Human capital management

Kumagai Gumi Group views human resources as its “capital,” and believes that allowing them to maximize their capabilities leads to an increase in medium- to long-term corporate value. To this end, we are focusing on securing and developing human resources, and creating a workplace environment conducive to healthy functioning. The construction industry is currently facing a severe lack of capable human resources due to shortages of young engineers and other staff as well as skilled technicians who are retiring. With this in mind, Kumagai Gumi is not only promoting active participation by women, but also creating a system for reemployment of elderly persons and a job return system, as well as focusing on registering non-regular employees as full-time employees.

Kumagai Gumi works to resolve the advancing age of employees and imbalances among generations, and engages in recruitment activities with an awareness of diversity. Based on information including future business performance trends, we formulate recruitment plans for hiring new graduates and mid-career employees that take into consideration the total number of employees, job types, age distribution, and other factors 5 and 10 years ahead. In fiscal 2019, we also set up a job return system.

Kumagai Gumi is working toward creating a workplace environment where everyone can work in a lively manner, regardless of gender, age, nationality, gender identity, sexual orientation (LGBTQ), or disabilities, and promoting work style reform with the goal of boosting business performance. Promotion structure Kumagai Gumi established the “Diversity Promotion Committee” composed of General Managers of divisions and chaired by the President, and involves diversity promotion managers elected by the head office, branches and group companies to create a promotion structure. A “Work Style Reform Working Group” with representatives of divisions has also been established to examine various systems and measures to promote diversity and work style reform horizontally across the company.
The Diversity Promotion Department of Kumagai Gumi is in charge of operating and enhancing the effectiveness of these groups to consolidate the promotion of human resources’ activities and work style reform.

We formulated the 4th Action Plan (January 2023 to March 2026) based on the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace. The three quantitative goals of this plan are as follows:

Expanding the period of the “Week for Persons with Disabilities” (December 3-9 every year) as stipulated by the Basic Act for Persons with Disabilities, Kumagai Gumi has established every December as our own “Month for Persons with Disabilities” since FY2021. During the “Month for Persons with Disabilities,” we run an e-learning program to provide a deeper understanding of persons with disablities. We also invited interns who are students from special education schools, installed barrier-free facilities in the Headquarters office building, added automatic doors and slopes at employee entrances, and modified elevators and restrooms. These are part of our efforts to create workplace environments that ensure that a diverse range of employees can work with peace of mind.

We operate employment-related systems under the premise of employment until the statutory retirement age of 65, and contribute to the expansion of reemployment of retirees who wish to continue working. As of April 2023, 313 reemployed retirees are working in the company.

Aiming to develop human resources under the idea of “Enrich the self, create the future, and support people,” Kumagai Gumi undertakes a variety of initiatives. In April 2019, we formulated the Human Resources Development Plan that sets our directions in this area.

We encourage the acquisition of official qualifications such as Professional Engineer and 1st-Class Architect. We also conduct supplementary lectures and mock examinations for examinees, and support employees’ skill advancement.

We conduct goal setting interviews at the beginning of the term, progress confirmation interviews at the mid-point of the term, self-evaluation confirmation interviews at the end of the term, and finally an interview on evaluation results, for a total of four interviews a year between employees and their superiors. Employees are able to state their wishes regarding future workplace assignment and skill development to the Human Resources and General Affairs Department in the form of a “Career Plan Declaration” via our in-house application system at any time, without going through superiors.

At the time of training, in addition to the information provided to the trainee themselves, the trainee’s department office / branch managers and supervisors are also notified, as part of efforts to create an atmosphere conducive to participation in training.

As part of work style reform, Kumagai Gumi implemented systems like telework, staggered working hours and a flextime system, focused on measures to improve productivity and streamline operations like revising business processes and implementing DX, and also worked on reforming awareness.
The new “Work Style Reform Action Plan 2023” was created this fiscal year, being the year before work style reform laws that apply to the construction industry come into effect. In addition to these actions, we will be implementing a range of work style reform throughout the entire company, including promoting further diversity to working styles, creating even better workplace environments, and streamlining business operations.

At Kumagai Gumi, we respect the freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining, engaging in dialogue between company and employees regarding wage and system revisions.
Kumagai Gumi has established a staff association for the purpose of fostering communication between the company and employees, thereby contributing to the development of the company.
Every year, we have solicited requests from all employees regarding the company, and established a forum where branch representatives of the staff association and the President exchanged opinions.

Kumagai Gumi strives to comply with the legal minimum wage and makes efforts to set wages taking into consideration the cost of living and lifestyle.