The SG Holdings Group aims to be a corporate group in which all employees act autonomously and their respective abilities and individuality can be utilized by enhancing engagement (connection between the company and employees) through initiatives for creating a comfortable work environment and empowerment based on respect for human rights.

The Personnel Vision established in 2012 describes clearly an organizational culture aimed at developing human resources and diversity of work styles and emphasizes the importance of each employee working with autonomy.

We have introduced a Group personnel system (function-based grade level system, self-application system, Group open recruitment system, challenge system, etc.) as a mechanism to utilize human resources across Group companies in Japan.
The goal is to realize the personal growth of employees and develop human resources with a competitive edge through the effective promotion of human resources and the development of a corporate culture that encourages employees to take on challenges on their own.

We have established common role grades for the group according to the level of "roles" required for each position and job.
We have also established clear "grade definitions" and "standards of conduct" for each role grade, and confirm that employees meet these definitions in semiannual individual evaluations and promotion examinations.

(1) “Performance Evaluation”: To measure the degree of achievement of individual performance goals defined in the “Grade Definition” for each role grade.

(2) “Behavioral evaluation”: Evaluates the degree of implementation of the “behavioral standards” required for each grade and the process leading to results.
Individual evaluations are conducted using (1) and (2), and are reflected in salaries, bonuses, promotions, and demotions.

We believe that building a relationship of trust between supervisors and subordinates is very important. In addition to daily face-to-face communication, timely reporting, communication, and consultation are conducted through Teams web conferencing, telephone calls, chat, etc., and the daily report tool is used to monitor the progress of each person in charge. Employees who are frequently away from the office, such as drivers, can use a communication app on their company smartphones so the amount of communication is not inferior to the internal workers.

Also, regular interviews are held between supervisors and subordinates to prevent any discrepancies in understanding. At the goal-setting meeting held at the beginning of each fiscal year, we link the goals of the organization to the role and mission of each employee and discuss the expected results of individual goals and the criteria for achieving them. At the year-end evaluation meeting, we review the results of the evaluation period and future growth issues, and provide feedback on the evaluation results, which leads to skill development and nurturing.

At some of our major Group companies, we have introduced KPI evaluations of performance and quality at the organizational or team level (Department, Sales Section, Branch, Sales Office, Team, etc.). Since the evaluations are made at the organizational level, teamwork and productivity are improved, and this leads to the development of a sense of responsibility and willingness to contribute.
In addition, the results of these quantitative targets are evaluated relative to each other in order of rank within a branch or sales office, which makes the final evaluation more convincing.

The Group has established the following eight action items for each role level in the form of action standards, and evaluates whether the actions appropriate to the level of the role are practiced.

Full-time employees are measured on whether they are practicing the expected behaviors for each of these items at the time of their semi-annual evaluation as well as at the time of their promotion review.

Behavioral items:
①Problem Formation, ②Job Execution, ③Human Resource Utilization, ④Negotiation and Coordination, ⑤Challenging, ⑥Responsible, ⑦Socialty, ⑧Customer-Oriented (⑤ to ⑧ is categorized as evaluating the attitude towards work).

As an example, ⑦Sociality requires employees to "respect and cooperate with others and act in accordance with the rules and regulations of society and the workplace." These are also assessed for "disciplinarity (adherence to company discipline)" in the job evaluation for partner employees, so that they are aware of ensuring compliance and adherence to ethics and code of conduct on a daily basis.

At some of our major companies, Assistant Managers and above are evaluated by their supervisors, subordinates, and coworkers in a 360-degree evaluation every year.
The results are used as feedback to identify issues for personal growth and improvement.
The results of the evaluation in September 2023 were as follows.
Number of employees evaluated: 4,012
Number of evaluators: 10,391

In addition to the social insurance systems required by law, we have various other employee welfare measures in place. The SGH Family Welfare Association provides welfare services to employees of Group companies in Japan, offering benefits, insurance services, and various discount services, as well as hosting experiential, interactive events, based on three concepts to ensure that employees can work with a sense of security and live healthily and happily throughout their whole lives. In this way, by creating environments where employees feel a sense of fulfillment and promoting life support for employees and their families, our aim is to boost employee loyalty.

Further, we also operate the OB&OG Association for retirees and those who have stayed on post-retirement as commissioned employees, and are working to create connections with the Group through the publication of bulletins and the hosting of exchange meetings.

We have instituted systems to support employees who are working in various stages of their lives.

The SG Holdings Group is promoting the efficiency of back-office operations throughout the Group by introducing technologies such as RPA^*1, AI-OCR^*2, chatbots and generative AI, with SG Systems, the Group company that oversees IT, playing a central role.

The SG Holdings Group is engaged in initiatives to reflect opinions from the workplace in management, ensure management goals and strategies are understood by employees, and enable each person to do their work with a positive awareness of goals.

Sagawa Express is implementing Sagawa Official Communications (SOC), which refers to efforts to achieve direct exchanges of opinions between management and employees in working locations. Through this dialogue, we deepen mutual understanding by communicating the company’s management strategy to the front-line workers, and exchanging opinions on employees’ concerns and anxieties about work.

Group-wide Training Program (Excerpts)