Seven & i Group considers employees to be an important human resource asset supporting the enhancement of corporate value. We believe that employees’ heightened engagement and desire to contribute leads to our organization’s vitalization and strengthened competitiveness. Therefore, we conduct employee engagement & culture surveys with the aim of creating employee-friendly workplaces with job satisfaction.

In the fiscal year ended February 29, 2024, we implemented the Culture & Engagement Survey for approximately 67,000 employees at 26 companies in Japan (including monthly salaried full-time and hourly wage full-time employees as well as part-time employees). Survey scores on unique survey items inquiring into cultural statuses (covering integrity, respect for autonomy, encouragement for taking on challenges, cultural openness, etc.) and scores relating to engagement are tallied to create a visualization of the various statuses. The result was an average percentage of positive assessments in questions dealing with cultural statuses of 70% and an engagement score of 50% (both for monthly salaried full-time employees).

The survey is conducted once every year with the next survey scheduled to take place in the second half of the fiscal year ending February 28, 2025.

Seven & i Group is committed to improving engagement by endeavoring to create workplace environments conducive to working comfortably and which provide job satisfaction and motivation for diverse human resources. The employee engagement survey has been implemented since 2018 to visualize the statuses of the organization and, from 2022, this survey was developed into the Culture & Engagement Survey, which is used to identify challenges faced by companies and their employees and to carry out improvement activities. We believe that fostering a culture of continuous challenge and innovation and enhancing the engagement levels of individual human resources as well as their willingness to contribute will promote organizational vitality and strengthen our competitiveness as a company.

In the fiscal year ended February 28, 2022, we established Engagement Improvement Committees at each of our Group companies. These committees are chaired mainly by the heads of personnel departments, with members selected from a diverse pool of human resources. They conduct analyses and identify and collate the issues from the outcomes of the Culture & Engagement Survey to formulate measures for the fostering of culture and improving engagement, while regularly monitoring the implementation of these measures and reporting to the Board of Directors of Seven & i Holdings as well as the Management Councils at each Group company. Additionally, we are continuously implementing measures while actively using feedback received from employees, encompassing dialogues between management and employees at Group companies, refurbishment of the employee canteen at the Seven & i Holdings Head Office, adoption of systems to support both employee’s work and lifestyles, and other measures towards improving engagement. In conjunction with these efforts, we are leveraging the sharing of case studies of good practices and promotion of mutual understanding through these committees to promote further activities.

We will actively endeavor to work toward fostering corporate cultures in which companies and employees can grow in a sustainable manner, where employees are satisfied and engaged with their jobs and work in comfort, and where diverse opinions are respected.

Ito-Yokado are working toward a shared awareness and recognition of engagement with each employee around a core of 50 members who promote engagement and involve the members around them. As part of this, senior management, store managers, and headquarter leaders clearly define the management philosophy and vision, and embody the management philosophy, while holding meetings by area to instill job satisfaction and motivate employees. In this way, they are training personnel with the capacity to think and act on their own initiative and leveraging employee diversity to create environments that reflect the various feedback received, while strengthening the foundations to improve engagement.

Each Group company place great emphasis and importance on venues for direct communication between management and employees to ensure that each and every employee understands the future orientation they are aiming for and has a clear and distinct vision of their aspirations.

Seven & i Holdings actively provides opportunities for direct dialogues between management and employees, with 65 such meetings held in the fiscal year ended February 29, 2024.

Seven Bank holds Town Hall meetings, at which employees, the President, and executive officers engage in dialogues on a variety of topics. All employees, including those at subsidiaries, are eligible to participate in these meetings, which involve groups of around eight employees per Town Hall meeting exchanging frank views with the President and executive officers on ongoing initiatives to realize the Seven Bank Purpose and on the challenges faced by those working on the frontline. In the fiscal year ended February 29, 2024, a total of around 70 meetings were held, at which around 350 persons participated.

This initiative is providing opportunities for employees to put into words their feelings about their work and to share these with the President and other members of the company and is thereby successfully facilitating increased motivation among employees.

Based on the results of the engagement survey, Akachan Honpo is focusing on opinion exchange meetings and dialogue sessions to expand communication with employees.

As a company-wide initiative, it provides opportunities for HR managers to have direct dialogues with employees, and the values and ideas gathered from these interactions are reflected in company policies. By creating an environment where candid opinions can be freely exchanged, it aims to enhance systems that contribute to individual work-life balance under the common goal of "making the company even better."

Additionally, to promote dialogue within each store department, it conducts training for department heads on how to interpret engagement scores and share best practices. This training helps make engagement more relatable, creating opportunities to incorporate it into daily actions and tasks. Department heads lead efforts to understand the current state of their departments and implement improvement actions within their teams.

Moving forward, it will continue to spread these initiatives throughout the departments and the entire company to further enhance employee engagement.