Diversity and inclusion ( D & I )
Basic approach
We aim to become a company in which every employee can utilize all their strengths, including knowledge, abilities, and experiences, to the fullest, play an active role, take pride in their job, and feel that their job is rewarding. We are promoting diversity and inclusion with a focus on the four points listed below.
Promotion of women’s active engagement
We have established support measures that exceed the statutory standards and are working to create a work environment in which female employees can work easily by making environmental investments, including the improvement of worksite infrastructure such as showers, lavatories, and dressing rooms at manufacturing sites. We will continue to improve the various systems, work environments, and other facilities and support female employees in continuing to display their abilities, and appoint female managers as specified below.
Goal
Increase the number of female employees in managerial positions by two times compared to the FY2021 level in 2025 and by three to four times in 2030.
Supporting in handling both a career and a family life
We are establishing and expanding the support systems that suit the life stages of employees so that each and every one of them can continue to work with a sense of security and play an even more active role. Our child-care and nursing-care leave regulations stipulate longer periods of leave that exceed the statutory standards and enable employees to take paid leave using paid vacations they accumulate individually. In addition, a worksite culture has recently been cultivated that enables all employees to take child-care leave easily, as exemplified by the fact that the number of male employees who had children and became actively involved in their upbringing has increased gradually.
| Child-care | Nursing care | |
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Leave system |
This leave can be taken until the child is two years old. |
This leave can be used up to three times within 93 days for each person who needs nursing care. |
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Diverse workstyles (1) Shorter working hours |
Shorter working hours can be used until the end of the child’s school year as a third grader at elementary school. |
Shorter working hours can be used for three years after they start. |
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Diverse workstyles (2) Flextime work |
Flextime work can be used. |
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Diverse workstyles (3) Staggered working hours |
Staggered working hours is a system under which employees work by shifting their working hours earlier or later without changing the prescribed working hours per day. This can be done by obtaining the supervising manager’s approval. Employees can also use staggered working hours together with shorter working hours, applying the former to some days and the latter to others. |
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Other major systems |
Pregnancy rest and leave |
Nursing care leave |
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Exemption of overtime work |
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Regulations displayed in red exceed the provisions of the government’s Act on Childcare Leave, Caregiver Leave, and Other Measures for the Welfare of Workers Caring for Children or Other Family Members.
Active engagement of diverse human resources
The Osaka Steel Group is working continuously to ensure that diversity is respected; that all kinds of discrimination based on race, nationality, gender, age, disabilities, etc., are prohibited; and that all kinds of harassment are prohibited, as well as to promote women’s active engagement and improve the work environment and systems. We are promoting initiatives to prevent the occurrence of problems mainly by making the regulations to prevent harassment known to all employees, putting up harassment prevention posters internally to call the attention of employees, and carrying out educational campaigns such as training by organizational level.
Establishment of flexible workstyles
We aim to achieve productively growth and a good work-life balance by encouraging all employees who face various circumstances, such as restrictions on working hours due to child-care or nursing care, to utilize the available hours to the maximum extent and pursue workstyles that enable them to demonstrate their abilities to the fullest. Through our response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have established an environment that enabled all staff members to work from home, discuss via Web conferences, and adopt other workstyles, and we are continuing to consider expanding teleworking with the aim of enabling diverse workstyles, increasing business productivity, and so forth. We have also introduced a flextime system since early on so that employees have time to take their children to day nurseries, kindergartens, or schools and back, go to hospital regularly, and so on as they strive to maintain a good work-life balance. Thus, we are making efforts so that all employees can further reach a good balance between their job and life when they work and we are working actively to encourage employees to take paid vacations with the aim of raising the rate of paid vacations taken to 80% or more.
Dialogue with employees
We have established a system under which supervising managers talk daily with their subordinates about business operations in order to enliven internal communication. At the same time, we are striving to create an open work environment mainly by publishing the Company’s in-house magazine periodically for information sharing. The Company holds a meeting with its labor union to discuss about matters such as management, health and safety, and production monthly. We are striving to improve the overall work environment by providing opportunities to talk about management issues, working conditions, work-life balance, etc., from time to time.
