Governance

Basic operations

In accordance with our Mission Statement and Philosophy of Conduct: “Sho-Sho-Kei-Tan-Bi (Smaller, Fewer, Lighter, Shorter, Beauty),” “Genba, Genbutsu, Genjitsu (Actual place, Actual thing, Actual situation)” and “YARAMAIKA (Entrepreneurial Spirit),” we will encourage employees to demonstrate their potential and create value based on our human capital development policy and in-house environment creation policy. We will strive to be “an infrastructure company closely connected with people’s lives,” aiming to play a necessary role for people and society.

Human capital development policy

Our Mission Statement sets three goals for all employees of the Suzuki Group to understand and strive for: 1) a goal toward carrying out a company’s social missions (product development), 2) a goal for the corporate organization that they belong to (building the Company), and 3) a goal for themselves (developing human capital), respectively. Based on the spirit of the Mission Statement and the Corporate Philosophy of Conduct for putting it into practice, the President is standing on the front line and leading various reforms related to human capital development in keeping with the belief that human capital development is the top priority of a company. In October 2022, the organizational structure was reshaped with the reorganization of the Human Capital/General Affairs into the Human Capital Development. The Company is focused on developing people unique to Suzuki who embody the Mission Statement and Philosophy of Conduct. Moreover, we seek to overcome major changes that cannot be fully dealt with in the form of a conventional automobile manufacturer, such as responding to a once-ina- century major transformation for automobiles known as CASE and realizing a carbon-neutral society, which is the Company’s social mission. To do so, we will strive to recruit and develop diverse human capital who will look beyond our conventional operations and approaches and resolutely take on new challenges, who have diverse experiences and values for generating new ideas, who have a high degree of professional expertise, and who are able to work in a global context.

Internal environment development policy

Personnel system reforms

In April 2024, Suzuki fully reformed its personnel system. Suzuki will foster individual growth to ensure that all of its diverse employees can implement the Mission Statement and Philosophy of Conduct. By developing each individual’s occupational ability—the abilities necessary to fulfill their individual duties—, the earning capacity of each individual will be improved, leading to the Company’s sustained growth. At the same time, Suzuki will contribute to society by aiming to be an infrastructure company closely connected with people’s lives, in order to serve as an essential partner to people and society. Each individual will implement Challenge and Action with strong motivation, while managers and their team members engage in discussions about demonstrated abilities and the resulting improvements in abilities, providing evaluations and feedback. This process will further boost motivation, leading to additional Challenge and Action. Suzuki will foster individual growth by consistently implementing this human capital development cycle. Employees will understand basic principles, proactively acquire the knowledge and skills needed for their duties, inherit expertise from supervisors and senior employees, and gain firsthand frontline experience. Through this process, Suzuki is working to enhance their occupational ability.

Job system and ability qualification

Suzuki has revised occupational structures and introduced an ability qualification system, which clearly defines the roles, abilities, and activity requirements needed to fulfill job duties. The Company has clearly defined the occupational ability required by each job system and ability qualification, enabling both managers and their team members to engage in their duties based on a shared understanding. As a result, Suzuki will be able to effectively enhance occupational ability.

Evaluation

Previously, performance and occupational ability were assessed together. Suzuki has decided to separate these assessments, with performance assessments reflected in bonuses, and ability assessments in salary raises and promotions. In addition to the Goal Challenge System, which evaluates the degree of achievement toward targets set for each half-year period, Suzuki has also introduced the Professional Development System, which evaluates how employees have demonstrated and improved their abilities over the course of a year. These systems will enable the Company to accurately assess the abilities required for each occupational structure and occupational qualification, thereby fostering further Challenge and Action.

Wages

Suzuki has revised the wage structure and wage grade to foster Challenge and Action according to each occupational qualification, while accurately reflecting the demonstration and improvement of individual abilities in wages. The Company fairly and transparently evaluates and rewards individual growth and career advancement by linking them to the number of years of growth on an annual basis. Furthermore, the Company provides training for each occupational ability and offers pay raises based on required roles and abilities, rather than on years of service. By doing so, Suzuki will foster further growth of the individual.

Allowances

Commuting allowance

Previously, Suzuki paid commuting allowances based on distance from home to workplace, regardless of the commuting method. To make the allowance more acceptable to recipients, Suzuki has decided to pay the actual commuting expenses incurred by employees based on each employee’s commuting method, route, and number of workdays, and other relevant factors.

Childcare support allowance

Previously, the child-raising support allowance was paid for parents raising children until the first March after they turned 15. However, Suzuki has extended this allowance to parents raising children until the first March after they turn 18. This extension was made to help create a better environment for employees to balance their work and child-raising responsibilities, while also improving retention rates, motivation and performance. In addition, Suzuki has established new congratulatory allowances for life events, such as the birth of a child, and admission to elementary or junior high school.

