Diversity Management

Management information

Relevance to our business

As a corporate group operating globally, the Fuji Oil Group has an important social responsibility to respect the diversity of individual attributes and values of our human resources. We also believe that our group requires greater creativity in developing business strategies to continuously contribute to society amid changing social values through back-casting toward a new future, which is not just an extrapolation of the past. Diversity is important also in terms of providing value to society as an overly homogeneous group would have limited power to demonstrate their creativity. We will create an environment and corporate climate in which diverse human resources play an active role, which will enable us to create business models with innovative strategies.

Basic approach

Our energy to continuously create sustainable value for society is rooted in an environment where diverse human resources can use their different values and individuality. The Fuji Oil Group Management Philosophy defines “Work for people” as one of the Group’s values. This means that we must always consider the other person’s point of view when doing business. This is the basic guiding principle to embrace diversity and provide value to society.
Based on this principle, we formulated the Fuji Oil Group Diversity Vision in FY2020. As a forerunner to this vision, Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. had also established the Basic Diversity Policy in FY2015.

Fuji Oil Group Diversity Vision

Enjoy diversity

Diverse human resources are a source of inspiration and innovation. We will contribute to society by “Work for people” and enjoying the synergy among us. In doing so, we will provide diverse people worldwide with deliciousness and health in a variety of food products.

Focus areas to promote diversity

On the Diversity Vision, the Fuji Oil Group defined gender, nationality, generation, specialization and experience as focus areas to promote diversity. We foresee awareness and system reforms to enable all our employees to use their diverse backgrounds and individuality as their strengths.

Fuji Oil Basic Diversity Policy

We will accelerate the creation and delivery of new value to society by seeking talented individuals from diverse backgrounds and by fostering a corporate culture, where everyone can demonstrate their abilities to the fullest.

  • Pay attention to diversity in personnel composition at all stages of employment, including: recruitment, training and job assignment/promotion.
  • Implement flexible personnel systems so that diverse human resources can fully demonstrate their abilities.
  • Use diverse human resources in a strategic manner, thereby contributing to society and company growth.

Management system

The Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) oversees initiatives in this area. The ESG Committee,*1 an advisory body to the board of directors, has been monitoring the progress and results of initiatives as a material ESG issue.*2 The ESG Committee reports insights to the board of directors for review.

Management system

Goals / Results

At least 90% complete At least 60% complete Less than 60% complete

FY2020 Goals FY2020 Results Self-assessment
Fuji Oil Co., Ltd.: Promote the active engagement of senior employees who aspire to continue working Picked out the essential elements of success for senior employees, and held seminars for employees in their early to late 50s to develop these elements
Fuji Oil Co., Ltd.: Establish departmental targets that ensure fair competition and promote measures to heighten awareness among management (including seminars on unconscious bias*)
  • Set FY2020 departmental targets, assigned promotion staff at each department, and conducted interviews on the status of implementation at all departments
  • Carried out unconscious bias seminars
Fuji Oil Co., Ltd.: Create a comfortable workplace environment for people with disabilities in an effort to embrace diversity
  • Held a disability internship program.
  • Conducted hiring interviews in collaboration with the local government agency for employment services

  • * Individuals’ unconscious patterns and thinking orientations. People process and respond to a large amount of information available in the natural world in an instant. Although the human race acquired this ability to survive, it often causes problems in today’s world because it prevents humans from responding to environmental changes appropriately. Therefore, this bias should be raised to the level of consciousness and corrected from time to time.

Analysis

We stepped up our efforts to promote active careers for seniors by working on Groupwide initiatives, and at the same time implementing them into departmental targets for increasing diversity.
For setting departmental targets, we assigned promotion staff at each department to carry out substantial reforms based on the needs at each worksite.
At unconscious bias seminars, we optionally used a video conferencing system to enable interactive communication and improved understanding.
The employment rate for people with disabilities temporarily decreased due to a change in policy toward measures that place more emphasis on post-recruitment retention and an increase in the number of retiring employees.

Roadmap

As shown below, we drew a roadmap for our achievement of diversity as a source of innovation supporting our corporate management and contribution to society by creating the future of delicious and healthy food. Since FY1999, the Fuji Oil Group has promoted diversity and enhanced Groupwide systems and measures to enable its employees to continue pursuing their career goals. In the new phase, started in FY2020, we are practicing diversity in each department, with the strong commitment of management executives.

  • * FDM: Fuji Diversity Management

Next step

We recognize that the Groupwide efforts we have carried out so far in our diversity management practices have been inadequate. To address this issue, we set the following goals for FY2021.

