1. Policy and Basic Concept

• We have established "diversity of human resources and work styles" as the most critical theme in our material issues. More than 30,000 diverse people have supported our business so far. We are building diverse workplaces where our employees can work with peace of mind, good health and can work as themselves and are striving to ensure our human resources can demonstrate their abilities to the maximum possible extent. We are creating that environment by reforming diversifying workstyles (fully flexible work system with no core time and mobile work system, etc.), developing various systems (support for work-life balance etc.), and enhancing employee welfare.
• Thorough compliance with labor laws and standards:
  • We have enacted our Human Rights Policy. We respect the ILO's Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. We comply with its four core labor standards: freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of all forms of forced labor; the abolition of child labor; and the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation.
  • We comply with the laws and regulations for all our business activities in the countries and regions where we conduct them including our supply chains in Japan and overseas. If there is a contradiction between internationally recognized human rights and the laws/ordinances in those countries and regions, we seek a way to pay the maximum respect for international human rights principles.
  • We prohibit all forms of modern slavery and human trafficking. We promote policies and initiatives to prevent modern slavery and human trafficking from occurring. We participate in the United Nations Global Compact. We also conduct human rights due diligence based on the concept of the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We then reflect the results of that due diligence into our business activities.
  • We ensure an appropriate working environment free from long working hours and forced labor and prohibit all forms of harassment. The aim of those measures is to build diverse workplaces where our employees can work with peace of mind, good health and can work as themselves. We pay appropriate wages above the minimum wage on a fair basis. Together with this, we maintain the principle of equal pay for equal work.
  • We comply with the Labor Standards Act and the Industrial Safety and Health Act. We have enacted the group-wide Health and Safety Policy and are focusing on the prevention of occupational accidents and the promotion of health as specific measures to ensure compliance with those laws. This policy covers all our employees including contract employees and temporary employees. We are aiming to improve the environment for all our employees with this policy.
  • We conduct annual health checkups and stress checks based on laws/ordinances and have introduced mandatory health and safety training. We undertake information campaigns to raise the awareness of our employees including contact employees and temporary employees.
  • We have introduced a Labor Counselling and Report Sheet and have established a counseling room for labor problems. We have also set up internal and external (lawyer) points of contact based on our whistleblower system/grievance reporting system and have established a mechanism to widely pick up and deal with grievances. These measures allow us to soundly provide help and to respond to those grievances. Contract employees, temporary employees, short-term employees, former employees and permanent contractor employees can use these systems.
  • We apply these policies group-wide. We also ask our contractors involved in all of our business activities and transactions to understand and comply with these policies. In addition, at the time of recruitment and contract renewal at domestic and overseas locations, working conditions such as work rules and terms and conditions of employment, which reflect the above policies, are presented and communicated to all employees.

2. Initiatives

Employee Engagement

• We conduct a company-wide engagement survey at least twice a year.
  • We have continuously monitored performance since 2019. We take measures to address the issues we identify through that monitoring on a company-wide basis.
  • The Board of Directors discusses the results of the survey at its meetings. It defines all the issues for each group at the smallest organizational level and then takes measures to improve those issues as an action plan. The Director in Charge of Human Resources is the person responsible for progress on the issues we have identified in the company. The Board of Directors provides oversight. The results of the survey showed that many of our employees want an improvement in the facilities (break room size and fixtures, etc.) in each call center and a faster system network. We are working on those issues in FY2023.
  • Our group has introduced a performance-linked stock compensation plan for our officers (Directors and Corporate Officers). We have adopted the degree of achievement in improving the score of our employee engagement survey as a non-financial metric in that plan. The stock compensation we grant to our officers varies depending on the final degree of achievement which reflects the relative weight of the company-wide score and the score of the division under their responsibility. The Remuneration Committee confirms and determines the target values and performance of each officer.
  • We have changed the survey method from FY2024.
  • Our most recent score in the Second survey in 2024 was 58.2
  • The survey shows that our strengths include ease of work in relation to holidays and working hours and our ability to respond to customers in relation to business.

