Promote active roles for all employees based on diversity
Promotion of diversity and inclusion
At the Calbee Group, we aspire to be a company where people from diverse backgrounds can thrive regardless of sex, nationality, age, disability, values, or lifestyle. We believe that the optimization of human resources and organizational strengths acts as a driving force behind the company’s growth. Based on the belief that Calbee cannot grow without the active participation of women, we have made the empowerment of women a top priority challenge. We also believe that promoting women’s empowerment will lead to greater support for the diverse working styles and careers of future younger generations. Furthermore, we embrace diversity and inclusion as a shared theme. We are aware that everyone has unconscious biases and believe that everyone should have equal opportunities. We aim for diversity management that enables our diverse staff to harness their capabilities in their own unique way while producing results for the company and organization.
Main initiatives
Promotion Framework
The department specializing in diversity and inclusion (D&I) was established and began full-scale operations in 2010. Currently, the All Employees Participation Promotion Office is working on this together with the appointed coordinators at each business entity (including affiliates). In addition to implementing company-wide activity measures, we are also taking actions to solve problems and raise penetration levels at each business location.
Organization Framework
Promotion of Female Employee’s Activities
Women account for nearly half of Calbee’s entire workforce. We have a target to increase the number of women in management roles to at least 30%, so that female representation in decision-making would be proportional to the percentage of women on our workforce. Under the leadership of top management, we are systematically and continuously promoting women’s advancement in the workplace, organizing a range of training programs and workshops, and striving to create a pleasant and rewarding workplace environment.
Percentage of women in management
Initiatives to support the active participation of women
| Initiatives | Program description |
|---|---|
| Food manufacturers’ joint training program for female employees | A cross-industry training program that allows participants to learn from other companies’ role models so that they can take a step forward toward their future career goals. |
| Female leader development program | A selective training program aimed at future leader candidates to help them keep a good life-work balance, develop a career mindset, and improve problem solving skills. |
| Seminar for returning to work after childcare leave | A seminar to help female employees to return to work with confidence after childcare leave and to learn the know-how of mentally balancing work commitments and childcare responsibilities through conversations with those who have been in the same situation. |
| Communications support in the pregnancy to preschool phase | To support female employees during the pregnancy to preschool phases, they are provided with a handbook that explains when and how to communicate with supervisors and junior staff so that they can take time off and smoothly transition back to work. |
Training program for female leader candidates
Promoting the active participation of diverse human resources
Turning differences in values into organizational strength
We believe it is important for employees to have chances to learn about the differences between their own values and experiences and those of others. That can make us a company of diverse employees who harness their abilities to drive the competitive strength of the company. During FY2020 we held an e-leaning session to give managers an opportunity to learn about unconscious bias. Dialogues in the everyday workplace are also deepening mutual understanding and accelerating inclusion.
Encouraging employment of people with disabilities
In 2007, we established special subsidiary Calbee Eatalk Co., Ltd., with the aim of creating a company where diverse human resources can play an active role regardless of gender nationality, age and the existence or absence of disabilities. Calbee Eatalk is an employment office used by a large number of people with severe disabilities, whose main activity is the packaging of souvenir products. In 2018, the East Japan Office was opened with the aim of expanding the scale of this business. Calbee and Calbee Eatalk had a combined 2.65% employment rate of disabled people in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023. As we leverage the expertise of this special subsidiary, all companies in the Group will be working together to promote the hiring of employees with disabilities while broadening the scope in which they can actively contribute.
LGBTQ initiatives
Human rights are respected in the Calbee Group and discrimination or harassment based on sexual orientation or gender identity are not accepted, as spelled out in the Calbee Group Code of Conduct. Accordingly, we are dedicatedly working to establish workplaces where all employees can put their enthusiasm and energy into their work while being themselves. We have expanded the applicability of the Calbee Program to same-sex partners of employees, while also conducting lectures and seminars by LGBTQ speakers and disseminating information by distributing handbooks to promote understanding through our intranet and in-house newsletters.
Supporting the active participation of diverse human resources
Support programs and subsidies
| Main systems | Details | |
|---|---|---|
| Systems supporting diverse working styles | Mobile work | From April 2014, an operation launched with an upper limit of two times per week. From April 2017, we removed limits on frequency. From July 2020, office workers are in principle mobile workers. |
| Return Entry | This system allows employees who resigned due to life events or other career opportunities who wish to rejoin Calbee priority in taking on their new challenge. | |
| Full flex time | Flextime introduced in 1991. Full flextime introduced and core time (time in which employees must be at work) eliminated in July 2020. | |
| Systems supporting a balance between family and work | Postpartum childcare leave | Employees can take up to 4 weeks off during the first 8 weeks after childbirth. |
| Childcare leave | Can be used up to the day before the child’s second birthday. | |
| Shortened working hours for childcare | The specified working hours per day is five hours or more, and working hours can be reduced in 30-minute increments (until child finishes third grade). | |
| Parenting support leave | Employees can take 10 consecutive or separate days off (with pay) anytime from 6 weeks prior to the partner’s expected due date (or 14 weeks for multiple pregnancies) up to the day before the child’s second birthday. | |
| Childcare leave for returning employees | Employees who have returned to work after giving birth can take 5 consecutive or separate days off (with pay) during the first year after returning to work. | |
| Child nursing leave | Employees can take up to 10 days off per year in daily, half-day, or hourly increments (until the child finishes the third grade). | |
| Nursing care leave | Can be used consecutively within one year for one person requiring nursing care for a period approved by the company. | |
| Shortened working hours for nursing care | Specified working hours per day are six hours or more, and working hours can be reduced in 30-minute increments (up to two times in three years per person requiring nursing care). | |
| Family nursing care leave | Up to 10 days per year, able to be used in half-day increments. | |
| Fertility treatment cost subsidy program | Money given as part of the costs of fertility treatment for married couples. | |
| One-off maternity and childcare payment | Given as part of maternity expenses, together with an additional payment. | |
| Thank-you-for-returning-to-work-early payment (Ex gratia payment for early return to work) | Given to employees who return to work within one year of childbirth to thank them for returning early and to show that the company looks forward to their active contribution | |
| Congratulatory payment for elementary school enrollment | Money given to congratulate employees on their child’s enrollment in elementary school | |
| Financial aid for school costs (offered when parents go back to full-time work) | Financial aid to cover the educational costs of children when parents go back to full-time work | |
| Cafeteria Plan subsidies (for childcare, family nursing care, and personal and professional development) | Subsidies aimed at encouraging employees to make efforts to develop their self-reliance and autonomy | |
| Systems to support active participation by diverse human resources | LGBTQ-friendly systems | The Calbee Program to be applied to same-sex common-law marriage partners of employees |