Groupwide

  • Instill the Fuji Oil Group Management Philosophy
  • Seek to understand region-specific issues and current status of initiatives
  • Select and train future/ successive managerial talent
  • Appoint more local staff to positions outside Japan previously filled by employees dispatched from Japan
  • Develop executive candidates outside Japan who are fit for a global business environment

Japan

  • Encourage diverse work styles
  • Ensure equity
  • Support long-term, meaningful employment of people with disabilities

Going forward, we plan to work out our Group policies and roadmaps for each region, and use them as a basis to set up a framework for promoting initiatives. Globally, we will continue to encourage diversity, equity and inclusion by recognizing region-specific issues and taking action to address them.

FDM 3.0 measures

Specific initiatives

Initiatives in Japan

Supporting continued active career development

Active careers for senior employees

As one of the main pillars of our diversity management for the current term, we focused on drawing out the potential of the senior employee class, which all employees will eventually belong to. In FY2020, we picked out the essential elements of success for senior employees, and held one seminar each, for employees in their early to late 50s, to develop these elements. As part of our departmental targets, we also discussed employee job assignments and effective work allocations that match the actual workplace situation.

Female employees’ continued career development in balance with private life

While at Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. we have long maintained a 100% childcare leave usage rate among female employees, many female employees see career continuity after childcare leave as challenging. In FY2014 we drastically changed our way of supporting female employees. We adopted various new systems to support female employees who aim to continue actively developing their careers after life events.
In FY2016, we implemented an education program for young female employees in their third to fifth years at the Company. The program includes life-long career development, the Company’s work–life balance support programs, proposals for mutual help between different generations, and introducing good role models. This generation of female employees is currently in the period when the peak of their career development corresponds with various important life events, including childbirth. They are becoming new role models for employees who hope to develop their careers actively.
In addition, we have been conducting follow-up seminars since FY2014 for employees returning to work from childcare leave. This seminar has been held in the form of an interview with three parties: the parenting employee, their superior and their partner. It has helped form circles of supporters for parenting employees at home and in the workplace, and has been instrumental in changing the awareness of parenting employees themselves. In FY2019, we distributed booklets compiling the essentials of the seminar titled Guide to Returning to Work from Childcare Leave (different versions for parenting employees and their superiors).
Currently, 45% of female managers are working while parenting their children, which indicates the significant progress that we have made in establishing systems for supporting continued career development regardless of life events.

System to support employees at life events

Ensuring equity

Definition of departmental targets

To ensure that our top management’s policies are firmly rooted in our organizational activities, in FY2020 each Group department identified challenges to be solved, defined targets, and formed a promotion group. The progress toward the targets and achievements is reported regularly to the ESG Committee. We will visualize the uneven progress of diversity promotion due to different circumstances surrounding each department in order to make further improvements.

Managers’ attitude reform

The key to ensuring equal opportunity is held by managers who play a central role in human resource development. For this reason, since FY2019, we have enhanced the manager education program focusing on human resource development and diversity management. In FY2020, we held unconscious bias seminars.

Promotion of personnel diversity

Support for the active participation of women

In FY1999, the top management of the Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. adopted the policy of supporting the active participation of women. Full-scale initiatives were launched to pursue the policy under the newly established Committee for Women’s Empowerment (currently Fuji Active Network). Currently, the percentage of women in managerial positions is 11.30%. Moving forward, we recognize the need for a greater focus on equal opportunity in recruitment and training.
Regarding recruitment, since FY2017, women have been accounting for about 50% of the new graduates hired as managerial-track employees. We also ensure a higher level of fairness in human resource development, including work assignment, on-the-job training (OJT), and off-the-job-training.
Furthermore, in FY2016, the CEO of Fuji Oil Holdings Inc. endorsed the Declaration on Action by a Group of Male Leaders Who Will Create a Society in Which Women Shine, which was formed under the initiative of Japan’s Cabinet Office. The CEO has been sending out messages to employees and society, regarding the importance of diversity in management.

Employment of foreign nationals

At Fuji Oil Co., Ltd., we employ foreign nationals with various capabilities, who play important roles in many fields like research and development, planning and management. There is no difference in treatment on grounds of nationality. We assign employees to work based on their characteristics and skills. We also create a workplace environment that respects employees’ religious beliefs and customs by for example, creating multipurpose rooms where employees can pray.

