Diversity & Inclusion

It is The CITIZEN Group's duty as a company to respect each employee, respect diversity, and create an environment in which employees can thrive.

Diversity & Inclusion roadmap

The CITIZEN Group, led by CITIZEN WATCH, has set a goal of increasing the percentage of female management staff in the Company to 20% or more by 2030, and is promoting the activities of diverse human resources and the development and promotion of female management staff throughout the Group.

Empowerment of Female Employees

The CITIZEN Group is committed to establishing and executing a range of action plans that foster an inclusive employment ecosystem, allowing women to actively participate and contribute. This entails augmenting career development training and introducing work dynamics that endorse a harmonious work-life equilibrium.

Furthermore, CITIZEN WATCH wholeheartedly aligns with the "30% by 2030 Challenge" set forth by Keidanren in November 2020. In line with this commitment, CITIZEN WATCH has set a definitive target of elevating the representation of women in leadership positions to a minimum of 10% by FY2025. Notably, the Group appointed its first female director for CITIZEN WATCH Australia in 2016, followed by the appointment of its inaugural female human resources manager in April 2022.

In the sphere of recruitment, CITIZEN WATCH is making substantial strides. In FY2022, the ratio of male to female new graduates hired was poised to achieve near parity, fostering an environment conducive to cultivating the next generation of female leaders. This concerted effort epitomizes The CITIZEN Group's dedication to gender diversity and the realization of equitable leadership across its organizational spectrum.

Initiatives for Women's Advancement in CITIZEN WATCH

Raising Awareness for Women's Advancement

At CITIZEN WATCH, the president himself is committed to creating a proactive environment that promotes diversity. We have established a diversity promotion study team, which has been working to understand the current situation by listening to the opinions of our employees and considering the measures necessary for each one of our diverse employees to be more active. Specifically, we invite outside lecturers to give diversity lectures to raise the awareness of management staff, and we hold training for male and female employees who are raising children as well as their management staff. In addition, to ensure that these employees can continue to work effectively despite their circumstances, they learn how to interact with their families, colleagues, and management staff through work and discussion via e-learning.

Initiatives to Support the Skills Development and Careers of Female Employees

In FY2018, we held a lunch meeting to inform employees of the systems available for childcare. We have also developed and implemented measures to encourage stable career development, such as communicating the importance of making early statements about life stage changes and supporting a flexible lifestyle. In FY2019, we held the same lunch meeting to promote awareness of the support system and mutual understanding across departments and ages. In FY2021, we held various events, such as career support seminars and job returns. In FY2022, we held a seminar on women's careers and health issues, inviting an industrial physician to share insights as a lecturer, and shared a video of the seminar with all Group companies. These activities and measures have helped the Group to make fundamental progress in developing and implementing measures to promote female career opportunities at all levels of the organization.

Support for Making Work More Comfortable for Women and Enabling Them to Succeed

CITIZEN WATCH has achieved a remarkable feat with a maternity leave and return-to-work ratio of 100% in recent years. Our comprehensive return-to-work program is designed to provide employees with the necessary flexibility to balance their work commitments with caring for their newborn children. This initiative empowers employees to opt for reduced working hours, ensuring a conducive environment for child nurturing.

Acknowledging the evolving needs of our workforce, we extend flexible arrangements to those with school-age children. Staggered working hours and nursing care leave options – the latter allowing up to two hours for attending to sick children – further exemplify our commitment to accommodating familial obligations. We also offer paid annual leave in one-hour increments and accrued paid leave (pooled leave), which can be employed for childcare support until the child completes junior high school.

Our dedication to fostering a flexible work environment is evident through the facilitation of diverse initiatives. We encourage the utilization of such arrangements not only for family caregiving but also for self-development and volunteering pursuits. This approach extends beyond life events, such as marriage, childbirth, and caregiving, ensuring sustained engagement and productivity.

Moreover, we actively promote male employees' involvement in childcare leave through comprehensive briefings, outlining the significance and necessity of participating in childcare activities. To underline the effectiveness of such initiatives, we feature real-life experiences of employees who have used their childcare leave on our internal platform, highlighting its positive impact on work-life harmony and personal growth.

In FY2021, one person returned to work through the Job Return Registration System, which provides reemployment opportunities to those who have retired due to the transfer of their spouse. To make the Company more "active" than it currently is, we are promoting the systematic development and promotion of management staff with families.

These activities have yielded promising results, including appointing the first female Facility General Manager in The CITIZEN Group at CITIZEN WATCH AUSTRALIA.

LGBTQ Initiatives

As part of its LGBTQ initiatives, CITIZEN WATCH has made it optional for applicants to disclose their gender when submitting an application for employment. In addition, we have established LGBTQ themes in our harassment training and verified our current initiatives based on external indicators.

Employment of Persons with Disabilities

The CITIZEN Group is actively working to employ people with disabilities, in line with our basic policy of "working together." As an example, CITIZEN WATCH has been accepting trainees from special-needs schools every year since FY2018, providing opportunities for trainees to gain work experience and leading to stable employment after recruitment and entry into the company. The current number of such recruits is three.

For more than 40 years, we have also been providing employment support through subcontracted work such as counting and packaging watch parts and after-sales service parts and dismantling watches at Social Welfare Corporation Murayama-en (Higashimurayama City, Tokyo). We will continue to make efforts to further expand employment and job opportunities.