Human Resources Strategy

NTN’s Basic Approach to Human Capital Strategy

The environment and social structures surrounding our Group are changing at an unprecedented pace, and the challenges we face are becoming increasingly complex. To capture these changes and sustainably enhance corporate value, we need to flexibly adapt our management strategy. The “people” who carry out that strategy are also required to respond to change. For this reason, we believe that employees who think autonomously and work to enhance economic, environmental, and social value through solving societal issues form the foundation of human capital management.
In the Medium-term Management Plan “DRIVE NTN100” Final, we focus on two pillars: “securing and developing human resources” and “fostering organizational culture.” In particular, under this plan we have focused on building personnel systems and development programs that encourage employees to take on challenges and promote independent growth. We recognize that we are currently shifting from a phase of building a foundation to one of putting these systems into practice and embedding them at the frontline.

Securing and Developing Human Resources
Promoting the Development of Systems that Value Challenge and Foster Autonomous Growth

For securing and developing human resources, we have set three themes: “enhancing the technical capabilities required to achieve the management strategy,” “developing management talent to lead the Group,” and “achieving independent growth and career autonomy.” To respond to changes in the business environment, we need to move away from seniority-based thinking, clarify “who is responsible for which job,” and transform toward a system that allows each individual to maximize their capabilities. We have changed the personnel system for managers to one based on work criteria, and have also introduced the Post Challenge Program, among other measures.
Through these initiatives, an awareness of actively promoting young talent is beginning to emerge at the frontline. Employees who take on new positions gain a deeper understanding of the roles, responsibilities, and corresponding compensation associated with their role. Going forward, we hope that the understanding and buy-in gained by employees who have taken on such challenges will spread throughout their workplaces and the organization as a whole.
The Post Challenge Program presents the experience and skills required for a given position alongside the position itself, giving employees the opportunity to take on challenges based on their own experience and skills. At present, utilization of this system is still insufficient. The challenge is to bridge the gap between the expectations of the hiring workplace and applicants’ understanding of the role. Going forward, we will present job content and role requirements more clearly, expand the range of positions on offer, and continue working to build an environment in which taking on challenges arises naturally.
In addition, in this era of uncertainty, it is also important to systematically develop talent capable of leading Group management. With top management and the Personnel Department working as one, we are advancing the pooling of talent, and are also implementing the NTN Next Leader Program, a talent development program for the next generation of leaders. Since its launch in FY2021, a cumulative total of 166 employees have completed this program, which cultivates a management perspective through lectures on finance, marketing, and management strategy, while also deepening cross-departmental networking and understanding of diversity.
We are also providing opportunities for younger employees to think about their own careers. While focused on their day-to-day work, employees may not always have sufficient time to consider how they want to contribute to the company through their work in the future. Through rank-based training and forums for considering one’s career, we aim to help employees broaden their perspectives and create opportunities for them to become aware of their own potential. What matters most is not that the company unilaterally decides the path, but that employees themselves think and choose to take on challenges and pursue growth. The company will continue to support this.
We believe our company has an inherent workplace culture of accepting the opinions and ideas of others. Building on this foundation, we will use our reformed systems to promote the autonomous growth of each individual employee.

Fostering Organizational Culture While Being Mindful of Employees’ Unspoken Voices

For fostering organizational culture, we have set forth “diversity, equity and inclusion,” “creating a workplace culture that embraces challenges and follows through,” and “mindset transformation based on the NTN SPIRIT.”
First, as a company that operates globally, we are consistently mindful of ensuring diversity among our workforce. That said, rather than prioritizing specific individuals based on factors such as age or attributes, it is important that diversity is ensured as a result of placing emphasis on each individual’s abilities and aptitude. At the same time, given the nature of our business, our Group has a relatively high proportion of personnel with backgrounds in mechanical engineering and materials engineering. Our basic stance is therefore to also bring in personnel with expertise in other specialized fields, aiming for an organizational culture that generates more diverse perspectives and ideas than ever before.
On this basis, our company has a culture that welcomes challenges in a positive spirit. To follow challenges through to the end and turn them into results, it is essential to transform not only our systems but the mindset of each individual employee.
For example, in our target management system, we have incorporated a setting of challenge targets, and through interim interviews held three times a year, we provide opportunities for managers and their subordinates to closely align their goals and the degree of progress toward them. Through this dialogue, some employees have begun to set more challenging goals for themselves.
We are also advancing initiatives to increase points of contact between management and the frontline. We actively hold town hall meetings and lunch meetings, valuing these opportunities both to directly convey to the frontline what management is thinking and where it intends to go, and to listen to their voices.
We are also expanding our use of employee engagement surveys. Rather than reacting emotionally to individual numbers, we regard the survey as, so to speak, a health checkup that gauges the condition of the organization. We take the trends reflected in the numbers seriously, while placing importance on deeply considering why those results occurred and what lies behind them. It is important to give consideration to feelings that do not show up in the results and are difficult to voice, and to connect this to dialogue and improvement activities at each workplace — our “Better Workplace Activities.” While still at a trial-and-error stage, we recognize that a shift in awareness is beginning to emerge at the level of individual workplaces regarding how to create a better workplace. We will continue to enhance the quality of dialogue and cultivate an organizational culture that actively takes on challenges.

