Policy to Improve Internal Environments
A Corporate Group that Capitalizes on Personnel Diversity and Grows Together
The Group, the core business of which is providing value through people, prizes its human resources as the company's single most important asset. We respect each employee's individuality and diversity, because we believe that the soil that nurtures the sustainable growth of a business is a workplace environment that allows employees to work with vitality. We will deepen co-creation in the workplace. Employees should be proud to belong to the Group, and while gaining a sense of accomplishment from their work and fulfillment in their lives, they should also be able to share in the company's development.
Engagement, the Foundation for Co-Creation
As a practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion, we will continue reforming our organizational culture and develop systems to ensure workplace fairness and equality and enable diverse workstyles. As a company in the restaurant industry, it is incumbent on the Group to enhance the working environment and boost employee engagement to avoid compromising our employees' life-work balance in maintaining restaurant operations. The resulting relationship of trust becomes the foundation for co-creation.
Fostering an Environment that Changes Life-Work Balance
Yoshinoya Holdings:
Coaching Training and Internal Mentor Program
officers and supervisors (area managers and above). The aim of the program is to foster a proactive corporate culture that promotes employee success and growth.
The program also aims to help managers who conduct performance evaluation interviews with their subordinates and are in a position to cultivate human resources to heighten their evaluation, coaching, and communication skills. Participants receive face-to-face and online sessions over a period of six months, and at the end of the course, finally take a certification exam that consists of a written exam and a practical skills test. Yoshinoya has also harnessed the empowerment communication skills gained through this training to implement an internal mentor program, in which employees interact with managers in other departments while being free from hierarchical relationships, to help employees deal with the stress they feel at work.
Internal Competitions for Operational Quality
Yoshinoya and Hanamaru host annual internal competitions in which employees working at their outlets compete in terms of operational skills and service quality. Yoshinoya-hosted events include the Beef Bowl Preparation Skills Grand Championship, Team Service Contest, and Kitchen Master Championship. In each event, teams or staff members who have won through preliminary rounds gather from all around Japan to compete in the final. After all contestants show off their highly refined skills and techniques, the champion is determined. Likewise, Hanamaru hosts Operation Contest in which the most outstanding person is selected in the final round in the categories of manager and staff respectively. These internal events have helped strengthen teamwork in outlets, boost internal communication, and make the workplace more cheerful and pleasant, while leading to higher quality of products and services—the value that we deliver to customers.
Special Volunteer Leave Scheme
Yoshinoya Holdings grants its employees an extra day of paid leave, in addition to regular annual leave, which they can take when participating in volunteer activities. Eligible activities include assistance at child welfare facilities, aged care facilities, and elderly households, assistance in disaster-stricken areas, disaster prevention activities, support for events for people with disabilities, and assisting at local sporting tournaments.
Regular First Aid Training Sessions as Part of the Life Baton Project
Yoshinoya Holdings regularly holds training sessions called the Life Baton Project for all employees of head office and Group companies to teach them first aid skills, including CPR. By learning how to revive people who have stopped breathing or have no pulse and how to use an AED, participants will acquire skills to save the lives of their loved ones and those around them and bolster emergency response capabilities while contributing to improving the health and safety of local communities.
Yoshinoya:
Scholarship Program
Since 2017, Yoshinoya has been operating a scholarship program to support students working part-time at Yoshinoya outlets who, for financial reasons, face difficulties pursuing higher education, to help them with their educational expenses. Under this program, which has a quota of 10 recipients per year, part-time Yoshinoya employees who pass the selection process are paid a bursary to be put toward enrolment and tuition fees. If the recipients join Yoshinoya as full-time employees after graduating from university and work for four years continuously, repayment of the entire amount will be waived. If they join another foodservice company, half of the amount received will be waived. In addition to assisting young people with financial problems, Yoshinoya will nurture talent who will contribute to the advancement of the foodservice industry.
Hanamaru:
Fostering an Environment that Changes Life-Work Balance
Based on the philosophy of sharing happiness with employees and their families, Hanamaru is promoting the Life Work Balance (LWB) Project, which is divided into three themes: Care x Care, 87papa & 87mama, and HAPPY.
Care x Care
We provide support for employees dealing with caregiving and mental health issues and works to prevent the loss of personnel. It attempts to increase recognition of the existence of the regional comprehensive support centers and promote awareness and use of systems such as nursing care leave and vacation, life support paid leave, and benefits. It also conducts nursing care seminars for employees at the area manager level and above. Furthermore, we have established a consultation desk with the aim of creating a system in which people can feel free to talk about things that concern them.
87papa & 87mama
We aim to reduce the number of female employees who have taken childcare leave and then quit after having returned to work to zero, and to ensure 100% of male employees avail themselves of childcare leave.
HAPPY
With the objective of enhancing leisure time, we are working to increase the quality and volume of days off, a task considered to be challenging in the traditional restaurant industry. A questionnaire was distributed at store managers' meetings, and the facts ascertained were shared with sales managers, and we are working to respond systematically. Moreover, we will promote the increased use of days off, with the sales manager also becoming a team member. We will also focus our efforts on holding a variety of events to provide forums where caregivers and partners of male employees taking maternity leave to interact.