BellSystem24

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Diversity and Inclusion

1. Policy and Basic Concept

We place diversity at the core of management to "build diverse workplaces where our employees can work with peace of mind, good health and can work as themselves" as stated in our Sustainability Policy. We have defined "diversity of human resources and workstyles" as the most critical issue among our material issues.

Each of our employees with their various individualities making the most of their abilities has led to our business growth so far. We believe we need an environment where all our employees can further raise their performance while feeling respected and trusted by their peers and the company.

We are creating systems and an organizational culture so that each of our employees can play a role by understanding their individualities and background. This is based on the following Basic Diversity and Inclusion Policy.

Basic Policy on Diversity and Inclusion

  1. The individual differences everyone has are the richness of individuality and characteristics. We will continue to create workplaces where there is peace of mind without discrimination based on mere differences. We will continue to develop the richness of our diversity as a force that sustains the competitiveness of our organization and the sustainability of our society.
  2. We will also enhance the sophistication of systems and measures from the perspective of diversity. We will strive to ensure women, people with disabilities and minority groups can have fair influence on the functions and hierarchies of decision-making in a balanced manner.
  3. We will aim for a percentage of female employees in officer positions*1 of 10% or more and a percentage of female employees in managerial positions*2 of 20% or more by 2025.
  4. We will always manage business with an emphasis on diversity and equality of opportunities. That also applies to the configuration of personnel in recruitment, training, sales, management and all other operations. We will foster an organizational culture which respects this way of business management.
  5. We will aim to diversify workstyles so that diverse human resources can demonstrate their respective abilities to the maximum possible extent. Therefore, we will develop systems that also match the life events and stages of our employees.
  6. We will promote the maintenance and improvement of mental and physical health. We believe that promoting the health of employees is the foundation to diverse workstyles of diverse human resources. We will proactively promote health management.
  • *1: Directors, Auditors and Corporate Officers
  • *2: Manager positions and above
  • *3: The President, CEO and Representative Director, and the Director and Corporate Officer SVP in charge of Diversity are responsible for the supervision and implementation of the achievement of the targets set in the policy, introduction of the systems and the provision of related training under their signatures with respect to this policy. In addition, the Board of Directors supervises the progress on these matters. The Executive Committee (an advisory body to the President attended by all Corporate Officers) grasps the situation of all policy levels and drafts and introduces measures. The Corporate Officers are responsible for achieving individual targets and providing training in the divisions under their responsibility.
Established on May 1, 2022
Hiroshi Kajiwara, President, CEO and Representative Director
Takehiko Go, Director and Corporate Officer SVP in charge of Diversity

2. Promotion Organization

We established the Diversity Promotion Group as a full-time standing organization in 2016. It plays a central role in promoting diversity.

  • We have assigned a director to be in charge of diversity and clarified the responsibilities of the Board of Directors. We have also established a Diversity Promotion Group under the command of that director. The group plays a leading role in various initiatives. Those initiatives include the development of management policies on diversity, planning and implementation of measures, delivery of training, and provision of external activities. It also continuously manages risks and issues. The director in charge reports important themes to the Board of Directors.
  • We are promoting diversity even more effectively by working closely with the Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) who is in charge of sustainability company-wide and the Sustainability Promotion Division under the command of the CSO.

