Social Talent Management

Policy and Basic Mindset

UBE Group Human Resources Management Guidelines

The UBE Group has issued these human resources management guidelines in order to enhance its corporate value and maximize the well-being of employees.

These guidelines present the shared values the UBE Group practices in human resources management. While Group companies have their respective rules, customs, and personnel provisions, these guidelines outline the Group’s universal approach to human resources management and apply to all Group companies worldwide.

1. Value the diversity of our human resources and respect each person’s individuality.
2. Keep employees' motivation high by encouraging their creativity and autonomy.
3. Provide many opportunities for all employees to develop themselves based on their own professionalism.
4. Pursue fair evaluation and remuneration.
5. Be receptive to diverse work styles, maintain good working environment, and further improve the working environment.

Basic Mindset Toward Our Talent Strategy to Promote Growth in Specialty Chemicals

1. Utilizing Our Talent Strategy in Tandem with Our Management Strategy

In the midst of a rapidly changing management environment, we must formulate and make use of a talent strategy that functions together with our management strategy to support a continued rise in corporate value.

To promote growth as a corporate group centered on specialty chemicals, the vision guiding our management strategy, we must strive to expand profit worldwide. We have formulated a five-level talent strategy to undertake such initiatives.

Under our current medium-term management plan, which corresponds to Level 2 of the talent strategy, we are continuing to cultivate DX-driven career ownership as a core component of our talent strategy. Because this necessitates a culture in which employees can consider their careers independently and realize personal growth, we are striving to create and improve human resource systems while organizing environments toward this end.

2. Setting Aspirational Talent Targets

We changed our company name to UBE in April 2022, and as we seek to transform into a corporate group centered on specialty chemicals, it has become important to foster awareness among employees regarding shaping their own career paths rather than looking to conform with talents the Company has designated as targets. To make the vision of necessary talent clear in the UBE Growth Strategy, we have formulated new aspirational talent targets.

We are disseminating these aspirational talent targets among employees in fiscal 2024.

3. Adopting a Basic Mindset Powered by Our Talent Strategy to Promote Growth in Specialty Chemicals

We consider the realization of our aspirational talent targets an integral part of efforts to promote growth in specialty chemicals. We define the relationship between a company and its employees as one of equals and, accordingly, have clarified the responsibilities to be borne by UBE and its employees. Based on these definitions, we have formulated measures to realize aspirational talent targets.

Management System

Targets and Performance

1. Status of Important Policies and Progress

We believe that an organization that consists of diverse members with varying backgrounds in such areas as abilities, wisdom, experience and values is better positioned to perceive change and thereby discover new issues. Thus, an organization of this kind will naturally give rise to an environment in which innovation comes easily. To create a stage that encourages diverse members to act together, we set KPIs in the field of human resources aimed at fostering such an environment. We verify the progress of these KPIs quarterly across the UBE Group and share our results to help secure progress.

Important Policies and Progress Under the Current Mid-Term Management Plan

2. Dialogue with Employees

Through candid exchanges of ideas between top management (the President) and employees, UBE conducts initiatives to deepen our mutual understanding of issues at each workplace and future trends.

In fiscal 2023, these meetings were conducted with team leader-class managers holding posts in close proximity to general workplaces. (13 meetings, 73 participants)

3. Personnel System and Talent Education

The UBE Group pursues performance driven by the principles of autonomy and self-responsibility. This stems from our founding philosophy, which inspires us to continually generate technological innovation and promote self-transformation in response to changes in the environment. We have adopted a human resource system that clarifies expected roles for employees. It also objectively evaluates their performance so that each individual can maintain an awareness of their mission and issues for improvement, ultimately resulting in a sense of job satisfaction.

To stimulate job rotation among younger workers, we revised our system, widening the range of employees accepted for rotation based on their qualifications and age group, aiming for a fully equitable rotation structure. We also plan to introduce a system to delay retirement until the age of 65 in April 2026, and will continue to develop human resource policies that aim for improved efficacy and productivity by encouraging elderly employees to keep working as vigorously as they had been before turning 60. In addition, 58% of respondents to a survey indicated their desire to apply for an internal secondary job, which we understood to mean that employees had a high degree of interest. Therefore, we are gradually introducing an internal secondary job system.

