Human Capital Management

Our diverse human capital supports corporate value growth, while we support our employees' personal growth by providing environments and opportunities where people with diverse backgrounds can utilize their strengths and maximize their potential.

Policies Regarding Human Capital

Human capital is the foundation for R&D capital, manufacturing capital, and customer relationship capital, which are necessary to realize our management strategies. Advantest promotes a variety of initiatives that focus on both the "individual strength" and the "organizational strength", the wheels needed to enhance the comprehensive strength of human capital. The Advantest Group, thereby, has established two basic policies regarding human capital development and internal environment development.

Basic Policy Regarding Human Capital Development

The Advantest Group ("Advantest") regards employees as human capital essential for its sustainable growth. Advantest strongly believes developing employees as human capital indicates an investment in human capital, and that the "individual strength" enhanced through the development and the "organizational strength" utilizing the enhanced individual strength are the two "wheels" that drive employee engagement and become the sources of future value creation. Accordingly, Advantest proactively, continually and fairly implements measures to develop human capital under The Advantest Way, INTEGRITY Core Values, technical and professional management strategies, and the skills required to grow within the development framework.

  1. (1)
    Self-Directed Career Development
    We encourage employees to be proactive in their career development, while Advantest provides the resources and support to acquire the experience and knowledge necessary to enhance their careers inside Advantest.
  2. (2)
    Global Human Capital
    From a long-term perspective, we are committed to developing human capital with a global viewpoint, this includes providing opportunities to enhance expertise and management literacy on a global scale.
  3. (3)
    Leading-Edge Human Capital
    To achieve our corporate mission statement, “Enabling Leading-edge Technologies,” we aim to develop the strengths of every employee and foster high performers to take on leading-edge challenges.
  4. (4)
    Advantest Development Framework
    Under The Advantest Way and our management strategies, we have defined and provide resources for all employees to enhance their skills required to advance their careers within the Advantest Development Framework.

Established on April 25, 2023

Internal Environment Development Policy

The Advantest Group (“Advantest”) regards employees as human capital essential for its sustainable growth. Advantest also recognizes that maximizing the value of human capital will directly lead to increase its corporate value. Accordingly, Advantest proactively, continually and fairly implements measures to develop the internal environment for human capital under The Advantest Way, its management strategies, and this policy.

  1. (1)
    Corporate Culture
    We understand The Advantest Way is a corporate culture to bring together our diverse employees to a globally unified team. We continue efforts to instill The Advantest Way as a deeply-rooted corporate culture, aiming to ensure all employee’s embody and practice The Advantest Way in our daily work life.
  2. (2)
    Human Capital Development/Cultivation
    We are committed to strengthening the development and cultivation of human capital to facilitate self-directed career development for motivated employees. We regularly conduct employee engagement surveys to gain a deep understanding of the strengths and issues of human capital and appropriately reflect the survey results in our measures and action plans to develop and cultivate the Advantest human capital.
  3. (3)
    Health Management
    Under our Health and Productivity Management (HPM) Policy, we are strategically committed to maintaining and improving employees’ health from a managerial perspective.
  4. (4)
    Workstyles and Work Environments
    We accept, encourage, and support diverse workstyles which enables every employee to achieve a good work-life balance. In addition, we promote developing an office environments that provides the necessary resources and support for employees to enhance their remote work environments.

Established on April 25, 2023

Efforts to Develop Human Resources

Triggered by the employee engagement survey, which was conducted in 2018, we have launched our INTEGRITY Core Values, as a means to listen deeply to our employees' stories, and instilled them in everyone's hearts as a set of values that unite us. From the summer of 2019, we offered interactive INTEGRITY workshops for all our employees. This training, which incorporates the theme of the core values into daily work and encourages changes in the corporate culture, lasted until the end of FY2020 while avoiding the spread of COVID-19. Build upon a firm springboard, there were positive effects on internal communication and also offered a place where leaders thrive, and ideas prosper. In FY2023, as in FY2022, as a next phase of our cultural evolution, we worked on cultivating "leaders" who will drive the organization, and human resource development with a focus on the growth of individual employees.

The Leading with INTEGRITY Program

In an era of high uncertainty and unpredictability, leaders must understand and make decisions about how to effectively demonstrate their skills and expertise in various circumstances. A new Advantest Leadership Model was created for our leaders worldwide to further develop skills and expertise in the four key areas - LEADER, MANAGER, COACH and EXPERT, and Leading with INTEGRITY workshops were held. Over 1,200 Advantest leaders have participated in this learning opportunity. In this training, leaders from various organizations, transcending national borders or organizations, participate in the same workshop, form a group of two ("learning buddies"), and spend about five months together discussing their progress toward their skill development goals and their concerns. These workshops not only play a role in mutually inspiring our colleagues but also provides insight on diversity.

Four areas of the new Advantest Leadership Model

Leader
The core purpose is to set vision, mission, and direction, which requires visionary thinking and the ability to inspire others.
Manager
The core purpose is to organize and direct teams to achieve business objectives and ensure compliance, which requires the ability to orchestrate work in teams and excellent people and project management skills.
Coach
The core purpose is to enable others to perform at the highest level possible, which requires leaders to enable learning opportunities and encouraging others.
Expert
The core purpose is to provide domain expertise, which requires the education, teaching and mentoring of others.

Activities for Succession

In order to pool human resources and retain the best talent in the industry who will be our future leaders of the company, we implemented a "talent management program" for nine months, including a curriculum in management, finance, and liberal arts, for members selected from among our managers from FY2021. In FY2022, we expanded the scope of the program to include participants from group companies in each country and implemented a "Global Talent Management Program" for 13 months starting in September 2022. 
Through group work activities, in which participants were asked to consider Advantest's challenges and its countermeasures propose them to the management, the participants were able to form strong connections with the management and members outside of their own departments. These training activities also helps Advantest to become a "learning organization" - one of our long-term goals.

Visualization of Skills Expected for Employees and Support Systems

In order to improve corporate value over the long term, each employee must clearly understand the roles they play and improve their individual capabilities. In addition, we are required to combine these individual strengths and fully demonstrate them as an organizational strength in the global business playing field. With this in mind, Advantest has established the Advantest Development Framework which defines the foundational skills, advanced skills, manager skills, and senior management skills that Advantest seeks for in all levels of our employees, and shared it among all employees globally in January, 2022. In conjunction with the development framework introduction, we also introduced two new online learning platforms which are intended to provide all employee's and manager's access to training classes to further enhance the skills for their career advancement. Since some of these should be adapted to local customs and rules, the HR in each country decides the details of operation.
Advantest promises to actively support our employees who constantly strive to better themselves and seek to acquire advanced expertise and broad education.

Advantest Development Framework
Fundamental skills are Customerfacing Skills, Communication, Thinking, Personal Effectiveness, and teamwork. Advanced skills are to improve the individual skills listed in the basic skills. Project management and process management are added. Manager skills require team development skills such as management and leadership. Senior manager and above skills require senior management skills to develop organizational innovation. The framework implementation will be adapted to local rules and practices.

In FY2023, two systems were established to support the Advantest Development Framework: the Group-wide Compliance Education Program (GCEP), a mandatory training curriculum for all employees, and the Global New Employee Orientation (NEO), a training curriculum for new hires and mid-career recruits.