From Building the Foundation to a Stage Where Accumulating Practice Becomes More Important
Promoting Prosperous Human Development So That Employees Can Work Enthusiastically

The various foundations we have touched on so far are not something that produce immediate results simply by putting a framework in place. Changing practices that our company has continued until now, and the mindset cultivated through them takes time. Our Group’s efforts are still only halfway there, and we believe that the accumulation of practice is what matters most in aiming for “Prosperous human development.”
Through the transition to a system based on work criteria, the Post Challenge Program, opportunities to think about one’s career, and dialogue centered on engagement survey results, opportunities are steadily emerging for employees to think about their own roles and futures. We believe that accumulating these small changes will eventually lead to change across the organization as a whole.
As mentioned at the outset, it is essential to link management strategy and human resources strategy in a way that responds to changing times and needs. At the center of all this are people. Increasing the number of employees who think and take on challenges for themselves when the management environment changes, and building an organization where diverse employees can each make the most of their individual strengths, grow through business activities, and work enthusiastically — we believe this leads to our Group’s sustainable growth and the enhancement of corporate value. We will continue to expand the possibilities of our people and organization through the two wheels of building the foundation and accumulating practice.

NTN Group has established “Prosperous human development” as an ESG issue. We will cultivate a corporate culture that enables our employees to “grow” and “work enthusiastically” through our business activities, and we will sustainably increase our corporate value by developing our personnel systems and working environments to maximize and grow the value of our human capital. This is the practice of “human capital management,” through which we intend to achieve “Prosperous human development” by fostering an organizational culture that works to resolve various societal issues and improve our economic, environmental and social value, as well as by nurturing a diverse workforce that is motivated and satisfied by their work.
The strategy for achieving “Prosperous human development” consists of five pillars: “Securing human resources who will lead the next generation to take on the challenge of transformation,” “Creating a rewarding environment that respects the diversity of employees,” “Fostering a culture of learning and development in the workplace,” “Realizing a workplace where employees can work safely and healthily in an environment enabling innovative thinking” and “Respect for human rights.”
As specific actions, we will support the change as intended by the “accelerated transformation to the business structure” policy under the Medium-term Management Plan. In order to achieve the optimal vision of the Group, the priorities of the human resources strategy have been developed from either the perspective of “Securing and developing human resources” or “Fostering organizational culture.” The priorities are “Enhancing the technical capabilities required to achieve the management strategy,” “Developing management talent to lead the Group,” “Achieving independent growth and career autonomy,” “Diversity, equity and inclusion,” “Transformation to a workplace of daring and mission” and “Mindset transformation based on the NTN SPIRIT,” and we are progressing work on each priority.

Enhancing the professional skills and expertise required to achieve the management strategy

To transform our business structure (business portfolio transformation), drastic and proactive initiatives are vital, as are bold moves into new markets, so the organizational capabilities and human resources required to achieve the strategy are also changing. If we are to fulfill the Medium-term Management Plan policy of transforming the business structure and the strategy to achieve this, it is important to secure the necessary organizational capabilities. This is ongoing, with capacity building, assigning the right people to the right posts, and strengthening the recruiting structure, combined with securing more diverse external personnel.