3. Targets

Issue to be solved
  • Develop a work environment where diverse human resources can work in diverse styles as the most critical issue among our material issues
Response policy
  • Maintain recruitment and employment with diversity
  • Expand personnel systems that support diversity of people and workstyles
  • Provide ways of working to suit life events and stages (temporary retirement and senior human resources, etc.)
  • Provide education and training to develop an organizational culture that respects diversity
Targets (Metrics)
Percentage of female employees in officer positions
  • 2025 target: 10% or more
  • Current (FY2023): 18.2%
Percentage of female employees in managerial positions
  • 2025 target: 20% or more
  • Current (FY2023): 21.2%
Percentage of employees with disabilities among all employees
  • 2.3% (Statutory target)
  • Current (FY2023): 3.17%
Childcare leave take-up rate
  • 2024 target: 100% (female) / 50% or more (male)
  • Female employees (FY2023): 100%
  • Male employees (FY2023): 60.0%
  • *The percentage of female employees in officer and managerial positions is for BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings and BELLSYSTEM24. The percentage of employees with disabilities among all employees is for BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings, BELLSYSTEM24 (excluding Taiwan) and CTC First Contact where there are over 100 permanent employees in Japan. The childcare leave take-up rate is disclosed on a consolidated basis excluding BELLSYSTEM24 Vietnam
  • *The percentage of women in managerial positions excludes those seconded to other companies but includes those who have been seconded to our company.
  • *The percentage of female employees in officer positions and managerial positions on a consolidated basis is 14.0% and 23.0% respectively.
  • *The average rate of male parental leave uptake is 53.1% (according to the "The 2024 CSR Kigyo Soran (Directory of CSR Corporations) (Ranking and Aggregation)"), and our company has a higher tendency of uptake compared to the average.

Action Plan Based on the "Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children" (227KB/2P)

Action Plan Based on the "Act of Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace"(314KB/2P)

4. Initiatives

Promotion of women's empowerment in the Workplace

[ Basic Policy ]

  • We are focusing on developing workplaces where each of our employees can work comfortably with peace of mind. We want them to be able to display their abilities to the maximum possible extent regardless of their gender. Approximately 80% of our employees are female. That means it is even more important for us than other companies to create workplaces where women can be a success. We consider that a major social responsibility for us.
  • We are committed to developing careers and building pipelines to increase the percentage of female employees in managerial positions. The percentage of female employees in managerial positions in 2023 is 21.2%. That is a big improvement from when it was 10.6% in 2016.We have achieved our 20% target for 2025 ahead of schedule. We will aim to continue increasing the percentage of female employees in managerial positions.We also need to increase that percentage to increase the one in officer positions.We will proactively continue to work on that with a multifaceted approach in the future.

[ Concrete Initiatives ]

  • Female employee talent pipeline management:
    • We are managing talent pipelines by individuals and departments for managerial positions of manager and above.
    • We are also managing talent pipelines by individuals and departments in the same way for those who have yet to reach managerial positions.
    • Since 2021, we have been conducting the Women's Challenge Program, a training program aimed at nurturing female candidates for managerial positions. Over the past three years, 82 individuals have participated in the program, and as of March 1, 2024, 25 of them have been promoted to managerial positions.
    • We review new graduate and mid-career recruitment plans to expand pipelines according to the progress on those pipelines.
  • Support with personnel systems:
    • System for career planning available to all female employees
    • System for mentoring by officers available to employees who are candidates for executive management positions
    • System for the creation of training plans by individual female employees with their superiors
  • Training
    Category Training Number of Participants
    Group training Women's Challenge Program 27
    Welcome Back Program: Program to Support Those Returning to Work after Taking Childcare Leave 17
    The training program "SOGI Harassment" 23
    Seminars in groups Thinking about Female Employees Working in a Way That Suits Them 10
    Nationwide Support Team for Parents! 18
    LGBTQ & Allies 11
    Mental Health Management 20
    Program to Allow Elderly Employees to Shine 10
    Lectures and sessions with external lecturers Diversity Management as a Business Strategy 449
    Women's Health and Well-being Seminar 69
    Working Mom's Session 11
    e-learning Human Rights Training(Mandatory for all employees) 2,157
    Unconscious Bias (Mandatory for all employees) 2,157
    Unconscious Bias (Mandatory by hierarchy) 55
    Harassment Training (Mandatory for all employees) 2,157
    Working Women and Health Issues 420
    Support for Balancing Work and Nursing Care 157
    Let's Understand LGBT 98
  • Partnership:
    • We are participating in the J-Win NPO to enhance the quality of activities through exchanges with other companies.

