Employee Growth and Engagement

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Our People

Employee Growth and Engagement | Diversity, Equity & Inclusion | Safe and Healthy Working Environment | Human Rights | Human Resources Data and Third-Party Verification

Basic Policy and Approach

We developed new ideas in a guideline called “Renesas Culture” in 2020, to be followed by all Renesas Group employees, helping them create value for society on a global scale in a rapidly changing business climate. In order to foster human resources that actively embody the five elements of “Transparent, Agile, Global, Innovative, and Entrepreneurial”, we will strengthen our HR policies and mechanisms to enable each and every employee to develop their own strengths and maximize their skills and abilities. In addition, we intend to introduce various systems and measures enabling employees to play active roles, beyond the boundaries of their regions or organizations.

As part of our efforts to disseminate Renesas Culture throughout the company and to strengthen our initiatives, we have conducted regular surveys for all employees at least once a year since 2020. Conducting periodic surveys has helped us assess progress quantitatively, identify areas for improvement, and create concrete action plans under the direct leadership of the CEO.

picture_as_pdf Summary of Survey Results for 2023

Fostering Leaders Who Can Play Active Global Roles

Continuous development of future leaders who will have a significant influence in determining the outcomes of the organization is an important initiative for the growth, sustainability, and stability of our company. Our aim is to produce stable successors for each position using the twin pillars of succession plans for key positions (preparation of succession plans for each position) and leadership human resource development (further expansion of employees’ career building).

Succession Planning for Key Positions

We aim to ensure a more solid management foundation for the company by working to increase the quality and quantity of outstanding employees and seamlessly assigning new employees without delay should key positions unexpectedly fall open.

With this in mind, since 2017, key positions have been identified throughout the Renesas Group, successor candidates selected, and training plans created for each individual candidate in order to promote talent management and strategic employee assignments.

Business Unit leadership team and HR business partners collaborate closely on these efforts to develop future managers and global leaders.

Efforts to Cultivate Leaders

We plan to accelerate efforts that will enable the sustainable development of our employees through their work, as outlined below.

1. Cultivating Employees Capable of Exercising Global Leadership

   In all regions we operate in, we are identifying and developing future leaders who will drive the business growth of the Group as a whole. We provide them with opportunities to rotate jobs across departments and geography to help them build professional network, enhance agility and performance despite changing environment, and acquire global mindset to manage the business and people effectively. Key learnings and awareness gained through those experiences contribute to the development of future global leaders at Renesas.

   We actively educate local employees as we continue to hire more talent for important roles in each country and region. The localization ratio of important global positions (Note 1) held by employees outside of Japan was 23.8% at the end of 2015, but increased to 74.5% at the end of 2022. We are continuing our efforts to meet our goal of increasing this ratio to 80% by the end of 2024.

   ^{Note 1: Important global positions signify heads of subsidiaries outside of Japan. Positions included in the headcount are those that are not held by seconded employees from countries other than the nationality of the subsidiary..}

2. A System Allowing Employees to Autonomously Choose the Work They Want to Undertake and Roles They Wish to Take

   In order to expand opportunities for talented employees, the Free Agent Program has been introduced in 2021, in addition to the existing internal job application system, allowing employees who meet certain requirements to express their aspirations for other roles. In FY2022, out of 230 eligible employees, 6 employees expressed their FA rights, and all of them were assigned to new positions.

3. The Development of Multi-Track Career Paths to Allow Employees to Choose their Careers More Independently

   We are promoting the introduction of multi-track career paths to enable each and every employee to visualize their future career visions, not only by forming a career as a generalist, but also by clarifying career paths such as managerial positions for supervising organizations and projects, and professional positions for contributing to the company with expertise knowledge and abilities.

   We aim to enable sustained growth for both employees and the company by establishing systems that enable individual employees to autonomously select diverse careers according to their intentions and suitability.

A System Allowing Employees to Learn Independently

In order to raise employees’ awareness of learning, we have been promoting initiatives that enable employees to learn independently. As part of the initiative, we have introduced a global online learning platform with more than 17,000 courses. The platform encourages employees to acquire and improve their skills and supports employees to achieve their career goals. In Japan, as an initiative to encourage these steps, we offer the “Self-Development Support Program” which allows employees to choose what skills they want to improve from over 100 courses, as well as field-specific specialized technical seminars and language classes. These educational opportunities enable individual employees to improve their own skillsets and open up new advancement possibilities by themselves with a sense of “career ownership.” In addition, working styles and environments are changing under the “new normal,” and Renesas is changing a variety of educational and training programs to online to make them easier to participate in for employees who are working from home.

Building a Job Rotation System

In order to support individuals’ growth, managers keep track of their subordinates’ abilities and career goals in management by objective (MBO) interviews and, in response to requests, assign them to various positions under a rotation system.

