Initiatives for employee, and other initiatives | Sustainability | Company Information

＜Policies＞

Creating a safe workplace environment in which it is easy for employees to do their jobs through respect for human rights and diversity, and the elimination of all discrimination and harassment, we engage in health-based management.

From GCI Group CSR Policy “Employees”

Creating an environment in which it is easy for employees to do their jobs; respect for human rights and diversity

Workplace environment policy

To ensure that the organizations in our group are able to make maximal use of their capacity, we provide, with a focus on workplace safety and physical and mental health, a workplace in which it is easy for employees to do their jobs, building a culture that respects diverse ways of thinking and encourages all employees to take on new challenges.

We engage in the following activities to optimize and improve our corporate working environment.

■ Physical health promotion activities

Every year, employees take regular health checks, with measures in place to ensure that expert referrals for re-examination or more detailed examinations are in place where required.

Additionally, employees who handle organic resins and other specific chemical compounds have further specific health checks twice a year, to prevent any potential health damage from such compounds.

■ Mental health

We engage in various annual activities under our annual “Better Mental Health Plan”.

①New employee training: new employee training includes mental health training.
②Supervisor training: we provide various types of training to teach managers and supervisors how to care for the mental health of their employees
③Anti-harassment training: managers and supervisors are obliged to take courses including online courses.
④Employee awareness training: we raise employee awareness of mental health issues through internal newsletters, leaflets and other means.
⑤Stress checks: all employees (including employees at premises with less than 50 employees where there is no legal obligation to provide such checks) are given an opportunity once a year to confirm their stress levels.
⑥Contact and support organizations: we provide a telephone hotline, staffed by experts from external organizations, who can provide employees with easily accessible advice from mental health issues.

We employ occupational physicians to provide lectures on healthcare and offer consultations to support the physical or mental health development of our employees.

■ Policies for the prevention of passive smoking

In line with the amendment of the Health Promotion Act in April 2020, we completely ban all smoking on the premises and during business hours to prevent unintended passive smoking.

■ Good corporate citizen on health management 2023

Under the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program*, established by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi (Japan Health Council), GCI Group is recognized as a FY2023 recognized organization under the large enterprise category. We will continue to support employee’s physical and mental health development, helping sustain employee enthusiasm and motivation, and encouraging employees to live fulfilling lives, making the most of their potential. (See here for our health management strategy map.)

*The Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program, which operates in accordance with initiatives for promoting health in the community and initiatives for promoting health advocated by the Nippon Kenko Kaigi, is a system for recognizing the work of companies that are particularly engaged in strong health-based management. By making such companies more visible to the public, the system aims to help current employees, potential employees, related companies, financial institutions, and other parties recognize and provide social rewards for companies that “consider the management of employee health from a business management standpoint, taking strategic action”.

■ Work-life balance

A good balance between professional and private lives is essential for employees to make maximum use of their capabilities and work with motivation and enthusiasm.
At GCI Group, we support employees during times when it is temporarily difficult for them to attend work, including pregnancy and childbirth, when looking after children or other family members, or when taking time off for illness, allowing employees to select from a diverse range of employment options, systems of shorter working hours and opportunities for working at home.

Systems for childcare leave, shorter working hours for childcare, nursing care leave, shorter working hours for nursing care

For example, as a rule, leave for childcare is available until the child turns one year old, with shorter working hours for childcare available until the child turns five years old. In addition, employees who are taking care of children who have yet to enter elementary school can take leave to take care of their children when they are sick. Through these systems, we provide various childcare support.

【Rates of childcare leave uptake】

	FY2020		FY2021		FY2022
	Men	Women	Men	Women	Men	Women
Number of people taking leave/Number of people eligible for leave	1/15	3/3	4/9	0/0	4/8	4/4
Uptake rate	6.7％	100％	44％	---	50％	100％
% returning to work after leave	100％	100％	100％	---	100％	100％
% at work one year after returning to work	100％	100％	100％	---	100％	100％

*Childcare leave uptake rate (men) = "number of male employees who took childcare leave” ÷ “number of males employees whose spouse gave birth” x 100
*Childcare leave uptake rate (women) = "number of female employees who took childcare leave” ÷ “number of females employees who gave birth” x 100
*If an employee’s period of childcare leave extended over two different fiscal years, the employee is counted for the fiscal year during which the leave began.

【Uptake rate for paid leave】

■ Our stance on human rights

At GCI Group, we support International Bill of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work of the International Labour Organization (ILO). In accordance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, we work to respect the human rights of everyone involved in our businesses.

Human Rights Policy

■ Women's Empowerment

In accordance with Japan’s Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life, we are working to increase our ratio of female managers.

General Employer Action Plan based on the Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life

■ Promotion of employment of persons with disabilities

At GCI Group, we employ persons with disabilities in accordance with the Act to Facilitate the Employment of Persons with Disabilities.

