Initiatives to Date
In December 2014, we established the Diversity Promotion Committee (reorganized as the D&I Promotion Committee in April 2022) and have been actively giving promotions to women, seniors, foreign nationals, and people with disabilities. We are also continuing our efforts to create a corporate culture in which diverse human resources can play an active role.
In terms of employment for women, the percentage of women career-track employees has been almost constant, at 20% or more for both new graduates and career hires. We are also actively promoting women as general managers as well as from general positions to career-track positions. They have become core human resources that firmly support our corporate activities.
With respect to senior human resources, we have had success maintaining and enhancing motivation with improved compensation packages, with the rehiring ratio for employees who have reached retirement age constantly exceeding 90%.
In terms of foreign nationals, we have established partnerships with several overseas universities and built a system that enables us to hire approximately 10 foreign nationals each year. We have also implemented detailed retention support measures to firmly support the company's global management.
For those with disabilities, we are working with various support organizations to accept and retain human resources with disabilities. Such individuals are not only valuable assets to the company, but also contribute greatly to fostering a culture of mutual support.
We are also actively promoting initiatives to raise awareness of diversity and inclusion (D&I) among executives and employees. In fiscal 2022, we conducted various programs directed at employees and created and internally disseminated our D&I Policy, which clearly states the importance of D&I initiatives. In fiscal 2022, 118%* of men employees took childcare leave, one of the highest rates in the construction industry, which is a sign of heightened awareness among executives and employees.
- * If a worker whose spouse gave birth in the previous fiscal year takes childcare leave, etc. in the current fiscal year, the rate may exceed 100% according to calculations that the company is required to make public.
Future Tasks
In terms of securing next-generation personnel, we are making steady progress based on our current PDCA cycle that is on track to secure the first stage of diversity and support retention. However, we need to make further progress in order to create new value by drawing out the latent diversity of our workforce (i.e., diverse perspectives and skills of individuals, along with free thinking).We will create opportunities for informal communication and develop inclusive leaders who have the skills to foster psychological safety in the workplace. On the other hand, workers also need to be spontaneous and active to bring out diverse values, abilities, and ideas, so we are fostering career ownership among employees to encourage employees to act autonomously.
In addition, the establishment of a D&I promotion structure for the entire Group, including affiliated companies, is something that will need to be addressed. Although it is undeniable that there are differences in the level of D&I efforts at each affiliated company, we will continue to build and improve promotion systems for the entire Group by providing support to each affiliated company.
Beyond Our Diversity & Inclusion
Our ultimate goal is to tie improved employee happiness to corporate growth through the realization of D&I. Setting and achieving KPIs and formulating and implementing measures are only means to reach this ultimate goal. We sincerely and humbly accept the fact that we are a company in a country that is globally considered to have an extremely low gender gap score and will continue to work tirelessly to improve our D&I.
Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Group D&I Policy
We strive to create a comfortable workplace where each employee respects and accepts individual differences and can fully demonstrate one's abilities and to be a corporate group where employees can experience job satisfaction, growth, and happiness in their work.
Our Three Guidelines for Implementing D&I
- Have diverse human resources and mutual understanding
- We accept diverse human resources and will deepen our understanding of and respect for the diversity of our employees in matters such as gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, experience, and values.
- Create a workplace where diverse human resources can thrive
- We will strive to create a workplace where each employee can work in a way that suits their own life stage and values, and to be a place where consideration, trust, and cooperative relationships are created among employees and where psychological safety is ensured.
- Be a corporate group where one can feel job satisfaction and growth
- To enable diverse career development, we will promote employee autonomy and create a system in which employees are given fair opportunity to take on challenges, are appropriately evaluated, and can feel job satisfaction and growth. Each employee will be able to demonstrate their full potential, which will lead to improved engagement.
Established January 25, 2023