Support for the active participation of people with disabilities

Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. has been working on employing people with disabilities. Since FY2015, we have been focusing on creating workplace environments where they can play active roles. To do so, we collaborate with local schools, offer hands-on work experience programs, and exchange information with leading companies in this field. Going back to the fundamental principle of providing employees with opportunities to play an active role while taking into consideration their characteristics has also changed the attitude of managers in charge of training.
In FY2020, we planned and held individual hiring interviews with the local government agency for employment services, and created brand-new employment opportunities within Fuji Oil Holdings Inc. The employment rate temporarily decreased due to a change in hiring policy and an increase in the number of retiring employees. Going forward, the Group will promote thorough support for retention and other initiatives with a long-term perspective.

LGBT

The series of activities that the Fuji Oil Group conducted during the Human Rights Week* in FY2020, included a seminar on LGBT, of which public awareness has not yet spread widely in Japan. Aiming for an active participation of more employees, the Group’s sexual-minority employees sent letters to other employees, which led many to attend the seminar and begin viewing LGBT as embodying diversity close to them. As a result, many executives and employees have become LGBT allies, widening both formal and informal circles of supporters.

Comments from seminar participants:

All people, not limited to LGBT, live with diverse values, thoughts and individuality, and in different environments. Each of these factors makes each person a unique individual which don’t determine their worth.
A company is a group of people who work for the same purposes and create value for society, and is not an organization that determines the rankings of people. It is never permissible to criticize others for matters unrelated to their operational duties or to create an adverse work environment for others. No one can violate the human dignity of others. The program has inspired me to deepen my thoughts about “Work for people,” one of the Fuji Oil Group’s values.

Promoting non-regular employees to regular employees

In FY2017, we changed the status of our “semi-regular employees,” who had fixed-term employment contracts, to “regional limited employees” without a fixed term. The Group also conducts a test once a year for highly motivated non-regular employees wishing to become regular employees. In FY2020, three non-regular employees, both men and women, were promoted to regular employees. We will continue to actively promote talented and highly motivated individuals to regular employee status through this system.

Employee-led initiatives

Since FY1999 we have been carrying out an intersectional project named Fuji Active Network (FAN) as one of our important diversity promotion measures. With the officer in charge of human resources serving as project owner, employees take the initiative in conducting grassroots activities to meet the needs that have been raised. In FY2020, we organized unconscious bias seminars. Many leading diversity measures in the Group have been initiated through FAN.

Encouragement of program use

In the Fuji Oil Group, the top management always delivers strong messages promoting diversity. Meanwhile, high importance is also placed on employees heightening their own awareness and taking action. Rather than pursuing mere superficial results, we aim to achieve diversity, which is firmly rooted in our corporate culture and fully understood and accepted by our employees.
As part of this, we encourage a wider range of employees to use our work-life balance support programs. We have recently been trying to increase the use of two programs: the nursing care leave program, which has been created based on the notion that many employees may become caregivers in the future, and the childcare leave program targeting male employees.
Since FY2013, we have been educating employees to create a corporate culture in which consulting about nursing care is always accepted. This is done by holding nursing care seminars and distributing a nursing care handbook. Since FY2016, we have been providing financial support for nursing care expenses. These initiatives resulted in a gradual increase in the use of nursing care support programs by employees, including managers and male employees.
With a basic policy based on the voluntary decision of male employees to take leave, we have also continued our efforts to encourage male employees to take childcare leave since FY2014., In FY2020, 73% of eligible male employees took childcare leave. While most of them were on leave for less than a week until FY2019, in FY 2020, some male employees have taken childcare leave for a few months to over half a year. This indicates that the program has gradually taken root.

Overview of promotion of work style reform

At Fuji Oil Co., Ltd., in FY2016 we launched the Creative Work Project (currently the CWORK Promotion Committee) to promote work style reform, which is essential for achieving diversity. Aiming to reduce the total work hours by raising productivity and improving work-life balance, we are promoting four reform initiatives: attitude reform, operational reform, system reform and workplace reform.
We are now exploring new work style possibilities. For example, since FY2017 we have assigned some employees to telework on a trial basis and introduced a satellite office to further develop our telework system. We also facilitated active communication and promoted paperless operations by introducing robotic process automation (RPA), digitizing application procedures, and actively using video conference systems.
As a result, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we succeeded in shifting smoothly to Company-wide teleworking and continued business operations without any serious delays. Taking advantage of this experience, we will use IT effectively to firmly establish a framework that allows employees to produce results regardless of time and place of work.

External recognition

By the end of June 2021, we have received the following external recognition for our diversity initiatives:

  • March 2017:

    Commended by the Osaka City Mayor as a Leading Company in Women’s Participation in Osaka City

  • August 2017:

    Obtained “Platinum Kurumin” certification from Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

  • June 2021:

    Continued as a constituent of MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) (third consecutive year) and MSCI Japan Empowering Women (WIN) Select Index (third consecutive year)

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