Expert Course

In April 2024, NTN revised its personnel system for managerial-level employees and introduced a course classification structure based on role, area of specialization, and working style. As one element of this structure, an Expert Course (specialist track) was established to enable employees who develop expertise in specific fields and domains to each play an active role in that area. Since its introduction, the number of employees in the Expert Course has grown from 6 in FY2023 to 12 in FY2025, and understanding of and interest in career development centered on specialist expertise is gradually spreading throughout the organization.

Job-specific recruitment (Initial assignment role-guaranteed recruitment)

Expansion of mid-career recruitment

Toward the realization of a “NAMERAKA Society,” NTN has established “Prosperous human development” as the basic policy of its human resources strategy and is working to secure human resources who will support the future business foundation.
While maintaining new graduate recruitment as the cornerstone of ongoing talent acquisition, NTN is also promoting mid-career recruitment of external talent as an important means of securing personnel, in light of the increasingly mobile talent environment.
Mid-career recruitment aims not only to secure immediately deployable talent, but also to incorporate diverse perspectives and ideas into the organization by welcoming personnel with different areas of expertise and experience. NTN intends to leverage knowledge and practical experience cultivated across different industries and job functions to advance the sophistication and efficiency of organizational management and operations.
In addition, as a foundation, NTN focuses on securing the talent necessary to drive each business forward, with particular attention to recruiting individuals with advanced qualifications and specialized technical skills and capabilities.
Furthermore, NTN is developing systems such as alumni recruitment and referral recruitment, and is promoting the diversification of recruitment channels with the aim of building a stable and flexible talent acquisition foundation.

Development of Digital Human Resources

To enhance the digital skills of all employees as business personnel capable of leveraging digital technologies at NTN, the Company has launched an “AI and Data Literacy Course” to broaden the base of employees who can apply digital literacy skills such as AI literacy and data analysis, and to raise their proficiency levels. NTN is also focused on the early development of young talent, implementing online training for new employees to learn the fundamentals of data analysis. By acquiring foundational concepts and methods for utilizing data in daily work and problem-solving, NTN aims to develop personnel who can perform their duties with a digital mindset from the earliest stage of their careers. Furthermore, to develop “digital human resources” who can drive efficiency improvements through digital technologies, and “advanced digital human resources” who can lead transformation through cutting-edge digital technologies, specialized training is conducted within each department, including the ICT Strategy Dept., Production Engineering HQ., and the CAE Research Laboratory, advancing company-wide improvement of digital literacy among employees at every level to support digital transformation.

Developing management talent to lead the Group

In order to achieve our management plan in such uncertain times, it is vital that NTN Group methodically develop managers who can lead us forward. In addition to forming a talent pool of leadership candidates who can achieve results, with the top executive and the Personnel Department joining forces to develop these leaders, we are pursuing manager development from a long-term perspective by running a managerial development program for managers, including young business leaders.

Human resource development structure

With the aim of fostering a culture of learning and development in the workplace, NTN deploys talent development programs for personnel who can “think and act independently” across all levels of the organization. Developing talent capable of playing an active role not only in Japan but also overseas is essential to expanding the business toward the next 100 years. As part of its global talent development initiatives, NTN implements the English-only Global Business Skills Training Program on a voluntary basis for all employees, runs overseas exchange programs as well as a scholarship system. NTN also works to raise the awareness, knowledge, and capabilities of all employees by enriching content such as company knowledge and specialist knowledge courses through in-house e-learning, while introducing a voluntary-entry business skills development program for younger employees. In terms of systems, NTN operates an Internal Job Posting System to promote career autonomy among employees, supporting autonomous development of individual skills and career plans. For managerial-level employees, NTN conducts not only training for newly appointed managers, but also evaluator training targeting managers with a certain number of years of experience, aimed at improving evaluation capabilities and coaching skills for subordinates, as well as training (NTN Next Leader Program) aimed at identifying and developing the next generation of leaders.

■Training system

Development of management talent

In addition to conventional managerial training, NTN has launched the “NTN Next Leader Program (Basic course/Intermediate course)” targeting younger managers, with the aim of broadening the pool of next-generation management candidates capable of making decisions on management issues from a long-term perspective.
The curriculum is designed to impart the thinking and knowledge required for management in a systematic way, with a focus in the basic course, which is only available to selected personnel, on “reinterpreting from the managerial viewpoint and taking a wider view.” The intermediate course is focused on “developing the capacity for strategic planning and organizational reform in the long term.” Harnessing everything learned since the start of the basic course, issues are identified from all departments, developing proposals for change and opportunities provided for course participants to present these to management. NTN has also introduced a succession plan through selection of executive officer candidates, and through these and other measures, aims to identify management candidates at an early stage and develop them in a planned manner.

