Chroma regards its employees as a key company asset. We ensure diversity and inclusion and our employee recruitment policy is to offer equal opportunities to all. We are in line with human rights in constitution and gender equality prescribed by the Act of Gender Equality in Employment. There is no discriminatory language, attitude, or behavior based on gender, race, socioeconomic status, age, marital status, family status, language, religion, political affiliation, nationality, appearance, or physical or mental disability. 

We have endeavored to hire and retain outstanding management talent. Our senior management includes divisional VPs and high-ranking supervisors, BU presidents, the VPs of various centers and the President of the Company. All of our senior managers are native citizens of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and senior management-level executives (21) make up 1.04% of the total.

Our workforce is diverse and in addition to native citizens of Taiwan (ROC), we have workers from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Netherlands and India. This is a clear demonstration of a diversified workforce. The foreign workers are entitled to all the benefits and perks enjoyed by Taiwanese workers, regardless of nationality. In support of the government policy that ensures employment opportunities for people with disabilities and to promote an innovative and friendly workplace, we hired thirteen employees with disabilities (nine with severe disability) in 2023. They have been assigned to departments where they can fully leverage their talent and contribute to society in their own ways. We will continue to evaluate and assess positions that may be suitable for people with disabilities to provide more such employment opportunities.

Chroma has been actively recruiting new employees and our application selection process is strictly compliant with the Employment Service Act. We search for the most suitable candidates using a fair and open recruitment channel. Evaluation is based upon competence and unique strength without any bias due to race, gender, religion, nationality, political affiliation, sexual orientation or age.

Chroma remains committed to cultivating outstanding talent. In 2023, a total of 294 new employees were hired, resulting in a new hire rate of 15.12%. Nearly half of these new hires were recent graduates entering the workforce. By recruiting young and talented individuals, the Company aims to enhance overall efficiency and image, guiding the business towards the pursuit of higher profitability and sustainable operations.

To ensure a steady influx of fresh talent into the Company while taking external factors such as the current economy into account, it was decided to work towards maintaining a healthy turnover rate of between 5% - 10%. Over the past three years, we have worked hard to keep our annual turnover rate down and the fact that it has been steadily falling during this time reflects our talent retention efforts. A reduction of our employee turnover rate remains an important goal in 2023. A reduction of turnover rate not only helps the Company by reducing personnel training costs and other intangible HR costs from unnecessary turnover and severance pay, but also facilitates optimal HR efficacy. This will in turn create more value for our shareholders and pave the way to an environment that will help employees make the most of their talent. A total of 235 employees left the Company in 2023. This figure includes those who retired. Among them, 233 resigned voluntarily; two were laid off; four who were qualified to retire under the Labor Standards Act did so voluntarily; 71 were foreigners and three were contract personnel. The turnover rate in 2023 was 8.00%. 

Note 1: The total number of employees in 2023 is equivalent to the year-end headcount.
Note 2: “New employee” does not include those who have been reinstated after unpaid leave; “Former employees” does not include those on unpaid leave.

Note 1: New employment rate (%) = total number of new employees (excluding reinstated employees) / total employees in 2023 × 100%
Note 2: Turnover rate (%) = Total number of employees who left minus the number of foreign employees whose contracts expired, and regular employees / Total number of employees in 2023 × 100%

We abide by local laws and regulations at all our worldwide operational locations; we respect and support internationally recognized human rights standards and principles, including the International Bill of Human Rights, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact, and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We treat all employees, contractors, temporary workers, and interns with dignity and respect. By
establishing the following Human Rights Policy, applicable to all Chroma businesses and investees, we commit to mitigating human rights risks and to lowering of the impact of human rights incidents with remedial measures in the environments where our company, its employees, suppliers and partners are located.

In 2023, we established key human rights management measures and implemented comprehensive processes to ensure full compliance with Chroma’s human rights policy. The ESG Office is responsible for human rights-related matters and reports to the Board of Directors on the compliance status of the human rights policy on an annual basis. The Human Resources Division assists in the daily operation and routine monitoring of human rights at each operating site. We will continue to promote awareness and provide human rights-related training to all employees and business partners.

Our offices include those at headquarters, the Huaya Plant, and the Hsinchu and Kaohsiung Branches. Employee salaries are determined by the human resources unit according to marketbased salaries and the financial status and organizational structure of the Company. Their overall remuneration is calculated based on individual competency, assigned responsibility, performance, and achievement of the operational goals of the Company. New employees will never receive any kind of differential treatment in terms of salary due to their gender, race, party affiliation, thinking, religion, sexual orientation or marital status. Position, assigned responsibilities, performance and competency are taken into account and the Company “Salary Grade” is used as a basis for their overall remuneration.