Employees can also be transferred under an internal public application system aimed at discovering and assigning promising employees and invigorating teams. Active rotation provides employees with career opportunities while pursuing their own personal growth. Renesas’ Internal Job Application System was introduced in 2014, and we receive many applications each year. In 2022, we received 250 applications from employees globally, and of those, 104 employees successfully transferred to the new posts of their choice.

Global Talent Acquisition Initiatives

Global Recruiting Strategy and Processes

Identifying qualified candidates and building a strong talent pipeline are critical to our success in this highly competitive industry. We actively forecast hiring needs globally and localize action plans to develop new pools of talent in each region. Our annual process and examples of how we source future talent are as follows. 

1. Global workforce planning: As part of the annual budget planning cycle, we conduct an annual workforce planning based on current and anticipated project resource needs. Planning cycle for early careers recruitment (e.g., internship, new graduate hiring) is based on graduation dates and onboarding program schedules which differ by region. 
    
2. Implementation: Our global team of recruiters, sourcers, and coordinators manage all activities and processes under regional leadership. Additionally, we are strengthening alignment with our business requirements to support global searches and their unique hiring needs.
    
3. Recruitment excellence through channel management:
   •    Employer branding – Increasing awareness and supporting community building 
   •    Recruitment agencies – Managing collaboration to drive results
   •    University relations – Building strategic partnerships with universities in priority regions
   •    Referral program – Promoting a global program to encourage employee contributions
   •    Internal mobility program – Providing career development opportunities to our employees 

Applicant Tracking System

To improve our candidate, hiring manager, and recruiter experience, we are launching a new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in early 2024 to:

• Simplify recruitment processes, such as creating new requisition for hiring managers to submit feedback on candidates
• Support sourcing and candidate management effectively through better search capability
• Build and manage talent communities 
  

Global Employee Referral Program

In addition to our ongoing recruitment marketing and efforts led by Human Resources, employee referrals are essential to identifying and hiring qualifying candidates quickly. 

As we grow as a company through acquisitions, we are unifying our policies, referral program and processes, and the bonus structure with a goal to manage everything and report on hiring metrics centrally and more effectively. The new applicant tracking system also allows our employees to submit referrals easily and enhance candidate experience throughout the interview process. 

Training for New Employees, Supporting Human Resources Development for Junior Employees, and Management Training

At Renesas, we provide a variety of training to all employees (including full-time and part-time). Our goal is to empower everyone with technical, non-technical, and role-appropriate training so they can reach their potential and gain the knowledge and skills to succeed. As a global company, we have leveraged virtual learning and platforms such as LinkedIn and MindTools so our employees can access from anywhere in the world.  

Training for New and Junior Employees

In Japan, onboarding for new hires, follow-up training for new employees, and a presentation by employees on achievement made in the first 2 years are designed to enable new employees to become independent quickly, as well as to increase skills and motivation in junior employees. Through these series of experiences, employees learn the basic technical knowledge and skills needed to perform their jobs as well as a common ability to accomplish tasks, thereby laying the foundations for becoming employees capable of playing globally within the Group.

Management Training

We leverage a variety of online learning platforms and programs to empower senior specialists and managers around the globe so they can succeed as team and project leaders.

Global New Manager Program

At Renesas, we understand the importance of providing just-in-time transition support for employees who have been promoted to a manager role for the first time. In 2022, we launched “Launch into Leadership,” a 6-week online, self-paced program for new managers globally. Throughout this program, new managers develop core skills, mindsets, and confidence to ensure both their success and that of the teams they lead. The tools and frameworks offered in the program are designed to help align team objectives to Renesas’ growth goals and deliver results, develop and engage team members, and build stronger networks and leadership skills.

In 2022, 507 new managers across the globe participated in the program. They reported an overall 9% confidence increase in their competence as managers, with 89% likely/highly likely to apply their learnings to their work.

Mentorship Program

In Japan, we provide a training system where junior employees train newly hired employees.

For the first year after joining the company, a junior employee in the same department is appointed as the trainer and systematically trains the newly hired employee in matters related to work. Not only does this accelerate new employees' growth, but provides an opportunity for existing employees to experience management. In addition, on the job training (OJT) at each department builds on the know-how and creates an environment for learning.

Similarly, with the aim to accelerate growth in new employees and to increase the leadership abilities of mentors, we offer a mentorship program in our Group companies that hire new university graduates.

An experienced employee becomes a mentor to the new university graduate and offers support in the work environment, including establishing networks, discussing career paths as well as giving work related advice. Mentors are able to develop through offering advice to new employees, which leads to improved soft skills such as communication, fact-finding and building consensus, as well as management skills such as training subordinates and evaluating performance.

Additionally, in Japan, Europe, Vietnam and Singapore, we have introduced mentorships not only for new employees but also for interns and working students. This offers an enriched work experience throughout the internship period as well as support for university education and overall contribution to the development of engineering talent.

