Culture

Establishing a Corporate Culture that encourages Employee-led Development

Our Vision, part of the "SMFL Way," states our aim to encourage employee development. To this end, we will create an environment in which diverse and motivated employees can fully engage in their work, and deeply involve themselves in providing value to society and our customers.

Career Development Support

In conjunction with the deepening and transformation of our businesses, we will work to optimally allocate personnel to each business unit. When allocating personnel, we listen carefully to employees in aims of ensuring personnel transfers and allocations that allow each employee to best apply their abilities. In addition to regular dialogue through one-on-one meetings between employees and their supervisors, we have worked to enhance internal communication with the introduction of a career consultant program and interviews with a total of over 2,500 employees per year held by the Human Resources Department. Moreover, we support each employee in their self-led efforts to consider and realize their desired careers.
SMFL engages in multiple endeavors as follows.

Job Format, Job Shadow, Job Forum, Career Challenge

To support self-led career development and growth by our employees, we implement a career cycle that includes Job Format, which documents operations and skills required in each business unit, Job Shadow, which provides employees with work experience outside their affiliated business department, Job Forum, which disseminates information that helps employees better understand the wide range of tasks and roles at SMFL, and the SMFL Career Challenge internal open recruitment system. This cycle thereby provides an environment for employees to undertake new challenges. Countless employees have also used SMFL Career Challenge since its inception in 2018 in an attempt to achieve their desired career goals.

SMFL Career Challenge participants

A bar graph showing the number of transfers and applicants for each fiscal year (from 2018 to 2024). The graph illustrates the number of transfers and applicants as of April 1st of each year. In the bar graph, the dark blue sections represent the number of transfers, while the light blue sections represent the number of applicants. The total number of individuals for each fiscal year is also displayed.
This is an illustration introducing four career support programs. At the top center, it says career challenge and explains it as a support program for proactively developing self-directed at the bottom left there is job forum described departmental briefings conducted to understand wide range of operations within company right shadow which explained one-day experience in workplace outside participant s current department top says format materials explaining required skills each these four elements are arranged circular pattern center illustration

Instructor (on-the-job training), mentoring system

Young employees serve as instructors to help guide newly hired graduates with a sense of purpose and long-term perspective to grow autonomously and to teach them how to behave in a manner that befits top-class employees in the industry. In addition, young employees from the Human Resources Department conduct regular interviews three times a year as a part of the mentoring system. The goal is to help employees acquire business as well as issue solving skills and to support career development from a Group-wide perspective.

Short-term trainee, in-house intern system

The goal of these initiatives is to develop human resources with expertise in various specialized skills, including screening, customer proposal, the environment, and DX, that are essential as a base for SMFL's business on a Group-wide basis regardless of their business category or affiliation. Each system is not intended to be effective in a short period of time, but rather to help employees acquire skills over a period of two to three months.

Personnel interviews, career development sheet

Employees are given the opportunity to reflect on past experiences, understand their aptitude for their work, think independently about their future career, and share their thoughts with supervisors.

President's Town Hall Meeting, Executive Round Table

Through interactive communication with top management, including the president, employees are given the opportunity to experience their passion and to rethink own careers.

Career Consulting

We have introduced a system that allows you to easily consult with nationally certified career consultants (external) about work and career matters.

Engagement

Along with implementing the human resources strategy, enhancing engagement is another essential part of ensuring the mutual growth of employees and SMFL. In order for employees to feel more personally connected to engagement, we define engagement as 'the desire for growth through work × alignment with the direction of the organization × willingness to contribute voluntarily.'

Based on these relevant definition, we committed to further strengthening the desire for engagement among employees by communicating the importance of enhancing engagement and by implementing various measures. At the same time, we have established an environment in which employees can take the initiative in promoting efforts toward greater engagement.

We have also conducted an engagement survey each year since FY2022, and regularly monitor the organizational status as a means of improving the organization and enhancing engagement.

Trends in overall engagement survey scores

※As of April 2025

FY2022 FY2023 FY2024
score 69 71 72

Measures aimed at enhancing engagement

  • Cross-organizational events titled SMFL Hello!! Project (SMFL family days, mid-career employee networking meetings, etc.)
  • Efforts to foster a culture that conveys appreciation and admiration using Unipos
  • Introduction of event subsidies for the purpose of facilitating communication within and beyond the bounds of departments and networking between employees
  • Efforts to energize communication between employees and their supervisors through one-on-one meetings
  • Dialogue with management through President's Town Hall Meeting and Executive Round Table