DISCO Corporation, a semiconductor manufacturing equipment manufacturer (Head Office: Ota-ku, Tokyo; President: Kazuma Sekiya), has decided to newly introduce a commitment allowance system, which will provide an allowance to those employees who promise to create value and maintain a trustworthy relationship with those around them. Employees that commit to this system will have 100,000 yen added to their base salary each month from July 2023.

Overview

In recent years among the unprecedented busy period, there have been many employees who have fulfilled their duty to supply products to our customers, and have shown intent and taken actions toward the further evolution of the company. DISCO has rewarded the efforts of its employees by providing a busy period allowance, increasing the base salary by 20,000 yen, providing bonuses four times a year (FY 2022 results: 20.9 months’ worth of salary in a year per average full-time employee) and more.

With the aim of further returning profits to employees, DISCO has newly established a commitment allowance system, and instead of making all employees uniformly applicable, employees must decide if they want to receive the allowance with their own intention. To receive this allowance, employees must self-evaluate how much value they are creating and their trust relationship with those around them, and if they are confident, they can commit and as a result get 100,000 yen added to their base salary. All full-time employees can choose to commit to this system under the condition that if the employee is judged by their department as not creating value or maintaining a trustworthy relationship with those around them, the employee promises to leave the company.

The base salary of employees who commit will increase by 100,000 yen per month, but this allowance will also contribute to salaries such as overtime pay and bonuses, and thus the impact on an employee’s yearly salary calculated based on recent business performance will be an increase of approximately 2.35 million yen. It is possible to choose to commit every year, and for employees who announce their commitment by May 31, 2023, the allowance will be included from July’s salary. In addition, the base salary will be increased by 10,000 yen per month even for employees who choose not to commit using the same method as last year and adjusting the capital for the fixed bonus payment.

DISCO’s bonus comprises of an assessment bonus, which is based on the employee’s assessment, and a Will bonus, which is based on the employee’s personal Will income. The assessment bonus depends on the leader’s evaluation of the employee, and the Will bonus depends on how much Will the employee received by doing work with the people around them, in other words, others’ evaluation of the employee, and the amount paid for each bonus category is decided in this way. On the other hand, the commitment allowance is an incentive that is paid from making a commitment that the employee self-evaluated their future activities, and judged that they are confident that they will create value and be trustworthy. The aim of this commitment allowance is to prevent employees from solely depending on the evaluations of other people, and to encourage the growth of human resources who will always evaluate themselves and make necessary adjustments.

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Added on April 20, 2023

As DISCO received multiple questions from the media regarding this topic, the main questions have been answered as below.

Ｑ．What does “continuing to create value” mean?
This is not a requirement to perform at a certain level, but rather refers to whether the employee’s normal level of work is being maintained or not. An employee’s normal level of work indicates the middle range in terms of evaluation. Even if their evaluation is less than this middle range once or twice, it does not immediately mean that they have failed at continuing to create value.

Ｑ．What does “maintaining a trustworthy relationship” with those around them mean?
This is a situation where the members of the employee’s department, such as their boss or colleagues, always think that, “I want to work together with this person.”

Ｑ．Do you plan to use this system to restructure the company due to the recession, etc.?
DISCO has always put our full efforts into new R&D and improvement activities even during periods of decline in the high-tech business conditions, and will continue to follow the same policy in the future as well. DISCO thoroughly follows the way of thinking that properly preparing for the next upward period during the current period of decline will lead to future business performance results. For this reason, regardless of the fluctuation of business conditions, DISCO is always in need of having human resources that match the company, and thus the company does not expect each department to use this system for the sake of so-called personnel reduction. This applies to departments that are indirectly related to manufacturing as well, as these departments are also always making efforts at improvement activities.
The semiconductor industry that DISCO is a part of experiences significant fluctuations, and all departments are aware that a busy period follows an off period, so those who cannot see farther than the off period right in front of their eyes will not become division managers.
However, during an extremely busy period, it is easy to turn a blind eye to somewhat problematic employees, but once the situation becomes a little more calm, there is a possibility that the manager may decide that those employees who they thought were problematic for quite some time do not have trustworthy relationships with those around them after all. From this point of view, there is a need for the employees who committed to this system to always question whether they are maintaining trustworthy relationships with those around them, and to make necessary adjustments.

Ｑ．Does this mean that if an employee’s relationship with their department’s boss or colleagues becomes bad, the employee will need to quit?
DISCO has a Free Department Transfer System, and this allows an employee to transfer departments of their own will as long as there is a department that will accept them. Therefore, even if the trust relationships within an employee’s department go bad, it is possible for them to continue working if they transfer to another department.
As mentioned earlier, all departments at DISCO are always in need of human resources, and thus unless the employee’s evaluation is significantly bad, there will be a department that wants to accept them.
However, if they are unable to maintain relationships in the department that they transfer to as well, then eventually there will be no departments that want to accept them, and it will be judged that the employee has become unable to maintain a trustworthy relationship with the company. It will not be judged that an employee has failed at maintaining trustworthy relationships if they, for example, don’t get along with just one particular boss.

Ｑ．Are there any other cases where an employee cannot maintain trustworthy relationships?
If an employee commits a so-called impropriety or cheats, then depending on the details, their relationship with not only their department, but the whole company will be destroyed. For example, there is harassment done with malicious intent, cheating at accounting, cheating when writing an overtime work report, etc., and although it also depends on the degree of severity, if there is malicious intent, it is possible that it may be judged that the applicable employee’s trust relationship with the company has been completely destroyed.
The point is the presence or absence of malicious intent, and so-called normal mistakes usually do not have malicious intent, so this will not lead to an employee’s trust relationship being destroyed all at once.

Ｑ．The system allows employees to choose to stop committing; what situations are you expecting?
If an employee is always aware of their own performance, before a decline in their performance becomes apparent in the form of the department’s problems, they can choose not to commit by themselves. If they do so, they can continue to work with peace of mind at DISCO. These are the type of situations that are expected.
No matter how excellent an employee may be, there is a possibility that their performance may decline due to age, health, personal reasons, etc. By choosing to stop committing before their boss instructs them to, employees who have contributed to the company for a long time can prevent themselves from being exposed to the stress that comes along with a natural decline in performance that happens to everyone.
For example, if an employee whose role depends on their physical strength loses confidence due to having gotten older, they can use the Free Department Transfer System to work in a role that depends on amount of experience instead, and thus may be able to continue to commit despite the circumstances. If an employee’s personal life is the reason for their decline in performance, if their personal situation improves and they are able to focus on work again, they can think about committing again.
DISCO tells all its employees that, “the boss directly above you is you,” and the company’s wish is for all employees to manage themselves on their own as appropriate. By having all employees use this system and choosing whether to stop committing or to commit again, DISCO thinks that it is possible for them to work in a way that is in accordance with their self-evaluation.

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About DISCO
DISCO is a semiconductor equipment manufacturer that provides precision processing equipment, including dicing saws and grinders, and precision processing tools (blades and wheels) used for manufacturing semiconductors and electronic components. In addition to these products, as a result of pursuing optimal processing results for customers through the provision of the technology used with the equipment and tools, DISCO products and processing technologies have been widely adopted by device manufacturers and semiconductor subcontractors both domestically and internationally. For details, please visit the DISCO website at www.disco.co.jp.