    Trends in Engagement Survey

    System of the survey*1	2023 1st	2023 2nd	2024 1st	2024 2nd
    Rating System*2	BB	BB	-	-
    Scoring System*3	-	-	58.1	58.2

    • *1:We have changed the scoring method from FY2024 for the engagement survey results.
    • *2:We determine the overall rating based on the results of the survey.
    • *3:We calculate the overall score by selecting the questions most relevant to our business.

Promotion of Workstyle Reform

• Management of working hours:
  • We have introduced a fully flexible work system with no core time. At the same time, we are striving to eliminate overtime. We classify and manage overtime as follows: over 80 hours in a single month, over 60 hours on average and over 45 hours on average. The Board of Directors receives a report on the overtime situation monthly and takes measures if necessary.
  • We have introduced an attendance/absence management system on a company-wide basis. We have been performing efficient work management also utilizing tools in recent years when the number of our employees telecommuting has been increasing.

Support for Work-Life Balance

• System to support a balance of work and childcare and nursing care:
  • We have acquired Platinum Kurumin authorization from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. We satisfy high standards when it comes to improving the ratio of men taking up childcare leave, reducing overtime and promoting the take-up of annual paid leave.

  

  • We will also continue in the future to promote an expansion in the take-up of childcare leave in accordance with the Child Care and Family Care Leave Act revised in April 2022.
  • In addition, we have established the following systems to support employees with childcare (these systems all apply to raising children who have yet to enter elementary school).
    • Shortened working hours for childcare: it is possible to shorten the number of prescribed working hours per day to six
    • Limitation on overtime work: it is possible to request a limit on overtime work to a maximum of 24 hours a month and 150 hours a year
    • Exemption from work beyond the prescribed hours: it is possible to request an exemption from work beyond the prescribed hours
    • Limitation on late-night work: it is possible to request a limit on late-night work from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m.
    • Nursing care leave for children: it is possible to take up leave to provide nursing care to children up to five days a year
• Re-employment system:
  • We often re-employ people multiple times regardless of the reason. Although we need to consider the legal timing of contracts, we have no internal institutional or corporate culture barriers to re-employing people.
• Take-up of childcare and nursing care leave:

  		FY2022 ★			FY2023 ★			FY2024 ☆
  		Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women	Total
  Childcare	Number of employees taking up childcare leave	28	34	62	27	33	60	26	37	63
  	Childcare leave take-up rate (%)	71.8	100		60	100		68.4	100
  	Rate of return to work after childcare leave (%)	98.2			98.4			93.1
  Nursing care	Number of employees taking up nursing care leave	2			2			2

  ＊SGS Japan Inc. has conducted a third-party verification on the performance data marked with ★ below. Data with are in the process of verification.

  • * This rate is disclosed on a consolidated basis excluding BELLSYSTEM24 Vietnam.
  • * The national average rate of male parental leave uptake in Japan is 30.1% (according to the FY2023 Basic Survey of Gender Equality in Employment Management), and we have maintained a higher rate than the average.

  Number and Utilization Rate Trends of Childcare Leave

  

• BellSystem24 Group Employee Shareholding Association
  • Our group has introduced an employee stock purchase plan (ESPP). The purposes of this plan are to support our employees in forming assets and to raise their awareness of our corporate earnings.

  Situation Concerning Our Group Employee Shareholding Association

  	EY2022	EY2023	EY2024
  Number of participants	505	503	493
  Participation ratio (%)	21.9	21.4	21.8

  * The numerical figures are as of the end of each fiscal year.

Employee Welfare

• Establishment of workplace nurseries:
  We have established Bell Kids nurseries for the children of our employees in three of our contact centers in Okinawa, Sapporo and Fukuoka to support childcare by employees.

  

• We provide a system which allows the use of various services and facilities as Benefit Station (partnership with Benefit One).

  

• We provide special discounts to employees as a sponsor of KidZania Tokyo where we opened a call center pavilion in 2016.

  

  

• We have introduced Prepay Pocket. This is an advance salary payment system to support cases of sudden expenses.

  

• We participate in the ITOCHU Family Fair sponsored by our shareholder ITOCHU Corporation. The program provides employees with support to purchase goods and services at economical prices.

  

3. Data

SGS Japan Inc. has conducted a third-party verification on the performance data marked with ★ below. Data with are in the process of verification.