Initiatives to Boost Human Resource Capacity

Sompo Japan Nipponkoa is striving to develop a working environment and personnel management programs that are instrumental in achieving our goal of building up the most motivated and skilled workforce based on the four principles of the Group Personnel Vision: Action and Achievement; Impartiality and Fairness; Openness; and Diversity.

●Working Environment

We respect the sense of values and working styles of employees, which may be as diverse as pursuing higher career goals, seeking further fulfilling work life, or working with pride while balancing their work and private life. To create a work environment that enhances employee engagement and allows each employee to work energetically and comfortably, we offer a greater number of opportunities for both male and female employees to work on new challenges, and further improve support for childbirth, child rearing, and nursing care among many other measures.
We use employee satisfaction surveys to monitor the current situation and problems of our employees, and feedback the survey results to each work place. The each work place has meetings to review them and discuss how they make improvement and address the problems. We also actively encourage non-regular employees to become regular employees as a way to further improve employee motivation and help stabilize employment.

●Personnel Management Programs

Our personnel system focuses on the employees' performance only, regardless of their gender, nationality, or age, to ensure that remuneration and promotion are decided based on the level of performance in each role.
Our personnel management programs include the in-house job posting program, which makes it easy for employees to apply for transfers to their desired different departments. With this program, it is possible even for general area staff (a position for an employee in which the location of residence in principle does not change because of a job transfer) to apply for temporary work outside their designated area. To support the self-directed and autonomous career development of each employee, we have also introduced another two programs: the Dream Ticket Program, under which employees who meet certain criteria can apply for transfer to a position of their choice; and the Job Exchange Program, which gives general area staff an opportunity to work at headquarters departments. These programs are aimed at encouraging employees to actively pursue their desired positions by fully leveraging the knowledge and skills acquired in the course of their work and self-improvement activities.

Establishment of Group Diversity Promotion Headquarters

Sompo Holdings regards diversity as an important part of its management strategy, and established the Diversity Promotion Headquarters in October 2013.
By making diversity a group-wide issue through the establishment of the dedicated department, we aim to incorporate the views of diverse employees into our various services to offer the highest possible quality products for the security, health and wellbeing of our customers to meet their wide-ranging needs.
Our slogan is “Diversity for Growth”, which expresses our intention to translate diversity into a drive for growth, and we are tackling to improve working styles across the Group to achieve highly productive working styles among our diverse employees.

Members at the time of founding of the Diversity Promotion Headquarters

Female Employee Engagement

Our Group has set a goal of increasing the percentage of women in managerial positions to 30% by the end of fiscal year 2020, and is actively recruiting women to managerial positions. Specific measures to produce more female managers include the implementation of various training programs to create a pipeline for women in a range of positions from junior level to management: Management classes; preparatory management classes; and career development training. We have also introduced a mentor program in which a manager other than a female employee’s own supervisor provides support as a mentor (adviser) to the employee to create a work culture and environment that supports female employees in their careers.
The number of female managers in the Group when the target was set in July 2013 was 305, a mere 5% of all managers. Thanks to the above-stated initiatives, as of April 2017 there were 794 female managers, 18.7% of the total. At Sompo Japan Nipponkoa, the largest Group company, “graduates” of such training programs include one director, one executive officer, and five general managers.
Such active efforts to empower women in the workplace were awarded a Corporate Activity Award in January 2015 by the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Sompo Japan Nipponkoa was selected to receive the Prime Minsters Award and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Women’s Empowerment Award in December 2016, as well as the Second Prize in the Advanced Category of the 2017 J-Win Diversity Award in March 2017, indicating that our initiatives continue to receive external recognition.
As women are empowered, there are more working mothers, and more fathers taking an active role in raising their children, we decided to join the Ikuboss Alliance established by NPO Fathering Japan in April 2015, in the belief that it is important to create a workplace where men and women can continue to work while harmonizing their work-life balance.

Received the Prime Minister’s Award

Mentor Program

Sompo Holdings introduced a mentor program throughout the Group from October 2013. Under this program, a manager other than a female employee’s own supervisor is appointed as a mentor to regularly support in solving issues regarding mentee’s career development on an ongoing basis.
In three years until fiscal year 2016, 181 executives and general managers became mentors to 367 female managers. Mentoring aims to create a culture that helps develop women’s careers and to encourage them to raise their aspirations and take on new challenges. The program has proved effective — not only in motivating mentees to pursue a career — but also for mentors in realizing what they need to improve employee engagement.

Support for Non-Japanese Employees

To maintain successful global operations, it is important for our Group to support non-Japanese employees and create and foster an international corporate culture.
Sompo Japan Nipponkoa is developing an international work environment by actively hiring non-Japanese employees both in Japan and for its operations outside Japan. The number of international recruits is increasing, and they are working enthusiastically in their respective workplaces.

