Diversity & Inclusion at Ushio

Promotion of Diversity & Inclusion

Ushio is promoting diversity & Inclusion as a materiality in order to realize our corporate philosophy and to accomplish our Vision 2030 through "Creating working environments where it is easy to produce results". Our goal is not only to diversify attributes such as age, gender and nationality, but also to create a global workplace culture in which a diverse range of backgrounds and values are acknowledged and respected.

Diversity & Inclusion Project

We launched the Diversity Project in July 2017 with the aim of further promoting "management focused on each individual".From 2022 we evolve the project to Diversity & Inclusion Project in order to strongly promote "Creating working environments where it is easy to produce results." Employees interested in diversity & Inclusion are recruited to the project members, and directors, HR, and employees work together to carry out activities. By having a diverse range of employees, we aim to become an activity that focus on the opinions of people concerned and has a sense of front-line.

In the project, currently we focus on the three pillars; "Women empowerment", "Employment of people with disabilities", and "Career support". In the future, we will promote diversity & Inclusion from a wide range of perspectives, respecting each individual, and aiming to be a company in which all employees play an active role regardless of their attributes.

Diversity promotion structure

ウシオ電機におけるダイバーシティの意義

Specific Activities

Work style reformation

Work style reformation (Flexible Time and Working from Home)
The increasing diversity of business activities, workplaces and employees is creating a greater need for more flexibility in how people do their jobs. The objective is to fully utilize the power of individuals and the organization. This is why Ushio has a flexible working time system and launched a system that allows people to work from home in January 2019. It offers an autonomous and efficient way of working.
Recognizing the limitations on actions due to the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity for work style reform, we have adopted a hybrid work style as a basic policy that takes advantage of both working from home and at office as a new way of working. We eliminated the core time in the flextime system and the restriction on the number of days for telecommuting. In addition, to support telecommuting, we are creating an environment that allows for more flexible working styles, such as distributing the Telecommuting Handbook.

As a result, we have continued to achieve a 70% reduction in the participation rate at our offices in Tokyo, Osaka, and other, regardless of the increase or decrease in the number of domestic infections COVID-19 (as of December 2021).
We will continue to strive to realize our philosophy further; "Build both a prosperous Company and prosperous employees" ; through a variety of working styles.
 

Job Resumption Program

We launched this program in November 2015 in order to allow people; who have resigned to care for a child or parent or for some other reason, to return to Ushio. Rehiring people who have resigned for personal or other reasons makes it possible to continue using their knowledge. These experienced people can immediately make a meaningful contribution to our business operations.

Women empowerment

On April 1, 2016, Ushio adopted a personnel system that does not take gender into account while eliminating the distinction between main career track positions and general staff positions. In addition, we are implementing various measures, such as disclosing interviews with female managers and holding roundtable discussions with female managers. Our goal is to increase the ratio of female manager to 15% in the Group and 10% in Ushio by 2025 (12% for Group and 1.2% for Ushio as of December 2021)

At Ushio, the average years of service for our employees has been increasing every year and the average years of female is more than that of male reaching at 20.9 years in FY2020.

Promoting the Employment of People with Disabilities 

Promoting communication

An employee with a hearing impairment working at the Harima Division had difficulty communicating with supervisors and colleagues using sign language. 
As a part of efforts to promote communication, we started a sign language circle. This circle has spurred us to work to make more employees familiar with sign language going forward. 
In addition, as a tool for communicating with employees with hearing impairments, we introduced "voice recognition software," which convert spoken language into text, and "electronic memo pads," which  is an LCD board that we can directly write on.
We are striving to create a workplace environment with safety and reassurance where employees with hearing impairments  work by compiling information on points that need to be taken into consideration and announcing it to all employees.

Promoting Barrier-free

Hearing opinions of employees with disabilities, we have made our business sites barrier-free. For example, changing the toilet door to slide to open, attaching handrails to staircases, making some parking lots reserved for the disabled employees, and installing mirrors on aisles with poor prospects.

Career support

UCAP(Ushio Career Progression)

We are developing a program aimed at providing career support to employees aged 50 or older. In fiscal 2021, we held a career design seminar so that experienced employees can draw up their career plans for the future and play an active role throughout their career. We will continue to provide opportunities for employees to thrive throughout their career regardless of age.
 

Hold awareness-raising seminars

Diversity Seminar for Line managers

To deepen the understanding of managers, who are key personnel to realize true diversity & Inclusion, and to have them put it into practice and promote it in the workplace, we held diversity seminars for line managers. We will continue to improve the understanding of diversity & Inclusion among managers including executive officers and further expand it to general employee level.
 

Effective utilization of globally minded talent

Approximately 70% of Ushio’s net sales accounts for oversea sales. We are promoting the recruitment of diverse employees regardless of nationality in order to create new value and achieve sustainable growth.
In addition, it is necessary to promote business through communication with people with various countries, backgrounds and values. To this end, in addition to the Study-abroad system and the Trainee system, we cultivate and utilize globally minded talent through exchanges of employees among group companies.