Chroma’s average salary ratio between male and female employees holding similar positions across different fields and offices is nearly 1:1. However, as Company operations involve technical R&D and intensive technologies, most of our R&D and technical positions are held by men and female employees are overrepresented in administrative roles. This means that despite our attempts to have comparable pay grades, discrepancies still exist, which explains why female employees receive slightly less salary compared to their male colleagues at the same job level. Our base salary for employees in 2023 is as follows:

(Note: Expatriate employees are included in the total number of employees at headquarters based on labor and health insurance affiliations.)
In 2023, the annual total compensation for the highest-paid individual at Chroma was 28.14 times the median annual total compensation of other employees in the organization.

Chroma “treats employees like family”. It is a matter of utmost concern to Chroma that all employees receive the same proper care and treatment. We aim to help employees achieve a balance between work and life. To reduce unnecessary overtime, we have implemented the following measures:
1. The internal system will automatically send individual emails and messages to remind employees when it is time to leave work.
2. The office air conditioning will automatically turn off two hours after the end of the workday. This serves as a reminder for colleagues to finish their overtime work.

The Company welfare system meets the needs of employees with food, clothing, accommodation, commuting, education and recreation to allow them to work with us without having to worry about daily needs. We also offer a variety of communication channels to gather information about employee needs to improve our welfare measures. Several recreational, medical and health facilities and services have been provided in our plants for our employees to focus on their work with the aim of “work healthy and live happily”. We have made comprehensive efforts in employee care, in the hope that our employees will be able to maintain a balance between hard work and a healthy and happy family life. In full accordance with the law, we provide our employees with labor and health insurance and maternity allowance/unpaid parental leave. A certain percentage of employee wages is taken as contribution to the pension fund (under the new scheme)/reserve funds (under the old scheme). All employees are covered by comprehensive group insurance, and our leave benefits are more favorable than those set down in the Labor Standards Act. The benefits include one-day birthday leave and five days of paid sick leave annually. We want to make sure our employees can work and live safely and find time to relax and rest.

We encourage our female employees to breastfeed their babies after birth. In our building, there are lactation rooms with refrigerators for the storage of breast milk and stringent access control. By providing such exclusive space for our female employees, we make them feel comfortable and protect their privacy and safety while enabling them to place equal emphasis on both family and work. An employee who has been in their job for at least six months may, in accordance with the “Act of Gender Equality in Employment” and “Regulations for Implementing Unpaid Parental Leave for Raising Children”, apply for unpaid parental leave before their child reaches the age of three. The leave shall be no more than two years in extent. The Company arranges employees to return to their original unit and position after the unpaid parental leave has expired. A total of 19 employees applied for unpaid parental leave in 2023. Their average reinstatement rate was 100%, with a 100% retention rate.

We take employee development very seriously and perceive the cultivation and development of talented individuals as a real competitive edge. As such, we have planned a fully comprehensive system for education and training and have developed relevant training programs and courses designed to help employees boost their professional skills, management capacity and achieve self development. Chroma has built a comprehensive system for training and education and established the “Regulations Governing Education and Training Management” as a basis for all the education and training courses that are offered each year. Improvements are made to continuously optimize employees’ professional competencies.

In response to the post-pandemic era in 2023, Chroma has implemented a career level framework to enhance both the professional and managerial career paths. Educational training was also diversified to provide more comprehensive and effective development resources for professionals across various fields.

Chroma conducts an annual performance appraisal for all employees using the Management by Objectives (MBO) system to implement effective performance management. The goal of the MBO system is to assess the performance of employees during tenure, serving as the basis for job assignments, promotions, salary adjustments, and training and development opportunities. This approach aims to enhance performance and achieve the overall operational plans of the Company.
The overall strategy and objectives of the company are formulated by the President and cascaded downwards to departments and individuals. The key focus of performance management by objectives includes:

1. Two aspects: results and behavior.
2. Three stages: initial setting, mid-term review and final evaluation.
3. Two objectives: both of these, employee development and human resources policies, are designed to facilitate superior-subordinate communication and organizational feedback.

Regardless of interim reviews or end-of-term assessments, supervisors conduct individual one-on-one meetings with their subordinates to assist in the achievement of goals and the personal development of employees. In addition to formal evaluations, agile conversations are also conducted between managers and employees throughout the year. Employees can provide updates on their objectives at any time, while managers can periodically or irregularly check on daily progress to understand employees’ execution status and progress. Through such irregular two-way communication, managers can provide timely support to ensure that employees steadily achieve both departmental and personal goals.

Given that it is challenging to measure the objectives of direct personnel and frontline administrative staff effectively, Chroma has retained its original job performance evaluation system that examines employee performance for specific work items in conjunction with an objective-oriented system. Criteria for job performance evaluation include: work quality, work efficiency, work competency and service spirit.

The results of evaluation by the performance management system are incorporated into the promotion management and the reward/remuneration systems to ensure the evaluation of employee performance serves as a proper basis for human resources. With the exception of the managers of business units and staff at high level, local employees are required to undergo performance evaluation after a three-month probationary period. In 2023, a total of 1,619 performance evaluations were conducted. Among these 89% of individuals underwent MBO performance evaluations, while 11% had job-based performance evaluations.