Diversity & Inclusion Initiatives
Working Together with Our Employees Worldwide, We Are a Global Company
The JVCKENWOOD Group is a global company operating in 19 countries in the Americas, EMEA, APAC and China, with approximately 16,000 employees worldwide. We recognize that understanding and respecting the unique features of each region is extremely important in paving the way for our smooth operation, and that local hiring to take full advantage of what local human resources have to offer is a major driving force toward that end. In particular, we try to accommodate the religious beliefs or practices of employees as much as possible, by providing private spaces for prayer or other religious observance, etc. By actively employing and cultivating executive positions locally, we are striving to put in place the in-house systems needed to enable all employees to participate fully in local operations.
In Japan, where the population is declining due to decreasing birth rates and increasing life expectancy, it has become increasingly important to hire talented employees, regardless of nationality, to secure a workforce and ensure the prosperity of the company. JVCKENWOOD has been active in hiring foreign employees and engaged in developing workplace systems to accommodate cultural and lifestyle differences. As of March 2023, there are 11,841 consolidated foreign employees, and 21 work at our company in Japan. We will remain committed to hiring foreign employees and creating a workplace culture that can enable them to realize their full potential.
Promoting Active Roles for Women
In order to promote diversity, it is particularly urgent and important to promote women’s participation and advancement in the workplace. JVCKENWOOD supports female employees by offering them training and expanding childcare leave and other benefits to ensure that female employees can play an active part in the workplace. In particular, we recognize the low ratio of women executive positions as a medium- to long-term issue, continuing our efforts to train staff to enable them to continue working and increase the number of women executive candidates.
Fostering female managers
In order to raise the ratio of women executive positions, stratified training is provided to female staff to foster future women executive positions. In addition, diversity training is provided to executive positions to help them deepen their understanding of the concept and importance of diversity as well as positive changes brought about by embracing diversity within our organization (to promote diversity to change oneself and change the way everyone works).
Obtained the highest rating of Eruboshi certification under Women's Participation and Advancement Act
JVCKENWOOD has been granted Eruboshi* certification in accordance with the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (Women's Participation and Advancement Act) from the Minister of Health, Labour & Welfare, and has obtained the highest rating (Level 3). There are five areas evaluated for this certification – hiring, continued employment, work style during working hours, managerial ratios, and diverse career courses – and evaluations are given at one of three levels depending on the number of evaluation items satisfied. JVCKENWOOD obtained the highest rating (Level 3) for fulfilling the standards for all five items.
Eruboshi certification mark
Workplace vitalization project Purejo-Bu
In order to help female employees build a network and improve their skills, JVCKENWOOD focuses on creating a lively work environment where employees can work enthusiastically, regardless of their race, nationality, religion, culture, disability, work style, age, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity, and promotes the activities of the project team “Pleasure in the Job” to propose action plans for improvement through discussion.
From FY2017 through FY2018, seminars were held with the theme of “Health Management for Women to Continue Working with Enthusiasm” aimed at promoting interactions among female employees. Additionally, each business place conducted workplace surveys in which different generations of employees with different backgrounds from different departments took part and discussed their problems in the workplace and their ideas for improvements.
Since FY2019, project members have had discussions at monthly meetings to develop a proposal for creating a lively workplace and communicate it throughout the company.
Scenes of discussions
Initiatives for LGBTQ+
JVCKENWOOD is working to create an inclusive working environment for all employees, regardless of their gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation. JVCKENWOOD provides employees with training to advance their understanding of LGBTQ+ issues. We also conducted an interview with LGBTQ+ employees at our subsidiary, JVCKENWOOD Optical Electronics (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (JKOT), and featured it on our website to share their thoughts and hopes for the future across the JVCKENWOOD Group and with the public.
In addition, the Company participates in the steering committee of "work with Pride," a nonprofit voluntary group, and is involved in external activities to promote the creation of a workplace environment that is comfortable for LGBTQ+ people. In June 2022, companies participating in the steering committee produced and disseminated the "PRIDE Message from Top Management."
In April 2023, we participated in Tokyo Rainbow Pride, one of the largest LGBTQ+ festivals in Japan, and joined the parade jointly with multiple companies as a steering committee member of work with Pride.
Because of these efforts, JVCKENWOOD has received the highest Gold rating in the PRIDE Index for four consecutive years since FY2018. This index was created by work with Pride (wwP), a nonprofit voluntary group, to evaluate companies and groups for their friendliness to LGBT and other sexual minorities. We will continue these activities inside and outside of the company.
LGBT-ALLY・symbol mark
* LGBTQ+ means lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender/transsexual, queer/questioning, and other sexual minority people.
