Recruitment, Development and
Success of Human Resources
Basic Concept
Human resources are one of the most important forms of management capital for the Group in achieving sustainable business growth and creating new value. We believe that our ability to achieve high growth while creating new markets owes to the success of talented people from diverse backgrounds. Based on this belief, we have identified “promoting the recruitment, development, and success of human resources” as one of the material issues that the Group should address with priority.
In addition, the Group has formulated a new medium-term financial policy for FY2026 to FY2028, aiming to achieve growth in both net sales and adjusted operating profit. To realize this goal, we believe that improving productivity by securing sales and development talent to drive business growth, as well as talent capable of promoting business transformation through the use of AI, is a key management challenge. To address this management challenge, we view the entire process—starting from talent acquisition, through development, assignment, and promotion, to the planned cultivation of next-generation leaders and successors for key positions—as a consistent framework, and are working to build and strengthen a “Talent Pipeline.” Furthermore, we are continuously reviewing our compensation to maintain and improve our competitiveness in talent acquisition.
While actively recruiting diverse, highly specialized talent that contributes to business growth, we emphasize mission-driven individuals who resonate with our mission and vision. Even as we rapidly expand our workforce, we ensure to prevent the dilution of our corporate culture that we have embraced as a foundation of our human capital. In doing so, we foster a corporate culture that encourages our people to continue to take on challenges toward our common mission and goal. Furthermore, we focus on creating an environment that supports employee growth by developing training programs and career support systems to help each and every employee utilize their knowledge and ideas to their full potential.
Under these policies, we drive the creation of opportunities and the development of an environment for diverse talent to succeed, thereby promoting innovation to help solve business challenges.
Promotion Structure
Taking into account changes in the business environment driven by the rapid adoption of generative AI, the Group has positioned AI-driven organization development as a key management strategy and has been promoting AI utilization and human resource strategies in tandem, with responsibility assigned to a Director, Executive Officer, CHRO, CAXO (Chief AI Transformation Officer) in overall charge of domains of human resources and the promotion of AI utilization. Directly under the CHRO and CAXO, the Human Resources Department responsible for recruitment, training, organization development, system design, and labor matters and the department of promoting AI utilization across the Company coordinate with each other to implement human resource strategies. In addition, Human Resource Business Partners (HRBPs) are assigned to each business division to connect strategic requirements of business with the human resources function.
Initiatives on investments in human resources, including consideration of these details, are reported to and subsequently supervised by the Board of Directors on a regular basis, and material issues are deliberated and determined by the Board of Directors. In the process of reporting to the Board of Directors, the following information is shared on a regular basis: the progress in core KPIs; the implementation status of priority measures such as recruitment, training, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; and the evaluation of the current status with respect to the medium- to long-term targets. If necessary, the Board of Directors reviews human resource strategies and determines whether to make an additional investment. Furthermore, the Nomination and Remuneration Advisory Committee deliberates on the development of senior executives in connection with our talent strategy, as well as on succession plans.
Note that risks related to human capital are perceived to be closely related to risks that could have a significant impact on management and the business, and their analysis and identification are conducted as part of our company-wide risk management activities.
In addition, regarding matters related to human resources, labor, and harassment, we have established a system through which employees can consult and report with peace of mind via our harassment consultation desk and internal reporting hotline. For details on the system, please refer to “Compliance” under Governance.
Human Resources Structure
Centered on the CHRO Team, which is responsible for planning company-wide human resource strategies, developing our data infrastructure, and designing internal systems, four departments work together to advance initiatives that contribute to business growth. The Recruitment Management Department designs and operates company-wide recruitment policies and processes. The HRBP (Human Resource Business Partner) Management Department assigns HRBPs to each business division to implement measures aligned with business strategies. The Culture & People Department creates an environment in which employees can proactively build their careers and supports the growth of both individuals and the organization, providing support for capability development and career formation while also improving engagement, fostering our organizational culture, and promoting diversity and well-being.
