friends via emails, chats, and SNS. |
| Family invitations to ships | We have systems in place to provide support for travel expenses and lodging for crew family members to visit the crew onboard when ships enter port. |
| Crew mental care | In a shipboard environment, where work, private life, and rest are confused, it is necessary for seafarers to be able to mentally switch between work and rest. To ensure that mental health does not deteriorate due to stress, the Company conducts training and practice on board for crew and managers in areas such as stress understanding, self-care, response to mental deterioration, and line care*. |
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- Mental health measures in which managers take the initiative to grasp and improve the work environment through communication with employees.
Data List (Employee Support Systems) 
Human Resource Development Initiatives
Implementing Technical Training and Safety Training
To operate vessels with safety and efficiency, we implement technical training, certification training, and technological improvement training for seafarers, held by various equipment manufacturers, and strive to improve individual knowledge and skills. The whole crew needs to work as one to achieve the safe operation of ships, and we emphasize mutual understanding and building relationships among the diverse seafarers working on ships and incorporate training related to cross-cultural understanding, harassment prevention, and mental health. These training exercises are managed with a training matrix, and seafarers are able to receive education and training at the appropriate times that are relevant for their positions.
Sea-shore Job Rotation to Foster Maritime Technology Experts with Comprehensive Skills
To develop maritime technology experts with comprehensive abilities not only in maritime vessel operation abilities but also in areas such as vessel management and technical support for new businesses, the Company conducts job rotations periodically for seafarers to serve in onshore duties. Additionally, to foster maritime technology experts with global sensibilities, we also conduct placement to overseas offices.
Initiatives to Hire Talented Human Resources
In our Short-sea/Domestic Shipping Business, we have hired holders of seamen's competency certificates who have graduated from maritime engineer training institutes around Japan, as well as the graduates of dedicated courses at fisheries high schools. To make up for crew shortages in domestic shipping due to demographic changes, we have also been actively hiring regular students from fisheries high schools (graduates of main courses) and ensuring they gain time working on board an operating vessel for around two years, which is the requirement for obtaining a seaman's competency certificate. In conjunction with this certificate, we also have the crew obtain hazardous materials engineer's licenses required to handle hazardous materials on small gas carriers as part of the in-house development of crew who will be senior members in the future.
Additionally, as there are only two educational institutions in Japan where people can obtain qualifications to be a ship's cook and the shortage of galley staff has become evident, we have been hiring students from regular culinary schools and licensed chefs and developing them as ship's cooks in-house. We also coordinate with other shipowners to accept crew without hazardous materials licenses to board our vessels and gain relevant experience, developing a cooperative structure to mutually develop crew resources.
As a further initiative going forward, we are considering making use of the crew retention support project operated by the Seamen's Employment Center of Japan (SECOJ) to hire students from regular universities and high schools to strengthen in-house development.
Enhancing Human Capital On Shore
Developing a Comfortable Work Environment
Employment regulations that comply with various laws and regulations
The IINO Group has established employment regulations that comply with the Labor Standards Act and various other laws and regulations. Specifically, the payment of overtime allowances to employees who have been working beyond scheduled working hours and statutory working hours, the granting of annual paid leave, the designation of statutory and non-statutory holidays, and provisions to verify the age of new hires are among the provisions set forth in our employment regulations.
Enhancing systems to promote work-life balance
From an ESG investment perspective, companies are encouraged to develop and utilize diverse human resources, including female employees, and to respond to this challenge in more visible ways to promote the long-term growth of the business. Active staff involvement is essential to the sustained growth of IINO Group over the long term. We are expanding the systems to promote work-life balance to create workplaces that encourage employee motivation while also enabling people to balance work with family commitments.
IINO Group has made improvements to its work environment to make it easier for employees who are caring for children or aged relatives, including a telework program, hourly paid leave, staggered working hours, shortened working hours, a job return system (reemployment system) and cooperation with on-site childcare centers.
We began using an online Obstetricians & Gynecologists consultation in April 2022 and a company-sponsored babysitting service in June 2022 to support employees' smooth return to work after childcare leave and to help them balance work and childcare.
Data List (Employee Support Systems)
Re-employment Initiatives
Since April 2006, the Company has established Mandatory Retiree Part-Time Employment Regulations to set regulations for the working conditions and employment of mandatory retirees who are re-employed as part-time workers. In response to amendments to the Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons in 2013, the Employment Regulations and Mandatory Retiree Part-Time Employment Regulations were revised in April 2013 so that the criteria for those eligible would be applied after they reach the starting age for payment of the proportional part of the welfare pension. This system ensures that mandatory retirees who wish to continue employment after retiring and meet specified requirements can be re-employed up to the age of 65.
In June 2020, we introduced a Job Return System enabling employees who have resigned due to childcare, family nursing care, the transfer of a spouse, or similar reasons to be re-employed.
Initiatives to Prevent Discrimination and Harassment
As measures to prevent discrimination and harassment, we have established regulations concerning the prevention of sexual harassment and power harassment, conduct harassment prevention workshops once a year, have eliminated fields where applicants indicate their gender in the hiring process, and implement wage systems that eschew discrimination on the basis of gender or academic history.
