Work-Life Management

• Approach to Work-Life Management
• Implementing Work-Style Reform
• Introducing and Expanding Support Systems for Balancing Work and Child Care / Nursing Care
• Support Systems and Measures that Meet Diverse Employee Needs
• Preventing Long Working Hours and Overwork
• Initiatives at Regional Headquarters to Create Positive Work Environments

Approach to Work-Life Management

Approach & Policy

Hitachi goes beyond “work-life balance,” in which employees are simply balancing work and private life, to promote “work-life management” which encourages employees to proactively take charge of improving the quality of both their work and private lives. We embrace work-style reforms and systems facilitating balance between work and private life. In this way, we support each individual in their path as a professional and as a growing human being, leading to sustainable growth for the individual and for our organization.

Implementing Work-Style Reform

Activities

Hitachi pursues work-style reforms to allow diverse employees to work vibrantly and show their performances. Today, approximately 95% of all Hitachi, Ltd. employees are eligible to adopt our programs to work from home or satellite offices, promoting work styles that offer flexible, time- and location-independence. Under these programs, employees do not need to come into the office for a certain amount of time, and they may work outside the office without any limitations. Employees may also work at locations where child care, nursing care, etc. are provided or where relatives reside. We have also introduced location-free work for managerial-level employees and employees eligible for discretionary work, which allow these individuals to work on a spot remote basis. We have eliminated minimum daily work hours for flex-time work and discretionary work, allowing regular work days to become “non-work days.” In addition, we began expanding rest and vacation options by introducing a Life Support Leave program (multi-purpose, 100% paid leave program) from April 2023, responding to diversifying needs for time off.
As part of our aim to create autonomous and flexible work styles, we also work to provide policy recommendations through the KEIDANREN (Japan Business Federation) and the Japan Employers’ Federation of Electrical, Electronics & Information Industries, as well as offer input, as representatives of various economic associations, to governmental meeting bodies such as the Working Conditions Committee within the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare’s Labor Policy Council.

Work-Style Reform Initiatives at Hitachi, Ltd.

Introducing and Expanding Support Systems for Balancing Work and Child Care / Nursing Care

Activities

Hitachi strives to create even more supportive workplaces to help employees balance work and child care. For example, Hitachi, Ltd. offers an allowance for balancing childcare and work, services to help enroll children in nursery schools, and other programs, as well as e-learning courses to encourage a better understanding among managers. We are also enhancing our initiatives around child-care leave and other benefits for men employees in the aim of seeing leave taken by all who are eligible and increasing the number of days taken, including holding seminars and encouraging men employees to declare their intent to take child-care leave within our workflow system.
As declining birthrate and aging population in Japan, the number of employees facing the challenge of providing nursing care for elderly family members continues to grow. In response, we are expanding our support programs with the aim of helping employees balance work and nursing care and preventing turnover because of providing care. Hitachi, Ltd. and group companies in Japan regularly conduct employee awareness and fact-finding surveys concerning nursing care. Based on the results of these surveys, we enhance measures to help employees balance their work and home nursing care responsibilities. Specifically, we consider and organize the support required based on the four perspectives of (1) information provision, (2) financial support, (3) work-style reform, and (4) management reform, and provide and promote concrete support measures (training, lectures, establishing an individual consultation service, subsidizing necessary expenses, creating flexible work / leave systems, etc.) as an all-inclusive, integrated package. Hitachi, Ltd. took the lead in implementing these initiatives and can report that over 80% of employees are aware of national and company support programs, leading to avoidance or control of turnover and taking long-term leave due to providing care. In response to what is known as “the 2025 problem,” occurring as the members of Japan’s first baby boom enter the 75-and-over age bracket, we formulated plans for measures to support a balance between nursing care and work at all Hitachi Group companies in Japan in fiscal 2022 and will be pursuing initiatives in this area between now and 2025.

Recent Activities at Hitachi, Ltd.

Support Systems and Measures that Meet Diverse Employee Needs

Activities

Hitachi, Ltd. and group companies in Japan promote to implement systems that provide the necessary level of support based on the business environment of each company and the needs of employees through domestic group-wide lifestyle support programs and measures. These programs and measures include the following: a Cafeteria Plan program; housing support; systems for balancing work with childcare and nursing care; retirement and pension plans; a compensation system for absence from work; an employee stock ownership program; Hitachi Group insurance; a property accumulation promotion system; Discount sales scheme for Hitachi group employees; and a Health Insurance Society. We also have systems in place for non-regular employees, based on their employment status.

Retirement Benefit Plans

Hitachi offers partial or full defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution pension plans, and lump-sum retirement allowance plans. These plans respond to the diverse needs of employees as they age by providing supplementary benefits and the plans play an important role in allowing retired people to live more affluently. At Hitachi, Ltd. these defined benefit pension plans, defined contribution pension plans, and lump-sum retirement allowance plans are available to all regular employees. We also have systems in place for non-regular employees, based on their employment status.

Employee Stock Ownership Plan

Hitachi, Ltd. and certain group companies in Japan have adopted an employee stock ownership plan to support asset accumulation among employees and enhance their sense of participation in management. Under the employee stock ownership plan, employees will receive training on asset accumulation when acquiring Hitachi, Ltd. shares and may receive incentive payments based on Hitachi, Ltd. performance. This system links the growth of the company to employee asset accumulation.
The shares held by the Hitachi’s Employee Stock Ownership Plan ranks ninth in terms of major company shareholders (shareholding ratio: 1.90% as of March 31, 2024).

Preventing Long Working Hours and Overwork

Activities

Hitachi complies with the laws and regulations of each country and region concerning long working hours and overwork.
To maintain employee health and improve productivity, Hitachi, Ltd. sets companywide KPIs (including, in fiscal 2023, full use of annual leave entitlements and no employees carrying out over 80 hours of overtime work in a single month) for work-style reform in Japan each fiscal year. In this way, the company strengthens workplace management and reviews business processes. We also offer e-learning programs to ensure compliance with laws and regulations related to working hours and annual paid leave. Projects that may involve long working hours are managed on an individual basis. To manage long working hours and prevent overwork, we have introduced a way to check employees’ working hours based on PC use, and also provide labor management-related information and send out alerts to help supervisors monitor the working conditions of their subordinates in a timely manner, thereby supporting appropriate management in the workplace. We are extending similar efforts to prevent long working hours and overwork using IT tools to group companies in Japan.
Hitachi, Ltd. provides all employees with a report of actual monthly working hours, accompanied with messages that encourage behavioral changes. In this way, we help employees reflect on work styles and increase productivity on their own. Further, we provide monthly targets and specific actions for eligible employees who worked 2,000 or more total hours in the previous fiscal year, creating a culture change emphasizing work efficiency (achieving results in shorter time) and resting once work is finished (recharging and preparing for the next workday to maintain high performance).
As a result of these efforts, we saw a 23-hour year-on-year decrease in total annual work hours per person at Hitachi, Ltd. in fiscal 2023.
In addition to paying over the minimum legally required premium rates for overtime, late-night work, and work on weekends and holidays (while the law requires premiums of 25% for overtime, 25% for late-night-work, and 35% for work on weekends and holidays, Hitachi, Ltd. pays 30%, 30%, and 45%, respectively), we also give employees who work their prescribed working hours on weekends or holidays time off in lieu (employees receive the premium rate for the hours worked even if they take this time off in lieu).

Initiatives at Regional Headquarters to Create Positive Work Environments

Activities

Hitachi supports workstyles that are conducive to each employee achieving their full performance. Regional headquarters also implement policies specific to their regions.