We consider diversity, Equity and inclusion to be one of our most important management strategies as we believe that diversity and inclusion are essential for companies to attain sound growth and ensure happiness for all employees.
We acknowledge and accept different people regardless of their gender, sexual orientation, age, disabilities or nationality as well as of their lifestyles or personality. Then, we utilize new values and ideas coming from an employee-friendly workplace that accepts such people by combining different “knowledge.”*
*Combining different “knowledge” means combining human resources with different attributes, values or ideas.
Since 2013, as our first step toward diversity promotion, we have been putting effort in creating working environment across the company where women can truly thrive and play active roles. We are trying to change the mindset of both managers and female employees themselves, regarding the empowerment of women as a driver for the reform of our corporate culture. We will continue to make further efforts to increase the ratio of women in managerial positions.
This is a selective training program for female employees whose next stage of growth will be managerial positions, to acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitude required to become what they want to be. The program embraces the concept “one step forward in a resilient manner while staying true to oneself,” and the first word in the name of the program represents the components that make up the concept: Resilient, Active, I (true to oneself), Smart, and Exceed (one step forward). We have appointed several executives as advisory board members for the program, providing opportunities for trainees to voluntarily seek advice and support for their efforts in the program, and acquire multiple mentors. Trainees will gain the perspective required of managers, and at the end of the training, they will give a presentation in front of the chairman and president. Through the training, we help trainees get ready to become managers and to take on challenges with confidence.
We hold annual lectures on diversity for executives, managers, and section chiefs, by inviting prominent outside lecturers. By providing opportunities to acquire knowledge of advanced cases, we help participants change the way they think and raise awareness while spreading the significance of promoting diversity.
The name of this training, “mimi-tako (MT),” is derived from a Japanese phrase meaning “hear enough.” To raise managers’ awareness, the MT training is held repeatedly under the themes of, for example, diversity, the Nittoku Way, and compliance to the extent that trainees feel they have heard enough.
Number of Female Employees in a Managerial Posts
Proportion of Female EmployeesThe growth of employees leads to the sustainable growth of the company. Based on this recognition, we are working to provide employees with workplaces where they can choose the right career for themselves, enhance their expertise and skills, and continue to make a meaningful contribution.
For example, we launched the Platinum Project targeting employees who are aged 60 and above, also known as the “platinum generation,” to ensure that employees who wish to remain in the workforce after reaching the retirement age can continue to use their skills.
In the Platinum Project, we hold various seminars and provide information through an e-zine.
Through this contact, employees who have a national qualification for career consulting respond to calls for advice about career vision, work motivation, life events, etc. The career consultants do not provide solutions but instead help the questioners find answers for themselves.
As a tool to help employees to look back on their past, set their future vision and commit themselves to achieving the vision, we use “My Career.” Employees annually input information about their career to date and their future aspirations into “My Career,” which their managers then refer to in interviewing them to support their career development.
Some employees in the platinum generation are eager to work but do not have confidence in their physical stamina. In response, at some of our plants we have begun to exempt such employees from the night shift upon request, with other employees working at night instead.
Number of Retirees Reemployed under the SystemWe established Nittoku Smile Co., Ltd. in order to promote employment of workers with disabilities and it was certified as a special subsidiary in January 2018. We aim to create a comfortable environment for workers with disabilities.
The percentage of employees with disabilities at the end of fiscal 2021 was 2.36%, reaching the mandated employment rate of 2.3%. We continue to create a better working environment by promoting understanding of employment of workers with disabilities within the company.
Percentage of Disabled EmployeesWe are promoting the employment of foreign nationals in our effort to adapt to the rapid progress of globalization and encourage diverse talent to play active roles. For new graduates, we have been employing at least three foreign nationals every year, recently with a special focus on the employment of foreign nationals who have studied the Japanese language at overseas universities and want to work in Japan, in addition to those who have studied in Japan.
In order to help newly-hired foreign national employees smoothly adapt to life in Japan, we offer them various supports, including a help site Nittokupedia created by their senior colleagues, a work buddy program to work with Japanese peers, teaching of Japanese language and cross-cultural training. With non-Japanese new graduates and mid-career employees, including both engineers and office personnel, demonstrating their abilities at our workplaces, we can increase our diversity awareness across the company.
We are recognized as a company that has been proactively employing highly-skilled foreign professionals,* and our efforts shown above are covered in "Fifty Japanese Companies Providing Successful Careers for Highly-skilled Foreign Professionals" released by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and in a publication issued by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to introduce a collection of successful case examples that help improve employment management to create an attractive working environment for highly-skilled foreign professionals. In addition, we have been selected for the Japanese government project "Visionary Management 2021," which selects about 100 companies from all over Japan that are working on employing highly-skilled foreign IT personnel, that is to say, a new management method of hiring excellent talent regardless of nationality.
*Highly-skilled foreign professionals: foreign human resources with advanced expertise and skills
Our human resources policy states that we respect the diversity and individuality of our employees, and we aim to create a workplace where LGBTQ employees can play an active role with pride.
We continuously provide employees with various training programs and raise their awareness through our in-house email newsletters so that they can acquire accurate knowledge. In addition, we are proceeding with initiatives such as adopting gender-neutral uniforms with unified designs and colors, and installing multipurpose toilets accessible to anyone.
Our human rights policy explicitly states that we will not discriminate on the grounds of LGBTQ. In addition, consultations on LGBTQ and other sexual harassment are given by both labor and management at the consultation desks set up at each plant and via the Corporate Ethics Helpline. Prompt action is taken by the Harassment Control Committee.
In recognition of these efforts, in 2021 the company was awarded Silver Recognition in the PRIDE Index, an index established by the voluntary organization "work with PRIDE" to evaluate corporate LGBTQ initiatives.