Achieving independent growth and career autonomy

Through growth based on independent career plans and career development, and by supporting employees to fulfill their career plans, we can achieve sustained growth of both our employees and the organization.

Career support structure

In light of current changes in the economic and social environment, NTN is working to build a career development and support system to provide each individual employee with opportunities to think autonomously about their medium-to-long-term career. NTN implements “Career Plan (CP) Training,” which encourages employees to proactively consider their own careers, across a broad range of age groups from younger to middle-aged and senior employees, linking improved employee engagement and motivation to organizational vitalization, talent retention, performance improvement, and the sustained growth of the company. In addition to career plan training, career counseling is provided for support, and career support training is also being implemented for both employees and managers, improving the relationship between supervisors and subordinates, helping subordinates gain a deeper understanding of their current roles, and supporting the realization of future-oriented job rotation (JR). Going forward, NTN will continue to further strengthen the company-wide career support structure to achieve sustained growth for both employees and the company.

Post Challenge Program

Since April 2024, NTN has been implementing the “Post Challenge Program,” which invites employees to take on posts such as Section Manager and Department Manager. This program aims to provide employees with the opportunity to choose their desired career path and place of work, thereby enhancing employee motivation and promoting organizational revitalization. While the number of transfers made through this program is not large in itself, conversations are beginning to emerge among employees — regardless of whether they apply — around questions such as “What kind of work do I want to take on next?” and “Where do my strengths lie?” The fact that employees are increasingly articulating career aspirations and preferences that had previously been difficult to express openly is itself regarded as one of the outcomes of introducing this program.

Expansion of internships and work experience programs

NTN implements internship and work experience programs for students with the aim of developing future talent and promoting mutual understanding. These programs seek to give participants hands-on experience of how work is conducted and the roles involved at a manufacturer, deepening their understanding of the meaning of work.
In the programs, participants in technical roles gain experience in areas such as research and development, design and development, and quality assurance for bearings and automotive-related products, while those in administrative roles engage in practical exercises such as mock sales negotiations, marketing strategy planning, production management process planning, and IT planning. Working in teams on assignments under the guidance of senior employees, participants learn the importance of collaboration and delivery-consciousness, both essential to manufacturing and business operations.
Furthermore, through interactions with employees and feedback sessions, participants are provided with opportunities to gain a concrete sense of what it is like to work at NTN and the atmosphere of its workplaces. Through these programs, students are expected not only to acquire practical knowledge but also to understand their own strengths and areas for development, informing their proactive career choices and career development. NTN also aims to incorporate fresh perspectives from students and pursue sustained growth together with the next generation of talent.

■Internship scenes

Diversity, equity and inclusion

We are working toward “Creating a rewarding environment that respects the diversity of employees” in which every individual can express their talents to the greatest extent possible. This is because our organization is made up of people with diverse specialties and experience and by turning those differences into a strength, taking on diverse perspectives and theories, we can realize innovation and new value creation on a daily basis.

Basic approach to diversity, equity and inclusion

Our group is working toward “Creating a rewarding environment that respects the diversity of employees” in which a variety of human resources, regardless of nationality, culture, gender, age, or disability, can freely contribute better ideas and maximize their abilities. More specifically, we are working to further secure human resources having various career backgrounds by increasing employment of midcareer workers and maintain environments and systems that enable us to actively promote diverse human resources to positions of responsibility at domestic and overseas business sites.
We will respect and recognize diverse values, and integrate them to create an organization that generates flexible ideas. While continuing to grow in a sustainable manner, we will realize our company’s philosophy of “We shall contribute to international society through creating new technologies and developing new products.”