Global New Employee Orientation (NEO)

Many new employees have joined Advantest with our business expansion from 2022 to 2023. For new employees who are curious and anxious to know more about Advantest's corporate culture and organization, rules and regulations, and other information, the company's intranet was not user-friendly as a lot of information was scattered everywhere, despite its availability. After several months of design by the IT team and HC (Human Capital) team in each country, we launched Global New Employee Orientation (NEO) in December, which allows new employees to automatically receive course information as soon as they join the company, and provides them with the necessary global information to help them adjust quickly to the company. In April 2024, we added a welcome message from the Group CEO. We will continue to update and improve the program to serve the greater good.

For more information on GCEP, please refer to "Compliance Education".

GCEP Movie Capture
GCEP Movie Capture

Launch of the Task Force "Rethinking Employee & Workplace Learning"

The introduction of e-learning and the #myADV guide, as a means to instill collaboration tools within the company, has encouraged the creation of an environment where people can learn if they want to. On the other hand, having too many options has made decision-making processes overwhelming for many people who allegedly reported that they cannot choose what they need to know or what they need to learn to be effective. In the meantime, some wanted to share what they know. In August 2023, a task force of HR and volunteers, "Rethinking Employee & Workplace Learning," was created to offer a place to respond to these issues related to learning. The group meets twice a month to discuss customer journeys based on design thinking to create a win-win situation for both those who teach and those who are taught. We will start with a trial in Japan, and then, going forward, will consider establishing a system to expand the program on a more global scale.

Education and Training System and Implementation Status

Advantest has prepared a training program that anyone can participate in, and where a wide range of topics can be learned, from basic knowledge up to the latest technology trends. In addition, we will continue to make improvements to adapt the training program to the changing environment, providing industry-leading superior human resource training, and attracting the best talent in the industry through this program, in cooperation with Advantest Academy, which specializes in employee education.

To adapt to the business environment that is drastically changing due to globalization, we are strengthening the human resources development training system in line with our mid/long-term management policy. To make this training even more effective, we are forging and implementing new programs, including the expansion of 1-on-1 communication trainings. New programs will also be delivered by specialists to make them more effective, and we will selectively use in-house or external lecturers depending on the program content.

At each Group company, we will also provide a wide range of education to increase the skills and expertise of individuals based on the needs in each country and region in addition to education through day-to-day operations.
For example, Advantest Taiwan inc. has implemented the "Sales Force Reinforcement Program" for account managers and engineers who work closely with customers to request customer support. Product updates were given by the development managers, including V93000, memory, and DI. Through these programs, employees share information and exchange ideas related to products and services, as well as learn about new market trends and solutions, ultimately helping them grow and improve their daily work. We aim to develop and instill a system that boosts the level of the entire Advantest Group by sharing information on these efforts between Group companies.

Training in Japan

In FY2023, we continued to offer events that integrated both virtual and in-person as a flexible hybrid program due to restrictions by COVID-19 issue. We incorporated web conferencing systems to provide opportunities to learn despite the pandemic, offering environments for training that did not require coming in to work. By increasing online group work activities, which proved to be effective in boosting employee motivation, we were able to promote mutual awareness building across departments and expand connections regardless of work location.

In terms of language education, we focused on strengthening in-house marketing by introducing courses to employees and holding pre-learning sessions to solicit a wide range of participants. While spending most of the time at home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we introduced micro-learning, allowing employees to effectively use their spare time, making it easier for learners to secure time to study. A total of 1,349 employees, roughly 40 more than last year, participated to improve their language skills.

As part of our leadership development initiatives, we introduced a liberal arts educational program to cultivate a sense of culture and have newly appointed managers obtain the "power to think" by themselves. As we enter a new post-pandemic era, this initiative develops the big picture of what is necessary for leaders from wide perspectives that include religion and philosophy. Through the three training sessions, group members deepened their awareness of issues and exchanged opinions, while also revitalizing exchanges in preparation for the presentation of their results.

As a demonstration of "Inclusion and Diversity," one of Advantest's core values, we have made it possible for working mothers who have returned from childcare leave and are working shorter hours to participate in outside seminars, mainly career education, from FY2021. Advantest is a tech company, and naturally, the number of female employees is not as large as that of male employees. The program is designed to offer participants an opportunity to think about balancing childcare and work, in other words, their own careers, while sharing opinions with other working mothers outside the company who are in the same situation, and to learn how to communicate effectively with their supervisors and coworkers.

Training Time

At the Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated) in FY2023, a total of 33,459 employees received training of some kind, and the average number of training hours per employee was approximately 1.6 hours for 54,954 hours of total lesson time. A total of 84,896 people took part in e-learning globally, including Japan, and the average number of training hours per employee was approximately 0.4 hours for 36,002 hours of total lesson time. In total, the average training hours per employee was approximately 2 hours.

Can be swiped left or right.
Training category Target Number of trainees Lesson time (hours)
Business Training (human resource management, etc.) Managers, General 1,134 7,563H
Technical Training (technology) Managers, General 1,032 2,993H
e-learning (human resource management, etc.) Managers, General 29,689 10,312H
New Employee Training (by job level) General 39 15,067H
Language/TOEIC (global) Managers, General 1,349 17,623H
Outside seminars (e.g., on business skills, etc.) Managers, General 216 1,397H
Total 33,459 54,954H
  • *
    Data range for tabulation: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated) data

Development of Engineers (Japan)

We place particular emphasis on educating engineers, with the aim of ensuring that our products continue to underpin leading-edge technologies.
We have created a training program accessible to every employee of the Group and covering a wide range of subjects, from basic knowledge to the latest technologies.

In FY2023, we continued to offer various technology seminars and technical training programs, with 1,032 engineers participating, double the number of last year. Some of the programs include courses in which Advantest's senior engineers appear as internal trainers. For example, one of the seminars featured a lecture on design quality by an employee in charge of design, thereby shedding light on the basic technologies required to maintain and improve product quality based on the speaker's first-hand experiences. Courses are held by inviting instructors from outside the company based on themes requested by engineers or management-level personnel, so as to support them in adapting to a rapidly changing business environment.

The program acts as a means of imparting not only technical knowledge but also Advantest's corporate DNA to future generations.

Software-Related Education

Since 1992, we have held the "Software Engineering Forum" more than 200 times. These forums offer a place where employees can learn not only the latest technical information on Agile, AI, GPU, etc., but also a wide range of security-related and up-to-date information from internal and external lecturers, including those from overseas. In FY2023, there were many in-house presentations on IT, business management, and technology development, as well as from outside the company on quality, AI services, container technology, and more.

In 2019, we started "Advantest Engineering Friday" as a place for engineers to share their interests on an ongoing basis. We offered opportunities where engineers can share their insights on different themes and learn from each other, going beyond their own organization or community. These activities have served as a bridge for software engineers, who are eager to learn and share, to expand their knowledge, and as a place for in-house technical exchange.

Other Courses on Advanced Technologies

We invite external instructors to provide course on themes and the latest trends that are of great interest to our employees, which also serve as a means to pass on technical know-how to the next generation.
In FY2023, we co-sponsored a D2T Symposium by the Systems Design Lab (d.lab) of the School of Engineering at the University of Tokyo and in-house seminars on semiconductor markets, manufacturing technologies, and business strategies by inviting outside speakers. We devised ways to provide lectures and symposiums on a wide range of topics, regardless of whether they are related to work or not, providing opportunities to broaden one's scope as an engineer and to increase their motivations.
We are planning to increase the number of participants not only by holding various trainings and lectures, but also by establishing an environment where participants can learn what they wish to learn (on-demand education), and encourage employees to learn independently.