[ Targets (Metrics) ]

Percentage of female employees in officer positions
  • 2025 target: 10% or more
  • Current (FY2023): 18.2%
Percentage of female employees in managerial positions
  • 2025 Target: 20% or more
  • Current (FY2023): 21.2%
  • *These targets are for BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings and BELLSYSTEM24.
  • *The percentage of women in managerial positions excludes those seconded to other companies but includes those who have been seconded to our company.

Initiatives for Diversity of Workstyles and Support for Balancing Work with Childcare or Nursing Care

[ Basic Policy ]

  • We are focusing our efforts on reforming the workstyles of our employees. For example, we participated in a series of Telework Days held in collaboration with the government, Tokyo and related organizations. The number of people working from home during the period in 2019 was approximately three times that in 2017.

[ Concrete Initiatives ]

  • We have introduced a full flex system with no core time.
  • We prohibit long working hours. (We strictly manage overtime hours and promote the planned take-up of paid vacation.)
  • Training
    Category Training Number of Participants
    Group training Welcome Back Program: Program to Support Those Returning to Work after Taking Childcare Leave 17
    Seminars in groups Nationwide Support Team for Parents! 18
    Lectures and sessions with external lecturers Working Mom's Session 11
    e-learning Support for Balancing Work and Nursing Care 157

[ Targets (Metrics) ]

  • We are encouraging men to take-up childcare leave.
    Percentage of male employees who take-up childcare leave
    • 2024 target: 50% or more
    • Current (FY2023): 60.0%
    • *The above indicators are disclosed on a consolidated basis excluding BELLSYSTEM24 Vietnam.
    • *The average rate of male parental leave uptake is 53.1% (according to the "The 2024 CSR Kigyo Soran (Directory of CSR Corporations) (Ranking and Aggregation)"), and our company has a higher tendency of uptake compared to the average.

Employment of People with Disabilities

[ Basic Policy ]

  • We have promoted business together with many people with disabilities in a natural way. We have maintained the concept of a social model over our entire organization as our basic stance. We are striving to become a company with various workstyle options for individuals even from the perspective of people with disabilities. We are creating workplaces that make work more rewarding for people with disabilities.
  • We are promoting various initiatives for people with disabilities. We have formed partnerships with those outside the company to manufacture chocolate and operate in-house cafes. This is based on Goal 17 of the SDGs: partnerships for the goals.
  • We will continue to create an organization in which all the more people with disabilities can be a success in the workplace with even more diverse work styles in the future. We are aiming for sustainable and healthy growth.

[ Concrete Initiatives ]

[ Targets (Metrics) ]

  • Percentage of employees with disabilities
    Percentage of employees with disabilities
    • 2.3% (Statutory target)
    • Current (FY2023): 3.17%
    *This target is for BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings, BELLSYSTEM24 (excluding Taiwan branches), BELL SOLEIL and CTC First Contact where there are over 100 permanent employees in Japan.
  • Record of Hiring People with disabilities
    Number of Employees with Disabilities
    FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
    Japan 519 605 698
    Taiwan 0 1 1
    Vietnam - - 9
    Total 519 606 708
    *Vietnam refers to the record of BELLSYSTEM24 Vietnam which became a subsidiary in FY2023.

LGBTQ

[ Basic Policy ]

  • Our human rights policy prohibits discrimination based on gender, gender identity, sexual orientation and sexual expression in all our business activities and dealings.
  • We will revise our existing systems and regulations aiming to increase the sophistication of workplaces where all our employees can work with peace of mind.

