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 YKK Portugal-Acessorios Para Vestuario, Lda., a member of the YKK Group (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President: Hiroaki Otani; hereafter, YKK) was selected for inclusion in the Melhores Empresas Para Trabalhar de 2019 rankings, which is sponsored by Portugal's leading business magazine, Exame. Companies are ranked according to how attractive they are to employees. YKK Portugal was ranked 4th in the global rankings*1 and 1st in the manufacturing category of the industry rankings*2. In addition, the company received the Big Increase award for having the largest rankings improvement over the previous year. (The company was 23rd in the global rankings in 2018.)

 These Exame-sponsored Melhores Empresas Para Trabalhar de 2019 rankings are the most widely known business rankings in Portugal. The objective is to survey each company's optimal human resource management methods and determine which companies are the best to work for in terms of the working environment. This year, over 500 companies were surveyed, with the top 100 companies receiving commendations.

 Going forward, YKK Portugal will maintain its excellent working environment and contribute to the realization of a sustainable society through its business activities.

*1 Global rankings: Ranking of all participating companies

*2 Industry rankings: Ranking of companies categorized by industry

Reasons for YKK Portugal's high rating

1. 1. Introduction of the Happiness Project, an initiative to increase employee well-being. Part of this initiative was the Happy People Project, which involved inhouse team building exercises and activities outside the company (costs borne by YKK Portugal). The company planned beach trips and day trips to Lisbon to give employees the chance to get to know each other outside of work. This improved teamwork and strengthened work relationships.
2. 2. Introduction of the Care Project, which included free massages from independent physical therapists, teamwork exercises conducted by specialist trainers, as well as exercise classes, contracts with farmers to provide fresh seasonal fruit, financial assistance for employee family members to help pay for educational materials for compulsory education, and other welfare programs.
3. 3. Human resource development and the culture of kaizen*3. The company held consultations to discuss training needs for employee self-development and expanded inhouse training options. A wide variety of options were offered, such as attending university outside business hours and training for next-generation management candidates (costs borne by YKK Portugal). In terms of kaizen initiatives, workers met for 15 minutes every day to put into practice ideas for work improvements. As part of this kaizen work, in 2016 and 2018 the company reassessed shipping procedures and implemented productivity improvements, work which was awarded a Kaizen prize by the Kaizen Institute.

*3 Kaizen is the Japanese word for improvement, used to refer to activities that reassess production site work processes in manufacturing industries. The Japanese term is increasingly used overseas. A key aspect of kaizen is that improvement activities such as proposals for improvements and solutions to problems are centered on the employees who actually perform the work at production sites.

<Company Outline>

YKK Portugal
Mr. Ricardo Martins, Administration Manager (right)(648KB)

Employees of YKK Portugal(1,298KB)