New Employee Education and Training (Japan)

Advantest's training program for new employees starts with one month of basic business training covering the basics of working life. After that, the new recruits are put into one of two occupation-specific training regimes, depending on whether they have been hired for engineering or administrative job assignments.
Engineering employees first learn the basics of design, and then go on to learn the necessary skills as Advantest engineers through basic technology training to obtain the basic knowledge required, hardware training, software training, and device test training. New administrative employees receive basic training for administrative operations to learn the basics of administration and brush up on their administrative skills, while learning the contents of the Group's business and how the divisions are interrelated.

New employees for FY2023 underwent training camps organized at Kinugawa Onsen (hot spring) immediately after joining the company so that they can better communicate with their peers.
Prior to their assignment, they take a "talent assessment" together with their OJT leaders, of which data is used as reference information for mutual understanding.
By having new employees experience diverse types of training in this manner, we are able to ensure that they will clearly understand their own roles, and will recognize the importance of teamwork with other divisions. Our training period for new recruits acts as a key formative phase in their professional development as Advantest employees.

New employees training

All new employees in Japan starts with one month of basic business training covering the basics of working life. After that, the new recruits are put into one of two occupation-specific training regimes. Engineering employees first learn the basics of design, and then go on to learn the necessary skills as Advantest engineers through basic technology training to obtain the basic knowledge required, hardware training, software training, and device test training. New administrative employees receive basic training for administrative operations to learn the basics of administration and brush up on their administrative skills, while learning the contents of the Group's business and how the divisions are interrelated. Three years are an OJT period for all occupations.

Creating a Workplace with Higher Job Satisfaction

Advantest has been striving to realize good work-life balance for all employees and to create a work environment in which each and every employee can work with higher job satisfaction.

With the spread of remote work and the progress of globalization and workstyle reforms due to the current COVID-19 situation, the working environment has changed drastically, forcing us to recognize a need for a more diverse form of office use. Under such circumstances, we have been unceasing in our exploration for the very existence of the office that ensures comfort, safety, and productivity, and have prompted improvements to further enhance the work environment by renovating the office.

Office Building Renovated to Support New Workstyles

Advantest has been renovating offices at each of our sites to realize new workstyles.

Gunma R&D Center began a complete renewal of its office floors from FY2022 against the backdrop of aging fixtures and fittings that have been in use since construction was completed (Building 1 in 1996 and Building 2 in 2001) and changes in workstyles, including an increasing trend in remote work and web conferencing.

In FY2023, we conducted an effectiveness and verification survey of the two office floors that were renovated in the previous fiscal year. We confirmed that points increased in almost all items measuring satisfaction with the office environment, and that the ease of working has improved. In FY2023, we suspended major construction work, but installed café machines and tea servers on each floor, replaced water servers in the communication area, and made comprehensive efforts to improve the office environment while reducing CO2 emissions without compromising quality.

In FY2024, we will begin renovations of two new office floors to accommodate work styles where in-office workstyle is the norm.

Owing to the large-scale nature of this renewal, we are also conducting post-renovation effectiveness and verification to determine what kind of fixtures and layouts will be effective in realizing the overall concept, with long-term benefits in mind. In addition, with an eye on the progression of global operations, the work environment will change dramatically in the future, and diversity in working places and styles will be required. As one measure to consider what the company's offices should be like under such circumstances, we hold regular meetings with facility managers at our overseas offices. We aim to create a better environment by exchanging information on how to realize an office that is comfortable, safe, and productive.

Revitalization of Workplace Communication

After the COVID-19 pandemic, we shifted our workstyle from encouraging remote work to one based on in-office worksyle, and began efforts to revitalize communication in the workplace. As part of this initiative, we designated the days when we hold all-hands meetings, New Year greetings, founding ceremonies, technical conference, and other events as "Real Communication Days (RCD)" (excluding employees on business trips or vacation), when all employees are required to come to work. Gunma R&D Center introduced RCD on a trial basis in January 2024, ahead of other business sites. To accommodate the increase in the number of employees coming to work as part of this initiative, we increased the number of seats in some office areas and renovated the cafeteria.

We plan to expand this initiative to all offices and will continue to promote the revitalization of face-to-face communication.

Mini cafes on each floor (café machines, tea servers)
Water servers in the communication area
Additional seating in the office area
Renewal of VIP dining room (Japanese style)
Provision of snacks on RCD

Promotion of Digital Workplace Activities #myADV

Advantest has been continuously improving the #myADV digital workplace (#myADV), which started in May 2020, in order to encourage and support global business development and a "hybrid" way of working for employees globally.

#myADV is promoted by the Global IT Collaboration team and supports volunteer #myADV guides (over 200 guides as of July 2024). Specifically, the Global IT Collaboration team conducts regular coaching sessions for #myADV guides, as well as organization-specific use case analysis and training for specific business entities to support company-wide dissemination and use of collaboration tools.

In fiscal 2023, we introduced a company-wide shared translation tool with the aim of promoting global communication and provided training on its usage and functions on #myADV guides.

In addition, we are working to unify tools for creating departmental websites. By unifying the tools, it will be easier to search for keywords on the website regardless of department, and #myADV guide will also be available as support for the creation of the respective websites.

Furthermore, we are developing an AI-based keyword search application, with the goal of expanding it to department wise websites.

Advantest Germany Earns Great Place to Work® Certification

Advantest Europe GmbH (AEG) has participated in the surveys on employee job satisfaction of the international human resources consulting agency "Great Place to Work®" every other year since 2017. AEG has been recognized as one of the top 100 companies in 2017, 2019 and 2021 and ranked in the top 10 companies in Information Technology and Communication sector in 2023. Great Place to Work® evaluates companies of all sizes, industries, and regions, and annually recognizes companies whose survey results exceed a certain level as "Best Workplaces" and announces the top list of companies in its "Best Workplaces" lists each year.

In addition, workstyle reform is being tackled in each Group company in order to create workplaces where all employees can work while having a sense of worthwhile.

Advantest Korea Acquires Great Place to Work® Certification

Advantest Korea (ATK) took the challenge of conducting a "Great Place to Work" assessment for the first time in May 2023, achieved good results exceeding a certain level in its second attempt in March 2024, and finally earned the "Great Place to Work®" certification in April 2024. The certification came as the result of various initiatives to create a comfortable workplace, including "culture day" events to discuss the corporate culture, and "praise activities" to praise and thank colleagues for their outstanding efforts in their daily work. (For details, see "Improvement of Corporate Culture.") These efforts also resulted in 80% of employees feeling welcomed when they newly joined the company.

Advantest Korea, 'Family Friendly Corporation' certified

Advantest Korea (ATK) has been certified as a Family Friendly Corporation, a credential awarded by the South Korean government to exemplary companies that foster a family-friendly culture and successfully operate work-life balance programs, since December 2022. Certified companies are benefited from certification mark, extra points when participating in government projects, and discounts on public facilities for those employees.

ATK's employees have taken full advantage of the systems and benefits of the work-life balance program. Therefore, ATK is very proud to receive the certification, passing with high scores. In particular, ATK received perfect scores for the utilization of flexible worktime, maternity/childcare leave, reduced working hours for pregnant employees. Besides, employee satisfaction with the family-friendly culture turned out to be very high and ATK was assessed quite remarkable for vacation use, PC-off system, and inviting families to events.