Employment of People with Disabilities

An increasing number of companies as a matter of course are employing people with disabilities and value their individual contributions. Sompo Japan Nipponkoa also places a high priority to creating an inclusive work environment for people with disabilities, and organizes recruitment activities throughout Japan.
The company interviewed about 30 supervisors of employees with disabilities in their team and reported their best practices in Diversity News, a monthly newsletter, to share information on how to work with physically challenged employees. The company has also prepared a guide book for managers, while making sure that an assistant for employees with disabilities is appointed at each workplace to provide necessary support.

Work-Life Balance

To improve the quality of employee output, it is essential to focus not only on skill development but also on the physical and mental health of each employee. Good physical and mental health and a fulfilling private life are the foundation of a dynamic workforce. A dynamic workforce means a vitalized company, which is why we make the flexibility to balance work and private life a high priority.

●System Supporting Employees during Pregnancy, Post-childbirth and Childcare

We provide various types of leave and flexible work style options, such as maternity leave, childcare leave, and reduced working hours for parents in order to support employee efforts to balance their work and family life. Parents can take advantage of shorter working hours, for example, in several shift patterns until the child completes the third grade of elementary school. Short-term childcare leave has also been turned into a form of paid leave, and delayed the application deadline to the day before, making childcare leave easy to take for both male and female employees.

●Support for Employees on Childcare Leave

A forum is organized in Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Fukuoka every year to support employees who have taken childcare leave to return to work smoothly. In fiscal year 2016, the forum was attended by a total of 560 employees nationwide. Not only employees on childcare leave, but also their supervisors and colleagues attend the forum to address their concerns about returning to work and create a more comfortable workplace for them. At the forum, the updated information about our important policies is communicated to employees on childcare leave.

●Support for Employees Engaging in Long-term Nursing Care

Long-term nursing care has become a common issue due to the rapid aging of Japan’s population. To help employees balance their work and care responsibilities, we expanded the option to offer long-term family care leave (up to 365 days in total), nursing leave, shift work for nursing care and reduced working hours, and held a seminar for balancing work and care responsibilities that was attended by about 300 employees in fiscal year 2016.

●Telecommuting

A home-based telecommuting program is in place to increase productivity and efficiency of employees. Employees are not restricted to working at home but are also allowed to work outside the home or to telecommute for all or a part of their working day. In an effort to boost diverse working styles among employees working shorter hours to provide family care, we arranged for additional company devices to be available to those who want them so that employees can work away from the office in sudden unexpected situations.

●Shift working

We introduced a kind of flextime program that promotes diverse work styles. Employees can choose what time they start their work from nine patterns between 7am and 1pm.

●Career Transfer Program

General area staff (a position for an employee in which the location of residence in principle does not change because of a job transfer) can apply for a job for Group companies in other area, if certain conditions are met, to continue work in the case they have to move for a personal reason such as job transfer of their spouse.

●Planned Long Vacations and "No Overtime Days"

To increase productivity and efficiency of employees, employees are encouraged to both take planned long vacations and to leave work on time on company-wide "No Overtime Days." Managers of each workplace are also requested to urge their staff to take holidays as well as to submit an annual plan for increasing the operational efficiency of their respective workplaces.

●Mental Health

A mental health industrial physician is stationed at our Headquarters Building under a partnership agreement with Sompo Risk Management & Health Care. The physician works together with nurses and other dedicated staff to provide mental health checkups, counseling, and other services.
Self-tests for stress have also been introduced to have individual employees discover any signs of mental health issues at an early stage in order to prevent, alleviate, and treat them. We also established a system that helps our managers to manage and support their staff who are experiencing stress, distress and mental health issues and create a healthier workplace environment.

Work Style Innovation

In fiscal year 2015, Sompo Japan Nipponkoa embarked on a series of work style innovations in order to increase productivity and create a more flexible work environment that taps into the wide-ranging talents of its diverse workforce.
Specifically, the company introduced a kind of flextime program that provides nine different patterns to start working, helping employees responsible for childcare or family care, or who communicate regularly with stakeholders outside Japan.
Leveraging improvements in its ICT infrastructure, the company also instituted a telecommuting work policy to provide even more flexibility and boost productivity. These work style innovations are also aimed at maximizing created value and making fundamental improvements to overwork conditions, with specific goals set by each workplace.

Office in the early morning

Thanks Day — Day for Improving Families’ Understanding of the Workplace

We have been implementing a Thanks Day event from 2007 for the purpose of promoting understanding and communication between employees and their families and raising awareness of the need for work-life balance at each workplace. Children of employees at each Group company are invited to visit their parent’s workplace and perform simple work-related tasks such as sorting inter-office mail and receiving mock telephone calls. Other fun events are held such as exchanging business cards with the company President, children’s meals in the employee cafeteria, and various booths offering games and exhibitions. These always make the day a memorable one for both employees and their families.

Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Orchestra performing for children