Better Workplace Environment
Efforts to Retain and Empower Employees
Progress in Diverse Work Styles and Work Efficiency
We carry out a wide range of initiatives, including expanding work-style diversity to encompass telecommuting, flextime, and the like, implementing five-day holidays and no-overtime days, supporting employees in balancing work with childcare and nursing care, and hosting work-style reform seminars. These efforts have enabled us to reduce overtime work and increase the taking of paid leave. Employees reap the rewards of these efforts in the form of human resource investments such as expanded job benefits and IT funding. We will continue to pursue improvements as we review and revise our efforts.
Main Initiatives
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Task inventory checks
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Conference reforms (shorter, etc.)
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Active use of IT
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5 consecutive days of leave taken twice a year
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Full implementation of no-overtime days
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System revision to align with revision to the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act
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Expansion of conditions for the work-from-home system
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Establishment of a new return-to-work system
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Expansion of workplaces eligible for flextime and shortening of core working hours
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Provision of child-rearing and nursing care-related information
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Work-style reform seminars
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Employee awareness surveys
Support for Raising the Next Generation and Women’s Empowerment
In February 2019, we received Platinum Kurumin accreditation under the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children in Japan and have continued providing such support in order to expand our employees’ options for work styles conducive to childcare and nursing care. These efforts have helped achieve successes such as realizing an 86% rate (fiscal 2023) of male employees taking their childcare leave.
We are also working to foster more women in management and other leadership positions by hiring more of them for career-track jobs, and by holding gatherings where our female employees and female outside directors can share opinions on topics related to their empowerment.
7th Action Plan (Outline and Implementation) (April 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023)
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Encouragement of male employees to participate in childcare
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Work-style reforms to create a workplace that encourages personnel diversity
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Childcare leave utilization rate during the action plan years (January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2023)
Women: 100% (7/7)
Men: 63.6% (63/99) -
System to enable diverse working styles, reduction of overtime work, promotion of use of paid leave
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Promotion of 5 consecutive days of leave taken twice a year (ongoing)
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Expansion of workplaces eligible for flextime and shortening of core working hours
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Improvement of work-from-home system allowing more freedom for childcare and nursing care
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We will continue to implement measures to realize diverse work styles according to employees’ needs by, for example, increasing the childcare leave utilization rate among men, reducing overtime work, increasing paid leave taken, and encouraging the use of other various programs.
Childcare leave utilization rate
Since fiscal 2015, both men and women at NEG have taken childcare leave at a rate higher than the national average. With revisions to Japan’s Child Care and Family Care Leave Act in fiscal 2022, we held explanatory meetings for the various employee groups eligible for leave. We have seen a particularly large rise in the childcare leave utilization rate for men, which hit 86% in fiscal 2023.
Women Returning to Work (%, NEG)
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Utilization rate for women: Number of people taking childcare leave ÷ Number of employees giving birth × 100
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Percentage returning to work: After giving birth, percentage of people working continuously when child has turned 1 year old
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Utilization rate for men: Number of men taking childcare leave ÷ Number whose spouses gave birth × 100
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Source: Statistics on national average childcare leave utilization rate for men and women, taken from Basic Survey of Gender Equality in Employment Management; Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
Women’s empowerment
We are also working to foster more women in management and other leadership positions by hiring more of them for career-track jobs, and by holding gatherings where our female employees and a female outside director can share opinions on topics related to their empowerment. We strive to cultivate a corporate culture and workplace environment where women can work comfortably and where a diversity of opinions and ideas are accepted.
In 2023, although the percentage of new female employees dropped from the previous year, the number of new female employees rose by 60%.
Indicators and Targets for Progress in Women’s Empowerment
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Make 25% or higher* the indicator for percentage of new female employees (new graduates in career-track positions) at NEG.
*The figure was at least 25% in both fiscal 2022 and 2023. -
Target the percentage of female managers by fiscal 2028 to be at least double (2.0% or more) that of fiscal 2022 at NEG.
