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Sustainability Material Issue 3 Promoting Diversity & Inclusion
Objectives
Enable human resources with diverse values and ideas to fully express their individuality and abilities and succeed professionally.
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Lion is promoting internal diversity and inclusion in order to improve the creativity of its business activities.
To maintain the sense of urgency required to create new value and address life and social issues, it is necessary to maximize the varied knowledge and experience of our diverse human resources so they are equipped to generate new ideas and innovations. We will create an environment and foster a corporate culture in which employees with diverse values and perspectives, regardless of nationality, gender or other attributes, respect each other and can fully demonstrate their individuality and abilities. Currently, a team responsible for diversity within the Human Resources Development Center is implementing a variety of measures to this end.
Since 2022, Lion has held workshops on unconscious bias for management and department managers. The workshops helped participants gain a proper, deeper understanding of diversity & inclusion, and discussed how everyone holds biases and the effects and issues they can cause. Going forward, we will expand this understanding to every manager and employee, and build an organization that is mutually receptive and where diverse and varied personnel can play an active role.
Lion recognizes that the professional participation and advancement of women is indispensable to the further enhancement of corporate value and is proactively implementing measures to promote the professional engagement of women.
Based on the Act on the Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace passed by the Japanese Diet in 2016, Lion is implementing measures to enable the long-term professional participation of women. These include expanding our childcare-related programs and implementing measures to support employees balancing childcare obligations with work.
To narrow the gap in compensation between men and women, the Company provides each employee with learning and fair growth opportunities while also providing training for evaluators aimed at ensuring that gender discrimination and unconscious bias do not affect their judgement of employees with regard to their education and training, care work responsibilities (i.e., home and childcare) and work experience. In March 2020, we endorsed and participated in the activities of “30% Club Japan,”*1 a campaign targeting boards of directors comprising 30% women. The club provides opportunities to participate in meetings with other companies to exchange opinions on women’s activities and programs that encourage young women to think about their careers.
In 2022, we launched a mentoring program and empowerment seminars to support leadership development for women and diverse career advancement. Through a range of initiatives, we have increased the proportion of female employees at the management level*2 on a non-consolidated basis to 12.8% (at the end of 2022). Looking toward 2030, we aim to advance the professional development and promotion of women on a Group-wide basis, targeting a rate of women in management of at least 30% for the Group and at least 35% for Lion Corporation.
Lion’s Action plans based on the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace and its Declaration are available on the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s portal site for information about positive action to promote women’s participation and advancement in the workplace.
*1 A global campaign founded in the United Kingdom in 2010 with the goal of increasing the percentage of women in key decision-making bodies, including boards of directors, to 30%.
*2 Personnel holding managerial positions at the level of manager or higher
Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace General Employer Action Plan
Lion Corporation
Lion Corporate has established the following action plan in order to create environments in which employees with diverse work styles and values can participate and advance, regardless of such factors as nationality, gender or age, and to further increase opportunities for value creation.
Target 1: A rate of women in management* of at least 35% by the end of 2030
From 2021:
* At the level of manager or higher, in general
Target 2: For 100% of eligible men to take childcare leave by the end of 2030
From 2021:
As of the end of 2022, Japanese employees account for 41.4% of the 7,587 employees in the consolidated Group. At overseas Group companies, employees native to those various countries and regions work closely with Asian consumers, proposing better practices and other activities. In Japan, foreign nationals comprise 1.5% of the total number of employees and 0.4% of the total number of managers. We aim to raise the ratio of foreign nationals in management positions to equal that in the total workforce by 2030. These efforts to promote the appointment of international employees are aimed at the achievement of business growth through the realization of a varied and diverse workforce.
In order to further develop our current and new businesses, we are actively hiring and promoting mid-career hires who have experience, skills and expertise not previously available in the Company.
As a result of activities based on the recruitment plan for new graduates and mid-career hires in the medium-term human resources plan, the rate of mid-career employees hired during the three-year period from January 2020 to December 2022 was 33.9%. Furthermore, we are actively re-recruiting people who once left the Company for such reasons as career advancement or family circumstances.
As of December 31, 2022, the rate of mid-career hires to the total number of employees was 27.6%. The rate of mid-career hires in management positions was 11.5%, and we aim to have the same level of mid-career hires in management positions by 2030 as traditional employees.
* Employees of the Company (excluding temporary employees, etc.)
Lion actively recruits people with disabilities year-round. We are committed to creating a work environment that allows people with disabilities to make the most of their individual skills while providing thoughtful employment that matches their abilities.
In April 2016, we established the special subsidiary Lion Tomoni Co., Ltd. as a workplace where people with disabilities who are willing to work can make the most of their individuality and work with stability. The business actives of Lion Tomoni help streamline and rationalize Group operations.
Lion Tomoni Co., Ltd.’s 32 employees with disabilities and ten instructors (as of December 31, 2022) engage in a wide variety of operations, such as cleaning the employee cafeteria and washing laboratory ware, preparing business cards and employee badges, and operating a stationery reuse service. Under the four promises of “safety first,” “act wholeheartedly,” “energetic greetings” and “demonstrating teamwork,” Lion Tomoni will continue to promote the hiring and professional participation of people with disabilities.
Since 2011, Lion has offered a spouse relocation support program for married couples who both work for Lion as a way of supporting the diversifying work styles of its employees. From 2022, the program has been expanded to include employees whose spouses work for other companies. When an employee’s spouse is transferred to another location, the employee can choose from three options: change their work location, take a leave of absence for up to three years to accompany their spouse, or resign from the Company with the option of being rehired within five years.
Lion introduced a system for re-hiring retired employees in 2006. Under the revised system, the Company seeks to increase the motivation of re-hired employees by providing an environment that allows them to work on terms similar to those applying to ordinary employees. This includes re-hiring all applicants, permitting changes of duties during their contract period and awarding performance-based bonuses. Furthermore, incorporating employee suggestions, the Company conducts explanatory orientations about the system for employees three years before they reach the standard retirement age as well as meetings with their superiors upon re-hiring to help them understand their new roles. In 2022, the re-hiring rate for retirees was 82.0%.
Lion has established a system to re-hire former employees who have voluntarily resigned so that they might leverage their diverse life and career experience and knowledge in working at Lion again.
Lion has offered a regionally based employee program since 2013. This program is aimed at securing outstanding human resources who are contributing greatly from among Lion’s pool of temporary employees and enabling regular employees to practice diverse work styles. Under the system, the whole of Japan is divided into seven blocks, and participating employees are guaranteed not be transferred out of the block of their choosing. These employees’ compensation and benefits are on par with those of regular employees.
ESG Data_ Regionally Based Employee Program