Diversity & Inclusion

Message from the Director

Diversity is essential to meet global needs
Promoting the activities of diverse human resources and the development and promotion of female management staff throughout the Group

Regarding the advancement of female staff as stated in our Diversity and Inclusion roadmap, CITIZEN WATCH is taking the lead in setting a goal of increasing the percentage of female management staff in the Company to 20% or more by 2030. We aim to achieve near parity in the ratio of male to female new graduates hired by Citizen Watch in FY2023 and foster an environment conducive to cultivating the next generation of female leaders.

As overseas sales account for 70% of The CITIZEN Group’s total sales, it is essential to have global diversity to meet the needs of a wide variety of customers.

Now that innovation and originality are demanded in our products and business, what will support our company’s even further growth is diverse human resources.
To secure human resources who can respond quickly to speed and change, we have been increasing our hiring of career professionals with experience and knowledge. In recent years, the ratio of new graduates to career professionals has reached even. Compared to the past, when most employees were working under the lifetime employment system, I feel that we have created an environment in which people can freely express their opinions and engage in full discussion from a variety of perspectives and viewpoints.

We have been conducting employee engagement surveys consecutively since FY2022 and have received high evaluations regarding the work environment. In March 2024, CITIZEN WATCH was also certified as a “Certified Health & Productivity Management Organizations Recognition Program White 500,” and we take pride in our good working environment.
At the same time, we have started reskilling training for management staff as issues related to the relationship with them were also visualized.
We are also working on measures to increase opportunities for growth, such as internal open transfers and expansion of learning content, to reduce turnover and develop the management team.

We aim to enrich not only people’s lives but also their minds by realizing The CITIZEN Group Vision 2030, which states “Crafting a new tomorrow” through the promotion of diversity.

Director
Yoshiaki Miyamoto

Basic Approach to 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. We are also committed to practicing “Diversity Management.” Enhancing corporate value by creating an organization where each one of our diverse employees, who are the source of our organization’s competitiveness including gender diversity, can work for a long time at their fullest potential.

The CITIZEN Group’s Diversity & Inclusion Structure

The CITIZEN Group’s Diversity & Inclusion initiatives are overseen by the CITIZEN WATCH Human Resources Department, which serves as the secretariat for the entire Group. The human resources departments of each Group company in Japan are responsible for the implementation of decisions made by the Group Human Resources Committee and for respecting human rights and handling risks during business activities.

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

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. Additionally, 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. This creates various opportunities to promote awareness and facilitate awareness reform. Since FY2023, we have held workshops for female management staff to expand networking among participants and gain awareness of diverse career paths, encouraging them all to exercise leadership and build their careers in their own way.

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 implemented initiatives such as career support seminars and job return programs. In FY2022 and FY2023, we expanded our efforts by inviting industrial physicians as instructors to hold seminars on the importance of career planning considering issues such as infertility treatment and timing of childbirth. These seminars focused on women's career and health issues. We also shared the seminar content with group companies through videos and implemented measures to promote understanding among superiors, colleagues, and others in the surrounding environment. The systematic development and promotion of female management staff have led to steady results, such as the first female director taking up a post in Citizen Watch Australia and her contribution to the promotion of female managers in Asia. In recent years, we have been sending female management staff at the department manager level to external seminars and training sessions on an ongoing basis to help them broaden their perspectives and further develop their careers. Additionally, in FY2023, we conducted hearings on women’s advancement in group companies to assess the progress of each company’s initiatives.

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.

Compatibility Support System (Summary)

CITIZEN WATCH has established a system to support the balancing of work with childcare, nursing care, specified illnesses, and infertility treatment in order to help diverse human resources play an active role in the company. We will continue to expand and enhance this program while listening to the opinions of those involved.

LGBTQ Initiatives

As part of its LGBTQ initiatives, CITIZEN WATCH has made it optional for applicants to disclose their gender when applying for employment. In addition, in FY2023, CITIZEN Group establish an LGBTQ consultation service for CITIZEN Group employees and provided training for the person in charge of the service, while setting up an LGBTQ theme in the harassment training conducted for all Group employees. We also have been promoting the creation of an environment where employees can utilize their diverse values and experiences to demonstrate their abilities, such as by establishing LGBTQ-related issues and verifying 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 four.

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.