Yabushita Holdings Introduces Annual Salary System for All Employees, Shifting to Monthly Pay Over Bonus Dependence

Yabushita Holdings Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido; President and Representative Director: Tadahiro Mori; 19 group companies) has shifted to an annual salary system for all employees and introduced a new compensation structure that emphasizes monthly pay without relying on bonuses. The system is not a merit-based pay plan or a high-compensation program for selected personnel. Its purpose is to make monthly income more predictable for each employee and support stable life planning. Amid ongoing wage increases and nationwide competition for talent, the Yabushita Group has raised stable salary levels with a view to recruiting and retaining employees. At the same time, it has reviewed its previous year-end financial allowance and newly established a reward system for employees who demonstrate especially significant achievements and contributions to the company. The goal is to balance a salary system that supports the stability of all employees’ lives with a mechanism that fairly recognizes actions that enhance corporate value. As competition for talent continues, regional companies are also being asked to present stable income. While moves to raise starting salaries and wages are spreading across Japan, securing talent and preventing turnover have become major management issues for small and medium-sized enterprises in regional areas. In particular, compensation systems that depend on bonuses can make monthly income fluctuate even if total annual income remains at a certain level, making it harder to plan for mortgages, child-rearing, and education expenses. In response, the Yabushita Group is going beyond expanded benefits and reviewing the salary system itself to create an environment where employees can continue working with peace of mind. The annual salary system introduced this time applies to all employees. It is not a performance-based system designed to give preferential treatment to only some employees based on individual achievements or abilities. What the company emphasized was raising monthly salary levels without leaning heavily on bonuses. Rather than returning profits only through temporary bonuses, the company is shifting to a structure that provides employees with stable monthly income and supports both everyday living and future planning. In effect, this is a reform in which the company first accepts an increase in fixed personnel costs, demonstrating its management commitment. The previous financial results allowance will also be revised. The company will move away from uniform payments to all group employees and toward a reward system that more clearly evaluates contribution to the company. After supporting the stability of all employees’ lives through the annual salary system, the company will additionally reward actions that increase corporate value. Through this, it aims to build a human resources system that supports both stability and challenge. The reward system provides monetary incentives to clearly honor employees who have shown especially significant achievements, contributions, or exemplary behavior. In addition to revising its salary system, the Yabushita Group continues to strengthen benefits such as childbirth and childcare congratulatory payments and support payments for employees who cover duties during maternity or childcare leave. The childbirth and childcare payment provides 500,000 yen each for the first and second child and 2 million yen for the third and subsequent children. By rewarding not only employees taking leave but also colleagues who support their work during that period, the company aims to create both a workplace where employees can take leave with peace of mind and an organization built on mutual support. President Tadahiro Mori commented that the Yabushita Group has consistently upheld the value of “employees first, customers second.” For a company to grow, employees must first be able to work with peace of mind. Bonuses can fluctuate depending on company conditions, but employees’ lives continue every month. For that reason, the group has emphasized monthly pay and shifted to an annual salary system for all employees. This is not merely a change in compensation structure, but a commitment by the company to continue investing in people. Even as a small or medium-sized company in Hokkaido, Yabushita believes it can practice management that values employees and wants to demonstrate that stance through its systems. Available media coverage includes a one-on-one interview with the president, details of the salary system shift from bonus dependence to monthly pay, explanations of model salaries and average annual income data, the group’s human capital investment and benefits initiatives, the new HR system that balances life stability and contribution evaluation, employee interviews, and filming of the in-house childcare space. About the Yabushita Group: Centered on Yabushita, which marks its 60th year since founding, the group holds a leading share in air-conditioning and refrigeration components and designs, manufactures, and sells solar mounting systems and lighting components. Leveraging more than 20 years of equipment construction experience and the latest design and analysis technologies, the group continues to contribute to customer benefit. Through the collaboration of its diversified group companies, it provides advanced products as a company pursuing safety and technological innovation, with a mission to protect people’s safety and health.