■ Publication of percentage of mid-career hires in accordance with the Act on Comprehensively Advancing Labor Measures, and Stabilizing the Employment of Workers, and Enriching Workers' Vocational Lives

In accordance with the Act on Comprehensively Advancing Labor Measures, and Stabilizing the Employment of Workers, and Enriching Workers' Vocational Lives, we publish the percentage of our regular employees who were employed as mid-career hires.

	FY2020	FY2021	FY2022
Percentage of regular employees employed as mid-career hires	22%	52%	55%

Publication date: March 1, 2023

Personnel development

Personnel development policies

At GCI Group, our core values of a personal development are to train personnel who “take responsibility for their results and always see things through”, “are able to act independently to instigate change”, “have a wide range of interest and are open to continued learning”. Our goal is to foster individuals who can make the largest possible contribution to the group, while also fostering leaders who can make maximum use of our Group’s potential.

Our personal development policies include the activities below.

①New recruit training, new recruit on the job training, new recruit follow-up training
②Mid-level employee training
③Foreign language training
④Training for a new managers and supervisors
⑤Career development training
⑥Compliance training
⑦Various training courses provided by internal and external lectures
⑧Online learning

■ Employee proposal system

As part of our efforts to continually improve our business, we have adopted an employee proposal system. The system allows employees to provide a wide range of proposals and ideas that can contribute to an improved, more comfortable workplace, leading to the further development and enhancement of our business. Such proposals may cover not only the workplace environment, but also business processes, cost reductions, and equipment and facilities. Excellent proposals are evaluated as ranks A to D and proposal award.

GCI Group Sustainable Procurement Policy

1. We conduct procurement activities that consider environmental conservation, aiming to create a recycling-oriented society.
2. We comply with laws and social norms and conduct sound and fair procurement activities.
3. We respect basic human rights in our procurement activities.
4. We carry out procurement activities with an emphasis on product quality, productivity improvement, and safety.
5. We strive to properly manage information obtained from business partners.
6. We work on safety and health activities and aim to create a healthy and prosperous society.

We have established a procurement policy in accordance with the GCI Group's Sustainability.

Other

■ Investment in intellectual property

At GCI Group, under our long-term vision of “aiming to become Green Chemical Industry (GCI) that contributes to a sustainable growth of society by creating solutions globally through the development and restructuring of synthesis and saccharification technologies,“ we are continually taking on the challenge of producing new technology. When such activities result in the development of new intellectual property, we work actively to secure our rights to that new technology both within and outside Japan, working from a global perspective to secure our rights and promote the effective use of them throughout the group respecting the intellectual property rights of third parties.
We have also put in place a comprehensive system for rewarding inventors of new technology, making every effort to encourage activities that result in ongoing creation of advanced, high-quality intellectual property. Furthermore, as we develop intellectual property and accumulate patents, we provide opportunities for discussions between our development, sales and marketing departments, to encourage the use of intellectual property as an important tool in our technical and business strategies, ensuring that our intellectual property contributes to our business activities.
Through the continued provision of practical training on intellectual property for our employees, we keep on strengthening our creative foundations, as we work to further improve our corporate value.
Research and development expenses: ¥1,371 million.
Research development expenses as a percentage of sales revenue: 4.37%
(FY 2022 consolidated results)

■ GCI Group has received a Certificate of Thanks from the Gunma Prefectural Police in recognition of our efforts to combat cybercrime

Recently, GCI Group was honored to receive a Certificate of Thanks from the Gunma Prefectural Police in recognition of the significant efforts we have made to cooperate in the fight against cyberattacks. Gunma Prefectural Police have designated GCI Group as a Critical Infrastructure Provider*, and our company is a member of the Gunma Prefecture Cyberterrorism Countermeasures Association. We work regularly in close cooperation with the Gunma Prefectural Police and the National Police Agency to remain aware of the latest trends in cyberattacks, provide samples of suspicious software found by our company, and perform vulnerability testing. As cybercrimes become increasingly sophisticated, we will continue to work together with investigative authorities and securities companies to take effective security measures.

*Critical Infrastructure Provider
Critical infrastructure providers are those businesses that provide the infrastructure foundational for the lives of citizens on the nation’s economic activity, whereby a decline in the quality or interruption of the infrastructure service would result in significant social disruption. The government has designated 14 critical infrastructure industries including telecommunications, finance, aviation, airports and ports, railways, power generation, gas, governmental administration, medical services, water services, logistics, chemicals, credit services and the oil industry.

■ Introduction of telematics service

Recently, an increasing number of devices are connected to the Internet through the Internet of Things (IoT). One example of the IoT is telematics services. These services allow transmission and receipt of various information from moving vehicles via the installation of Internet-enabled devices. To promote the management of safe, environmentally-friendly driving, we have installed Internet-enabled vehicle data recorders on some of our fleet vehicles.

Sustainability

5.Initiatives for employee,
and other initiatives