We have established the following Basic Policy on Our Human Resources Management System as the cornerstone of a personnel management system that contributes to the sustainable development of the company in our effort to be a globally active integrated energy company. By operating systems based on this policy, our goal is to harness employee capabilities to produce high-quality results as a team and become an organization capable of competing in the global arena at a high level.

We hold training to build the all-round skills of our employees, so that they can continue to contribute to the company’s business over a long-term career.

We provide a range of level-based employee training and development programs based on the personnel requirements, anticipated future role, and required capabilities of each employee categorization, including global administrative staff, global engineering staff, and area staff members.

We also provide a range of programs to rapidly develop employees who can thrive in an international business environment, including overseas language study, training at overseas sites, and study at specialist overseas training facilities.

In addition to the general orientation and training for new recruits, we also operate a mentoring system for them. A senior employee is assigned to each new hire to help him/her adjust to work and life at the company, and to provide moral support during his/her first year.

We strive to establish an employee evaluation system that fairly evaluates and rewards our employees for their achievements and demonstrations of capabilities, and to operate it in an equitable manner.

These evaluations are not merely one-way assessments of employees by their managers—they also include tools such as an Action Reflection Sheet and a Goals Challenge Sheet that our employees can use to complete a self-evaluation while reflecting on their performance. Employees are given opportunities to discuss their achievements at work with their managers in face-to-face meetings. This is to assess the gap between the self-evaluation and the superior’s evaluation. The system is designed so that improvements can be made to each type of evaluation, thereby contributing to human resource development and boosting the credibility of the evaluation.

We also employ a self-report system under which our employees can submit requests for new assignments and transfers once a year. Although we cannot accommodate all requests, this gives the company a better understanding of the extent to which employees think they are fit for their current assignments and what career paths they wish to pursue—both of which are helpful for the company in developing plans for recruiting and allocating human resources. In particular, in cases such as those where an employee needs to care for a family member, the Human Resources Division operates an effective system in which it offers positions to suit these needs to employees who request such consideration during divisional transfers.

To make these systems an established part of the entire INPEX Group, we regularly provide line managers (i.e., personnel in charge of human resources and discrete organizational units) with practical training for conducting evaluations as part of level tailored training in order to operate the employee evaluation system fairly.

Diversity Management

We hire talented employees regardless of views, culture, nationality, belief, race, gender, or age. Our policy is to appoint and compensate the best person for the position, and there is no difference in the basic salary of male and female employees.

We hire and train employees we need regardless of nationality. Highly specialized global staff members work across the INPEX Group.

Additionally, because our large-scale overseas projects are now approaching their full-scale development and production phases, with expectation for long-term operations we directly recruit local employees who will play an integral part in running our overseas offices in line with local laws and with a transparent hiring process. We are working to maintain competitive hiring criteria, and offer fair compensation in order to maintain a strong work ethic among local employees and improve our employee retention rate. We will continue to actively practice diversity management.

Employment Opportunities for Physically Challenged

We have been proactive in hiring the physically challenged while giving consideration to varying working conditions and responsibilities. As of the end of fiscal 2011 (March 31, 2012), we employed 32 physically challenged employees, 2.0% of the total workforce. We will continue to make efforts in the future to employ as many physically challenged people as feasible.

Rehiring Retirees

We have a rehiring contract system whereby we rehire employees who have reached the full retirement age of 60 to help them continue working while making use of their extensive experience and advanced abilities and skills. This system allows for the hire of retirees for positions that match the interests of both the company and the employee, with the option to renew the contract every year until the age of 65. We have hired over 90% of all applicants to this program. As of the end of fiscal 2011 (March 31, 2012), 47 of our employees are working under a retire-rehire contract.

* Contract employees, fixed term employees, temporary employees, etc.

Seeking to maintain working environments that cater to different lifestyles and enable employees to fully express their abilities, the INPEX Group is working to create workplaces that support versatile work styles and offer a healthy balance between work and home life. We also pay close attention to factors in the external environment, such as Japan’s declining birth rate and aging population in order to promote work-life balance.

Making the Most of Work Time

With overseas operator development projects beginning in earnest, employees have been extremely busy as the INPEX Group expands its business. To promote efficient use of working time by focusing on work when needed and taking time off during less busy periods, in April 2011 we launched a campaign that encourages employees to leave work before 6 p.m. at least four times a month, with flexibility allowed for each person’s work schedule. We also ran a campaign encouraging employees to take paid leave over summer with the objective of allowing staff to refresh and revitalize through consecutive days off. Maintaining a regular work schedule helps employees to rejuvenate themselves both mentally and physically, use their limited work time more effectively, and be more productive at work.

And as a measure to reduce overtime work, when employees are forced to extend their overtime hours beyond the predetermined limit we encourage managers and junior staff to not only review the latter’s workload but also discuss current conditions and challenges they are facing.

Support for child raising and nursing care

We proactively strive to create an environment conducive to employees who are raising children or involved in nursing care for their working and family life, and adopt a greater variety of support systems than those required by law, which are offered to all employees including contract workers.

In August 2012, we have met certain standards based on the “Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next – Generation Children” and received a next generation certification logo (known as Kurumin). This mark is awarded to companies who have achieved the “General Entrepreneur Action Plan” which was established under the same act, and approved as entrepreneurs who have complied with the standards.

Reference: General Entrepreneur Action Plan based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children.

With regard to child care, we introduce various kinds of supporting systems including special three-day paid leave for a spouses’ delivery, and a short-time working system that can be used until the employees’ children enter the fourth grade of elementary school. As a result of these promotions, in fiscal 2011, all employees who took delivery and child-care leave returned to work, and have continued to work since then.

In the case of nursing care, we have also introduced a short-time working system for employees to enable the provision of nursing care while remaining employed (without a suspension from work) as well as offering nursing-care leave of up to 365 days that can be taken per each family member.

We strive to maintain and promote sound relationships between our management and employees based on a foundation of mutual trust and cooperation and a common goal of furthering the company. To maintain a healthy relationship, our management meets regularly with employee representatives to exchange views and ideas on a broad range of issues that include challenges we are facing and our business outlook.

Although we take care to set an appropriate advance notification period in the case of matters that would cause a significant alteration in the duties of employees, there are currently no such matters under discussion. We do not infringe on employees’ freedom of association, including at our sites outside Japan.

As of March 31, 2012, the INPEX Labor Union has 1,030 employees, comprising 72% of the total regular employee base.

Labor-Management Meetings Held in FY2011
Central labor-management meetings: July and December
Branch labor-management meetings: Niigata region—July; Akita region—July; Chiba region—July