Domestic unaccompanied assignment allowance

Previously, this allowance was paid for up to three years when employees lived apart from their spouses and children due to a job transfer. Suzuki decided to remove the time limit to provide an environment that reduces the financial burden for employees on assignment without their families, allowing them to focus on their work. The Company will continue to pay the allowance as long as necessary.

Homecoming travel allowance for domestic unaccompanied assigned employees

Suzuki has decided to provide a new travel allowance equivalent to the actual expenses incurred for employees on assignment without their families to temporarily return home to their families. As with the domestic unaccompanied assignment allowance, this travel allowance aims to create an environment that reduces the financial burden for these employees, thereby allowing them to focus on their work.

Re-employment system

Suzuki has revised the re-employment system to allow employees who wish to continue working after the age of 60 to maintain the same duties as full-time employees, as well as the same level of pay they received at the age of 60. The new system aims to support these employees in pursuing Challenge and Action, regardless of age. In addition, Suzuki has realized personnel assignments optimized to match individual work abilities through Company-wide human capital matching and retraining, thereby creating an environment where personnel can work vibrantly.

Human capital development

Suzuki has worked to build a corporate culture in which employees can realize their full potential. In the process, Suzuki aims to create a refreshing and innovative organization through teamwork, with the flexibility needed to learn and apply new technologies and trends while adhering to legal compliance and corporate ethics.

Training

Suzuki is working on human capital development with the goal of strengthening individual growth and individual earning capacity, in order to achieve sustainable growth. Aiming to facilitate human capital development, Suzuki has established a training environment that brings managers and their team members together and allows every employee to proactively learn the skills they need, when they need them, in accordance with their individual career path.

Strengthening individual earning capacity

Each department will clearly define the skills, knowledge, experience, and expertise required to execute departmental strategies and will formulate a human capital development plan to improve individual work abilities. Departments will plan and conduct training in line with these human capital development plans.
Suzuki has implemented a training system in which young employees obtain the basic knowledge and skills needed within their third year at the Company. Additionally, the Company will introduce systems that enable all employees to relearn skills when needed.

Development of employees with job titles

In order to develop employees with job titles in a wellplanned manner, Suzuki will provide training to equip them with the necessary skills in their roles before they are appointed to positions with job titles. This training will align with each department’s human capital development plan and individual career paths.
From FY2022, Suzuki has begun management seminars for managers in administrative positions. The goal of these seminars is to enhance the management skills of all managers in administrative positions.
Seminars for all managers in administrative positions will be completed in FY2024. From FY2025 onward, Suzuki will revise the seminar content and continue to provide seminars. Beginning in FY2024, Suzuki will also clearly define the required skills for executive officers, as it has done for managers in administrative positions, and implement systematic training.

Improving workplace communication

When conducting each seminar, Suzuki will provide lectures on the importance of two-way communication based on a foundation of psychological safety, as part of efforts to foster workplace communication.

Human capital development system for individual growth

■ Skills seminar (seminar to obtain the skills needed for job system and ability qualification)

■ Role-based seminars (seminars to acquire the knowledge needed to understand roles and fulfill duties required by occupational qualifications)

■ Legal and regulatory training (training mandated by laws, regulations, or corporate social responsibility)

■ FY2023 training data

• * Excludes costs for on-the-job training, in-house personnel expenses and facility operations, etc.

Dispatching young employees to startups and other business ventures

Suzuki dispatches young employees to startups and other business ventures, with the aim of reaffirming its basic principle of fostering an entrepreneurial spirit to tackle difficulties and pioneer a way forward, expanding horizons and knowledge, and enhancing each employee's awareness of trends outside the Company. Currently in Japan, the Company dispatches staff to SkyDrive Inc., with whom it is collaborating to develop “flying cars” into one of Suzuki’s new mobility businesses to follow automobiles, motorcycles, and marine products. Overseas, the Suzuki Innovation Center (SIC) has been operational since 2022 at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, where digitalization is evolving rapidly. Suzuki has dispatched young employees from various internal divisions to SIC, where they are working with Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad students to contribute ideas, develop IT products and carry out innovation generation activities that will lead to social contribution, with the goal of solving issues that people face in their daily lives. Furthermore, Suzuki established the subsidiary Next Bharat Ventures IFSC Private Limited and a fund in 2024. Suzuki will dispatch young employees to this company to build connections with people in India that go beyond the mobility field, with the goal of contributing to India’s future development.