Employee welfare
In order to support employees in their respective life stages and establish workstyles that provide a good work-life balance, the Company is working to enrich its employee welfare measures, including the provision of housing. One example of this is the new dormitory built for singles in the Sumiyoshi Ward (Nagai) of Osaka City in April 2020.
Introduction of the 65-year-old mandatory retirement system
We are promoting the employment of the elderly, starting from employees who turned 60 years old in FY2021, so we raised the mandatory retirement age to 65 after considering the decrease in the working population, the need to respond to the increase in age for receiving pension benefits, and the policy for maintaining and improving worksite capabilities. With the extension of the mandatory retirement age, we are making efforts to create a vibrant work environment by applying an integrated personnel administration and treatment system that covers all stages from employment to retirement at 65, encouraging all generations from the young to the elderly to continue displaying their abilities to the maximum extent, ensuring that skills are handed down from generation to generation, and encouraging worksite communication.
Employment of persons with disabilities
We recognize that employing persons with disabilities is an important social issue, so we are striving to promote their employment and create an environment in which they can work easily. At Osaka Steel, employees with disabilities are engaged in various duties in quality, information system, and other divisions. In the future, we will continue to promote the employment of persons with disabilities.
Basic policy
The Osaka Steel Group will create and provide rich values by respecting the diverse values of employees and making the most of their individuality through smooth communication and collaboration in accordance with the international norms related to human rights, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Respecting all kinds of human rights, including protecting workers’ rights and eliminating forced labor and child labor, is the fundamental principle of corporate activities, and we are striving to eliminate unjust discrimination based on nationality, race, religion, gender, age, sexual orientation, and disability. We confirm that we do not use conflict minerals when we procure raw materials from suppliers. Under this basic policy for respecting human rights, the Group aims to create a work environment in which employees accept the diverse values of one another and can display their abilities to the fullest, thus enabling employees to enjoy a full life and the Company to develop further.
Contacts for reporting and consultation
The Osaka Steel Group has established and is operating the Compliance Consultation Offices, which can be used by its employees and their families, as well as the employees and other personnel of its business partners, to report and seek advice on violations of human rights such as harassment. These offices have male and female counselors with experts assigned to the external office. When responding to individual cases, counselors and experts protect the privacy of reporters and those who seek advice, pay full attention so that they do not receive disadvantageous treatment, and investigate the facts. They solve such cases appropriately by obtaining advice from lawyers and other specialists as required.
Health management
We are promoting efforts to create a comfortable workplace and maintain mental and physical health.
Physical health
We include cancer checkup according to age and gender in the health examinations for employees. In particular, we are working for the early detection and treatment of cancer types that employees have a high risk of developing by setting a target rate for employee medical checkup and encouraging them to do so. The Company is also working to give specified health guidance to prevent lifestyle-related diseases based on the results of the specified health examinations it conducts in cooperation with its health insurance union.
Mental health
We are working for the prevention and early detection of mental disorders so that each employee can lead a lively and healthy life and demonstrate their best performance. The staff members of the health consultation office give mental health lectures to all engineers periodically. Utilizing the results of the stress check conducted annually as indicators for improvement guidance for organizations and individuals, industrial physicians and the personnel and health & safety divisions work with workplace managers to implement necessary measures that meet the challenges of organizations and individuals. Furthermore, since it is important to detect and treat mental diseases early, the staff members of the health consultation office cooperate with specialist doctors to put in place a system that enables them to respond to such diseases properly.
Development of human resources
Basic approach
The Osaka Steel Group views human capital as the most important component of corporate value, and in accordance with the management philosophy, the action guidelines stipulate that “we contribute to society through self-realization, focusing all our efforts on the development of human resources and the enhancement of our technological strengths.”
The basic principle of human resources development in the Group is to hand specific business skills down to the future generation through daily dialogues on business between supervising managers and their subordinates.
In addition, we will implement effective human resources development measures by establishing an internal environment favorable for human resources development, and eventually contribute to society and maximize employee engagement.
