As competition between energy companies continues to intensify, the Tokyo Gas Group strives to maintain its position as the customer's choice by creating safe and pleasant lifestyle and society, and to achieve sustainable growth and development far into the future.
One key priority for the Group as a whole is to promote diversity. To meet diversifying customer needs, every Group employee must have the chance to excel and fully apply their knowledge, ability and experience and to work effectively in teams.
We are committed to developing and expanding systems to achieve this goal and foster employee awareness while proactively creating an organizational culture in which all excel, regardless of gender, age, disability, employment status, nationality or sexual orientation.
We have created a message to clearly explain the concept behind our ideal of contributing to Group growth by demonstrating the diverse strengths of each individual, which we uphold in our commitment to diversity.
▶ Diversity Concept Message for Tokyo Gas Group Member (only in Japanese)
(PDF:3,500KB)
■Tokyo Gas Group Diversity Promotion System
Diversity Month
Seeking to change the mindset and behavior of Group employees, we designated November 2018 as Diversity Month and held various seminars on diversity, with about 800 participants.Seminar | Content | Number of Participants (subsidiaries and affiliates) |
LGBT Seminar | In addition to gaining basic knowledge related to LGBT issues, participants listen to speakers about problems and other issues the LGBT community confronts and learn how to create better workplaces. | 101
(21 from 8 companies)
|
Seminar for male employees on balancing work and parenting | An expert on male participation in parenting offers a lecture on the concept of balancing work and family. | 43 |
Women’s Career Seminar | The Tokyo Gas Group’s young female employees learn how to approach work from older female employees and examine their careers. | 51
(12 from 5 companies)
|
Paccho Farm vegetable shop | Farm staff sell fresh products from the Paccho Farm. | 60 |
Seminar for employees returning to work after childcare leave | Participants learn how to balance work and parenting and collaborate with colleagues after returning to the workplace while also considering career development. | 24 |
Seminar for balancing work and nursing care | This two-part seminar is divided into courses on basic issues and nursing facilities. The basics including learning how to turn concerns about nursing into preparations for the future. Also covers information on available facilities, benefits, and costs related to home nursing and other nursing care. |
132
(46 from 6 companies)
|
Lecture on Promoting the Advancement of Diverse Talent Diversity Today and Tomorrow – Looking Beyond 2020 |
In this session, outside lecturer Dai Tamesue, CEO of Deportare Partners, speaks about creating working environments that enable diverse personnel to thrive. | 371
(55 from 10 companies)
|
Tokyo Gas has been actively promoting the career development of women. In addition to enriching our programs to support a balance between childcare and work, we are strengthening employee awareness and evolving our corporate culture by hosting seminars on women’s career development. The ratio of women in management positions has increased by 3.9% in 10 years, from 4.1% in 2009 to 8.0% in 2019. Appointments to the general manager and manager level in particular have dramatically increased from 4 to 20, while the first women was promoted to managing executive officer in April 2018. Our goal is to raise our female management ratio to 10.0% by 2020.
Action Plan for Promoting Women’s Careers (Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.)
Efforts for Promoting Female Advancement
As part of our active efforts to recruit and retain female employees, we are building employee awareness and evolving our corporate culture through seminars we host for both female employees and their managers.■Seminars and Lectures in FY2018*8
Date | Theme | Number of attendees (subsidiaries and affiliates) |
May 2018 | Seminar for managers with subordinates who have small children | 47 (21 from 4 companies) |
November 2018 | Seminar for employees returning to work after childcare leave | 24 |
November 2018 | Women’s Career Seminar | 51 (12 from 5 Companies) |
March 2019 | Seminar for employees returning to work after childcare leave | 31 (4 from 2 companies) |
Training for Female Employees
Awareness-Building and Corporate Culture Development for Managers
External Evaluation
We have obtained the “Kurumin” certification from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare as a company that actively supports childcare based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children. In addition, we obtained the “Eruboshi” Certification (the second level out of third one) as a company which has best initiatives in promoting women based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace. The Tokyo Gas Customer Support, which is one of our main group companies, received the highest level of the certification.
Furthermore, in fiscal 2018, we were selected for the third consecutive year as a “Nadeshiko Brand” company that actively promotes women, by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In April 2016, we established the Grand Career Support Program, which replaced our program that had primarily focused on enriching the life of employees in retirement. The new program provides comprehensive support for developing the careers of employees who are over 50, with the aim of raising their motivation and performance by clarifying the work they can contribute to through training, one-on-one meetings with superiors, and interviews with training and career consultants in the Personnel Dept. By consistently offering such support, many employees are opting for re-employment when they retire, almost all of whom have been rehired by the Tokyo Gas Group.
