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 surveys with the aim of creating employee-friendly workplaces with job satisfaction.

The employee engagement survey is an indexing of employees’ feelings about doing one’s best and not giving up until delivering results above expectations, with the “feeling that each and every employee is always playing a leading role” as well as having “pride and passion in everyone’s own work.” In the fiscal year ended February 28, 2022, the survey was administered to approximately 73,000 employees at 34 companies in Japan. The survey is conducted once every year and the next survey is planned for the second half of the fiscal year ending February 28, 2023.

The results of the employee engagement survey are reported to the Boards of Directors, Management Councils, and others of Seven & i Holdings and Group companies, and the Group companies analyze the results, identify issues, and consider and implement countermeasures. Examples are shared within the Group as well. In the fiscal year ending February 28, 2022, we set up Engagement Improvement Committees in our operating companies, which are chaired mainly by the heads of personnel departments. These committees select diverse members by such means as advertising for activity members and promoting improvement activities by compiling and monitoring action plans for increased engagement based on dialogue among members. In the fiscal year ending February 28, 2023, the Group further enhanced initiatives toward the realization of job satisfaction and comfortable working environments for employees.

At Ito-Yokado, senior management, store managers, and headquarter leaders clearly define the management philosophy and vision, with around 600 persons appointed as team members responsible for promoting engagement at each store and department. Ito-Yokado strives to embody the management philosophy while achieving a shared consciousness and recognition thereof among all employees, which includes holding meetings to instill satisfaction and motivation by area. 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.

In October 2020 Seven Bank launched the Seven Future Meeting so that young employees could take part in free and lively discussions with the company president, thereby viewing all issues of the company as their own and engaging in their work with responsibility and drive. Meetings have been held 30 times so far, with discussions taking place online. The meetings also lead to better communication among young employees themselves.

The “Pulse Survey” has been introduced at Akachan Honpo for persons working at Head Office and some store employees, as a tool to establish the current circumstances of individuals and workplaces, and encourage autonomous, self-starting actions by every individual. This involves having employees answer a simple monthly survey with questions focused on workloads and work quality, communication with those around them, and degrees of autonomy. The answer results are checked by the respondent’s direct superiors, and the current status of their staff’s duties and their opinions and impressions are taken on board to further dialogues. This initiative has begun to yield changes in behaviors including increasing pro-active communication by superiors and autonomous efforts to approach those around them following reflection by employees on their work duties. Akachan Honpo will continue to roll out these initiatives to different departments and throughout the company to translate employee engagement into further improvements.