Promoting a Work-Life Balance
Group Policy
We are working to put in place the necessary framework to create an ideal working environment in which all Citizen Group employees can strike a balance between their work and private lives.
A Range of Schemes Aimed at Creating Ideal Working Environments
We flexibly manage work patterns to suit conditions in the workplace at Citizen Holdings, Citizen Watch, and other Group companies. In doing so, we make every effort to create an environment in which employees can easily take leave via a range of different schemes. Reduced work hours are available for employees raising children up to the end of the third grade of elementary school. Employees are entitled to reduce their work hours by two hours for the purpose of nursing care. On other fronts, we have extended the eligibility for our pooled leave scheme, which is designed to support employees looking after and raising children, until the end of junior high school as a means of promoting flexible working.
| FY2008 | FY2009 | FY2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Female | 51 | 57 | 42 |
| Total | 51 | 57 | 45 |
| FY2008 | FY2009 | FY2010 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Male | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Female | 4 | 3 | 0 |
| Total | 4 | 3 | 0 |
TOPICS Setting up an in-house nursing room
Children in the Bakke nursing room
In constructing a new landmark building for Citizen Tohoku in April 2008, we incorporated many different ideas with an eye to 100 years into the future, following the examples of Shimpei Goto, a local hero who gave us the name Citizen. One of these ideas is the nursing room called Bakke, which means in the Iwate dialect "butterbur sprout." This embodies our dream and hope of providing support for employees caring for children, while giving the children nursed there a chance to experience watch-making at the Watch School and perhaps grow to support the future of our Company. As the nursing room is located next to the workplace, there is some exchange between children and employees. Staffed with two childcare workers to look after up to five children, the facility has few vacancies at the moment. In response to unmet needs, consideration will be given to secure space and hiring childcare professionals.
TOPICS Male employees taking childcare leave
Now it is easier for men to take leave for childcare purposes. I took full advantage of it.
Hideki Fujimoto
Modules Section, Watch Manufacturing Division
Citizen Heiwa Watch Co., Ltd.
As part of its assistance in raising the next generation, Citizen Heiwa Watch encourages male employees to take childcare leave. In the past, male employees have been reluctant to take the leave because it was unpaid. After the scheme was revised to ensure five paid days during the leave, three male employees took childcare leave in fiscal 2010. Active efforts will be made to facilitate the involvement of male employees in childcare.
Initiatives at Group Companies
Initiatives Aimed at Improving Employee Retention Rates in Japan and Overseas (Domestic Initiatives)
In New Employee Training at Citizen Seimitsu Co., Ltd., we implement a mentoring program in which a senior employee is attached to each new employee as their career advisor. Wherever possible, we try to assign senior employees to be mentors to new employees with whom they share attributes such as academic history, hometown, or experience living in a dormitory for single employees. This allows mentors to develop a personal connection with new employees as they lend a sympathetic ear and give advice on the various worries or troubles that they face in their first year of employment. The system benefits not only new employees but senior employees as well. Becoming a mentor is a good opportunity for a senior employee to reexamine and straighten out their own attitude to life and work.
These activities have produced dividends. In an era where the three-year turnover rate for employees fresh out of college is 30%, the same rate has dropped to below 10% at Citizen Seimitsu Co., Ltd.
Initiatives Aimed at Improving Employee Retention Rates in Japan and Overseas (Overseas Initiatives)
Company Exchange Event
At Citizen Precision Guangzhou Ltd., improving employee retention rates is regarded as a priority theme as we aim to be operating competitive plants even in the year 2020. Our goal is to raise the percentage of employees with continuous service of three or more years to more than 50% of all employees. With respect to our fiscal 2010 goal of raising this percentage to 30%, our actual results reached 29.5%. We are working on a variety of improvements to areas such as wages, the workplace environment and welfare in an effort to raise the retention rate. We are currently focusing on three specific areas of improvement: First, recognizing our current situation based on the survey for the current employment environment (as it relates to employers of local employees and wages); second, the systematic creation of an itemized list of risks to avoid personnel risks due to the sharp rise in various costs such as personnel expenses; and lastly, in terms of welfare improvements, the upgrading of employee lodgings and improved meals. "Attracting Workplace Development" activities have also been started as an initiative at each factory. The current issue we face is a shortage of human resources. We are implementing three measures as a way to deal with this: (1) the active recruitment of talented local males and the relaxing of restrictions on recruitment age; (2) the adoption of a system for employees to introduce prospective hires; and (3) seeking cooperation from temporary staffing agencies.
Sunflower Campaign
At Citizen Machinery Co., Ltd., we have taken cues from the Oasis Activities undertaken at Citizen Seimitsu Co., Ltd. and begun activities with an emphasis on encouraging communication, starting with the formation of the Sunflower Campaign Team. Through this, we aim to become a company with cheerful, bright employees that gives the impression of vigor to society and the local community.
Details of the movement include (1) a greeting drive (conducted periodically three times a year); (2) sports competition; (3) barbeque event; (4) visits by family members; and (5) a Christmas party as efforts to promote communication, and (6) training sessions on separating garbage, for the purpose of environmental improvements. We set goals for participant turnout for each event, and met our initial goals with 90 people at the sports competition, 270 people at the barbeque and 170 people attending the Christmas party.
However, various challenges remain. For instance, the activities are still not something that all employees wish to take part in on a voluntary basis, we have not defined indicators by which to measure the degrees of communication taking place, and our efforts with regard to environmental improvement and social contribution activities are inadequate. In the future, we intend to broaden the scope of the activities by having non-Sunflower members act as organizers, creating self-motivated activities that span all employees.
