To create an environment where diverse human resources can work lively, the union and management have set up expert committees of various kinds to improve working systems and reinforce monitoring functions.
In addition, we regularly organize town hall meetings where employees can have direct dialogue with executives and make use of the opinions received in the meetings for organizational operation and planning of personnel systems.

Discussion Between Labor and Management

Sumitomo Electric believes that the development of a company goes hand-in-hand with the well-being of its workers' union members. On the basis of this belief, Sumitomo Electric strives to address various relevant issues by thorough discussion between labor and management, each party appreciating the other's standpoint.
The Central Management Council Meeting, which is held four times a year, has been organized in its history of more than 70 years.
Representatives of labor and management meet for opinion exchange concerning business environments and managing conditions in this meeting. We have also set up expert committees of various kinds, such as the Working Hour Reduction Expert Committee and the Health and Welfare Expert Committee.
To facilitate adaptation to diverse work styles and create an environment where all employees can work lively with smiles, we are improving various working systems and reinforcing monitoring functions.

System for Listening to Employee Opinion

●Implementation of Questionnaire Surveys of Employees

With the aim of creating a lively working environment, Sumitomo Electric started conducting an annual survey in 2006 targeting employees working at Sumitomo Electric and group companies in Japan. We monitored annual changes in employee liveliness, activity levels of organizations and the effects of personnel-related measures thereby utilizing the results for future planning. In 2022, we modified the survey contents and renamed it to the Sumitomo Electric Group Global Engagement Survey in order to roll it out to group companies overseas and enhance employee engagement. The results will continue to be used as reference information for various initiatives.


●Organization of Town Hall Meetings

Town hall meetings are held with the attendance of executives including the President, administrative members and manufacturing site managers. They involve vigorous exchange of opinions on the direction the company should take and problems to be solved, such as how managers should train subordinates and younger employees and how the workplaces should be operated. We also hold informal meetings to create a lively working environment, at which the HR & Administration Department holds dialogues with younger staffs and listens to their voices directly, on personnel issues including the current situation of each workplace regarding work style reforms, the personnel evaluation system and career building. We use these meetings to improve personnel-related measures, deepen young employees' understanding of the personnel system, and enhance motivation.

Company-wide Campaign for Work Style Reforms

Since 2008, we have promoted a company-wide campaign to achieve work styles that balance work and life. We conduct both company-wide and division-specific initiatives to reduce total annual working hours, encourage employees to take paid holidays and improve work efficiency and productivity.
In particular, we now conduct initiatives from various perspectives including efforts to change the corporate culture and awareness, as well as enhancement of productivity through the use of infrastructure and IT tools and the review of work rules and processes.

Support for Balancing Work and Life

Our past efforts have made certain results, such as the return of many female employees who have given birth to work after taking childcare leave. We will promote the expansion and improvement of the relevant systems to ensure that male employees can also participate in child rearing, as well as female employees, by taking childcare leave and leave when their spouses have given birth.
We are also implementing initiatives to deepen each employee’s understanding, such as posting a guidebook that introduces various systems that help balance work and life, as well as how to use them, on our intranet. Thus, we are promoting various measures to create a work environment where employees can balance work and life.

Various Types of Support

We support the life of each employee in various aspects.

■ Encouragement of male employees to participate in child rearing

As a measure to promote men’s participation in childcare, we have set a new company-wide goal of “Percentage of male employees who took childcare leave: 100%,” and in October 2022, we made it mandatory for employees to take childcare leave for five consecutive days or more within eight weeks from the birth of their children. We also take various initiatives to create a work environment that makes it easier for employees to take longer childcare leave in the medium to long term, such as spouse childcare support interviews, which are conducted when an employee reports that their spouse has become pregnant or given birth, and childcare support guidebooks for male employees and superiors.


■ Reemployment System

In April 2008, Sumitomo Electric introduced a scheme to reemploy employees who resigned due to circumstances beyond their control such as childbirth, childcare and nursing care. In the scheme, we organize interviews and reemploy eligible persons when they are able to return to work (within three years or, for those who moved overseas, five years from their resignation) and, as a general rule, assign them to their former workplaces.


■ System to take a leave to accompany his/her spouse who is assigned overseas

In April 2017, we introduced a system in which an employee can take temporary retirement of up to five years in order to accompany his/her spouse who is assigned overseas. This system allows temporary retirement in such a situation with the aim of preventing employees from quitting the Company.


■ Childcare Centers

As a measure to foster a supportive environment for employees working full-time while raising children, Sumitomo Electric opened childcare centers at its Yokohama and Osaka Works in March and April 2008 respectively and Itami Works in March 2009. In 2018, a new childcare center was established in the neighborhood of our Tokyo Head Office. As of March 31, 2024, these centers take care of 49 children in total.
In addition, for employees who cannot use our childcare centers, we are taking other supportive measures such as subsidizing their use of other childcare centers.


■ Babysitter Discount Coupon

We purchase Babysitter Discount Coupons, issued as support from Children and Families Agency, and distribute them free of charge to employees who wish to hire babysitters.


■ Hokatsu Concierge System

In the activities to find childcare facilities to take care of children (“hokatsu” in Japanese), various kinds of know-how are needed because the approach and schedule of such activities depend on the childcare environment in the place of residence and the month of birth of the children. This Hokatsu Concierge system, which started in November 2014, aims to help employees during childcare leave return to work smoothly at the time they hope to return.
Know-how on hokatsu depending on the circumstances of individual employees, as well as information on childcare facilities, is provided in this system.


■ Work from Home Arrangements

We introduced work from home arrangements, which allow employees who face restrictions on their work due to childcare, nursing care, etc. to work at home or other locations in fiscal 2016. In October 2018, we started to allow other employees who meet specific requirements, such as abilities to autonomously fulfill duties and make achievements, to use the system. The purposes of the expansion of the system include the realization of flexible and efficient work styles and the improvement of productivity through the review of work styles. In 2020, we started to apply special measures (temporary relaxation of requirements) from the perspectives of preventing the spread of COVID-19 infection and ensuring business continuity. The measures were abolished at the end of March 2023 and we have shifted to operations that focus on improving productivity and creating results, which are the original purposes. Specifically, while assuming that employees work from home for five days in a month on average, we allow them to work from home at the discretion of superiors as long as it does not exceed half of the monthly working days. Even when it exceeds half of the monthly working days, employees can work from home with approval from general managers. We will promote even more effective and efficient business operations with the hybrid use of working from home and coming to the office.


■ Volunteer leave program

Employees can take up to 10 holidays in a year to engage in volunteer activities approved by the Company. This system is used for various activities for contributing to society such as coaching of local children in sports activities and accompanying of children on trips for residential training and games.


■ Childbirth and Rearing Support Program

For female workers during pregnancy and parenting, it is especially important to have dialogue with their superiors in a detailed manner. In fiscal 2015, we introduced a system to organize dialogue between such an employee and her superior when she is found pregnant, one month before maternity leave, before return to work from childcare leave and two months after return to work from childcare leave, to help her return to work smoothly and work actively after the return from childcare leave. In fiscal 2019, the system was revised to also organize such dialogue six months after the return from childcare leave to encourage dialogue with focus on her career path.


■ International Employees Support Project

Since 2017, we have taken various measures to create a work environment where international employees can work comfortably. Specific measures include the establishment of a support desk where staff can give support in Japanese, English and Chinese, the development of bilingual systems (Japanese and English) for time and attendance management, business trip transportation expenses and other items, issuance of pay slips and internal regulations in English and creation of prayer rooms in major sites.