Employee Engagement

Advantest conducted our first global-wide Employee Engagement Survey in 2018. Though the implementation of the survey was postponed due to the outbreak of COVID-19, three years later, in the fall of 2021, we repeated the Gallup survey (Next implementation scheduled for October 2024).

Ever since gaining various insights through the initial survey in 2018, Advantest has continued to make steady efforts. We believe that each of these activities will become a retention measure and become the driving force that turns the wheels of both "individual strengths" and "organizational strengths", ultimately leading to the improvement of the Group's profitability and productivity, customer satisfaction, and reduced turnover. In other words, engagement improvement measures per se serve as profit margin improvement measures, productivity improvement measures, customer satisfaction increase measures, and retention measures.

Purpose of the Survey

Advantest continuously pursues a culture in which all employees are appreciated, respected, and work together to achieve common goals. The purpose of this survey is to provide employees with opportunities to share their thoughts on our company or organization. It stimulates dialog between the manager and the team, which ultimately leads to creating ideas for improving our company or organization from every level. The survey results provide a clue to knowing what the employees think of their work or work environment and how the company can support its employees. The survey makes it possible to identify the company's strengths and the fields that require improvement through open feedback from employees. In addition, we will take actions for improvements so as to raise the level of employee engagement in work and workplace environments, with the aim of improving the performance of the company as a whole as well as the performance of individual employees. Advantest believes that individual and organizational strengths are the two "wheels" that not only drive employee engagement but are needed to enhance the comprehensive strength of human capital.

Engagement and its Basics

Employee engagement refers to the emotional commitment of employees to their organization or its goals. An employee who is engaged in work does not only do what is minimally required, but goes about his/her work enthusiastically and energetically, with an effort to output more than what is required. According to a survey conducted by Gallup, Inc., engagement among employees worldwide is only 15%. In addition, it has become clear that there is a connection between employee engagement and the following indexes.

  • Profitability, customer ratings, and productivity (in direct proportion)
  • Turnover, absenteeism, safety incidents, and quality defects (in inverse proportion)

Implementation of the Survey and Future Plans

The survey during fiscal 2021 was conducted from October 12th to 26th for all employees of the Advantest Group who had been employed for three months or longer at that point. The response rate was 90%. The survey was conducted using the platform of Gallup, Inc. in an online format in which anonymity is ensured.

Results

The results showed significant improvements, including an increase in scores for all items in Q12® (12 questions for engagement measurement derived from the findings of Gallup, Inc.). The overall average score was 3.64, an increase of 0.16 points from the previous survey. This is by far the biggest improvement among companies who consecutively completed the Gallup survey. We also saw an improvement in awareness and opportunities related to the category of Recognition (the need to know that efforts are recognized and valued) and Development that were highlighted during the previous survey, marking 26% for the ratio of Engaged (diligent) employees, a 6-point increase from the previous score. This survey confirmed that the engagement level of Advantest Group companies is considerably higher than the standard for each country. These are clear indications of each of our employees' efforts to understand the importance of engagement, and shows how they have embraced and implemented our corporate reforms such as "INTEGRITY" and "Leading with INTEGRITY," yielding measurable results.

Our overall score is not high, when compared to other companies participating in Gallup's survey, and there is still room for improvement. After sharing information with each department, where department leaders discussed the factors that may have led to these results, we drew up action plans to address each issue.

Future plans

The same Gallup survey is scheduled to be conducted in 2024. This survey plays a meaningful role not only in confirming activity results in numerical terms, but also in terms of instilling an awareness of engagement as part of our corporate culture. Engagement varies considerably depending on the customs and cultures of each country. While localized efforts are necessary, our INTEGRITY Core Values, which are the foundation of our corporate philosophy, The Advantest Way, are shared globally. We believe that it is essential to enhance engagement by executing action plans that address the characteristics and challenges of each department, sharing information about activities across the entire Group, and promoting investment in human and economic resources aiming to foster our corporate culture.

Company-wide Activities to Further Boost Engagement

The results of the 2018 Gallup employee engagement survey provided us an opportunity to reflect on our attitudes and mentality towards work.

Since 2019, we have held multiple workshops to deepen all employees' understanding of INTEGRITY Core Values, and since FY2021, we encouraged all our managers to participate in the Leading with INTEGRITY workshops. In addition, the "INTEGRITY Award" was also introduced, enabling Advantest employees to recognize and express their appreciation for colleagues who have demonstrated our corporate culture in exceptional ways.

Inculcation and Evolution of Our INTEGRITY Core Values

The INTEGRITY Awards is a peer-to-peer program that offers Advantest employees worldwide a platform to recognize and express appreciation for colleagues who have demonstrated the Advantest´s Core Values in exceptional ways and who contributed significantly to the transformation of our corporate culture. Nominations are solicited and selected on a quarterly basis, and the selected employees are nominated for the CEO Awards, which are presented on an annual basis. In FY2022, a total of 400 cases named 1,203 nominees for the INTEGRITY Awards. Among them, three groups were chosen and commended in the INTEGRITY category of the CEO Awards.

The Advantest Group continues to pursue a corporate culture where the contributions and values of individual employees are recognized and respected by showing appreciation for peers. These company-wide activities have penetrated down to the level of each organization and team, generating self-directed activities not only within each organization, but also across multiple organizations.

In 2022, to further promote activities related to INTEGRITY, a "Culture Council" consisting of then President Yoshida and several executive officers was established, and representatives nominated by each business unit, functional unit, and regional unit were appointed as "INTEGRITY Ambassadors (hereinafter IAs)." The INTEGRITY Ambassadors are 38 enthusiastic employees (as of May 2024), selected from seven countries and regions. The INTEGRITY Ambassador Community is made up of Five Tracks focused on Awards & Recognition, Employee Engagement, the adoption of the Advantest Leadership Model, Learning & Development, and Communication. They are working to further implement INTEGRITY throughout the Advantest Group.

In FY2023, efforts to improve the corporate culture spread by word of mouth at an incomparably fast manner through regular exchanges among IAs, and the favorable circle of influence grew larger. We have also accelerated efforts to develop the system itself to better serve our employees.

We also launched "The Advantest Forest" sponsored tree initiative as part of The INTEGRITY Award program. Starting in FY2024, both the nominators for The INTEGRITY Award and nominees will receive certificates as a sponsor of a tree planting in Ecuador, the Philippines, and Thailand, in collaboration with NGOs and a tree planting vendor. We believe that dedicating certificates to the nominators as well would serve to honor their cooperation with The INTEGRITY Award, and raise awareness for sustainability, both for employees and the environment.

Workshop held by
INTEGRITY ambassadors
and Culture Council
(At Advantest headquarters
in Tokyo, December 2022)
INTEGRITY Promotion Structure
Nominated representatives from business units, functional units and regional units are appointed as INTEGRITY Ambassadors. Together with the Culture Council, which is comprised of executive officers, the Ambassadors will drive five tracks: Awards and recognition, Employee Engagement, Adoption to Advantest Leadership Model, Learning and Development, and Communication.

Cross-organizational Initiatives

"Cross 1on1" is a little different from the conventional 1on1, referring to a place where mentors (advisers) and mentees (those who are advised) can talk one-on-one across organizational boundaries. Mentees are able to gain insights that cannot be obtained from their own department or daily work alone, and foster their potential. Mentors also have the opportunity to improve their coaching skills, which is one of the most important elements of the leadership model.

