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Case studies by Participating corporations (only in Japanese)
Taisei Corporation
We create an environment that encourages lively, happy people. To Create a Vibrant Environment for All Members of Society
■What kind of activities is Taisei Corporation engaged in supporting employees’ work-life balance?
Taisei Corporation engages in the following to promote work-life balance in order to help employees find their jobs rewarding and their workplace comfortable.
Promotion of shorter working hours
・Execution of company-wide No Overtime Day (second and fourth Wednesdays)
・Execution of Shorter Working Hours Months (twice a year, June and November)
Providing options for achieving a more diversified work-style
＜General matters＞
・Establishment of various schemes
Examples：paid holidays based on hours, volunteer-work holidays, holidays for relocation (vacations workers can take when they transfer), special incentive holidays (for employees with 10, 20, and 25 years of service, and at 55 years of age), menstrual holidays (for female employees), maternity leave (until the child becomes 2 years old), spouse pregnancy holidays (for male employees), nursing holidays (for parents with preschool children, maximum 10 days), family-care leave, family-care holidays, revival holidays (a system to allow employees to use their paid holidays after the carry-over period has expired, for the purpose of nursing care and medical treatment of their diseases or injuries)
・Implementation of training programs promoting employees’ understanding of work-life balance (for all employees)
・Re-employment system (option of full-time or shorter hour service after retirement)
Child-rearing and nursing care support
・Job transfer system for employees who are hired to specified locations (a system that allows employees to transfer outside their original location for the purpose of nursing care or because of their spouse's transfer)
・Job Return System (a system to allow re-employment of employees who have resigned due to pregnancy, childbirth, child-rearing or nursing care)
・Shorter Hour Service System (option of working four, five, or six hours)(Child-rearing: until the child finishes 3rd grade at primary school. Nursing-care: aggregated maximum 93 days including family-care days off）
・Implementation of Fathers’ Seminar
・Support to employees on child-rearing leave (twice yearly meetings for those on child-rearing leave, consultation before taking maternity leave and after returning to job)
・Implementation of Nursing-care Seminar
・Provision of a booklet introducing child-rearing and nursing-care schemes through the in-house intranet
■Future Targets
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(1)Improving time productivity through the promotion of work-life balance
(2)Creation of a culture where diversified work-styles are respected
(3)Support to male employees engaging in child-rearing
(4)Promotion of nursing-care support
Message from WLB representative
The construction business is often described as a male-dominated industry. Our company was no exception, lagging behind in active utilization of female employees. However, we started proactive initiatives in 2006 to make the best use of women's strength, aiming to secure a work force amid the ongoing dwindling birthrate and aging population, as well as to strengthen our competitive edge as a company. These efforts have allowed us to improve the company regulations and helped increase awareness for promoting active participation of the female employees throughout the company. On top of our continuing efforts to encourage female workers' active involvement, we are now committed to improving the entire workplace environment, so that all our employees can be lively and happy in their job,. To achieve this new target, the promotion of work-life balance is indispensable. In particular, we will focus on the time productivity as the top-priority agenda.
Toshiba Corporation
Toshiba Group is a diversified electrical appliance manufacturer. Its major businesses are “digital products”, “electronic devices and components”, “infrastructure systems” and “home appliances and others”. Its global sales account for more than half of the company's total sales.
■What kind of activities is Marubeni Corporation engaged in supporting employees' work-life balance?
Toshiba is making active efforts to help our employees to continue working in a fruitful way, by improving various programs and systems as well as changing employee awareness.
It is the company’s hope that not only those on child-rearing and nursing-care but all our employees can benefit from an efficient and nicely varied work-style, and lead fulfilled lives. They act as professionals who have passion for the jobs they are engaged in, and such individuals serving as integral members of our team can drive innovation one after another as their influence ripples out. We are promoting activities called “work style innovations” which can create this “positive spiral” where employees benefit from a balanced lifestyle by working in an efficient and nicely varied way while enjoying their private lives for refreshment and self-improvement, resulting in even higher quality work.
As part of the programs that support work-life balance, we have introduced the “mutual understanding program” to allow an employee to have a discussion with his/her superior and HR personnel before taking leave. We have also made some programs more flexible to encourage our employees to use programs without worry or reservation. For instance, employees are allowed to take a child-rearing leave on three separate occasions during the period up until their child becomes 3 years old.
