We position work-life balance support and next-generation development as key measures for promoting D&I and are working to upgrade our policies in line with life events for them. Fostering a workplace culture where employees can balance work and life (childcare and care giving), work easily, and feel a sense of accomplishment will help create an environment where all employees can make full use of their abilities.
We analyzed the Company’s issues, considered specific measures, and formulated an action plan to support the activities of employees who aim to balance work and life. In addition, in 2012 and 2015, we were recognized by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a child-care support company and received the Kurumin certification mark.*
April 1, 2020–March 31, 2023 (3 years)
In May 2020, we published an in-house guidebook on Idemitsu’s work-life balance support programs and systems to ensure that all employees could easily understand them. It sets out the actions needed to be taken when faced with the prospect of maternity, childcare, and caregiving, how superiors need to respond, and the responses required of colleagues as well as basic knowledge that everyone in the workplace should know regarding workstyles that balance work and life.
With the aim of supporting a smooth transition back to work by abating worries and concerns during childcare leave and providing corporate information in a timely manner, we held a Childcare Leave Online Salon for male and female employees on childcare leave in July 2020. At the inaugural event, we not only shared corporate information, such as current workstyles during the pandemic and their future direction, we also exchanged information regarding communication with the workplace, childcare, daycare searches, and more. We will regularly hold such events going forward, provide unbiased corporate information to those on childcare leave, and build networks among those on childcare leave with the aim of enhancing engagement with those on leave.
To ensure greater job satisfaction for employees balancing work and childcare, we are rolling out measures to follow up on their life events.
GoalTo learn ways to resolve common issues and concerns and get tips on maintaining work-life balance in order to ensure a smooth transition back to work.
Employees who are on childcare leave took the seminar to hear from senior employees who have already transitioned back to work about daily strategies, work productivity, and other items, learning work-life-balance tips to ensure a smooth transition back. The seminar was held on Sunday so that participants’ partners could also attend. In total, 13 employees and five partners joined.
GoalTo exchange tips on working with more satisfaction while solving issues and concerns frequently experienced when balancing work and childcare
Because the originally scheduled seminar on transitioning back to work for employees taking childcare leave was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we held a seminar for this fiscal year only for employees who have transitioned back to work from childcare leave since April 2018. In total, 23 employees participated (21 women, 2 men). Through conversations with senior employees who raise children in dual-income households and workshops with other seminar attendees, employees conceived of ways to solve issues and envisioned their ideal career paths.
GoalTo learn techniques to manage the overall organization given that there are diverse workstyles among employees, including ways to engage with and develop employees who are raising children and have significant time constraints.
On March 12, we held a seminar for superiors of employees who have children as a measure to follow up on employees’ life events. Around 70 managers of employees with infants participated. They learned an organizational management approach that assumes a diverse workforce and offers ways to engage with and develop employees with a variety of workstyle needs, such as employees raising children.
In June 2019, we held a seminar for 110 managers who have subordinates with newborn babies or who had returned to work from childcare leave. At the seminar, the participants shared management skills for employees with restricted working hours as well as examples of workplace problem solving. Going forward, we will continue providing seminars and workshops for child-rearing employees and their superiors. We will also continue to work on creating an environment where superiors can understand this group of employees and the employees can balance their work and childcare.
GoalTo provide opportunities for employees balancing work and childcare to network, share mutual concerns and strategies, and get tips on how to maintain balance.
Due in part to the closure of elementary schools and children not being sent to daycare amid the COVID-19 pandemic in fiscal 2020, 24 employees with children (15 women, 9 men) who are working from home participated in the subcommittee with the aim of getting tips on balancing work and childcare. A total of six meetings were held during lunch time and other periods, twice in April and four times in June. With children staying home due to the pandemic, employees got tips and advice on developing a mindset for balancing work and childcare by discussing their worries and concerns with employees in similar situations.
For employees who needed to use working hours to address family matters, such as for caregiving or coping with school and daycare closings, under the emergency declaration, we exempted the deduction of their wages. In addition, we fostered an environment in which all employees can continue to work, including by flexibly responding to employees who had planned to return to work from childcare leave but instead needed to extend their leave due to the nature of their jobs and requests from their daycares to keep their children home.
We held “Children Office Tour” for the children of employees with the aim of creating opportunities for them to better understand their parents’ place in our company and society, as well as to encourage communication between the children and their parents. We began holding these days in 2019 and held the second one in August 2020. We felt that even amid the pandemic it was necessary to continue holding this day and adjusted it for current conditions by holding it online. We connected multiple locations, including the Chiba Complex and Hanoi, Vietnam, with the children interviewing employees and local staff.