Promote diverse work styles

Realize diverse work styles

NTN has introduced a remote work system and a flextime system to expand flexibility in working hours and location, creating an environment in which diverse employees can play an active role. For example, to ensure that childcare and nursing care do not impede career advancement, NTN has produced handbooks that clearly explain childcare and nursing care leave systems and provide information about these systems to employees. Furthermore, a WLB (Work-Life Balance) Course has been established to enable including managers to utilize reduced working hours and flextime systems, allowing them to balance childcare or nursing care with their managerial duties.
Beyond these initiatives for current employees, NTN has also introduced the NTN Job Return system, which allows employees who have left the company due to circumstances such as marriage, childbirth, fertility treatment, nursing care, or career advancement to return to work, as well as the Welcome Back system, which allows employees who have left for other companies to return, creating an environment in which the experience, knowledge, and know-how cultivated during and after their time at NTN can be put to use.
Furthermore, recognizing that the development of systems and measures alone is insufficient, NTN has established opportunities in managerial training to relearn ways of thinking that had previously been taken for granted. Treating the promotion of diversity not as special consideration but as a prerequisite for improving job satisfaction, NTN is fostering an organization in which each individual can demonstrate their abilities while leveraging diverse ideas and values.

Support for balancing work and nursing care

In recent years, the number of employees bearing responsibility for caring for family members is expected to increase, and NTN recognizes that improving the nursing care literacy of all employees is important in advancing “Creating a rewarding environment that respects the diversity of employees.” NTN conducted a survey in advance to identify employee needs regarding nursing care, and based on the results, held a nursing care seminar incorporating the information employees required. In addition, NTN has published the “Handbook for Supporting Employees in Balancing Work and Nursing Care,” which outlines the attitude toward nursing care and available systems, promoting activities to foster understanding among employees who provide care.

Support for balancing work and childcare

NTN received “Platinum Kurumin” certification in October 2022 in recognition of its advanced initiatives related to childcare support for employees.
In addition to these initiatives, NTN promptly incorporates revisions to the Act on Childcare Leave, Caregiver Leave, and Other Measures for the Welfare of Workers Caring for Children or Other Family Members into its systems and operations, responding accurately and swiftly to legislative changes.
For employees engaged in childcare, NTN distributes a maternity/childcare leave handbook to both male and female employees, which consolidates internal systems and laws relating to childcare from the discovery of pregnancy through maternity leave, childcare leave, and return to work, and promotes awareness of these systems within the company. As an initiative for managers, NTN also distributes a childcare support book for managers to deepen managers’ understanding of childbirth and childcare, creating an environment in which employees who are having or raising children can demonstrate their abilities to the fullest. Additionally, to advance the creation of a workplace where diverse personnel, including those with childcare responsibilities, can fully contribute, NTN distributes a childcare boss handbook for managers, working to raise awareness among managers of supporting subordinates in balancing work and personal life.
Furthermore, in promoting the uptake of childcare leave among male employees, NTN is advancing efforts to deepen understanding of childcare support systems across the entire workplace, including the implementation of e-learning on the childcare leave system and the distribution of “Work-Childcare Balance Handbooks.”
Through these initiatives, the childcare leave uptake rate among male employees in FY2025 increased from 73.0% in the previous fiscal year to 89.6%.

Reducing long working hours (optimizing working hours)

NTN is promoting initiatives to reduce long working hours from the perspectives of creating a comfortable working environment and occupational safety and health.
Specifically, working hours are managed through building entry/exit records and computer log data, and for departments where working hours exceeding a certain threshold are observed, NTN implements improvement initiatives at the workplace level — rather than leaving it to individuals — such as reviewing work processes and role assignments.
Through these initiatives, the average monthly overtime hours for employees excluding managers in FY2025 were 4.1 hours. NTN will continue to pursue both the prevention of overwork and the realization of a comfortable working environment.

Promote active participation of senior employees

NTN holds career training for employees in their late 50s before retirement, leading to their self-selection and self-determination regarding their desired way of life and work.
For employees aged 60 and above, NTN has revised its post-retirement re-employment system with the aim of enhancing motivation and invigorating the organization through promoting active participation. By providing compensation commensurate with job content and role, NTN is working to create an environment in which re-employed employees can work with motivation.
Under this system, the re-employment rate following retirement in FY2025 was 89.0% of all employees who reached retirement age, maintaining a high re-employment rate for the second consecutive year.

Promote employment of persons with disabilities

As part of NTN’s efforts to create a diverse organization in which everyone can thrive, NTN actively promotes the employment of persons with disabilities. They collaborate at various manufacturing sites and indirect divisions to make the most of their unique talents. In addition, “Yume Kobo (Dream factory),” dedicated workplaces in Kuwana, Iwata, and Okayama have been established as places where people with disabilities can play a leading role. Yume Kobo (Dream factory) is working to create a safe and comfortable working environment for persons with disabilities by promoting barrier-free access. The employment rate of persons with disabilities reached 2.64% in FY2025 through active recruitment and retention measures.