Major Initiatives
Recruitment of Outstanding Talent
Continuous strengthening of recruitment is an essential element of our growth strategy. Our various organizations, including development, sales, and back office, comprise talented individuals from diverse backgrounds. We emphasize hiring employees with strong expertise and skills, and who have a mission-driven attitude that matches our corporate philosophy. This emphasis stems from our belief that people whose ideals match our corporate philosophy, such as our mission, vision, and values, are more likely to be successful after joining. This mission-driven corporate culture has been an effective tool for recruiting, enabling us to hire a wide range of highly capable and diverse individuals.
In addition, as one of our initiatives toward building a talent pipeline, we are actively promoting the recruitment of new graduates. To continuously secure talent who is expected to deliver high added value early by learning in an AI-driven environment, we are working to acquire diverse talent who identifies with the Group’s corporate philosophy by fostering better mutual understanding before joining through internships and other events.
Furthermore, we are also focused on strengthening referral hiring, aiming for a recruitment rate of 35% through referrals by FY2029. The hiring success rate through referrals is significantly greater than that from standard procedures, greatly contributing to our important growth strategy of talent acquisition. As employees approach people they want to work with, referral hiring tends to result in fewer mismatches with the company after hiring and lower early resignation rates than standard hires. Furthermore, referral hiring reflects that employees hold our group in high regard, motivating them to recommend it to close friends and acquaintances as a good place to work. Therefore, we place importance on the percentage of recruitment through referrals as an indicator to quantitatively measure organizational health.
Our Recruitment System That Supports Organizational Expansion
We have assigned HRBPs to each business division to develop flexible human resource strategies, ranging from recruitment planning tailored to business characteristics to follow-up for prospective hires, as well as training and evaluation. In addition, we have established a cross-functional business planning organization under the Human Resources Division to integrate recruitment operations, thereby enhancing efficiency while strengthening the acquisition of talented personnel through the development of our recruitment brand and information dissemination.
Measures to Strengthen Our Recruitment System
Establishment of Human Resource Business Partner (HRBP) organizations
To promote large-scale recruitment, we established an HRBP organization within each division to strengthen our on-the-ground recruitment abilities. HRBPs gain a deep understanding of each division’s unique needs based on its strategy, collaborating with the Human Resources Division to implement optimal recruitment plans, training, evaluations, and more.
Integration and optimization of our recruitment operations
To enhance efficiency in our recruitment operations, we established a cross-department operational planning team within the Human Resources Division. This team integrates our overall recruitment operations, achieving both optimization for each department and improved efficiency simultaneously.
Building of a recruitment brand and information dissemination
We strive to build a recruitment brand common for all positions and divisions while strengthening our information dissemination to enhance recruitment efforts. Our goal is to attract outstanding talent and improve the effectiveness of our recruitment activities.
Promoting Human Resources Development and Success
Amid rapid organizational expansion, we believe that accelerating the growth of each and every employee is essential to maintaining and further improving productivity. Accordingly, we are actively engaged in developing our people after they join the Company and in promoting their success.
HR and Evaluation Systems
Adoption of the Mission Grade System
We have adopted a Mission Grade System for personnel evaluation, which determines the level of job authority, responsibility, and treatment according to different grades. These grades are determined based on performance and future expectations, leveraging growth for each individual.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) and 360-degree evaluation system
For HR evaluations, we assess individual contributions to the organization based on Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), which are set quarterly in the organization. In addition, by incorporating a 360-degree evaluation semi-annually, we comprehensively reflect feedback not only from direct supervisors but also from colleagues and personnel in other departments with whom the employee works. These measures promote employee growth and strengthen overall organizational performance. Note that these HR and evaluation systems apply to permanent employees and contract employees.
Education and Training
With respect to education and training, we implement a wide range of measures across five categories: culture and philosophy dissemination, compliance and statutory training, skills training, level-specific training, and career support. In level-specific training, we have established programs tailored to each stage of an employee’s career, ranging from onboarding upon joining the Company, to results-oriented training designed to help new graduates become productive early, to training for employees newly appointed to management positions.