Unit | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | ||
Total number of retired employees*1 | Persons | 348 | 273 | 172 | |
Number of reemployed*2 | Tokyo Gas | Persons (%) |
251 (72.1) |
203 (74.4) |
103 (59.9) |
Subsidiaries | 42 (12.1) |
46 (16.8) |
52 (30.2) |
The ratio of persons with disabilities employed as of June 2019 was 2.46%, well above the statutory rate,*1 and these individuals are actively engaged in each workplace. In April 2016, Tokyo Gas launched the Liaison Committee to Promote Employment of Disabled People to foster understanding for creating more opportunities for persons with disabilities so they can succeed professionally as we continue to develop safer, more accessible working environments. Furthermore, in our effort to create an inclusive society, we opened a farm in fiscal 2018 to provide a safe and lively workplace for persons with intellectual and mental disabilities.
Our Code of Conduct, which defines the required values and standards of behavior for everyone at the Tokyo Gas Group, explicitly prohibits discrimination and harassment on the grounds of sexual orientation or gender identity. In the Management Commitment, it is clearly stated that in order to be a corporate group, we must proactively create an organizational culture for everyone and excel, regardless of sexual orientation.
We have sought to provide a sound working environment by setting up consultation desks to address employee concerns related to the personnel system or benefits. This is in addition to our consultation desks dealing with issues related to compliance and communication in the workplace. We also organize human rights training and talks by outside lecturers in connection to LGBT issues.
Training for human rights promotion leaders
We practice a style of management that cultivates and maximizes the diverse characteristics and abilities of employees and creates a workplace environment that is comfortable at different life stages, so that everyone can meet the expectations for their respective roles and make the most of their abilities.
We provide programs for parental leave, shorter hours for parents of small children, and nursing care leave that exceed statutory requirements. For employees seeking to balance work with nursing care, we made revisions that enable them to work with greater flexibility by introducing a flex-time system for nursing care with no core time periods in April 2018.
We also offer systems that allow employees to take leaves of absence for fertility treatment, to attend events at their children's and grandchildren's schools, and to provide nursing care for family members, and these systems are widely used by employees.
We have introduced other arrangements to further increase the options for employee work styles, including leaves to allow employees to accompany spouses working overseas and various programs offering shorter work hours for employees receiving medical treatment.
Program | Outline | Item | Unit | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | ||||
Male | Female | Male | Female | Male | Female | |||||
Parental leave | Until the end of April immediately following the child’s 3rd birthday (employees are allowed to change the scheduled date of reinstatement if they are unable to enroll their children in a nursery school) | Number of users | Persons | 2 | 65 | 5 | 45 | 5 | 70 | |
Rate of return to work (%) *2 |
% | 100 | 100 | 100 | 92 | 100 | 100 | |||
Shorter hours for parents of small children | Flex-time system is available during pregnancy and until the child completes the 6th grade | Number of users | Persons | 227 | 3 | 214 | 9 | 220 | ||
Nursing care leave | Up to 3 years for one relative within the second degree of kinship | Number of users | Persons | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||
Nursing care work | Applicable to a relative within the second degree of kinship Flextime program available up to 3 years to provide care |
Number of users | Persons | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | ||
Leave to accompany partner | For employees accompanying a spouse posted overseas | Number of users | Persons | 4 | 3 | 4 | ||||
Community service leave | Special leave (paid) for up to 5 days within 1 year | Cumulative number of users | Persons | 48 | 58 | 61 | ||||
Sabbatical system | For employees who reach the age of 30, 35, 40 and 50 Provided with commemorative gifts and special leave (paid) |
Number of users | Persons | 514 | 673 | 509 |
■Support for Work-Parenting Balance
Management tenaciously focuses on the value of ”time” to rectify and reduce long working hours so that every employee can work with enthusiasm while maximizing their potential.
In addition to establishing diverse working styles, we review work processes and methods while also taking action to boost organizational productivity.
