A personnel system that supports participation by a diverse workforce
Personnel system reform
In FY2018, in order to further accelerate work-style reform and the promotion of diversity, we introduced a remuneration and evaluation system that is not constrained by age or employment status.
To this end, we aim to create an environment where each employee can maximize their abilities, focusing on three key concepts: "sustainable talent development," "maximization of talent potential," and "enhancement of employees' lives and securing talent." We conduct fair evaluations, treatment, and appointments through our unique job-based personnel system based on roles and performance levels, regardless of age, nationality, or gender.
Furthermore, we have been implementing systems that support diverse talent by applying the same wage standards regardless of gender. Wage disparities are reviewed and discussed annually with the labor union, and countermeasures are considered as necessary.
In recent years, in addition to changes in the societal structure, such as the declining birth rate, aging population, and shrinking workforce, the environment surrounding companies has been changing dramatically as individual values and lifestyles continue to diversify. In April 2025, we made further revisions to our personnel and remuneration system with the aim of securing and retaining human resources and enabling all employees to autonomously demonstrate their potential in rewarding work environments, with a view to future growth for the azbil Group through "Evolution and Co-creation".
Specifically, in addition to raising the level of compensation and establishing new allowances specific to certain job categories, the retirement age has been raised from 60 to 62.
Expansion of benefits programs
From 2017, the J-ESOP employee stock ownership plan*1 has been applicable to employees. The expectation is that it will assist them in growing and developing together with the company through the creation of daily work that has an awareness of increasing the enterprise value of the Group and the practice of the Group philosophy. It also has the aim of helping employees support their livelihoods after retirement.From April 2025, the plan was revised into a J-ESOP-RS employee stock ownership plan that grants restricted stock (transfer restrictions are lifted upon retirement) starting from the employee’s period of service at the company. This revision enables employees to become shareholders of the company while they are still employed, exercise voting rights, and receive cash dividends,which we believe will further enhance employee engagement.
In addition, we implemented a program that grants the company’s stock uniformly to all participants of the stock ownership association, and also introduced a trust-type employee shareholding incentive plan called E-Ship®*2 ,which grants benefits when enterprise value increases over the medium to long term through the stock ownership association. The company reintroduced the plan in May 2025 with an expansion of the plan by increasing the acquisition price of shares from approximately ¥4.8 billion to approximately ¥6.5 billion, in light of the steady progress in terms of participation in the stock ownership association since the plan’s introduction in May 2022. With this reintroduction of the plan, employees who join the stock ownership association continue to receive a 10% incentive on their contributions plus an additional incentive when the stock price rises.
As the company and employees work together to improve performance, these plans are also expected to lead to further employee engagement with the objective of enabling employees to build long-term assets.
*1 A program where employees earn points based on their individual contributions. Once they meet certain conditions, they become eligible to receive company stock equivalent to the points they have accumulated.
with azbil: azbil MIND
https://www.azbil.com/withazbil/mind/202508_1.html
*2 A system where a trust acquires in advance the number of company shares anticipated to be acquired by the stock ownership association over a predetermined period (three years). Thereafter, the trust continuously sells the company’s shares to the shareholding association, and if an amount equivalent to the capital gains from the sale of shares is in the trust at the time of its termination, the amount equivalent to the capital gains will be distributed as residual assets to those who meet the beneficiary eligibility requirements.
E-Ship® is a registered trademark of Nomura Securities Co., Ltd.
with azbil: azbil MIND
https://www.azbil.com/withazbil/mind/202508_2.html
Evolution of Azbil’s employee stock ownership plan: J-ESOP and J-ESOP-RS
- J-ESOP
- Points are awarded annually based on salaries and bonuses.
- Company shares are granted based on the number of points held at the time when the employee retires or leaves the company. (1 point = 1 share)
- The trust administrator exercises voting rights on behalf of the employee. (Voting right: the right to vote on resolutions at a general meeting of shareholders)
- J-ESOP-RS (Restricted stock)
- Points are awarded for each salary and bonus, and once a year company shares are granted to the employee’s restricted transfer account.*3 (1 point = 1 share)
- Transfer restrictions are lifted when the employee retires or leaves the company.
- Dividends are distributed in proportion to the number of shares held.
- Employees have the right to exercise voting rights as a shareholders.
*3 An account in which shares of the company’s stock can be received with restrictions on transfer. This prevents the shares from immediate sale or transfer to a third party
Securing human resources:stabilization of our human resource base
In addition to strengthening our core businesses, we are also working to secure human resources that will contribute to our growth businesses by expanding our scope of career recruiting and including referral-based and alumni recruiting methods to reinforce human resources who can make an immediate impact. For hiring new graduates,we expect young people to breathe new life into our organizations with their flexible ideas. We define innovative human resources as people who are skilled at creating new solutions and conduct our own selection process independently of conventional recruitment crieria. In addition,in order to increase the number of human resources who are active globally, we are focusing on recruiting global human resources, not only by hiring international students in Japan,but also through initiatives such as participation in overseas career forums and hiring of overseas university students who wish to work for Japanese companies.
We will continue to acquire human resources who can support the azbil Group’s unique business model and encourage them to play an active role by creating a personnel system that is tailored to their job types and job characteristics and enhances employees’ satisfaction,as well as creating a fair and well-balanced system that appropriately rewards performance to attract more outstanding talent.