Matsushita Tops 'Worker-Friendly Company' Survey for Second Year Running

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., also known as Panasonic, was ranked as the most employee-friendly company for 2006, the second consecutive year it has received the title, in a survey conducted by Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Inc. (Nikkei), a major Japanese business daily. Hewlett-Packard Japan, Ltd. was second, followed by Dai Nippon Printing Co. These are companies that have considerably improved their personnel systems to help employees balance work and family life, for example, by creating a work environment that is supportive to child-rearing and by enhancing the vacation/leave system.

Matsushita was ranked first overall, and was first in the category of "work environment supportive to child-rearing," and third in "support programs for motivated employees." Hewlett-Packard took first place in both "employee performance appraisal system" and "vacation/leave system." Dai Nippon was rated highly in "support programs for motivated employees."

The fourth annual survey consisted of two separate questionnaires; one asking corporations about their personnel and labor management, and the other asking workers about working conditions that they consider important. With responses from 252 companies, Nikkei evaluated each company's work environment based on questionnaire data, and weighted points were awarded based on the questionnaire data for 2,848 workers.

In the worker questionnaire, the top three responses were "ease of taking paid days-off," "appropriate working hours," and "availability of vacation leave." An item newly added to the 2006 survey, "flexible working system that allows employees to balance career and family," was ranked fourth.



Posted: 2006/11/30 09:06:18 AM
Japanese version