Promoting the active participation of global human resources

Recruitment of international students

NTN defines its ideal candidate profile as individuals who “think and act by themselves.” Non-Japanese nationals who have cultivated diverse perspectives and advanced expertise through study and research experience in Japan are regarded as possessing the motivation and drive to boldly take on new environments and forge their own path, and NTN actively recruits such individuals.
After joining the company, they leverage their accumulated knowledge across a broad range of domestic and overseas business domains, including mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering, software, information technology, and finance and accounting. To enable non-Japanese employees to continue growing, NTN provides Japanese language education and department-specific training, promoting the creation of an environment in which each individual can demonstrate their capabilities and “work enthusiastically.”
NTN continues to recruit non-Japanese talent with diverse backgrounds and supports their active contribution, thereby driving growth as a company.

Transformation into a Workplace of Daring and Mission

Under difficult conditions, maintaining or improving our competitive advantage requires the creation of even more unique value. Rather than resting on the laurels of past successes or relying on precedent, we believe it is vital to create a workplace culture that empowers a brave attitude informed by constant new ideas.

Fair Evaluation and Compensation

In the target management system for managerial-level employees, in addition to setting basic targets, challenge targets are also established to encourage employees to strive toward more ambitious goals. Alongside this, structured opportunities for dialogue between supervisors and subordinates — including interviews at target-setting, timely follow-up during the period, and follow-up interviews at period-end — are incorporated into the system to align understanding of targets and progress while promoting a commitment to seeing goals through to completion. Furthermore, in FY2025, assessor training was newly introduced for department heads, who play a central role in embedding the new evaluation system. Training was conducted for 85 individuals, representing approximately half of eligible employees, with the aim of improving understanding of the system and its operation. The remaining eligible population is scheduled to receive the same training in FY2026.

NTN PROUD AWARD

In 2022, we established an internal award system called the “NTN PROUD AWARD” that honors employees’ ESG activities for all global employees of our Group.
In this system, each team applies for activities that connect daily work with materiality, and from among those applications, two excellent cases—an Excellence Award and a Special Award—are selected in each of the six global regions (Americas, Europe, China, ASEAN, India, and Japan). The winning teams then make presentations at the global competition where the President’s Award is decided. The President’s Award-winning team is also invited to and recognized at the Global Management Conference where management executives from our Group worldwide gather.
At the global presentation held in FY2025, seven teams that had advanced through the regional selection process presented their initiatives, and two teams were awarded the President’s Award in recognition of their outstanding achievements.
Through this system, we encourage each employee’s ESG activities and promote challenges toward solving social issues.

QC Circles

NTN’s QC Circle activities form part of its human resource development efforts. To realize the “NAMERAKA Society” that the entire company aims for, we conduct quality improvement and continuous improvement activities by setting themes on a circle basis to achieve people development and “Fostering a culture of learning and development in the workplace.” Through these activities, we connect individual and organizational growth to product quality improvement.
To support these activities, we promote participation in “Instructor Qualification Acquisition Courses” and “New Circle Leader Training.” Additionally, NTN holds a Global QC Circle Convention and a Domestic QC Circle Convention as opportunities to present daily activities to the company as a whole, supporting quality improvement, the promotion of improvement activities, and human resource development through circle activities across the globe.

Mindset Transformation Based on the NTN SPIRIT

To achieve the long-term strategy, we have to lure exceptional talent, and for this, fostering a company culture of strong engagement is very important. By sharing “the NTN SPIRIT” with all employees that clearly states the mindset and actions to be pursued, the vision for the company, and what it exists for, employees can find more meaning in their work. This increases the number of employees thinking for themselves and taking initiative. Creating serious attempts for transformation in this way will not only lead to increased corporate value, but also the growth of employees, a sense of unity in the organization, and lead to increased engagement.

