Employee Relations
Policy and Approach
In January 2023, the Sunstar Group established the Sunstar Global HR Mission Statement to improving the well-being of Sunstar’s employees and support sustainable growth of our businesses. It expresses our common global vision for human resource management and is the basis for all our human resource measures. Guided by this statement, we aim to manage our human resources in ways that continuously create new value.
Sunstar Global HR Mission Statement
HR Vision
- Create a vibrant work environment where employees are highly motivated and that is comfortable to work in
- Create a team that respects diverse values and continues to evolve with changes
HR Mission
- Enhance the well-being of individuals and organizations
- Support the transformation to highly competitive and autonomous professional team
- Promote teamwork management that brings diverse strengths of individuals together
HR Strategy
- Enhance engagement
Maximize employee engagement by pursuing comfortable work environments and rewarding work - Enhance organizational and individual competencies
Support employee driven their career development, developing the expertise of each employee, and realizing the growth of the organization - Drive transformation
Draw out the potential of a diversity of individuals, and thoroughly implementing human resource management linked to business strategies, leveraging successor training plans
Employee communications and improving engagement (Policy and Approach)
We enhance employee engagement and drive the achievement of business goals by creating opportunities for direct dialogue between leadership and employees, as well as between managers and their team members, to share Sunstar’s business strategies and financial performance on a global scale, and by incorporating employee feedback into management decisions through employee surveys.
Major Initiatives
Holding town hall meetings (Global)
In October 2025, we held our first global town hall meeting in Osaka, our founding city in Japan. The Leadership team explained the management structure, growth strategies, financial status, and talent development policies aimed at realizing our Long-Term Vision 2032 and shared the direction of our transformation with a focus on the next three to five years.2032. Since then, we have continued to hold these meetings regularly. We have shared the concepts of “ownership” and “accountability,” and executives have directly answered questions from employees. Through this two-way dialogue between executives and employees, we aim to build a globally unified organization.
Improving employee engagement / Strengthening employer-employee dialogue (Global)
At Sunstar, we conduct regular employee engagement surveys with the goal of creating a workplace where each employee finds motivation and can fully utilize their abilities. In 2025, we launched our first Group-wide, global unified engagement survey, covering employees working in 21 countries around the world.
This allows us to understand employee feedback using a common metric across countries and regions, thereby visualizing the organization’s strengths and challenges. We also conduct detailed analyses by region and organization, which we use to drive improvement initiatives tailored to the specific conditions of each workplace.
Supporting Employee Growth and Development (Policy and Approach)
We believe that the employee development leads to higher employee engagement and accelerates global growth. We provide growth opportunities for all employees and require all employees to be involved in the education of their co-workers.
We annually evaluate our employees’ performance based on our corporate motto, our Fundamental Management Principles, and the Guiding Principles for Employees. We commit to conducting highly transparent and fair evaluations across the board. We believe this approach leads to the growth of both employees and the organization as a whole. In order to continue providing the Sunstar Group’s corporate value globally, we are committed to actively communicating and strengthening our corporate philosophy within the organization.
Major Initiatives
Sunstar Global Four Awards (Global)
Since 2016, we recognize and acknowledge Sunstar employees’ contributions through the Sunstar Global Four Awards. We present awards to Sunstar Group employees across the world in recognition of activities that have made a significant contribution to the Group’s growth or corporate value based on an understanding of our corporate culture, philosophy and management policy. The aim of this initiative is to nurture ingenuity among employees and encourage them to become involved in the company’s management. Besides receiving a monetary prize, employees are also given the opportunity to present their projects to the Sunstar Board and Executive Committee and travel to a selected location among our global presence.
Continuous learning via E-learning platform (Europe)
Since summer 2026, Sunstar supports professional growth through 360Learning, an e-learning platform offering self-study resources such as audiobooks, e-documents, and virtual classrooms. This flexible approach enables employees to develop skills at their own pace and on their own schedule.
ComplianceWire: Strengthening learning and compliance (Americas)
In April 2025, Sunstar Americas launched a unified learning management system “ComplianceWire.” By September 2026, 561 employees across 6 countries in the Americas completed more than 42,500 trainings in over 800 courses, adding up to more than 7,600 learning hours. Multilingual online training including Lean Six Sigma certification are building a safer, capable, and inclusive workforce, one that protects the quality our customers trust and supports Sunstar's long-term growth.
Leadership development training: building the future one leader at a time (Americas)
Strong frontline leaders are the foundation of a safe, productive, and engaged workplace. That's why Sunstar Americas created Develop Your Leaders, a hands-on development program for emerging manufacturing leaders, delivered with Illinois Manufacturing Excellence Council. From September 2025 to January 2026, 80 operations Leads in four groups completed the pilot. The program combined online prerequisite courses, a learning contract between each participant and their manager, ongoing facilitator coaching, and a graduation ceremony. The results were clear. Managers rated their leads on 22 leadership competencies before and after the program, and average skill ratings rose 32%, from 2.84 to 3.76 on a five-point scale. Every competency improved. The biggest gains came in active listening, motivating others, self-awareness, and upward communication, skills frontline leads rarely get formal training in. By investing in the people who lead our production teams every day, we are building a stronger pipeline of future leaders and a workplace where everyone can thrive. Identified Leads will be further developed for continuing professional growth and responsibility at Sunstar.
Enhancing opportunities for self-development (Japan)
In Japan, we are promoting diverse employee education programs, with the dual objective of ensuring the wellbeing of both employees and the organization, and of transforming our workforce into an autonomous and highly competitive group of professionals. These include management support training, e-learning, support for obtaining certifications, and an internal job posting system. We seek to create a corporate environment that facilitates innovation; to this end, the company is developing educational programs for self-development, so that employees can proactively bring about change with high levels of ambition and expertise.