(1) Human Resource Development

By expanding its investment in human capital development, UBE is working to develop human capital for growth and innovation. To this end, we mainly utilize online training in order to promote interorganizational communication while also offering modified in-person training to improve efficiency and maximize results.

In our grade-specific training, we utilize third-party e-Learning services to create an environment in which individuals can autonomously continue to pursue career development.

In order to develop human resources who can work in a diverse business and globalized environment, the following approaches have been strengthened.

• OJT (on-the-job training)
• OFF-JT (off-the-job training: group training, etc.)
• Self-development support system

Through these approaches, UBE is actively working to develop human resources so that each and every employee can fully demonstrate his or her abilities through work.

In OFF-JT, we conduct training programs to develop the abilities needed at each stratum and position while reflecting the changes in the outside environment. To aid in self-improvement, we utilize various programs, such as correspondence courses as well as internal and external language courses, to support employees as they improve their abilities.

• *1Calculation methodology: (Total education and training expenses + Labor costs for department overseeing training)/Number of employees on non-consolidated basis (as of fiscal year-end)
• *2Calculation methodology: (Total hours of group training + Total hours of e-learning)/Number of employees on on-consolidated basis (as of fiscal year-end)

Outline of Training System

(2) Enhancing Global Human Resources Development

The UBE Group actively works to develop human resources that can contribute to its growing international business in various domains. To improve linguistic capabilities, we have begun to have all employees take the TOEIC exam, designating target points in English ability for each test. Also, we select trainees for dispatch overseas from among those who voluntarily apply and those put forward via departmental referrals. In addition, we conduct global business leader training with the goals of strengthening the ability of our employees to interact with other cultures and develop a global mindset among themselves while proactively expanding their opportunities for overseas experience.

(3) Talent Management through DX

We have defined the “10 Target Talents” (roles, skills, knowledge, behaviors, mindsets) needed to promote our transition to being a corporate group centered on specialty chemicals Accordingly, we are formulating systems to create structures that encourage employees to take the ownership of their career paths and systematically striving to secure the talent needed to achieve our business goals through education.

4. Increasing Job Satisfaction

We continue to create positive work environments. We will promote initiatives that focus on improving job satisfaction and work engagement, while fostering a culture in which employees prepare annual career development sheets to explore career plans through interviews with supervisors. We also offer employees opportunities to pursue new career paths by voluntarily applying for the types of jobs they want to take on. To this end, we are expanding our rotation systems, conducting trials of an internal secondary job system, posting internal transfer opportunities, and other initiatives to offer various routes of career advancement to employees.

5. Work Engagement

UBE uses the index based on the new Brief Job Stress Questionnaire that companies around Japan administer to employees to gauge work engagement levels and trends. In fiscal 2022 we introduced WFun and K6, which measure presenteeism, and, to understand areas and issues that need improvement, we created a structure that helps managers to more easily understand circumstances at each workplace. We also provide interactive positive mental health workshops via a conversational format in collaboration with external employee assistance programs designed to solve such issues. In addition, by sharing information between labor and management at joint consultation meetings, etc., including the results from the Well-Being Circle conducted by labor unions, we are ensuring that individual employees feel that they are respected and experience awareness toward growing, belonging and contributing, with the aim of fostering an organizational culture that can easily achieve innovation.

6. Analysis of Productivity Increases

We continue to create environments that enable flexible workstyles so that the diverse employees at UBE are able to utilize their abilities. One step is to shorten working hours. In order to spread knowledge across the Group that the aim is not merely to ease workloads but also to improve results and productivity, we began utilizing “Individual Consolidated Ordinary Profit” as a performance-related bonus indicator. We believe continued growth is connected to improving indicators around shortened business hours and individual consolidated ordinary profit, and we are advancing initiatives to facilitate such improvement.

• ESG Data (Society)