What started as merely 10 participants in the ATE Business Group (Japan) in 2020, has increased in number over time with each round of 1on1 activity. The number of mentors and mentees reached more than 70 (including mentors and mentees) by the ninth phase of 2023, due in part to the selection as one of the CEO Award winners of The INTEGRITY Award in FY2021 in recognition of its efforts to implement the EMPOWERMENT aspect of INTEGRITY core values and the expansion network of its values, and also due to the active exchange among IAs. In the 10th phase in 2024, there were also applicants for mentors from overseas bases.

Examples of Visualization Tools

From April 2021, the ATE Business Group (Japan) has incorporated an engagement visualization tool to survey the team, followed by team discussion and improvement activities every three months. These initiatives are managed by survey feedback activity promotion members who are volunteers from inside and outside the department, and their participation is optional, decided upon a consensus of the team. We continue to provide support to participating teams by regularly inviting outside lecturers to hold webinars and creating opportunities to share examples of each team's activities.

Since two of the IAs appointed in FY2022 were members of the promotion team, survey feedback activities are being shared as case studies with regular exchanges among IAs. These activities, which began in April 2021 with 169 members (22 teams), have increased to 573 members (64 teams) as of March 2024, with more participants from units other than the ATE Business Group. Five of the promotion team members are IAs.

We have received a strong response from those who were gifted INTEGRITY chocolates as petit gifts for their actions that embody the nine core values. One division made INTEGRITY chocolates, which were distributed to managers throughout the department who spread the word, ultimately increasing the engagement score. The recipients were all very pleased as this experience provided an opportunity to learn that praise is strongly related to engagement. We then created INTEGRITY gums as variants of chocolates, and distributed them to a wider group. It has now become an indispensable communication tool to recognize and praise behavior change.

In addition, one division of the ATE Business Group has gone further into conducting "off-site meetings" to address department-wide issues.

Off-site Meetings to Revitalize the Organization

The T2000 Product Unit (T2000PU) has held 10 interactive off-site meetings (20 participants x 2 days) since March 2023 at a café near its office, which was attended by all members, including the director in charge.

The impetus for holding these meetings came from a sense of urgency on the part of the officer in charge of the T2000PU. There were concerns over lack of mutual understanding among employees across departments as well as a stronger development of self-interest among peers. To resolve these issues, members spent eight months developing a concept with the advice of an outside consultant, and after a trial period, the team successfully held the event.

The first day began with a talk by the director in charge himself on the current status of the T2000PU and his expectations for the workshop. Groups were divided into the same proportions in terms of age and area of responsibility as the organization's overall personnel structure to increase opportunities for mutual understanding. This allowed for a session exploring the history of T2000 R&D, in which those with experience spoke about how they felt about their work in each transition and created interactive dialogues with the younger members of the group. The second day ended with a session to think and share about what they want to do with the organization in the future, with a focus on personal experience.

After the implementation of the off-site meeting, we have made efforts to vitalize communication within the PU. The journey to promote organizational revitalization continues, as we move forward in incorporating activities that seem necessary based on the organization's situation.

Examples

  • Provide 15 minutes of chat time in groups after monthly department meetings
  • Hold a random mystery lunch with members of the PU chosen by lottery

All-hands Management Visualization Workshops

The Field Service (FS) Business Group held a series of four workshops for all FS employees in Japan in fiscal 2023 with the main theme of improving customer experience*. The event was held in the form of workshops to deepen understanding of the concept of improving customer experience, which was newly added to the FS policy, and to provide an opportunity to make personal connections with the issue.

The workshop was designed to help everyone share the company's mid- to long-term management policy and the FS Group policy, and then to systematically understand individual and team mission, and to exchange opinions among teams so that they can share the values of their company/department/individual members.

  • Session 1: Thinking about your team's mission and vision "With CX" (April 2023)
  • Session 2: Understand what your team needs to do with the "As-Is/To-be Gap" (July 2023)
  • Session 3: Understand adjacent departments with a mandala chart (October 2023)
  • Session 4: Think of a scenario that will impress your customers (February 2024)

The workshop also incorporated plans to foster a sense of unity among all participants while having fun by asking participants to wear uniforms and sharing elaborate works in a photo competition. In fiscal 2024, we will enter the practical phase of realizing what was discussed at the workshop.

  • *
    Customer experience refers to a series of processes that customers experience through the purchase of a product or service.

Improvement of Corporate Culture (Advantest Korea Co., Ltd.)

Advantest Korea Co., Ltd. (ATK) has been working hard to improve its corporate culture since 2022. These activities were first implemented in the administrative division in 2022, which included "praise activities" to express gratitude and praise to colleagues who made outstanding efforts in their daily work, and successfully created a culture of mutual admiration. As a result, the internal survey showed a 12% improvement in the praise question and a 13% improvement in the question regarding the promotion of growth. To further enhance these positive results, we expanded the program to the entire company in fiscal 2023.

"Change Agents" were selected from each department to implement improvement activities, who then gathered ideas for changes and activities needed by employees and formulated them into workable plans. A variety of initiatives to encourage employees to change their actions/mindsets and culture, including culture days (discussions about corporate culture), praise activities, and opportunities for conversations with colleagues and subordinates, were also organized. Workshops were also held at the company-wide level to help employees better understand peers of different generations and positions, and to provide them with opportunities to learn smooth communication skills that will help them interact in their daily work. As a result of these efforts, we received positive feedback from employees, such as "Encouragement from supervisors is a powerful motivator," and "There are ongoing efforts to raise psychological safety throughout ATK."

In April 2023, we opened the "Health Lounge," a welfare facility (see "Health Initiatives") based on feedback from an internal survey. Through these various improvement activities, we were able to obtain Great Place to Work® certification in April 2024 (See "Creating a Workplace with Higher Job Satisfaction").

INTEGRITY With New Members of Integrated Companies

As of January 1, 2023, R&D Altanova (RDA) was integrated into the Advantest Group. There was much to be done, including officially consolidating RDA onto the Advantest payroll, benefits and other platforms, but also RDA employees in the US, Pakistan and Costa Rica needed to be inducted into the Advantest Way and learn our INTEGRITY Core Values. The HC team of Advantest America held a total of 17 Core Values Workshops for RDA US, Taiwan, Pakistan, and Costa Rica, including 11 onsite sessions as well as six virtual sessions, to share our values with these new members of the Advantest Group. At the end of these workshops, each participant received the official Core Values Certificate of Completion.

The workshops for these new colleagues were then passed on to the HC departments of the respective countries, and the same initiatives are being taken by Shin Puu in Taiwan and Salland in the Netherlands, whose acquisitions were subsequently completed.

Employees of
R&D Altanova, who newly
joined Advantest Group.

Initiatives for Work-Life Balance

Advantest believes that the realization of a good work-life balance will ultimately contribute to the improvement of corporate value. We believe that a well-balanced workstyle is necessary to allow employees to maximize their capabilities while balancing their private life with work, and to maintain their motivation. Based on this philosophy, Advantest has continued to create good working environments that offer flexible working systems.

