Toyota Environmental Sustainablity Report

Engaging with Employees
Takashi Karasawa
Vice-President Human Resources
& Business Services
Stable Employment
We have made every effort to maintain stable employment
for our permanent employees. The step-by-step approach
that we introduced in FY08 to minimise the impact of
required cost reductions continued in FY10, in addition to
some of the structural changes, such as limited recruitment
and minimising overtime:
We continued a limited ratio of “work-sharing” in Toyota
Motor Manufacturing Turkey (TMMT), where labour cost was
reduced with a commensurate reduction in working time
In Toyota Motor Manufacturing UK (TMUK), we needed to align
our production capacity to demand, and therefore stopped
one production line. To adjust the headcount, TMUK initiated
its second voluntary separation scheme, where approximately
850 members chose to leave. This necessitated a massive
multi-skill training initiative to allow every team member who
opted to stay to gain the skills to work on the operational line
In Toyota Motor Europe a voluntary resignation programme
was also introduced and approximately 200 members opted
to fi nd external opportunities.
To a limited extent, some of our NMSCs also optimised their
organisations, while ensuring thorough communication with
their members.
Employee Communication
In all the European countries in which we operate, we adhere
to European and national legislation. In line with this, employee
representation bodies are in place to inform and communicate
within the framework of social dialogue based on mutual trust,
Despite the fact that we are in our third year of
this crisis, we take pride in the fact that we have
made every effort to maintain our ideology and
values on how we treat our employees. While
we were again forced to reduce some of our
headcount, we continued to work hard to try and
achieve this through voluntary means, supported
by effective communication.
respect and responsibilities. Regular information sharing and
required consultations with European and national bodies
contributed to maintaining the relationship and ensured
understanding by employee representatives on the business
situation and company’s position.
In line with the agreement with our European Works Council,
which is called the Toyota European Forum (TEF), additional
meetings were convened to discuss the various business
issues in our European operations.
Under the continuing severe business and economic
conditions, it was critical to communicate with all our
employees in an open and timely manner. On several
occasions face-to-face meetings were organised between
the company management and employees to explain critical
business issues and company decisions. Pan-European
employee briefi ngs were held throughout the year to ensure
consistent and thorough communication with all European
employees.
Employee Motivation Survey
Takashi Karasawa
One of the ways we monitor and measure employee
engagement is through our employee motivation survey. The
survey is conducted every two years and includes all our
European affi liates. While NMSC employee engagement was
relatively high and in line with high performing benchmarks,
this was not achieved in the manufacturing plants and the
head offi ce, where a dip was seen against the 2008 results.
The results were communicated to employees and in line
with local practice and requirements, working groups or
management workshops were established to develop action
plans to address the identifi ed issues. As a result of the
motivation survey, numerous changes have been introduced
in the areas of communication, training and HR systems.
Toyota European Sustainability Report 2011 I Social Performance
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