Improving Employee Engagement
We have consistently conducted employee engagement surveys over the past four years, achieving our highest engagement score ever in FY2023. Engagement scores are strongly correlated with business performance. Our analysis is that the momentum of reignited net sales growth in FY2023 spread company-wide, leading to the high organizational engagement. Additionally, our eNPS*1, which indicates whether employees would recommend the company to others, was -11.3% for FY2025, while the average for Japanese companies is said to be between -40 and -50. Although the level has declined from the previous fiscal year (FY2024: -5.4%), it remains at a high level compared to the average for Japanese companies, and we are proceeding with factor analysis and initiatives for improvement. To improve engagement, we implement initiatives focusing on three dimensions—individuals, surroundings, and organizations. Going forward, we will continue working to enhance overall organizational performance and drive business growth.
- *1 eNPSSM stands for Employee Net Promoter Score. It is a service mark of Bain & Company, Inc., Fred Reichheld, and Satmetrix Systems, Inc. The eNPS(SM) is obtained by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters of working for the Company.
Fostering IT Talent for the Future
We support the Kamiyama Marugoto College of Design, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, a private technical college that opened in 2023. The school aims to nurture people who create things and possess the ability to make things happen—that is, people who can change society. By supporting this institution in creating future innovators, we aim to fulfill our mission of “Turning encounters into innovation” and to help develop IT human resources who will transform the world.
Specifically, we participate as a scholarship partner*2 and support multiple students as Sansan Scholars. Young employees from our group, including sales and business planning staff, designers, engineers, and other diverse roles, participate as mentors, offering year-round support programs to the students.
The content of these programs varies by school year, and we determine our activity policies based on the assignments set by the school. Through activities such as introducing what makes a company appealing and devising future businesses that leverage students’ own strengths, our mentors share their respective knowledge and experience—not only know-how in areas such as presentation and design, but also insights into how companies are structured, what functions they require, and how services come into being.
The support initiatives simultaneously promote the growth of the employees who participate as mentors, and contribute to developing the group’s human resources, such as in the expectation they will become candidates for management positions.
- *2 Companies that have made contributions or donations to scholarship funds for the purpose of making tuition virtually free.
Fostering Corporate Culture as the Foundation of Human Capital
We collectively refer to our mission, vision, and values as the “Katachi of Sansan.” The theme for 2026 is “Double It.” As our organization continues to expand, each individual’s growth becomes a driver of business growth, directly contributing to the company’s overall growth. By combining each person’s growth mindset with our corporate philosophy, including our mission, we cultivate a culture that serves as the foundation of our group’s human capital. To that end, we are enhancing our various training programs to ensure that each employee, starting from their entry into the company and through various opportunities, engages with the company culture and the annual themes.
SCOP (Sansan Culture Onboarding Program)
Our organization continues to expand, and about half of our current employees have joined within the past three years. To ensure that employees from various backgrounds can quickly succeed, it is important to align their careers and personal growth with our group’s mission, vision, values, and corporate philosophy as soon as possible. To achieve this, we use two of the five days of our SCOP onboarding program, which starts on the employees’ first day, for deepening their understanding of our corporate philosophy and values. Even after being assigned to a position, for six months after joining the company, we provide monthly opportunities as part of SCOP to engage in discussions with managers from employees’ own departments and other departments, as well as with executives, about our mission, vision, and values, aiming to help employees learn more deeply through experience.
- 5-Day Program
- Learn basic knowledge about our group.
- Katachi Training (CEO)/ Katachi Salon (directors)/ Katachi Salon (executive officers)
- Hear directly from the CEO, directors, and executive officers about their thoughts on the “Katachi of Sansan.”
- Katachiba (group managers)
- Together with group managers, employees articulate their thoughts on the “Katachi of Sansan” in relation to their own work.
- Katachi Offsite Meeting
- Based on the training thus far, employees deepen their understanding by discussing the “Katachi of Sansan” in their own words.
