SATO Group Declaration of Diversity
SATO Group is committed to providing a working environment where all employees, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, nationality, culture, religion, educational background, disability or age are able to fully engage in open dialogue and active participation while recognizing and respecting each other's unique attributes.
The implementation of innovative programs designed to create a corporate culture rich in diversity will provide a work environment that embraces the generation of new ideas.
In line with our corporate spirit of "Ceaseless Creativity", we will continue to make daily efforts to improve the awareness of diversity within workplace, making it a pillar of our business strategy.
Our goal is to foster and promote diversity by leveraging each employee's unique abilities and giving all employees the opportunity to grow and excel. This approach is key to delivering the best possible solutions to meet the diverse needs of our global customers.
Diversity opens the door to productivity, competitiveness and sustainable growth. (Created December 9, 2011)
Framework
At SATO, we aim to build a workplace for diverse employees to work together toward our common goal of contributing to a better and more sustainable world with Ceaseless Creativity. We promote diversity through three pillars as follows.
First, through our HR Development Committee, which was established under the board of directors' Nomination Advisory Committee in FY 2022. This committee helps our executive team reach a consensus on human capital management strategies and actions, and conducts monthly reviews to improve how we are training key personnel and ensuring their diversity.
Second, through employee-led diversity activities initiated by individual offices/departments in Japan. Each office/department identifies its diversity issues and takes actions to address them autonomously, with the help of a central steering committee.
Third, through trainings and initiatives that are based on our HR strategic objectives. The former includes inviting external experts to run seminars and workshops for raising awareness on important topics such as DE&I, while the latter includes expanding recruitment and job opportunities and creating an inclusive workplace environment to better empower women and employees with disabilities.
By integrating these three pillars, we hope to achieve diversity and inclusion so that we can bring out the best in every employee and build a stronger SATO together.
When our President and Group CEO, Hiroyuki Konuma, took office in 2023, he took part in the Japanese government's call to action on male business leaders to create “A Society in Which Women Shine.” He will continue networking with other male leaders across various industries to advance gender equality and women empowerment in SATO.
Efforts to diversify key employees
The diverse strengths and capabilities of our employees are what make us competitive as a business. We actively recruit mid-career and non-Japanese professionals, with the former constituting more than 60 percent of our workforce in Japan. We work to build a diverse talent pool, hoping to better combine various specializations to broaden our business horizons and create new businesses. To expand the company’s talent pipeline, we have also set diversity goals, which include increasing the number of female managers, as part of our efforts to diversify employees in key positions.
Diversity goals (Japan)
(1) Increase female managers
For FY 2022, about 23 percent of our employees and 7.3 percent of our managers in Japan are women. We aim to set department-level targets and raise both ratios, particularly the ratio of female managers to over 8.4 percent in FY 2025 and to over 10 percent in FY 2030.
You can scroll through this table.
| FY 2022 actuals | FY 2025 targets | FY 2030 targets | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan, consolidated | 7.3% | 8.4% | 10% |
| SATO Holdings Corporation | 12.6% | *15% | *16% |
| SATO Corporation (key domestic sales company) | 6.1% | *8% | *9% |
(2) Increase uptake of paternity leave
We drive workstyle innovations, promoting not only company-wide telework and flextime initiatives but also flexible working arrangements for employees with childcare commitments. In FY 2022, only 20.6 percent of male employees took paternity leave they were entitled to, but as many as 94.1 percent took childcare-related leave. To help new mothers stay in the workforce, we will encourage more male employees to take time off, ultimately raising paternity leave rate to our target of over 85 percent in FY 2030.
You can scroll through this table.
| FY 2022 Paternity and childcare-related leave rate |
Paternity leave rate | Childcare-related leave rate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan, consolidated | 100.0% | 20.6% | 94.1% |
| SATO Holdings Corporation | 133.3% | 33.3% | 133.3% |
| SATO Corporation (key domestic sales company) | 96.7% | 20.0% | 90.1% |
(3) Reduce gender wage gap
We are committed to providing a gender-inclusive workplace with systems that pay and appraise male and female employees equally based on their work. However, due to the relatively smaller representation of women in leadership positions, the gender wage gap for our full-time employees stands at 69.2 percent. We are seeing success in retaining female employees to keep them longer with the company and will continue efforts to promote women’s empowerment to build a more diverse and conducive workplace.
You can scroll through this table.
| FY 2022 Full-time employees |
FY 2022 Part-time, contract employees |
FY 2022 All employees |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Japan, consolidated | 69.2% | 69.9% | 62.2% |
| SATO Holdings Corporation | 62.6% | 76.6% | 66.2% |
| SATO Corporation (key domestic sales company) | 70.0% | 83.7% | 61.0% |
*Male and female employees with the same job and rank are paid equally. The gap between median male and female wages is influenced by differences in job level/type and years of service.
Our diversity initiatives in Japan
(1) Support the career advancement of female employees
- Conduct surveys on the career aspirations of female non-managerial employees and review survey results within the HR Development Committee to follow up with the necessary actions. Set department-level targets (for improving gender balance and promoting women into more senior roles).
- Invite female external directors to run talks and inspire female employees to develop their careers.
- Establish an interest group for driving women empowerment.
(2) Increase the motivation of older employees
- Since April 2007
- Raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 before this was made a statutory requirement.
- Since April 2009
- Remove the age limit for managerial positions, which was previously set at 56 years old. Older employees continue to be eligible for promotions, although with some salary adjustments.
- Since April 2011
- Introduce a Platinum Employment program for flexible retirement that lets employees aged 65 or above continue their careers in specialist roles on yearly contracts.
(3) Innovate workstyles and create a more engaging workplace for all
- Conduct surveys to regularly assess workplace engagement levels and take actions for improvement based on survey results.
- Introduce programs for internal recruitment and global internship.
- Implement hybrid working arrangements that balance remote and in-office work.
- Go beyond the statutory requirements by granting childcare support incentives and offering reduced hours to returning mothers for longer durations.
- Encourage active utilization of paternity leave and other childcare benefits.
- Mandate unconscious bias trainings for managers, while offering the same trainings as an option for all other employees.