Creating a Workplace to Improve Employee Engagement

Overview of the Employee Engagement Survey

This survey assesses the state of the organization from multiple perspectives — including “Strategy and Direction,” “Leadership,” “Opportunities for Growth,” and “Psychological Safety” — as factors influencing the two core axes of “Employee Engagement” and “Environment that Brings Out the Best in Employees.” The response rate was 94% in FY2023 and 93% in FY2025, both maintained at a high level.
Survey results are fed back to management and each department, and based on the findings, we also consider how the findings can be reflected in company-wide initiatives and personnel systems. As an engagement improvement initiative, NTN promotes “Better Workplace Activities,” in which each workplace proactively undertakes activities based on survey results. Through this initiative, dialogues informed by survey results are conducted at each workplace, and the issues and strengths identified through these dialogues are translated into concrete workplace improvements. This initiative places emphasis on building a shared understanding of workplace conditions and encouraging each individual employee to independently think about and act on improvement measures.

Survey Findings — NTN’s Strengths

The survey results show high positive response rates for items such as “Respect for Individuals,” “Education and Training,” and “Psychological Safety.” NTN recognizes its strengths in that individuals are respected, that a conducive learning environment exists, and that workplace management is grounded in a relationship of trust between supervisors and subordinates.

Survey Findings — Areas for Improvement

On the other hand, relatively lower positive response rates were confirmed for items such as “Strategy and Direction,” “Leadership,” and “Business Processes and Organizational Structure.” This is understood to reflect challenges in sufficiently conveying the company’s policies and future vision to the front line, as well as remaining issues around cross-departmental collaboration and speed. In particular, the perception gap between the direction envisioned by management and the actual sense on the ground is regarded as an issue that requires focused improvement efforts going forward.
In light of these challenges, NTN has been continuously holding Town Hall Meetings as an initiative to deepen mutual understanding between management and employees, providing direct opportunities to communicate what management is thinking and where the company is heading. In FY2025, more than 4,000 employees across domestic (32 sites) and overseas (27 sites) locations participated, with the President and Executive Officers explaining the company’s vision and key areas of focus and deepening communication.
Furthermore, NTN is also advancing efforts to gain a structural understanding of organizational challenges rather than addressing them only at a surface level, aiming to connect insights from analysis based on survey results to improvements in systems and measures. Going forward, NTN will continue to utilize the engagement survey as an organizational “health check,” advancing improvements in engagement and transformation of organizational culture through continuous improvement and dialogue.

Town Hall Meeting

Better Workplace Activities

As an initiative to go beyond simply assessing the current state through the employee engagement survey and connect findings to concrete improvement activities at each workplace, NTN promotes “Better Workplace Activities.”
NTN believes that what transforms workplaces is not systems and structures alone — the dialogues exchanged in the course of daily work themselves serve as catalysts for resolving misalignments in understanding and generating new insights and actions. To this end, NTN has adopted an organizational development approach centered on dialogue, advancing proactive improvement activities at each workplace.
At the core of this initiative is “Workplace Dialogue.”
Workplace Dialogue refers to a setting in which all members of a workplace gather, engage in dialogue about the current state and challenges of their workplace based on engagement survey results, and derive concrete actions toward realizing a better workplace.
Through dialogue, NTN places emphasis on building a shared understanding of workplace conditions, reframing strengths and challenges in the employees’ own words, and translating these into proactive actions by each individual employee.
To facilitate such dialogue effectively, NTN has put in place a range of support measures incorporating an organizational development approach.
One of these is a “Workplace Dialogue Demo Video” produced under the supervision of Professor Nakamura of Nanzan University. This video demonstrates the actual process of conducting workplace dialogue through concrete scenarios, presenting the facilitation flow and key facilitation points in a visually accessible format. By sharing dialogue methods grounded in academic expertise, NTN enables each workplace to advance dialogue activities while maintaining a consistent level of quality.
NTN has also produced a “Workplace Dialogue Facilitation Guide,” which organizes the dialogue process and key discussion points, providing an environment in which each workplace can smoothly conduct dialogue by following the guide.
At each workplace, employees make use of these tools to conduct dialogues based on survey results, independently undertaking the full process from issue identification to the setting of concrete improvement actions.
By taking insights gained through dialogue as a starting point, treating the challenges of one’s own workplace as one’s own concern, and translating these into actual actions, improvement activities suited to the characteristics of each workplace are being advanced.

■“Workplace Dialogue Demo Video” produced under the supervision of Professor Nakamura of Nanzan University

■“Workplace Dialogue Facilitation Guide” (excerpt)

The indicators and targets for priority initiatives toward realizing the Medium-term Management Plan are as follows.

■List of indicators and targets

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