Tokyo Rainbow Pride 2023
PRIDE Index 2023 Gold Award logo
Ms. Napaphat Chubsuwan who responds to the interview from a transgender perspective at JKOT. (Photo from interview)
Employment and an Inclusive Working Environment for Persons with Disabilities
JVCKENWOOD works to create an inclusive working environment for all employees, with or without disabilities. We have been providing employees with internal training on how to work with people with disabilities to cultivate knowledge and thoughtfulness on a continual basis. With employees with disabilities accounting for 2.6% of the workforce as of June 2022, we will continue to work to keep the ratio above the mandatory employment quota, which is 2.3%.
As our external support activities for persons with disabilities, we have concluded a Comprehensive Partnership Agreement on Regional Revitalization with the Yokohama City Government with the aim of improving citizen services by strengthening mutual cooperation, and as part of regional contribution activities, we supported an international contemporary art exhibition organized by the Yokohama City Government featuring persons with disabilities and professionals from various fields. We also support the creation of an environment in which persons with disabilities can participate in cultural and artistic activities without barriers, through supporting the activities of SLOW LABEL, a certified NPO (President: Yoshie Kurisu) that is engaged in co-creation activities for a diverse and harmonious society.
Going forward, we will continue to work to further increase support and understanding in the workplace and create a better working environment so that all employees, with or without disabilities, can work enthusiastically and comfortably.
Support for Balancing Childcare/Nursing Care and Work
JVCKENWOOD is strengthening its efforts to provide support for balancing childcare/nursing care and work and to harmonize work and home life (work-life balance: WLB) so that it can help meet the needs arising from individual employees’ diverse lifestyles and work styles.
Childcare/nursing care support
A variety of programs have been set up to support both childcare/nursing care and work. Among childcare-related support programs, childcare leave is available for both men and women until the end of April after the child's first birthday or the end of the month in which the child reaches the age of two. Shortened working hours for childcare and leave for child nursing are covered until the end of March after the child reaches 12 years of age, which means until the child graduates from elementary school. Programs that allow leave or shorter working hours for nursing care have made it easier for employees to continue working while providing nursing care. The number of persons utilizing the childcare shorter working hours (flex-time) program in particular has increased in recent years, with workplace superiors and colleagues becoming more understanding. In future, we will build support systems that accommodate employee needs and work to ensure that no one has to resign because of childcare or nursing care. In parallel, we will step up the effort to foster a corporate culture that embraces various work styles, thereby working to create a workplace environment that helps deliver better results.
Promoting male employees to take childcare leave
To create a workplace environment that facilitates the use of childcare leave, we conduct training for all managers to encourage male employees to take childcare leave. We also conduct interviews with employees who have announced plans of pregnancy or childbirth to confirm their intention to take childcare leave. In addition, from October 2022, the system has been changed so that maternity leave for spouse’s childbirth can also be used for childcare purposes, increasing the number of leave days from 3 days to 20 days. As a result, the percentage of male employees taking parental leave (including leave for childcare purposes) in FY2022 was 94%.
We will continue working to develop a workplace environment where both men and women can balance work and childcare according to their wishes, by disseminating the childcare leave system and actively promoting its use.
Support seminars for balancing childcare/nursing care and work
Employees also take seminars that help them to balance their work with childcare and nursing care.
In seminars supporting the balance of childcare and work, we conduct training sessions for female employees returning from childcare leave. The theme of these sessions is "Balancing work and family while considering long-term career development." Furthermore, the support seminars provide lectures on the right mindset to have for nursing care and the basic knowledge they will require when they eventually face a nursing care situation.
We have also have established an external nursing care consultation service since May 2023. We will continue our initiatives to create a work environment that allows employees to balance their work with nursing care.
Handbook for healthy balance between childcare and nursing care
As part of our efforts to support childcare and nursing care alongside work, we have prepared a handbook that compiles basic knowledge and introduces our programs relating to childcare and nursing care and posted it on the in-house Intranet.
Childcare / Nursing Care: A Handbook for a Healthy Balance (Japanese)
Promoting “Ikuboss”
Recognizing the importance of managerial employees who play a central role in promoting diversity management, JVCKENWOOD joined the “Ikuboss Corporate Alliance,” advocated by specified nonprofit corporation Fathering Japan in fiscal 2019 in order to help them understand the career paths and value of their subordinates and manage them accordingly. The word ikuboss refers to an ideal superior (a management executive or a person in a managerial position) who attempts to realize a good work-life balance for subordinates or staff working together in his or her workplace, supports their careers and lives while delivering good business results, and enjoys his or her own work and private life. We organize lectures about ikuboss for managerial employees to deepen their knowledge and raise their awareness.
*Eruboshi: A system permitting the Minister of Health, Labour & Welfare to certify companies who have demonstrated excellence in formulating, filing and implementing action plans for promoting more active roles for women in accordance with the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, which went into full force on April 1, 2016.