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Target the percentage of female managers at NEG and at consolidated subsidiaries in Japan and overseas to be at least 10%* by fiscal 2028.
*The figure was 9.2% in fiscal 2023.
| Indicators | Gender | FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of employees | Men | 1,837 | 1,811 | 1,797 | 1,787 | 1,768 |
| Women | 156 | 161 | 169 | 173 | 191 | |
| Total | 1,993 | 1,972 | 1,966 | 1,960 | 1,959 | |
| Years of continuous service | Men | 25.0 | 25.0 | 25.1 | 24.9 | 24.2 |
| Women | 22.5 | 21.5 | 20.7 | 19.5 | 18.2 | |
| Total | 24.8 | 24.7 | 24.7 | 24.4 | 23.6 | |
| Turnover rate (%) | － | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.2 | 1.3 | 1.9 |
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Includes workers on loan, as of December 31 each year
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Years of continuous service is on a downward trend because of the increase in male and female new hires.
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We strive for an environment conducive to a comfortable long-term workplace, and the result has been a low employee turnover rate of less than 2%.
Period: Fiscal 2023 (January 1 to December 31, 2023)
Wages: Includes compensation for overtime and bonuses, but excludes commuting allowance, etc.
Regular employees: Excludes employees on loan from NEG to other companies, or from other companies to NEG
Part-time and fixed-term employees: Employees who have an employment contract for a fixed period
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Notes:
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Although we calculate wages for men and women based on the same standard, male-female wage gaps occur due to differences in things such as number of employees, employment categories, and years of continuous service. Other factors contributing to wage gaps include various allowances for shift work employees (of whom 98% are men) and the fact that there are relatively fewer women in senior management positions.
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In the employee category of part-time and fixed-term employees, the difference in employment categories is a major reason for wage gaps.
Employee Awareness Surveys
As in fiscal 2022, this past year we conducted employee awareness surveys with the aim of creating a workplace where employees can succeed while enjoying rewarding work. The results were reported to the Management Committee and department heads, with feedback then given to all employees. Results of the surveys are used to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the company as a whole and its individual workplace organizations, which is followed by improvement activities where necessary.
Cycle for strengthening engagement
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Conduct main surveys
Results analysis; feedback to management, department heads, and employees
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Plan and implement measures company-wide and in each workplace based on survey results
Activities implementation
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Conduct focused surveys
Use specific-issue-focused surveys to monitor whether measures are working effectively and, if not, revise those measures
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Conduct main surveys
Do main surveys the following year and confirm yearly changes
| Aim | Visualize state of organization, and improve it at the company-wide and workplace levels |
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| Total number of respondents | 1,955 (1,915 for FY2022) |
| Response rate | 99.7% (97.8% for FY2022) |
| Results summary | • Improvements in support actions from bosses, improved sense of unity in workplaces • Company performance and the state of business at the time of the surveys caused uncertainty about the company and how it is run |
Setting the fiscal 2022 score as 100, the fiscal 2023 score dropped slightly to 98. This total overall drop is the result of lower scores for the company due to recent lower performance, and higher scores for things like support from bosses thanks to successful improvement activities in individual workplaces, and a greater sense of unity in the workplace.
We will continue to conduct surveys as part of efforts to build vibrant workplaces
Freedom of Association and Labor-Management Relations
The NEG Group respects rights afforded to workers by the laws of the countries it operates in, including freedom of association and collective bargaining. Our employees are in the NEG labor union, which is a member of the Japanese Electrical Electronic & Information Union (JEIU). Based on the union shop agreement, membership in the labor union is open to all regular employees except those in management positions. As of December 2023, 77.9% of all NEG employees were in the union.
NEG confirms working conditions by signing agreements with its labor union. Besides monthly meetings at NEG sites between the NEG labor union and the company, the union’s executive committee and company senior management meet to exchange opinions at least twice a year. We also strive to maintain amicable labor-management relations through a wide range of other cooperation in areas such as occupational safety and health, health and productivity management, and support for raising the next generation.