OMRON revised its corporate philosophy in fiscal 2006. Along with the new OMRON Principles, CSR Practice Guidelines were formulated to make sure that the underlying philosophy of CSR as stipulated in the Management Commitments, which are a part of the OMRON Principles, is thoroughly practiced by all OMRON Group employees.

This was followed by the issuance of "Implementing the Guiding Principles for Action" intended to help all employees practice Guiding Principles for Action in their day-to-day work. By further drilling down into these Guiding Principles, the booklet stipulates the key points for practice and exemplary cases of practices for each Guiding Principle for Action.

As part of its drive to instill and penetrate the OMRON Principles among all Group employees, these two guidelines were distributed to all employees in Japan. A meeting is held at each worksite once per year to confirm and discuss the guidelines and enrich employees’ understanding.

In fiscal 2007, OMRON initiated efforts to share the OMRON Principles among employees outside Japan as well. To this end, both guidelines were translated into 25 different languages, including English, Korean, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Indonesian, Thai, Malay, and Vietnamese.

Aiming for deeper penetration of the OMRON Principles, OMRON Corporation launched an assessment system targeting managerial-class employees so as to evaluate the level of implementation of the Guiding Principles for Action. The system assesses managers’ behavior regarding the Guiding Principles for Action from two angles. The first evaluation targets their own action and behavior, while the second evaluation examines their drive of sharing and instillation of the principles in their workplaces, such as giving advice and guidance to their staff. The results of assessment are incorporated into a personnel appraisal.

Evaluation criteria includes "workplace discussions in line with the guidelines," and the assessment system began to prove effective for settling discussions at each worksite, and for deeper penetration of the Guiding Principles for Action into the mindsets of general employees.

Since fiscal 2011, 360-degree evaluation (evaluations by the supervisor, coworkers, and subordinates) has been applied for all managers. The criteria of evaluation also included the level of implementation of the OMRON Principles to encourage their practice.

OMRON conducts an in-house awareness survey targeting OMRON Group employees around the world. Elements surveyed included the level of implementation of the Guiding Principles for Action, penetration of the OMRON Principles, and the level of vitality of the organization and workplace.

In fiscal 2011, a paper-based awareness survey was conducted on a trial basis for local employees in China, where OMRON’s business has been expanding rapidly. The survey drew responses from 532 employees of OMRON (Guangzhou) Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd. (OAG). OMRON plans to expand the survey to cover the world on a step-by-step basis.

"Unceasing commitment to challenging ourselves" is one of the four Guiding Principles for Action. To maintain this spirit, and to create a workplace atmosphere that encourages employees to put the OMRON Principles into practice, OMRON launched a "Challenge Commendation Program" in fiscal 2008. By expanding the in-house commendation program formerly available at OMRON Corporation to cover the entire OMRON Group, the new program targets not only regular employees of the OMRON Group throughout the world, but also part-timers and temporary workers.

Designed to recognize teams and individuals who have achieved especially high levels of implementation for "unceasing commitment to challenging ourselves," the criteria for commendation puts process over results, emphasizing a challenge-oriented spirit, effort and creativity. In fiscal 2012, 138 challenge-oriented projects were entered and 1,454 teams/individuals became recipients of Challenge Commendation Awards.

In fiscal 2011, a revision was made to the program to allow a choice of the theme of challenge-oriented activities from those specified by OMRON’s long-term management strategy "Value Generation 2020 (VG2020)." This provided more freedom for determining the direction of a challenge-oriented action.

Now, after four years have passed since its launch, the program has served as a system for mutual recognition and praise for those who challenged themselves. In the process, it has become essential for cultivating the workplace culture to promote challenge-oriented actions. In fiscal 2011, WPs^* in Greater China (China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan) individually created posters introducing examples of challenge-oriented actions, as part of the OMRON Group’s effort to globally promote a challenge-oriented corporate culture.

*WPs (World Producers) are OMRON Group companies engaged in production, sales, or development outside Japan.

For more than a half century, the philosophy behind the OMRON Principles has been passed on and preserved across the OMRON Group. Aiming to strengthen employee understanding and promote this philosophy among all Group employees, OMRON also created a comic book, entitled "The Kazuma Tateisi Story." The comic book introduces the personal background of founder Kazuma Tateisi and his struggles to produce various new businesses since the establishment of OMRON. The comic book was translated into English, Malay, Thai, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, and Chinese, and distributed to local employees in their respective regions. In fiscal 2011, Korean translation was also added, making it a truly useful tool for local employees to understand the OMRON spirit.

A handbook entitled "OMRON Basics" provides an overview of the OMRON Group, as well as its stance, attitude, and organizational structure. This handbook was distributed to new employees, while being posted on the intranets. The English and Chinese editions of this handbook will be completed by the end of fiscal 2012.