Enrichment of Technical Training

Providing advanced semiconductor solutions to customers requires hardware and software technology for designing and manufacturing semiconductor devices as well as broad knowledge of customers’ applications and related matters. Therefore, Renesas provides technical training on a wide range of topics, from “Basic Technical Course” for new employees to field-specific “Intermediate Technical Course” offering a higher level of specialization, to boost employee motivation and encourage growth.

Approximately 80 such courses are conducted each year; most of which are taught by Renesas engineers and some of others by lectures from outside specialist institution. These provide employees with the opportunity to study advanced technical topics in depth. Some of the teaching materials are also supplied to Renesas Group companies, supporting the training of engineers globally.

Hours of Training Per Employee

Renesas provides necessary training to employees of Renesas Group companies, depending on the function of the company.

The total hours of training per employees across the global Renesas Group are as follows:

Average training hours per employee (Global) (Hours)

Note: Number of employees as of the end of December
Note: Training includes training provided by external parties as well as internal training

Human Resources Development Program (Japan)

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Self-Development Support Program (Japan)

360-Degree Reviews for the Executive Team

We conduct “360-Degree Feedback Reviews” for executives annually, to encourage further growth and enhance management innovation. Participants engage in an assessment process receiving anonymous feedback from superiors, peers, and direct reports to identify strengths and areas of development to build out their leadership capabilities, incorporation of TAGIE and alignment to enable the growth objectives for Renesas. Evaluators are approved by our CEO, who also engages in the review process and provides feedback to each executive during one-on-one meetings. Each executive builds a development plan and reviews this with the CEO on a regular basis. In 2022, eight executives, including the CEO were evaluated, and 88 global employees provided feedback. We plan to increase the number of participants moving forward, ensuring that the quality and confidentiality of the process is maintained as we expand the scope.

Pay for Performance: Compensation Linked to Performance Evaluation

We continue to develop a “One Renesas” approach as a global organization operating in many regions around the world. This system embraces the concept of “pay for performance” across the entire Renesas Group, and a balanced compensation system was introduced based on a globally consistent system of evaluation in order to reward the contributions of for delivering outstanding results, and motivating employees to achieve their best. 

To embed the “pay for performance” mindset within the organization, it is essential that each and every employee is fairly evaluated and compensated according to their role.

Fair Evaluation

At Renesas, we emphasize deepening communications between managers and employees through MBO assessment throughout the year, including interim reviews throughout the year, and formalized feedback discussions as part of performance evaluations. These discussions, based on concrete targets and facts, aim to foster a shared understanding of performance assessments and encourage further development and growth activities, rather than merely focusing on numeric evaluation scores or incentive payments.

In addition to the above, Renesas operates a performance-related short term incentive system in which the performance of both the organization and individual employees contribute to the actual incentive payouts, reinforcing the connection between pay and performance. Renesas short term incentitives fully link to performance metrics.

Fair Compensation

We are committed to ensuring our employees receive fair and equitable compensation for their contribution to the Company’s success.

We are committed to providing a living wage to our employees to ensure they can maintain a good quality of life, and we intend to conduct a comprehensive review of living wage standards in the countries where we operate. By December 2025, we will develop a strategic plan to enable us to demonstrate that our compensation consistently meets prevailing living wage standards.

Employee Engagement

To assist each and every employee in their efforts to create a workplace where they can work actively, grow, and experience satisfaction, we are strengthening our initiatives aimed at boosting employee engagement. With this goal in mind, Renesas promotes communication between management and subordinates as well as between coworkers and makes efforts to foster a sense of unity and make communication within the company deeper and more dynamic.

Specific Initiatives

• As a means to deepen mutual understanding and disseminate information related to Renesas’ strategy and policies through interactive communication between the top management, beginning with the CEO, and employees, Renesas regularly holds all-hands events and small group roundtable sessions (direct conversations). There are also online information sharing and question-and-answer sessions open to all employees conducted in both Japanese and English. These events are followed up by surveys to provide feedback, suggestions and comments from employees to the management team.
• In 2020, a platform was established to enable the CEO to directly listen to employees’ voices and to take quick action aimed at identifying and solving management issues. Over an eight-month period, the CEO received nearly 100 submissions and has implemented many improvement measures.
• We are conducting regular company-wide surveys to measure the degree to which the “Renesas Culture” has been internalized by group companies and employees, and to gauge awareness of problems and ideas for improvement.
• With the aim to support employees' asset formation and encourage participation in company management, we offer all employees in Japan an employee stock ownership plan. As of March 2023, 728 employees, which is approximately 8% of employees in Japan, are part of the stock ownership plan.

Contributing to SDGs

Renesas’ efforts in Employee Growth and Engagement contributes to these Sustainable Development Goals targets:

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4.4 By 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship