2016
(Posted Oct. 2016)
Building on Dialogues with Employees
Left: Ms. Qingyun Lu, Human Resources Executive Manager, Personnel & General Affairs Division
Right: Ms. Ying Qian, Labor Union President
Employees are an important stakeholder group for Shanghai Minebea. The company has placed an emphasis on maintaining close communication with employees through an employee satisfaction survey, as well as the promotion of personnel programs based on discussions with the labor union. Ms. Qingyun Lu, manager of the Personnel and General Affairs Division, and Ms. Ying Qian, representative for the labor union, have taken leading roles in the communication process. "The plants have been operating for more than 20 years, so the relationship between employees and management is very good," notes Ms. Lu. "With nearly 6,000 employees, we can't expect the company to meet all of their expectations. But the company and the labor union maintain strong ties, so there is a structure in place to quickly respond collaboratively to problems when they occur."
In FY2015, the company and labor union began holding regularly scheduled meetings as a way to share information, leading to more active coordination. "These meetings are intended to improve employees' understanding of company decisions and to share employee views with the company," says Ms. Qian. "It's made the employees feel more respected by the company." Management is also enthusiastic about the meetings. "Through these meetings, we can build even strong face-to-face relations and share our viewpoints," says Ms. Lu.
"The company evaluates us fairly," adds Ms. Qian, in regard to the Minebea Group's aim to "Be a company where our employees are proud to work," one of the core tenets of the company credo. "I've been working at Shanghai Minebea for nearly 20 years, since I graduated from high school, and I've enjoyed positions with responsibility. There are almost 500 Chinese employees like me who have worked for about 20 years. That in itself shows that employees have pride in where they work." Ms. Lu notes that Shanghai Minebea is among the leaders in China for its high standards. "Moving ahead, we will continue to strive for more than just meeting legal requirements," she says with passion. "We will summon all our capabilities to become a company where all employees take pride in working."
Leveraging On-site Capabilities
This is my 20th year working at Shanghai Minebea. In 2000, I became a manager and today I manage about 700 employees. Instead of simply relying on support from Japan, my division is striving to operate independently by encouraging local employees to come up with lots of ideas. We may become reliant on the mother plant if we always sent support requests to Japan. Instead, we've developed our own initiatives to improve productivity through automation, and these ideas have been adopted by other Minebea plants outside China. As a manager, it's my job to take the initiative and try new things, while raising the overall technological capabilities of the division and promoting our independence.
Maximizing the Capabilities of Female Employees
I'm the assistant manager in a manufacturing division that manufactures fan motor molds and tools. Our division's work is closely related to design and manufacturing technologies. Most of the employees are men, but the delicate kinds of work that women do is also very important to the division. We try to leverage the attributes of both the male and female employees, complement each other and help support the growth of female employees. We manufacture 24 hours a day, so it can be a challenging work environment. We've developed working systems to improve productivity so that women do not have to work the late-night shifts. Moving forward, we will do everything we can to improve productivity and technological capabilities to create an even better work environment.
