Open Innovation and Cultivating Personnel

Towards Further Diversity Management

1. Diversity initiatives at the SMM Group starting with support for female empowerment

Towards the achievement of its Vision for 2030, the SMM Group views diversity in human resources alongside human resource development and empowerment as important issues, and aims to become a company where all employees are able to work with vibrancy. SMM started to provide support for female empowerment in 2012 as the first step in its promotion of diversity, and we are now working to promote diversity through having people with differing attributes, backgrounds and experiences inspire each other to grow and providing support to employees for changes in the stage they are at in their life.

2. My thinking of diversity

The business environment around SMM is changing drastically. In order to implement a growth strategy and increase our value as a company able to deal with such change, we need sound management infrastructure. The core of this infrastructure is human resources, and I believe that it is an organization in which diverse human resources respect each other’s way of thinking and are able to fully leverage their capabilities to achieve the same goal that will enable us to successfully implement our growth strategy.
In such an organization, it is essential for a diversity of people to be able to work with vibrancy in a culture that is free and full of vitality in order to create new understanding and new knowledge.
To achieve this, it is important for each individual, regardless of whether they are a manager or a staff member or a junior or a senior, and regardless of their gender and other personal differences, to interact with others on the basis of respect for their background, and for everyone to motivate each other and drive each other forward.

3. What I want to say to everyone

The initiatives that SMM undertakes to promote diversity are connected to a fundamental reexamination of the way people at SMM work and think, and these reforms constitute the most important element of SMM’s business development going forward.
Henceforth, the SMM Group shall work together as one to push forward our diversity activities, so I hope that each and every individual employee understands this and proactively and autonomously takes action in line with this.

This message from the president, titled “Towards Further Diversity,” was disseminated to all employees in the Sumitomo Metal Mining Group.

Fundamental Approach

Since the Women’s enpowerment Support Team was established in the Personnel Department in July 2012, SMM has worked to put in place an environment that allows women to participate under a policy of aiming to be a company that enables ambitious female employees to find worth in their job and take a vibrant approach to their work while enjoying a true sense of growth and development, and that allows them to maximize their potential.

We established a Diversity Promotion Section in the Human Resources Development Department in October 2015, and with a focus on support for women’s enpowerment and promotion of the recruitment of disabled persons, we are working to nurture a culture of diversity in the workplace and to reform working styles for all employees. Furthermore, the Diversity Promotion Section was moved to the Personnel Department from the Human Resources Development Department in July 2017.

Establishment of a Workplace Environment that Empowers a Wide Range of Human Resources

We work to construct a workplace environment that allows everyone to fully leverage their capacity in line with their working style, and we look into actions that we can implement to take advantage of this for SMM’s development.

We have run diversity workshops since FY2017 to provide an opportunity to learn through experience and think about a wide range of topics including disabilities, care, and LGBT issues.

And since FY2018, we have worked to reform thinking and enhance our systems to enable employees with a range of different backgrounds to keep working by taking action such as running seminars for employees aged 40 and over regarding how to balance work and care and providing “life plan training” for employees turning 50 and 58.

1. Creation of a Workplace that Empowers a Wide Range of Human Resources including Women

In FY2016 we put in place a system for promoting diversity at our bases in Japan and overseas as well as at affiliate companies, and have educated people responsible for overseeing diversity promotion, people responsible for implementation, and those who provide consultation services. We have also focused on reforming thinking, systemic change, and developing each individual as priority issues to be addressed.

(1) Reforming thinking

Through a range of training courses, we have provided opportunities to realize and accept that there are other people who have different perspectives and ways of thinking to us, and to get a feeling for what diversity truly is. We also run training sessions for young career-track women to help them think about their career. In FY2018, we began running training sessions to leverage the realizations gained through the aforementioned training and provide an opportunity to gain a new perspective as a leader able to envision their career henceforth through exchange sessions with companies in different industries.

(2) Systemic change

Revision of our systems to accommodate diversity in working styles is an ongoing process. The Shining Employees noticeboard is constantly being updated to match the needs of employees. We have made the procedures for pre- and post-maternity leave, childcare leave, and other such things visible, and added explanations. We also work to raise awareness of these systems and track the status of their use. As a result, we have been able to confirm that use of the systems is increasing.

(3) Development of each individual

We have commenced trial initiatives to help employees realize for themselves the core values they should have going forward and grow in order to support their future career development. Furthermore, there is no gender pay gap in basic salaries at the SMM Team, thanks to the design and implementation of a fair human resource system.

2.Working alongside people with disabilities

As a result of working on initiatives such as collaborating with special-needs education schools with the aim of newly opening up workplaces to the employment of disabled persons and regularly recruiting graduates from these schools to increase recruitment rates, since FY2015 we have maintained a recruitment rate for disabled persons that is higher than the statutory rate. With an approach rooted in normalization, we have also revised our education materials with the aim of deepening understanding of the characteristics of disabilities, supporting retention, and understanding what reasonable accommodation means. Our main bases and affiliate companies have created action plans and are continuing to encourage the recruitment of disabled persons. With an eye to a further increase in the recruitment rate for disabled persons, our Vision for 2030 sets the recruitment rate at 3% or higher, which is higher than the statutory rate.

UDTalk This is an application that uses a Japanese voice system to instantaneously render a conversation or speech into text. It is mainly used as a tool to support smooth communication with hearing-impaired persons

Employment Rate of Disabled People Over the Past Five Years

(Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., employment rate as of June 1 of each fiscal year)

Every year, SMM accepts students with disabilities for internship positions. By deepening understanding of our workplaces and work through the experience, we are increasing the number of students who feel confident in joining our Company.

3.Initiatives towards work-life balance

A rich and fulfilling life outside of work leads to a rich and fulfilling life at work. It is on the basis of this belief that at SMM we are working to enhance our systems for employees with time constraints, such as by limiting long working hours and encouraging employees to take paid leave alongside expanding our reduced hours working system for childcare and our job return system. And among other efforts to enhance our childcare leave and care systems and encourage their use, we also hold seminars for balancing care and work, and strive to comply with the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children. The labor-management committee has conducted a survey of the current state of affairs and considered specific measures for implementation, the results of which have been incorporated into the systemic review.