The Group’s basic policy for sustainability (materialities) consists of “response to the global environment” and “creation of a work environment in which human rights are respected, diverse human resources are utilized, and every employee feels that their job is rewarding,” and the Group will give priority to developing the following
Development of technical personnel
The development of technical personnel is the very basis of Osaka Steel’s technological capabilities. It is essential to hand skills over to the next generation smoothly, and it is indispensable to establish a system to develop all new employees joining the Company into full-fledged engineers. Therefore, supervising managers and their subordinates clarify the skills to be acquired, discuss them, and prepare and implement specific development plans. We also provide off-the-job training for each organizational level, such as special lectures to acquire necessary qualifications; instructor training aimed at raising instructors’ awareness of their functions and improving their communication skills in daily operations; and training in how to be taught, whose subjects include learning about stress management. Thus, we are striving to develop human resources so that all employees can improve their skills.
Development of clerical staff members
The development of clerical staff members is based on on-the-job training (OJT). Specifically, we have built a system under which supervising managers and their subordinates implement the PDCA cycle effectively using individual development dialogue sheets aimed at encouraging the two to have livelier interaction, deepen mutual communication, set goals, and share the set goals.
In particular, we designate a certain period after employment as the period of development, assign new employees to particular jobs, or let them do jobs by rotation with the aim of putting all of them in the right position, and we train them using OJT based on the management policy. We also strive to enrich training programs by organizational level and by purpose for all generations. Examples of off-the-job training include DX training, expert training by division, and overseas human resources development training.
Development of managers
As part of the off-the-job training, we provide training programs for each organizational level, including manager training for senior management, with the aim of encouraging employees to develop their career as a manager and promoting capable personnel to top management. We have also offered a new training program for newly appointed managers so that they understand their functions and responsibilities as managers and start their career as a manager smoothly. We will further enrich these training programs to step up the development of human resources who form the core of the Osaka Steel Group.
In our overseas and other businesses, we have launched job-based employment and established systems for such employment. In the future, we will further establish systems to respond to diversifying forms of employment and improve the human resources development measures.
Policy for improving the internal environment
In accordance with its management plan and human resources development policy, the Osaka Steel Group is reorganizing its current and future human resources portfolios, preparing rotation plans focusing on personnel assignment and human resources development by organizational level and by employee category, and reflecting them on personnel policies and human resources development measures.
Taking business continuity into account, we divide the required human resources into several categories (for example, those who will be involved in overseas businesses as part of the growth strategy, those who can respond to global environmental issues, those who will support DX, and those who will lead the future management of the Group) before developing new human resources portfolios. Based on these portfolios, we will consider the necessary measures to develop human resources, and the Group will then implement personnel administration and assignment and rotation measures suited to the changes of the times.
Local community
As a member of society, we will contribute actively to the local community and society.
Clean-up campaigns
As part of its activities for social contribution and environmental protection, the Osaka Steel Group is carrying out clean-up campaigns around its works periodically. In the future, as a member of the local community, it will continue to work actively for beautification activities in an effort to protect the environment of the local community.
Dialogue with the local community
Members of each plant periodically participate in meetings of neighborhood associations and local events. By providing opportunities to communicate, we promote a better understanding of our business among local residents, and at the same time, we are striving to communicate with the local community mainly by hearing the opinions and requests of local residents.
Local support and donations
When massive disasters occur, the Osaka Steel Group donates to disaster-stricken areas. Recently, the Group did so after the torrential rains in July 2020, the Noto Peninsula Earthquake in January 2024, and other disasters.
Contributions to the local community include periodically giving to kindergartens and elementary and junior high schools near our works gifts of money and goods that can effectively be utilized by the schools.
Dialogue with shareholders and investors
We strive to obtain a better understanding of Osaka Steel’s management among shareholders and hold substantial dialogues with them by publishing reports on financial results and actively providing information and answering questions at general meetings of shareholders.
We are working to having more substantial dialogues with institutional investors, mainly through biannual IR briefings, small meetings, and telephone conferences.