[ Concrete Initiatives ]

  • We revised our existing systems and regulations in relation to sexual minorities in 2019.
  • We revised our work regulations, congratulation and condolence money regulations, job transfer handling regulations, overseas work regulations, nursing care leave regulations, and regulations on childcare leave and maternity protection for expectant and nursing mothers. Our aim is to also guarantee fair and equal opportunities and treatment for same-sex partners and de-facto spouses.
  • We added a clause recognizing same-sex partners and those in a situation similar to that of marriage as spouses to the definition of spouses when revising those regulations. We have stipulated we will not discriminate in any way with congratulation and condolence money or business rights and obligations.
  • We are also proactively engaged in activities to foster our organizational culture in addition to our initiatives with respect to our systems.
    • We are continuing to strengthen our initiatives in compliance with the PRIDE Index. We received the bronze award in 2018. We were then the first in the industry to receive the gold award in 2019. We have received the gold award as a company that satisfies all indicators for five consecutive years from 2019.
      • Strengthening of employee literacy (e-learning and lectures with external lecturers, etc.)
      • Employee LGBTQ ally declarations (creation of stickers and distribution to interested employees)
      • Launch and activities of the LGBTQ & ALLY community comprised of volunteer employees
      • LGBTQ awareness events (Bell Pride Month, introduction to measures against harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity, and dialogue between officers and concerned parties, etc.)

Employment of Senior Human Resources

[ Basic Policy ]

  • We have introduced a continuous employment system up to the age of 65 years old. We provide a work environment where those who wish to work beyond the age of 60 years old can do so with peace of mind. We offer employment opportunities according to individual skills regardless of age on an equal basis.
  • Human resources will continue to be our most important management resource in a society in which the birthrate is decreasing and the population is aging in the future. Therefore, we will continue to proactively employ seniors in the future as an important force to enhance business continuity.

[ Concrete Initiatives ]

  • We have achieved 100% re-employment of all those who wish to continue working beyond the age of 60 years old.
  • We are also proactively recruit seniors as communicators working on the frontline. We have been providing a version of the SUDAchi program for seniors on-site since 2017 to those who lack PC and business skills. This program sends participants out into the field after providing them with special training before they start work.

[ Targets (Metrics) ]

Re-employment rate 100%
Actual (FY2023) 100%
Actual number of people employed who are aged 65 years and over (FY2023) 1,161
Employment of Senior Human Resources

Recruitment of Local Human Resources

[ Basic Policy ]

  • Our basic policy is to recruit people without discrimination based on region.
  • We have established recruitment organization responsible for regions (Field HR) in approximately 40 contact centers in Japan. That allows us to conduct decentralized recruitment completely rooted in the regions.
  • We may set requirements for skills or qualifications needed in operations when recruiting people. However, even in such cases, we recruit people based on our human rights policy. We do not set any conditions concerning gender or sexual minorities.

[ Concrete Initiatives ]

  • We introduced a pre-training program called SUDAchi on-site in 2017. We temporarily employ human resources we previously passed on hiring because of their lack of skills. We then send them out into the field after providing them with special training before they start work.
  • We are proactively offering shorter working hours, re-employing people who have previously left us and utilizing seniors. This allows us to support various life events and stages. Many people have actually joined our company multiple times.
  • We basically recruit people in each region with our approximately 40 contact centers across Japan. We give our recruitment record by region below. Our regionally dispersed business model forms the foundation that supports the continuity of our business and the provision of business continuity functions (BCP) to our customers.
    Number of Employees by Region(Fixed-term Contract Employees)(Unit: People)
    FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
    Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total
    Hokkaido 679 1,764 2,443 602 1,609 2,211 535 1,524 2,059
    Tohoku 109 227 336 60 137 197 45 164 209
    Kanto 1,290 2,322 3,612 1,051 1,958 3,009 956 1,673 2,629
    Chubu 80 239 319 65 225 290 54 131 185
    Kinki 448 1,274 1,722 464 1,095 1,559 218 712 930
    Chugoku 908 280 1,188 240 955 1,195 186 753 939
    Shikoku 53 223 276 64 222 286 45 178 223
    Kyushu 691 1,535 2,226 517 1,158 1,675 481 1,045 1,526
    Okinawa 120 515 635 159 493 652 114 280 394
    Other 49 79 128 6 14 20 2 8 10
    Grand Total 4,427 8,458 12,885 3,228 7,866 11,094 2,636 6,468 9,104
  • We support local communities across Japan through employment with recruitment rooted in the regions. We define "involvement in local communities (solving social issues)" as one of our material issues. We have established support for reducing social disparities as a concrete theme in that. We provide support to solve various disparities faced by regions. An example of this is that we are contributing to sports promotion and regional revitalization. We are doing this through activities such as sponsoring a local sports club and hiring athletes in our facilities.
    Sports Promotion Activities
    北海道コンサドーレ札幌 バドミントンチーム
    北海道コンサドーレ札幌 バドミントンチーム
    北海道コンサドーレ札幌 バドミントンチーム 選手就労