Human Resource Development Initiatives
Providing Opportunities for Self-Realization: Personnel Evaluation System
For personnel evaluations, IINO LINES has introduced a goal management system as a mechanism to manage the achievement of organizational goals. Under the system, supervisors and individual employees discuss and set individual goals aimed at achieving the organizational goals in each fiscal year, bringing actions aimed at achieving organizational goals into alignment between the organization and employees. Every six months, employees meet with their supervisors to self-assess their progress towards the set goals and draw attention to the areas they think deserve recognition, and after employees have been evaluated by their supervisors, the evaluations are finalized by a Personnel Evaluation Council. Feedback interviews are then conducted by supervisors to make each employee aware of their performance. The results of evaluations are not only reflected in monthly salaries and bonuses but also impact early advancement to managerial positions and other career aspects. This system invigorates individual employees and encourages their growth by providing opportunities to achieve goals and experience development through work.
Additionally, as a part of engagement efforts, each year, we ask all employees to submit self-reports, which are reports submitted to the Human Resource Department on the status of their assigned work, the workplace environment, the desire to be transferred, future direction, and so on. From the perspective of medium-to-long-term human resources development and organizational operation, this gives the Company an understanding of each employee's future career and the direction in which they will demonstrate their abilities, and we do our utmost to support and guide employees so that they can achieve the careers they have envisioned.
Initiatives for Human Resource Development
In Strengthening Human Capital, a key strategy of the mid-term management plan, we aim to increase employee engagement and achieve both improved corporate performance and employee self-fulfillment by focusing on investment in human resources to secure and develop a diverse workforce by improving the workplace and working environment, and by promoting a human resources strategy to provide opportunities for each employee to demonstrate his or her abilities and to properly evaluate their achievements.
We have set the number of employees with experience in short-term overseas training and overseas assignment as a KPI and aim to increase the number from the current cumulative total of 54 to 75 by the end of FY2025. We consider the development of global human resources to be an important issue for the expansion of our global business, and we plan to gradually resume the short-term overseas training and onboard training programs that were suspended due to COVID-19. In Japan, we are enhancing our training programs using e-learning tools, such as online business English conversation programs and business courses to improve management and administration skills. In addition, we support employees' autonomous skill development through an incentive program for acquiring public qualifications.
Human Resource Development Program
Data List (Training Hours / Career Development-related Data)
Promoting Diversity in Personnel
Our Code of Conduct prescribes that we will not discriminate on the basis of nationality, race, and other attributes, and we strive to promote diversity among our human resources. Approximately 2,000 of the IINO Group's seafaring employees, including onshore employees and fixed-term seafaring employees (as of March 31, 2022) are made up of a diverse range of races and nationalities, mainly those of Asian descent from South Korea, the Philippines, Myanmar, and India. Moreover, at our local Singaporean subsidiary, which handles the chemical carriers operations, we employ a mostly Asian staff including Singaporeans, Indians, and Indonesians in addition to Japanese. As a human resources measure to support the global business expansion at overseas sites, we foster the development of Japanese employees who are able to succeed overseas while also hiring and strengthening the development of local staff of various nationalities. We have also introduced a highly transparent personnel evaluation system. Going forward we will continue to hire human resources with an emphasis on ability without regard for race or nationality, and promote the diversification (both in terms of people and their abilities) of employees and officers.
Promotion of Women's Activities
As of March 2023, 25 female career-track employees work at the Company. Across the entire IINO Group in FY2022, 18.4% of our workforce is female and 22.4% on a non-consolidated basis. While the percentage of female employees in managerial positions in FY2020 was 1.4% on a non-consolidated basis, as of the end of FY2022, this figure was 5.0% due to the appointment of new female managers and other activities. Aiming to further increase the percentage of female employees in managerial positions, we have set the ratio of female employees in career-track positions (candidates for management positions) as a KPI, with the goal of raising the ratio from the current 16% to 20% by the end of FY2025. We hope that incorporating diverse perspectives and values will give rise to new ideas and spur innovation. We will continue to increase the ratio of female candidates for management positions and promote the advancement of women in the company. In addition to gender, we are actively recruiting a wide range of diverse human resources in terms of age, race, nationality, values, and work experience.
Data List (Employee Diversity)
Promoting Foreign Nationals to Managerial Positions
One foreign national joined IINO LINES in April 2023. Going forward we will continue to actively pursue diversity in our hiring practices. Note that the IINO Group employs 67 employees of foreign nationality, 16 of whom are in managerial positions.
In the future, we will continue to promote individuals with an emphasis on ability irrespective of race or nationality, aiming to exceed current levels.
Promoting Mid-career Hires to Managerial Positions
As of the end of March 2023, 37.5% of all career-track employees hired mid-career were in managerial positions, playing active roles as personnel supporting our business. Mid-career hires currently fill 11.3% of all managerial positions, and we will aim to exceed current levels by continuing to actively hire these personnel going forward.
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- IINO LINES figures on women, foreign nationals, and mid-career hires include those seconded to Group companies.