In Japan, Advantest has been promoting active use of existing systems, such as days to finish work at the appointed time, use of annual paid leave, and flextime (for all employees). The ratio of employees using annual paid leave usage (23 days a year (22 days for employees with less than 10 years of continuous service)) has maintained a high standard at around 70% each year, marking 80.0% in fiscal 2023.
Moreover, a remote working system and a home office working system for all employees have been established, aiming to expand systems in which many employees will be able to conduct flexible and efficient work according to their tasks, workstyles, and lifestyles.

In addition to enhancing working practices, we also believe that supporting the health of employees is important from the perspective of work-life balance. We are therefore promoting the creation of workplaces where employees can work in good physical and mental health globally. For details, please refer to "Promotion of Health and Productivity Management".

Remote Working System

The Advantest Group in Japan has introduced the remote working system since April 2020. We withdrew the restrictions on the maximum number of days that remote work is possible. We provide an environment in which most of the tasks can be done remotely in accordance with the basic information security policies.

The introduction of the remote working system has led to an expansion of new workstyles, helping employees, not only those who are raising children or caregiving family members, but also many others, to balance work and private lives.

Work-Life Balance Programs for Childcare and Caregiving

Advantest actively promotes support programs for balancing work and private life, providing flexible ways of working according to each individual's situation at various stages in employees' lives.

Examples of support programs in Japan

At Advantest, pregnant employees can receive 100% compensation during prenatal checkups and pregnancy complications leave, and are offered the choice to work shorter hours if instructed by a doctor. Advantest offers childcare leave and caregiving leave that exceeds legal standards. Childcare leave can be taken until the child reaches the age of two years and three months, and caregiving leave can be taken for a maximum of three years. Other leave programs are also widely used, such as the accumulated holiday program, which can be taken for a variety of reasons, by fathers as well as mothers, including a spouse's childbirth, childcare, fertility treatment, and other caregiving responsibilities.
Furthermore, Advantest offers shorter work hours for employees who are raising children or looking after ill relations. Shorter working hours for childcare can be used until the employee’s youngest child reaches the sixth grade, and is currently being used by many employees with children to balance work and childcare. There is no restriction on the period in which employees can work short hours in order to care for ill family members, so that employees can best balance their jobs with their home lives.

As there are cases in which employees resign their jobs during life transitions, such as marriage, childbirth, childcare, caregiving for the family, and spouse job relocation, Advantest has established a re-employment program for employees who meet a certain criterion.

We are also working on support for childcare participation for fathers, which includes the provision of personal consultations for male employees with children and their supervisors, guidance for childcare-related systems, and support for using childcare leave. In addition, starting in fiscal 2022,we have institutionalized a childcare leave subsidy of up to four weeks for employees who take childcare leave within eight weeks of the birth of their child.

It should be noted that re-employment of female employees following childcare leave as a result of these efforts, was 100% in fiscal 2023, and the ratio of male employees taking childcare leave in fiscal 2023 was 34%.

Advantest will continue to support fathers’ participation in childcare by offering individual consultations for fathers raising children.

Number of employees using childcare leave

Boundary of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)
Fiscal Year 2019 Female 25 Male 4 Fiscal Year 2020 Female 27 Male 2 Fiscal Year 2021 Female 24 Male 4 Fiscal Year 2022 Female 20 Male 7 Fiscal Year 2023 Female 24 Male 17

Number of employees using shorter working hours for childcare

Boundary of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)
Fiscal Year 2019 Female 71 Male 2 Fiscal Year 2020 Female 76 Male 3 Fiscal Year 2021 Female 75 Male 3 Fiscal Year 2022 Female 76 Male 2 Fiscal Year 2023 Female 78 Male 3

Number of employees using caregiving and nursing leave

Boundary of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)
Fiscal Year 2019 Nersing leave 38 Caregiving leave 4 Fiscal Year 2020 Nersing leave 40 Caregiving leave 3 Fiscal Year 2021 Nersing leave 41 Caregiving leave 10 Fiscal Year 2022 Nersing leave 107 Caregiving leave 14 Fiscal Year 2023 Nersing leave 111 Caregiving leave 9

Evaluation of Activities Supporting Work-Life Balance

In Japan, based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children, efforts were made (measures and initiatives to increase the ratio of fathers taking childcare leave and creating environments that support work-life balance, and initiatives to reduce overtime and promote the use of annual paid leave) in accordance with the action plan period from April 2022 until March 2024. These activities so far were recognized, and Advantest received its second "Kurumin" certification in October 2022.
We will continue to focus on each employee’s work-life balance and promote various initiatives toward creating work environments in which diverse human resources can play active roles.

Promotion of Work-Life Balance Programs

In Japan, Advantest launched the "Work-Life Balance Support Guide" website on the company intranet, offering information on work-life balance programs that can be used according to one's lifestyle, and raising awareness of the various programs that Advantest provides and encouraging utilization of the same. In recent years, Advantest has actively announced the work-life balance program, posted experiences of our male employees taking childcare leave, and also developed an environment that allows easier consultation, such as establishing a consultation service, to promote an environment in which employees can use work-life balance programs with peace of mind.

Reducing Overtime Hours

Advantest strives to ensure employees work appropriate hours to protect their health and achieve a work-life balance.
The Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated) has set the goals specified below and focused on increasing operational efficiency, encouraging a change in employee mindsets, and making the most of available work arrangements such as flextime and shift work while striving to reduce the amount of overtime.

Our overtime reduction goals

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Number of employees with a monthly overtime of 80 hours or more 0

From fiscal 2020 onwards, we will continue to adopt the reduction of overtime work into our action plan under the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace. We will raise awareness via the company intranet and promote initiatives to achieve flexible workstyles in order to further reduce the number of overtime hours.

Despite these initiatives, we were unable to achieve our company plan of zero employees working 80 hours or more of overtime per month for FY2023.
We were unable to achieve these goals due to troubleshooting an unexpected issue.
The overtime hours per employee for FY2023 were an average of 19.7 hours as of March 2024. We saw a decrease in our overtime hours from the previous fiscal year due to a decrease in efforts to address increased demand and to meet short delivery deadlines, which were common in FY2022.

Average overtime hours worked per person

Fiscal Year 2019 14.3hours Fiscal Year 2020 16.9hours Fiscal Year 2021 19.7hours Fiscal Year 2022 20.5hours Fiscal Year 2023 19.7hours
  • *
    Boundary of data: Advantest Group (Japan, China, Korea)
  • *
    Overtime hours are included for management positions with no subordinates (For Korea only).

Annual Paid Leave and Other Leave Systems

We encourage employees to take annual paid leave (up to 23 days per year) according to the job schedule of each person, work-life balance, and other work conditions to realize work-life balance at Advantest (non-consolidated). In addition to planned paid leave (6 to 12 days each year), we have also introduced multipurpose consecutive leave (3 days a year) and refresh leave (3, 5, and 8 days of leave given to employees after working continuously for 10, 20, and 30 years, respectively). Furthermore, annual paid leave that will be lost can be carried over as cumulative paid leave for 5 days a year up to a maximum of 30 days to use for reasons that include injury to the employees themselves or the need to take care of a child or family member as well as volunteering, self-development, infertility treatments, or to help with donor activities, and due to disasters. In FY2023, we have introduced paid leave by the hour to support employees in taking paid leave flexibly.