Education and Training (List of Training Programs and Initiatives)
Culture and Philosophy Dissemination
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Katachi Training | New employees | Upon joining | Aims to help employees understand the intent and evolution of the Katachi of Sansan (Mission, Vision, Values, and Premise) and find alignment with their own values, thereby internalizing the corporate culture. For six months after assignment, monthly dialogue opportunities with managers and officers from their own and other departments are provided to facilitate deeper understanding. |
| Katachi Discussion | Employees | As needed | Provides opportunities for all employees to participate in sharing and discussing our corporate philosophy, aiming to foster its dissemination. |
| All-hands Meeting (including annual theme practice) | Employees | Twice a month | Aims to share business status, key policies, and product information, while promoting understanding of security awareness and values, and deepening empathy for the mission and vision. Quarterly, the CEO explains performance reviews and policies for the next quarter, and shares the latest information on financial results, services, and topics related to the annual theme. |
| Strength Matching | Employees | Upon joining | Aims to help employees objectively grasp their strengths based on career summaries and personality assessments, and share them as a common internal language, thereby promoting teamwork and improving overall organizational performance. |
| Nana Hachi | New employees | Upon joining | Aims to help new employees deepen their understanding of other departments and view their own roles from multiple perspectives, thereby aiming for medium- to long-term performance improvement and smoother inter-departmental collaboration. |
Compliance and Statutory Training
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dissemination of Security Topics | Employees | Monthly | Aims to regularly share the latest threat trends and internal response policies to improve security awareness among all employees. |
| PMS Training / Security Training and Testing | Employees, temporary employees, dispatched and outsourced personnel | Twice a year | Based on the certification criteria of the PrivacyMark (Personal Information Protection Management System), aims to ensure all employees understand and adhere to the rules for handling personal information entrusted by customers, as well as compliance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information. |
| Compliance Training | Employees, temporary employees, dispatched and outsourced personnel | Once a year | Aims to help employees understand and share basic values and ethics regarding compliance and to realize a workplace environment where everyone can demonstrate their abilities fairly and equitably, while reducing risks across the entire Group by addressing everyday issues, respecting human rights, and improving understanding of the internal reporting system. |
| Harassment Prevention Training | Employees, temporary employees | Once a year | Aims to deepen correct understanding of harassment and to teach concrete methods for preventing harassment in the workplace, thereby realizing a better workplace environment. |
Skills Training
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Training | Employees, temporary employees, dispatched and outsourced personnel | As needed | Aims to share the latest use cases and practical know-how regarding AI utilization, to reach a state where all employees can proactively utilize AI in their work, and to improve AI literacy across the entire company. |
Level-specific Training
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| SCOP (Sansan Culture Onboarding Program) | Mid-career employees | Upon joining | Aims to build a foundation for achieving results as a member of the Group by conducting the program over five consecutive days from the first day of joining to learn basic knowledge about the Group, and by utilizing two of those days to promote understanding of our corporate philosophy and values. |
| TOPGUN Results-oriented Early Development Training | New graduate employees | Upon joining | Aims to promote the early development of new graduate employees into productive members of the workforce and their long-term success. |
| Inside Sales Training | Employees assigned to specific departments | As needed | Aims to achieve early productivity by having employees master the basics of inside sales operations and gradually increase their proficiency through the achievement of set goals. |
| New Manager Training | Employees newly appointed as managers | Upon promotion | Aims to have employees newly appointed to management positions understand their roles and responsibilities as management, acquire knowledge of member communication and various internal regulations, and foster horizontal connections among managers. |
Career Support
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Internal Job Posting System: Jump! | Employees | As needed | A system that enables internal transfers so that employees can take on new work experiences and grow. |
| Coacher | Employees | As needed | Aims to help employees organize issues related to their work, career, and life, and to encourage changes in their mindset and behavior through dialogue, thereby leading to the creation of results and career development. |