Diversity and Equal Employment Opportunities (Policy and Approach)
We believe diversity is a key pillar in our Human Resources approach, and leveraging it can accelerate growth and innovation in our company. We aim to build an organizational culture where employees respect each other’s individuality and diverse backgrounds. We ensure equal opportunities and fair treatment to all employees and job applicants in all aspects of the employer-employee relationship, including recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, transfer, demotion, compensation, benefits, layoff, and termination. We do not tolerate any discrimination on the basis of race, color of skin, disability, country of origin, religion, beliefs, age, marital status, citizenship, military experience, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other personal characteristic. We also demand the same standards from our customers and business partners. Sunstar complies with all applicable laws and regulations that guarantee equal employment opportunities and the elimination of discrimination wherever we operate.
Sunstar group employees by area
(as of December 31, 2025)
A total of 3,841 employees work at the Sunstar Group in 21 different countries. Of the Group’s workforce, 44% work in Japan, 22% in Asia, 13% in Europe, and 21% in the Americas.
Global gender equality ratios per career level
(as of December 31, 2025)
Female employees make up 38% of Sunstar’s total global workforce; they account for 31% of management positions, and 15% of executive positions.
All employees
Managers
Executives
Major Initiatives
Promoting teamwork and diversity workshops (Europe)
In our Global Headquarters in Switzerland, Sunstar celebrates the International Women’s Day annually to discuss relevant issues women face in the workplace. In 2026, colleagues marked International Women’s Day by exploring employee survey insights on development opportunities and confidence in leadership. Facilitated discussions turned diverse perspectives into practical actions, reinforcing our commitment to an inclusive, equitable and empowering workplace where every voice matters.
Promoting and respecting diversity (Europe, Asia)
At Sunstar, we work to honor diversity and respect different customs and values. In Indonesia and Switzerland, we have a prayer room within the office for Muslim employees. We have also built facilities equipped with a multi-purpose room, which can be used both as a prayer room and as a meeting room.
In Singapore, where employees from many different nationalities work together, we organize employee trainings and workshops annually to improve internal communication as part of our efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.
At our Global Headquarters in Switzerland, HR established a DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging) working group in 2025 to create a dedicated space for employees to exchange perspectives, raise awareness, and turn ideas into practical actions. The group brings colleagues together to discuss how diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging can be strengthened in everyday working life, helping to build a more open, respectful and collaborative workplace culture.
Creating a Workplace that boosts Employee Productivity and Happiness (Policy and Approach)
We aim to maximize employee engagement by creating an environment where employees can thrive and grow, exchange ideas and feel safe to discuss issues, and be certain that those will be taken seriously. We have a responsibility to provide a safe, healthy, and productive environment to employees, and in return we expect employees and visitors to our premises to comply with all safety rules and laws.
Major Initiatives
Fostering motivation through diverse work styles (Japan)
To improve employee safety and productivity, we support diverse work styles that allow employees to flexibly set their working hours and locations, taking into account business characteristics, working environment, and employees' personal circumstances, to the extent possible under business conditions and local laws.
In Japan, work-from-home and fully flexible work schedules with no core hours have been officially implemented. We support diverse work styles, including the adoption of a free dress code and a free seating system in the office.
Employee assistance programs (Europe)
We provide support to our employees through our Employee Assistance Program which provides 24/7 support, counseling, life coaching, mindfulness sessions, practical help for personal and work challenges, management guidance, and access to digital wellbeing resources in Europe.
In addition, we regularly conduct seminars and webinars for our employees on a range of topics, including diversity and inclusion, conflict resolution, managing workplace stress, and other work/life issues.
As work-from-home and flexible working policies are implemented worldwide, we continue to hold webinars to ensure seamless communication and collaboration among teams.
Rescue and safety exercises (Europe)
Sunstar’s European sites regularly conduct safety exercises to ensure preparedness and protect employee well-being.
In Germany, rescue drills are organized to practice evacuation procedures during simulated fire scenarios. Local emergency services participate in these exercises, managing the situation and rescuing simulated injured individuals. These drills strengthen Sunstar’s emergency plans and demonstrate effective coordination between teams and first responders.
In Switzerland, safety training focuses on fire drills for all employees and a first aid courses are organized annually. These activities build individual readiness and contribute to a strong safety culture across the organization.
Promoting healthy lifestyles among our employees (Policy and Approach)
Major Initiatives
Offering health guidance and check-ups for our employees (Japan)
We provide employees with comprehensive annual health check-ups, dental examinations, and follow-up care by doctors, public health nurses and dental hygienists as well as health guidance at the Sunstar Mind-Body Kenkodojo, an in-house welfare facility for new employees and those requiring specific health guidance.
Promoting healthy lifestyles at the office (Global)
We have a handful of programs to promote the physical and mental well-being of our employees across all our offices.
In Switzerland, we hold an annual Health Day where workshops, such as ergonomics workshop are organized, and initiated “Walking Thursdays” where colleagues could meet-up once a week during lunch break.
In Germany we organize sporting events and provide exercise videos that show employees how to more effectively move their bodies. Ergonomics consultation day also took place where it assessed production workplaces and identified practicap improvements to posture, movement and workstation design.
In Japan, on top of doing the “Sunstar Workout” every day at our offices to improve leg and lower back health, we also organize seminars on women’s health issues.
Thanks to these types of initiatives, Sunstar has been named a “Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization” for the eighth year running, and was also selected among the “White 500,” as one of the top 500 firms in this area continuously after 2023 in Japan.
