At Polyplastics, our Action Plan for Promoting Women’s Activities was established to create an environment and system in which female employees can play an active role over the long term, and this plan includes the target of increasing the proportion of female managers to 10% or more. In FY2022, as an initiative toward achieving that goal, our parent company Daicel worked with us to conduct a networking event for female managers.
The Daicel Group has a low number of female employees, and even fewer female managers. As a result, many female managers have concerns about not being able to share their worries with others, or lacking role models.
Therefore, we held a networking event where female managers gathered to share their experiences, information, and situations. During this event, female managers thought about how they could advance their own careers and contribute to the company while feeling a sense of “connection with others.”
At the event, the participants actively shared their opinions through multiple group work sessions. Speakers with executive experience in diversity promotion were invited to give lectures, and the participants learned tips for creating diversity-oriented organizations and building their careers as leaders. The group went on to discuss such themes what they want to convey to the company and what each can do for the company, summarized their ideas, and shared the results.
The participants remarked that it was a great opportunity to get to know not only one another but themselves better, and that the event exceeded expectations. Going forward, We will continue working toward the development of a comfortable working environment and system for all employees, including women.
To create a system and environment at Polyplastics in which female employees can work to the best of their abilities over the long term, we created the following action plan and are implementing various measures.
Taking One More Step
To improve our understanding of the opinions of employees from the bottom up, including on Polyplastics’ promotion of women’s activities—e.g., their thoughts, concerns, and wishes regarding such promotion—and apply them to future measures, we have begun holding online roundtable discussions by request. In FY2022, a total of 14 employees participated in two roundtable discussions on the theme of “Thinking about promoting the active participation of women,” and expressed their candid opinions and issues.
At the roundtable discussion, issues such as “In departments with few women, there are feelings of anxiety due to the lack of role models and situations where women find it difficult to work” and “There are superiors who do not have a sufficient understanding of workplaces that are comfortable for women” were raised. These opinions will be shared within the company while maintaining the anonymity of the speaker, and will be used to promote diversity and inclusion in the future.
At Polyplastics (domestic), we are aiming to create a work environment in which LGBT and other sexual minority employees can work without facing disadvantages or discrimination.
We declared our commitment to understanding and supporting LGBT people in FY2021, and since then we have been laying the foundation for these activities through the establishment of a consultation service and training for managers.
Furthermore, we finished establishing more specific systems and improvements in the work environment in FY2022.
We installed a multi-use toilet that can be used by anyone regardless of gender identity at Tokyo head office in FY2022.
In FY2022, we introduced and began operation of the Partnership System, in which common law and same-sex marriages can be registered, enabling such employees to utilize various company programs, including wedding leave, childcare leave, and nursing care leave.
Going forward, we will encourage the understanding of more employees by providing education and training not only for managers, which is already provided, but also for general employees.
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In the Job Support Team, which is made up of our employees with disabilities, a diverse range of duties are assigned based on each employee’s aptitude.
In FY2022, the team started a new initiative in which they make recycled candles from discarded candles from local temples and transform them into new scented candles. The candles are donated by temples throughout Shizuoka Prefecture, where the Polyplastics Fuji Plant is located. They crush the candle, melt it, color it, flavor it and harden it to make a new scented candle. This entire process is done by five members of the Job Support Team.
In the first year of the project, 20 prototypes were created from approximately 10 kilograms of candles, and samples were given to employees to help them relax the bodies and minds. Going forward, after getting feedback from employees who have used prototypes, they are planning to expand the project by donating the candles to local ceremony halls and handing them out as souvenirs to participants in corporate briefings and plant tours. In the future, they are also planning to sell the candles at bazaars and flea markets, and then donate the proceeds to charity.
We aim to create a workplace where diverse human resources can play an active role and work while feeling happy. As a foundation for this, we are striving to develop and enhance a system that makes it easier to take paid leave, a system for reappointment and rehiring, and a system for childcare and nursing care leave.
The childcare leave usage rate for employees with children born in FY2021 was 100% for women and 70.4% for men. Although the childcare leave usage rate for male employees decreased by 12.5 points compared to the previous year, going forward we will actively encourage male employees to use childcare leave.
In FY2022, the rate of employees with disabilities was 2.10%, lower than the previous fiscal year. We will exchange information with local special needs schools and also with organizations that support people with disabilities to expand our recruitment activities more widely and actively recruit people with both physical and intellectual disabilities.