The DOWA Group specifies that human resources are the basis of all business activities, and employees are evaluated for their ability to do their jobs, regardless of differences in their educational background, seniority and gender. We have taken various initiatives so that employees can exercise their full potential.
With the aim of harmonizing work and life, we are enhancing our system for supporting work–life balance and are developing a workplace environment where it is easy to work, so that it is possible for employees to maximize their abilities according to their lifestyle.
At our company, we introduced a flex-time system without core time so that employees can work according to the fluctuations and characteristics of the job. In addition, besides volunteer leave and a relaxation leave system where employees get days off for a certain length of service, we have prepared support measures beyond what is stipulated by the law, such as paid leave to care for sick children (up to five days), childcare-related limitations on transfers that involve moving, partial subsidies for childcare expenses and a leave system to address life events.
We are working to reduce long working hours and promote the taking of annual paid leave so that employees can work with health and vigor in both mind and body. With the attendance system managed by the head office, we are managing time through the computer logs, and when a certain level of working hours are exceeded, an improvement plan must be submitted to the manager. There is also an interview with an industrial physician depending on the number of overtime hours. To optimize working hours, we will continue to strive to manage working hours with both hard and soft measures.
The DOWA Group has introduced a stress check tool that allows employees to evaluate their mental health. This step is intended to promote employee mental health management by encouraging awareness of their personal stress levels and helping the Group improve areas in the workplace environment that may be causing stress. We are committed to preventing employee mental health problems by enabling employees with high stress levels to consult medical professionals, providing guidance and formulating and implementing plans to improve workplace environments.
At the DOWA Group, we believe that having diverse human resources with diverse values and viewpoints who can fully demonstrate their individuality and abilities will lead to the growth of the Company. Based on this belief, we engaged in a variety of efforts to increase diversity.
At DOWA, there is no gender distinction in terms of workstyles, and female employees are active in a wide range of fields, including manufacturing, R&D, production control, planning and sales.
In matters of hiring, promotion and advancement, assessments are made purely according to ability. One problem we face, however, is that our retention rate of women is lower than that of men. Therefore, we are making efforts to increase the percentage of women who remain employed by the Company for over 10 fiscal years to 80%, the same as that for men.
Going forward, DOWA will continue to support the development of women’s careers and become a company that anyone, regardless of gender, will want to work for over the long term.
We will continue our efforts to create acceptable conditions allowing us to reach the statutory percentage of people with disabilities employed and to create workplace environments where these people can work comfortably and actively.
This program will be in effect from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2025. It was introduced at some Group companies in April 2021 and will be rolled out to other companies in the future.
The DOWA Group is also continuing with an initiative to hold life-planning seminars for employees who reach a certain age, with the goal of giving these employees information on embarking on a second, post-retirement career.