Work Style Reform Action Plan
Since fiscal 2018, we have been working to achieve the goals of our Work Style Reform Action Plan.KPIs (Numerical Targets) | |
Theme 1: Rectifying and reducing long working hours |
By fiscal 2020, reduce cases of over 80 hours of extra non-legal working hours per month to zero and reduce cases of 60–80 hours/month by half of the fiscal 2017 level |
Theme 2: Encouraging employees to take annual leave |
Reduce the number of employees who have taken fewer than 5 annual paid vacations during fiscal 2018 to zero |
Theme 3: Promoting flexible work styles |
Create an environment that allows for teleworking for all employees by 2020 |
Theme 1: Rectifying and reducing long working hours
We are working to rectify and reduce long working hours to prevent health disorders and enable each employee to engage in work with vigor and fully demonstrate their potential.
Targets and Outcomes
Target for FY2020 | Target for FY2018 | Outcome |
By fiscal 2020, reduce cases of over 80 hours of extra non-legal working hours per month to zero and reduced cases of 60−80 hours/month by half of the fiscal 2017 level Note: Non-consolidated basis |
Reduce the number of cases of 60−80 hours/month by 25% of the fiscal 2017 level Note: Non-consolidated basis) |
Reduced the number of employees reporting over 80 hours of extra non-legal working hours per month by 32% of the fiscal 2017 level (excludes employees involved in earthquake response efforts) |
Our Initiatives
|
We held seminars to provide knowledge and know-how on efficient work processes that can be put into practice by each workplace and individual. In addition to organizing lectures by outside specialists, we also introduced various IT tools, and our IT staff demonstrate how they work.
|
(2) Workplace Meetings | We organized Workplace Meetings throughout the company to nurture a culture based on the motto “start with what we can” and with a sense of speed as we promote concrete efforts by each workplace. Every member shares their wisdom to address issues that the organization faces along with effective solutions, and each workplace is taking action to make improvements. With respect to company-wide issues that cannot be resolved at the workplace level, we seek necessary improvements in consultation with relevant departments. |
In principle, we prohibit overtime work after 8:00 pm. When working after 8:00 pm is unavoidable, the employee will submit a request to their supervisor and the occasion is used as an opportunity to discuss omitting tasks and reviewing the work process.
Employees can flexibly alter their reporting and leaving time through consultation with their superiors as long as they include the required core time. This system applies to about 90% of our employees, excluding shift workers.
When operations present a special reason for different working hours, or when the press and slack of business is evident, a flex-time system without a core time, which we call a “super flex-time system,” is applied to eligible employees in an effort to raise the productivity of the entire workplace and reduce working hours.
We designate a monthly “Leave-on-Time Day” as an opportunity to reflect on working productively by maximizing results within a given period.
In an effort to review work processes and methods while also boosting productivity, employees have been encouraged since February 2017 to take a half day off or use the flex-time system to finish work early on the last Friday of each month as long as this does not disrupt work.
We revised the program in July 2018 and designated Friday of each week as “Premium Friday.” We encourage employees to take advantage of the program at least once a month, depending on workload in their workplace and of the individual, and about 40% of our employees use the program at least once a month.
In July and August, employees are encouraged to start and finish work around 30–60 minutes earlier than usual by utilizing the flex-time program, as long as this does not disrupt work, so they can enjoy their personal lives during a longer evening.
We gather information from each workplace on initiatives for improving operational efficiency. Then we share them on our internal website and Group newsletter to spread good practices throughout the organization.
Theme 2: Encouraging employees to take annual leave
To help employees achieve a better balance between their work and private life, we are creating an environment where all employees can pursue a well-paced work style that allows them to concentrate on either work or rest.
Targets and Outcomes
Target for FY2018 | Outcome |
Reduce the number of employees who have taken fewer than 5 annual paid leave during fiscal 2018 to zero (non-consolidated basis) | Target achieved for approximately 99.5% of employees (about 30 employees took fewer than 5 annual paid vacations) |
Initiatives
Theme 3: Promoting flexible work styles
To establish an environment where diverse personnel can fully demonstrate their abilities, we review uniform work patterns to promote flexible work styles with no limitations on where employees work.
We will replace the computer terminals of all employees to allow for teleworking in fiscal 2019. At the same time, we will promote paperless offices to create an environment where employees can work without limitations on location.
Targets and Outcomes
Target for FY2020 | Target for FY2018 | Outcomes |
Create an environment that allows for teleworking for all employees by fiscal 2020 to promote flexible work styles Note: Non-consolidated basis |
Enhance the teleworking system and expand its application to more workplaces Note: Non-consolidated basis |
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Initiatives