Graph of paid leave taken

Fiscal Year 2019 68.7% Fiscal Year 2020 68.7% Fiscal Year 2021 73.7% Fiscal Year 2022 76.1% Fiscal Year 2023 80.0%
  • *
    Boundary of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)

Number of employees taking accumulated holiday

Fiscal Year 2019 87 Fiscal Year 2020 124 Fiscal Year 2021 317 Fiscal Year 2022 127 Fiscal Year 2023 56
  • *
    Boundary of data: Advantest Corporation (non-consolidated)

Promotion of Health and Productivity Management

Thus far, Advantest has implemented various initiatives for employee health and productivity, including measures on lifestyle disease prevention, mental health, and abstinence from smoking. To further promote these initiatives, we have decided to incorporate Health and Productivity Management, and in September 2019, we formulated a Declaration of HPM Policy.

Advantest actively promotes support programs for balancing work and private life by setting up days when all employees are encouraged not to work overtime and to take more paid leaves. We have acquired "Certification level 2 (two stars)" of the "Eruboshi" certification based on the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace in November 2020, and was also granted the "Kurumin" certification based on the "Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next Generation Children" in October 2022. Advanfacilities Co., Ltd. has also obtained the “Eruboshi” certification since 2022.

Furthermore, Advantest has once again been recognized under the 2024 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program, which is jointly implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi (Japan Health Council), as one of the organizations in the large enterprise category. At the same time, METI has certified Advantest as one of the "White 500"–the top 500 corporations recognized under the program–for the fourth consecutive year. This year as with last year, all seven of Advantest's domestic subsidiaries were certified.

Declaration of Health and Productivity Management Policy

In order to realize Advantest's mission, we will strive to create a workplace where every employee can work in good health, both physically and mentally, to contribute to the achievement of a sustainable society as a corporate citizen.

Based on HPM policy, promote HPM from the following three viewpoints.

Advantest promote Health and Productivity Management from the following three viewpoints. 1 Efforts to maintain and improve employees' health. Improvement of health literacy and Reinforcement of health support 2 Efforts for company growth. Enhancement of employee engagement and Promotion of work-life balance 3 Efforts to realize the SDGs. Maintenance and enhancement of the health of employee families and Creation of an enthusiastic workplace

Organization

Advantest and the Advantest Health Insurance Union are actively working together to maintain and promote various initiatives for employee health and their families based on a clear division of roles and by promoting a favorable work environment (Collaborative Health).
Advantest's Human Resources Department, Health Promotion Office, and labor union work together to promote health management, while the Advantest Health Insurance Union promotes health services based on the Data Health Plan, centered on the Health Management Business Promotion Committee, which includes the employers and the labor union.

Advantest Health and Productivity Management System The Health and Productivity Management Committee is established under the management. The committee consists of the following members: Corporate Administration Group Leader, Humanan Capital Division, General Affairs Department Health Promotion Office, Health Insurance Assosiacion, Occupational physician, and Labor Union. The Health Promotion Committee communicates and instructs the Group leader and subsidiary CEO, and they report to the Health Promotion Committee. Each department and the Labor Safety and Health Committee cooperate under the them. Collaborative Health with Advantest Health Insurance Associasion, which consists of a board of directors and a health management business promotion committee

Health Initiatives

Advantest and Domestic Subsidiaries

Since establishing the Declaration of HPM Policy, Advantest, our domestic Group companies, the health insurance association, and labor union have come together to promote health check-ups, boost the implementation rate of specified health guidance, and introduce a health portal site, along with various other activities that directly affect employee health. These activities include online dieting/smoking cessation programs, encouraging exercise using a mobile app-based health promotion, and health literacy training.

In fiscal 2023, as part of our activities to promote health management, the second walking event "Summer Health & Wellness Promotion 420,000 Steps Challenge" was held for Advantest Health Insurance subscribers from June 1, and the "Autumn Health & Wellness Promotion Challenge" from November 1.

Korea:

Upon requests from the employee survey, we renovated the vacant space at the Cheonan Factory and opened the "Health Lounge" welfare facility in May 2023. The Lounge consists of two areas: a gym with 12 pieces of exercise equipment and three recovery rooms, which are utilized according to employee preferences and physical condition.

U.S.A.:

The San Jose office offers office yoga for one hour twice a week. The exercises focus on the back, shoulders, neck, and other areas affected by long hours of desk work. We have received positive feedback from the participants, so by the time employees return to their seats after the class, they feel more physically and mentally fit and are more likely to get work done.

Advantest Test Solutions conducted its first walking challenge to improve employee health and teamwork. We began by setting an ambitious target of reaching a total of 5,760,000 steps by the end of June, and the 41 participants almost doubled that target, reaching 10,139,655 steps. This is equivalent to the distance from our office to Brazil, and the turnout exceeded our expectations by far.

Taiwan:

We organized a fitness course to encourage people to avoid standing or sitting all the time on the anniversary of the company, and rather to move around and exercise. We offered two courses, one gentle and one strenuous, and many enjoyed both. Participants were very impressed with the unique experience of dancing together with their colleagues and found the course very refreshing.

Mental Health

At Advantest we believe that a vigorous workforce makes for a vigorous workplace. Accordingly, our Health Promotion Office supports efforts to ensure both the mental and physical health of our workforce, so that we can provide a safe and comfortable workplace environment. We introduced stress checks in FY2012 before they became required by law because we consider preventative measures as the key to our mental health activities. By quantifying stress (thus making it visible), we promote stress awareness among everyone in our workforce, which is useful for self-care.

In the 2023 stress check, which achieved 92% response rate, 6.9% of the employees with the highest diagnosed stress levels were referred to mental health consultations, and 5.8% of them actually received consultations. We also held seminars (during FY2023, e-learning seminars were held) to reinforce self-care, and the participation rate was 91%.

Organizational analysis stated that high stress workplaces decreased from 17.2% in FY2017 to 3.5% (2.2% in FY2022). From fiscal 2019, this initiative was narrowed down to target managers in workplaces with high levels of stress and offered more practical training for workplace environment improvement. We continuously work on improving stress levels by following up on the implementation situation to create a workplace that mitigates the occurrence of mental health disorders.

We have also formulated recovery plans with occupational physician from the latest reports as well as provide support for employees to return to the workplace after taking a leave of absence, enabling them to take time off without worry if their mental state worsens due to a variety of stress. In addition, an eight-step process (which includes status reports, consultation with occupational physician, return to work planning, and follow-up interviews after returning to work) has been set up to avoid overstressing people and the workplace.

Health Consultations

At Advantest's Health Promotion Office, a comprehensive range of health professionals (including occupational physician, clinical psychologists, public health nurses, nurses, and industrial counselors) provide counseling services for physical and mental problems of all kinds. Applications for counseling can be submitted easily by telephone or e-mail, or via the company's intranet. In fiscal 2023, counseling services were provided on 744 occasions.

Health Check-ups and Health Guidance

Advantest and its domestic Group companies provide regular health check-ups to maintain and improve the health of employees in addition to regular physicals through subsidies from the health insurance association.
We provide health check-ups once or twice each year both in domestic and overseas bases. We have achieved a 100% health check-up ratio since FY2018 for domestic employees, with a 69.6% ratio of individuals undergoing thorough examination in FY2023 (60.8% in FY2022), and a 83.0% ratio of individuals receiving specific health guidance in FY2023 (75.7% in FY2022).
In FY2023, 97.6% of our employees received health literacy training (97.7% in FY2022), while 26.1% of our employees are using health promotion applications. Advantest is also promoting projects that allow employees who do not have the habit of exercising to start doing so (ratio of employees with exercise habits: 31.1% in FY2023) by holding walking events using this health promotion application.