Moreover, we are actively carrying out various educational activities, which include the publication of a “work style innovation handbook” providing tips for putting the work style innovation into practice, the implementation of training programs for team management and time management, the publication of articles of good examples on the Kirameki Time newsletter, and the hosting of the Kirameki Forum with experts as guests. (Kirameki means sparkle in English.)
■Future Targets
Our future targets are to build corporate culture and systems that facilitate our human resources with diversified backgrounds to develop their capacities to the full, regardless of gender, age, nationality, or disability, so that the company can operate business based on respect for and acceptance of diversity. We will continue to promote the “work style innovation” activities, improve the company programs and systems to allow more flexible ways of work matched with individual lifestyles, and provide a better workplace environment where employees can feel at ease in continuing to work.
Message from WLB representative
We promote work style innovation and improve work environment for each employee to enjoy working and feeling greater job satisfaction. in Toshiba group.
Marubeni Corporation
Marubeni Corporation is a general trading company which operates multifaceted businesses including export and import (including multinational transactions), domestic transactions, various services, domestic and overseas business investment, and development of natural resources in a wide range of fields such as food materials, food products, textiles, materials, pulp and paper, chemicals, energy, metal resources, machinery, finance, logistics, information, and development and construction, utilizing its domestic and overseas networks.
■What kind of activities is Marubeni Corporation engaged in supporting employees' work-life balance?
Marubeni is promoting the work-life balance programs as the company’s key measures which can contribute to “the realization of strong Marubeni taking on a challenge of sustainable growth”, the concept held up in the new mid-term management plan (SG-12) which was initiated in the fiscal 2010.
(1) Life Event Support Programs
＜Key Measures＞
・Hours of child-rearing and nursing-care
System of shorter working hours by up to a daily total of 2 hours
・Child-rearing / Nursing-care Flex time
System that allows employees to start work up to an hour earlier or later than usual, in increments of 15 minutes.
・Family support holiday (5 days per year)
Special holidays for the purpose of supporting family members, such as attending a childbirth, nursing a sick family member, nursing care, or school events.
・Childcare support allowance after returning to work
For employees who fail to secure a place at an authorized nursery for their child at the time of returning to work, a monetary subsidy up to the monthly maximum of 200,000 yen is provided to cover the monthly nursing costs for alternative childcare services (up to 10 hours a day) which exceed 100,000 yen, for the maximum period of six months after the day of returning to work.
・Spouse relocation holiday system
System that allows employees to take up to 3 years holiday when their spouse transfers overseas
(2) Meri-hari Work Promotion Programs
＜Key Measures＞
・Switch-off Day
Switch-off day is designated as “a day when the organization and the employees give consideration to and carry out Meri-hari work”, and is conducted every Wednesday. Mail magazines are delivered to provide clues for putting Meri-hari work into practice.
・Campaign to Eradicate long overtime hours
The HR division provides instruction to all the division’s representatives every six months, in an attempt to eradicate long overtime hours at the workplace.
・All Season Special Holiday
A special holiday of a total of five days, usable anytime throughout the full year. The holidays can also be used during the traditional summer holiday (five days) and the winter holiday (three days) periods.
・Recharge Holiday (five days)
Employees with 10 years of service and longer can take a recharge holiday every five years. It is designed to help employees recharge their batteries at a critical juncture.
■Future Targets
With the life event support programs, we see the environment improving for more employees who are in need of maternity and child-rearing support to use related systems where necessary. The nursing-care system, on the other hand, is not used by many employees, but we think now is the time to renew our efforts in this regard, as there is an increasing demand for nursing-care in society.
As for the Meri-hari work programs, we will continue our efforts to make them contribute to efficient business operations, while more actively encouraging employees to take other types of holidays than summer holidays, which are already being widely used.
Message from WLB representative
The work-life balance programs are our mid- to long-term commitment; outcomes are not necessarily noticeable in a short period of time. We thus intend to promote the work-life balance measures steadily and persistently, as we view them as important measures instrumental in the company’s “sustainable growth” and also as infrastructures where employees with diversified backgrounds can generate results.