Training in Silicon Valley

Suzuki began dispatching staff to Silicon Valley in September 2017 to gain exposure to the venture spirit of taking on challenges without fear of failure, and learn design thinking, which is a problem-solving method. So far, Suzuki has dispatched a total of 171 people, representing a wide range of both male and female personnel from executives to young staff, to Silicon Valley on 17 occasions to learn from local startups that embody a “focus on the customer,” which is a major element of Suzuki’s Mission Statement. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Suzuki trained a total of 123 people on 9 additional occasions, including online training and domestic assignments. This training was also attended by a diverse mix of male and female personnel, ranging from executives to young staff. These employees have applied the things they have learned locally, such as design thinking and the mindset of taking on challenges without fear of failure, to daily operations and human capital development.

Digital education

We provide digital education at three levels: for all employees, for DX promotion personnel, and for executives and managers in administrative positions.
For all employees, we provide DX literacy education with the aim of improving operational efficiency, creating added value, and promoting the active use of digital tools in each department.
For DX promotion personnel, we provide DX promotion skills training for them to acquire more advanced data analysis skills, introduce digital tools, and deploy them internally. In this way, we have established a system in which DX promotion personnel take the lead in digitalization within the company.
For executives and managers, we provide DX management education to ensure our competitive advantage and transformation through the use of digital technology.

Main educational activities

DX management training

Based on the recognition that DX is a management issue, management has adopted the slogan, “Executive Officers and Executive General Managers form the No. 1 digital team in the industry,” and has exchange meetings with top IT vendors that are actively promoting DX, as well as DX training by internal and external instructors. This training is designed to provide officers and Executive General Managers with hands-on experience and an understanding of principles and guidelines for fields such as software, networking, and security. In FY2024, we plan to expand this initiative to managers and conduct it six times a year.

Education to promote business digitalization tools

We provide education through instructional videos on lowcode development, BI development, and other topics to enable all employees to become citizen developers. Additionally, to accelerate business process improvement, we are selecting process improvement personnel from each department and plan to improve their skills and continue developing them by offering technical consultation sessions.

Data analysis and utilization education

We provide education on data utilization concepts, as well as education to enhance data analysis skills. We have three courses that provide education to enhance data analysis skills: Basic, Applied, and Practical. In addition to training, we also offer a “Data Utilization Quiz” to create an environment in which all employees can have fun while improving themselves and developing their skills at any time, thereby improving and solidifying their understanding of data analysis.

• i. Education on data utilization concepts (Target: 80% of all employees)
  Enable employees to visualize what they will be able to achieve through data analysis.
• ii. Education to enhance data analysis skills (Target: 80% of DX promotion and data analyst personnels)

  Basic course:

  Learn to predict events based on data trends and characteristics

  Applied course:

  Learn to examine analysis results and assess their validity
  Learn to identify key takeaways from analysis failures that can be applied to future analyses

  Practical course:

  Lower the barriers to using AI and learn to apply it in one’s own work

Construction and utilization of a platform for generative AI use

We introduced ChatGPT, a generative AI model, on March 21, 2023, ahead of other companies in our industry. Currently, nearly 10 in-house apps are in operation. In order to improve the productivity of all employees, we are promoting the in-house development of applications using generative AI and fostering an environment in which employees can independently develop applications using generative AI (i.e., citizen development using generative AI).

• i. In-house development of applications using generative AI In addition to general uses of generative AI, such as summarizing long texts, generating sentences, and creating code, we are developing applications that can be used specifically for internal business operations, including generative AI that references in-house know-how (e.g., documents and internally shared websites) to answer questions through dialogue.
• ii. Creating an environment for citizen development using generative AI
  By making generative AI-based application programming interface (API) available internally, we are creating an environment in which employees can develop applications and systems using generative AI, even without specialized knowledge of generative AI or API.

Efforts for career advancement

We believe that individual growth requires each employee to repeatedly pursue Challenge and Action to improve their ability to perform their duties. Suzuki implements a human capital development program that supports the acceleration of each employee in taking on challenges and taking action.

Self-declaration system

This system is to provide employees with opportunities to review their work and capabilities once a year, reconfirm their own strength and weakness, and lead them to further improvement in capabilities. In addition, they can clarify jobs and departments that they want to try as a career plan, and submit it to their supervisors and the departments of human capital. The submitted contents are effectively utilized as basic data for development and optimal assignment of human capital.

Rotation system

Suzuki implements systematic rotations of human capital by preparing the Company-wide personnel change plan in order to improve employees’ knowledge and technical skills and revitalize our organizations. The goal we set in this system is to have all young employees in engineering, clerical, and sales positions experience the transfer to different departments within 10 years of joining the Company.

Foreign language training program

To improve the foreign language skills of employees, Suzuki offers support as follows:

• Implemented a system where employees can take the TOEIC test for free, with examination fees covered by the Company.
• Introduced online English conversation courses and other programs, with the Company subsidizing a part of the expenses of employees who complete such programs.