In addition, we held medical seminars by specialists. In FY2023, the seminar focused on breast cancer as a theme to address women's health issues, promoting knowledge and awareness of breast cancer and the need for regular checkups to motivate people to improve their health. In a post-seminar questionnaire, more than 90% of participants were satisfied with the seminar.

The Health Promotion Office provides health guidance, email support, and staff/occupational physician consultations for employees who have received a diagnosis through checkups. Furthermore, employees with a history of brain and heart disease are interviewed regardless of their health check-up results, and work restrictions are put into place to ensure their safety.

Initiatives to Improve Labor Productivity

Presenteeism refers to a situation where an employee is physically present at work but is unable to perform their job to a full standard due to an illness, injury, or other condition. Absenteeism refers to a situation where an employee is unable to work due to illness or poor health. Both terms are indicators of lost productivity caused by health problems, and were proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). As these health problems among employees are a major issue for corporate management, Advantest conducts surveys to assess the situation of its employees.

Regarding presenteeism, we conducted an employee survey by converting the WHO-HPQ's absolute presenteeism into a 0 to 4 scale, and the productivity for FY2023 was 3.58 points (3.58 points for FY2022).

Regarding absenteeism, we measured the number of days of absence from work due to personal injury or illness as an indicator, and the actual value for each employee in FY2023 was 1.1 days (FY2022: 1.1 days).

Promotion of Occupational Health and Safety

Basic Stance

Advantest delivers safety, security, and comfort to people worldwide through semiconductor test. "Safety, security, and comfort" are also linked to our attitude towards our employees, and equally, we have established the Advantest Group Health and Safety Policy as a management issue to be realized at all business sites.

This policy is communicated not only to employees but also to stakeholders to encourage greater awareness of the importance of health and safety management.

Promotional System

At Advantest, every year we convene the "Health and Safety Committee Meeting" which decides the health and safety direction and policy for the whole group. The approach to health and safety is based on the main activity themes decided on at this meeting, upon which the health and safety committees at each location set their annual targets and plans.

We also regularly hold health and safety committee secretariat meetings throughout the company, and strengthen each location's health and safety activities through this sharing of information about relevant activities.

Japan's company-wide Health and Safety Committee, chaired by the Co-CHO & Co-CCO, is made up of officers, who are the heads of the Health and Safety Committees at each business location, and presidents of domestic Group companies. Furthermore, the Health and Safety Committees at each business location are composed mostly of representatives of both the company and union employed at the business location.

The Health and Safety Committee examines revisions to and compliance with laws and regulations related to occupational health and safety, and through deliberations on hazardous risk, it votes on proposed countermeasures, while communicating them to employees through minutes of the meeting.

Organization of Health and Safety Management (Japan)

Members of the Health and Safety Committee are the chairperson, the committee representative of individual business location', and the secretariat. Members of the Individual business location's  include the committee representative of each business site, the representative of the labor union, the representative of the company, and the secretariat. Health and Safety Committee and Individual business location's Committee work together. Individual business location's Committee in each site cooperate with each other

Collaboration with Overseas Group Companies

Advantest collaborates with overseas group companies to share information on the occurrence of occupational accidents on a global scale. In the event of an occupational accident, the causes are identified, recurrence prevention measures are formulated, and necessary measures are horizontally deployed at each site to prevent similar accidents from occurring again.

ISO45001:2018 Certification obtained at the Gunma Factory

On April 19, 2023, Advantest obtained ISO45001 certification, an international standard for occupational health and safety management systems, at Gunma Factory.

ISO45001 is a global standard for occupational health and safety, established in 2018 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and is a universal framework that defines the establishment and operation of systems to prevent work-related accidents and disasters and to achieve the provision of safe and healthy workplaces.

With the introduction of the occupational health and safety management system, risk assessments have been disseminated to workplaces, and each respective department is actively implementing activities to recognize and reduce potential hazards or harmful effects. In addition, a system is in place to receive information on revisions to laws and regulations, and to confirm whether a response is required, as well as to record the status of implementation.

The Gunma Factory continues to work on zero accidents resulting in lost work time.

Advantest will continue its effort to improve our working environment and create a comfortable workplace.

Bureau Veritas Certification (copy)

Advantest Corporation ISO45001 certification scope

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Applicable standards ISO45001:2018
Certification number JP023542
Certification scope Manufacture of semiconductor and component test systems, mechatronics-related products and maintenance services, other related equipment and electronic components, electronic circuit boards
Certifying body Bureau Veritas Certification Holdings SAS
Date of first certification April 19, 2023
Applicable business locations Gunma Factory (including subsidiaries at the site)

Specific Initiatives

Advantest promotes activities to achieve zero occupational accident rate (Lost Time Incident Rate: LTIR) set forth in the ESG Action Plan, with each site aiming to achieve zero personal injury in the workplace, while implementing the PDCA cycle to achieve the target.

Major initiatives in FY2023 are as follows:

  • Workplace inspections are conducted on a regular basis, and improvements are reported to the Health and Safety Committee.
  • Preliminary reports on accidents and disasters are disseminated to relevant personnel via CSR safety e-mail.
  • With the aim of preventing accidents and disasters caused by changes in the working environment due to the aging of the workforce, lack of awareness of information, inadvertent errors, and other human errors, general education through e-Learning was conducted for all employees to reconfirm their awareness of the importance of safety.

Measurement of the Occupational Accident Rate

There have been no fatalities in operations in the last five years.
In FY2023, the rate of occupational accidents (LTIR) was 0.04 for domestic Group companies, and 0.21 when including both domestic and overseas Group companies.

Occupational accident rate in Japan (LTIR*)

Fiscal Year Fiscal Year 2019 0.04 Fiscal Year 2020 0.00 Fiscal Year 2021 0.00 Fiscal Year 2022 0.04 2023 0.04
  • *
    LTIR: Number of incidents x 200,000 per actual total number of employee hours worked in a year
  • *
    Boundary of data: Advantest Group (Japan)
  • *
    The data includes temporary employees.

Occupational Health and Safety Education

The Advantest Group regularly conducts occupational health and safety education and strives to build a safe workplace where everyone can work with peace of mind by preventing occupational accidents before they happen and raising awareness about occupational health and safety. E-learning has been incorporated to some areas of Advantest's unique health and safety education. We will strive towards further participation from employees.

Occupational health and safety results achieved in fiscal 2023

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Education category Target employees Number of trainees (Total) Hours of education
General education Managers, General employees 13,233 6,795
Specialized education Managers, General employees 867 5,818

Promoting Sustainability Through Cooperation with Business Partners

Since FY2023, the Advantest Group began communicating various sustainability-related policies to its business partners in the administrative divisions, surveying the status of activities at each company, and providing feedback on the results.

Namely, the Advantest Group's sustainability-related policies, including The Advantest Way, ESG Initiatives Basic Policy, Human Rights Policy, Environmental Policy, and Advantest Group Health and Safety Policy, are communicated to business partners to gain their understanding. At the same time, the status of initiatives in the six areas of human rights and labor, health and safety, environmental conservation, fair trade and ethics, business continuity, and supply chain management was surveyed, and provided feedback based on the results to promote the sustainability activities of each respective company.

Going forward, we will broaden our target business partners and promote initiatives to realize a sustainable society through cooperation with our business partners, aiming for more effective two-way communication.

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