Provision of Indefinite-term Contracts to Fixed-term Contract Employees

  • We provide the opportunity for indefinite-term employment on an equal basis to all fixed-term contract employees who desire that after they have worked with us continuously for over six months. We have been providing this opportunity since before the revision to labor related laws and regulations.
  • Part time employees work with us under the Worker Dispatching Act. We make sure to meet the obligations required of us as an employer of temporary employees based on laws/ordinances and guidelines. We appropriately enter into contracts, manage ledgers and assign managers in accordance with the latest laws/ordinances and interpretations of those.

Number of Foreign Employees in Japan

  • A total of 117 people with foreign nationalities work at several of our contact centers utilizing their Japanese and native language skills (current as of 2023).
*The number of employees indicates the total number of full-time employees and contract employees.

Recruitment of Local Human Resources Overseas

We have a total of three locations overseas, including branch offices, subsidiaries, and affiliated companies. BellSystem24 Vietnam has almost all employees who are Vietnamese.

[ Targets (Metrics) ]

  • We recruit people without discrimination based on region for 100% of our employees.
    Target Recruit people without discrimination based on region for 100% of our employees
    Actual (FY2023) 100% (We have realized decentralized recruitment rooted in all our contact centers)
  • We will increase the range of home-based workstyles and further expand recruitment without reliance on contact center location.
    Target (2025) Realize home-based work for 4,000 employees
    Actual (FY2023) 3,138 employees

5. Data

Percentage of Female Employees in Managerial, Officer and Corporate Officer Positions(Unit: People)
Managerial Officer and Corporate Officer Positions
Total Female Share(%) Total Female Share(%)
FY2023 472 100 21.2 22 4 18.2
FY2022 460 87 18.9 23 2 8.7
  • *The results for each fiscal year indicate the numerical figures at the beginning of the next fiscal year.
  • *These targets are for BELLSYSTEM24 Holdings and BELLSYSTEM24
Employment of Disabled Persons
Percentage of employees with disabilities(%)
FY2023 3.17
FY2022 2.85
Take-up of childcare and nursing care leave
FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Men Women Total Men Women Total Men Women Total
Childcare Number of employees taking up childcare leave 22 20 42 28 34 62 27 33 60
Childcare leave take-up rate (%) 52.4 95.2 71.8 100 60 100
Rate of return to work after childcare leave (%) 100 98.2 98.4
Nursing care Number of employees taking up nursing care leave 0 2 3

6. Evaluation by Society

Eruboshi Certification (Stage 3)

Eruboshi Certification

This program certifies companies with an excellent situation concerning promotion of the success of women in the workplace. (Acquired in 2018 / Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

Platinum Kurumin Authorization

Platinum Kurumin Authorization

This program certifies companies with particularly excellent initiatives to support the balancing of work and childcare. (Acquired in 2019 / Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare)

Nadeshiko Brand 2019

Nadeshiko Brand 2019

This program certifies listed companies engaging in outstanding initiatives to promote the success of women in the workplace.
(Acquired in 2019 / Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and the Tokyo Stock Exchange)

PRIDE Index 2023

PRIDE Index 2022

This program certifies initiatives for sexual minorities such as LGBTQs in workplaces.
(2023 / work with Pride)