| Team Co-Cha | Employees | As needed | Aims to improve the performance of the entire organization by using a group coaching format to resolve gaps in perception and misalignment between teams that tend to arise with business expansion and organizational change, and by supporting the creation of teams that can cooperate with each other. |
Major Systems and Initiatives Related to Recruitment, Engagement, and Workstyle
Recruitment
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employee Referral Program “My Myaku” | Employees | As needed | A program that leverages employees’ networks to recruit excellent talent suited to our corporate culture. We have created an environment where employees can easily make referrals by having the company cover meal expenses during referral meetings and by providing a reward when a hire is made. |
| Utilization of Digital Signage and Video Content | Employees | As needed | We promote awareness of the My Myaku program and encourage employees to actively participate in referral hiring through digital signage installed on each office floor and internal video content. |
| Long-term Internship | Students | As needed | We offer a long-term internship program aimed at developing future leaders. |
| Networking Event for Employees and Candidates “Sansan Bar” | Employees, candidates | Monthly | An event where candidates and employees can interact. With over 50 participants each time, we are strengthening our system for introducing and recruiting excellent talent by leveraging employees’ networks. |
Engagement and Culture
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mitsukacchi (Peer Bonus® using Unipos) | Employees, temporary employees | As needed | We utilize Unipos, a company-wide culture platform, to foster the penetration of our corporate culture and improve employee engagement. It is a system where employees send appreciation comments and tips to each other for their contributions, making excellent behavior visible across the company. Since employees can post actions based on the mission, vision, values, and even the theme of the year, it contributes significantly to the penetration of our corporate philosophy and to improving motivation across the organization. We regularly recognize actions that best embody the corporate philosophy and publicize them internally to further promote usage. |
| SVS Award System (Sansan Value Star) | Employees | Semi-annually | A system to recognize employees and teams that best embody the annual theme and values, held during the all-hands meeting. We award a newcomer prize to the new graduate who achieved results the fastest. During the award ceremony, supervisors and colleagues introduce the episodes leading to the award, and detailed stories are distributed later via internal PR media, providing opportunities for other employees to learn from and be inspired by how others approach challenges and achieve results. |
| Yoriai | Employees | As needed | A meal expense subsidy program to promote communication among employees. |
| Engagement Survey | Employees | Monthly | Aims to utilize the analysis results of the responses for self-management, organizational management, and the planning of company-wide internal systems and measures. |
Workstyle
| Training/Initiative Name | Target Participants*3 | Timing | Purpose/Content |
|---|---|---|---|
| Office-centric | Employees | Full-year | With the aim of maximizing employee productivity and creativity, we practice an office-centric workstyle that combines remote work while focusing on face-to-face communication. |
| OYACO | Employees | As needed | A system to support the balance between childcare and work, creating an environment where it is easier to balance work and family life. |
| Online Birth Control Pill Prescription Subsidy System | Female employees | As needed | The company subsidizes the costs for the prescription of low-dose birth control pills and the necessary online medical consultations for the prescription. |
- *3 “Employees” refers to permanent employees and contract employees, and “temporary employees” refers to part-time employees.
Metrics*4
| Metric | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Number of new graduate hires | 119 | 107 |
| Proportion of recruitment through referrals (Target for FY2029: 35%) | 14.1％ | 10.8％ |
| Annual training hours*5 | 235,892 hours | 244,989 hours |
| Annual training days per employee*5 | 6.4 days | 5.3 days |
| Unipos posting rate (Target for FY2029: 80%) | 59.5％ | 51.0％ |
| Number of appreciation posts in Unipos | 66,795 | 55,332 |
| Response rate for engagement survey | 79.0％ | 77.5％ |
| Investments in measures for interaction among employees | 25 million yen | 38 million yen |
| eNPS | -5.4％ | -11.3％ |
- *4 In principle, calculated for permanent employees and contract employees of the Company and all overseas subsidiaries (excluding domestic subsidiaries). In addition, the number of people and ratios are calculated based on the results at the end of each fiscal period.
- *5 Training hours are calculated for the Company on a non-consolidated basis, aggregating the time spent on education and training related to culture and philosophy dissemination, compliance and statutory training, skills training, level-specific training, and career support. Annual training days per employee are calculated by converting one day to eight hours and using the average number of employees at the end of each month.