The FINANCIAL — Hitachi, Ltd. announced on November 28 that it will further accelerate activities aimed at promoting diversity as part of ongoing management strategies, and will aim to achieve a 10％ ratio for both female and non-Japanese Executive Officers and Corporate Officers by FY2020.
Within Hitachi, active participation by women in corporate settings is positioned as crucial for diversity management. In FY2013, Hitachi set a goal of promoting a female employee to director-level by FY2015, and in fact the first female Corporate Officer, which is the equivalent position as director-level, was appointed in April 2015. In order to further promote women’s participation in decision-making, as part of efforts to reflect diverse opinions and values in future management, the company has set a goal of achieving a 10％ ratio for female Executive Officers and Corporate Officers by FY2020, up from the current 2.5％, according to Hitachi.
Hitachi has also been encouraging participation by non-Japanese employees, and has actively assigned foreign staff to decision-making positions in particular. Nine out of the thirteen members of Hitachi’s current Directors are outside directors, and five of these hold foreign nationality. In this way, Hitachi strives to reflect a diverse, global perspective in management, and to strengthen management supervisory functions. The company is planning to accelerate these activities, aiming for a ratio of 10％ for non-Japanese Executive Officers and Corporate Officers by FY2020.
In the future, Hitachi will strengthen diversity management throughout the Hitachi Group worldwide, striving for further growth by reforming and maintaining management platforms and systems, while at the same time promoting reforms in workplace culture that will enable the most effective use of those management structures.
Hitachi’s activities targeting diversity
Hitachi has positioned diversity management as an important management strategy, and is promoting this approach throughout the Hitachi Group worldwide, based on a strong commitment by senior management. In order to resolve the issues being faced by customers and society, which are characterized by growing diversity and complexity, it will be necessary to combine human resources that demonstrate diverse values. For this reason, Hitachi has endeavored to put in place working environments that enable a wide range of employees to demonstrate their full scope of abilities. As evidence of how environments have been put in place to enable diverse manpower to continue working effectively, since the 1990s, Hitachi has established and enhanced structures that support employees who are working while caring for children or elderly parents, and has created environments that allow employees to choose flexible work style. Since December 2016, Hitachi has conducted a companywide campaign targeting work style reforms, called “Work Life Innovation,” to accelerate collaborations between employees and management in the creation of environments that allow all employees to demonstrate and utilize their full potential, regardless of gender, age, nationality, or other attributes. Furthermore, in January 2018, Hitachi will start operation of a new HR Integrated Platform which established as a personnel management framework that can be worked throughout the Hitachi Group on a global scale, and enables to integrate information and processes related to human resources. In this way, Hitachi will continue to create new value and solutions to resolve the issues being faced by customers and by society.
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