Feature 2: Work Style Reform
Feature 2: Work Style Reform Work Style Reform “Kaeru Project” Currently Underway
At Hyakugo Bank, we established the Work Style Reform Promotion Office in April 2016 to support diverse work styles, and we are implementing the Kaeru Project that aims to create flexible working environments with more options.
Amid a constantly changing business environment surrounding corporations, as evidenced by a decrease in the labor force due to the aging population and decreasing birth rate, the Work Style Reform Promotion Office has responded swiftly to this situation and is promoting the creation of flexible and fair working systems so that employees can balance work and personal life, by accepting the diversity of the characteristics and working conditions of each employee, such as of those with time restrictions due to child care or nursing care.
Under the Kaeru Project, we are engaged in a broad range of efforts from the perspectives of “changing awareness,” “changing work flow,” “going home early,” and “changing systems.”
Fostering an awareness of work style reform“Changing Awareness”
In order to encourage awareness of the necessity of work style reform, the President has communicated a top message to all employees to promote a reform in the awareness among them. In addition, general managers led the creation of the Work Style Reform Declaration in each department and are fostering a rewarding workplace culture as well as revising work styles with an awareness of productivity improvement.
Providing support for employees to balance work and personal life “Changing Systems” and “Changing Awareness”
Changing systems
In accordance with the revision of the Act on Child Care and Caregiver Leave, we worked to create systems with more options, including the “extension of the child care leave period from one and a half years to three years” and “allowing reduced work hours to start from three hours.” As human resources are important management resources, we will continually revise and build systems flexibly in an aim to create working environments that allow human resources with diverse work styles to work for a long period of time without having to discontinue their careers.
Changing awareness
Together with the formulation of personnel systems, we have held seminars to support employees to balance child care and nursing care and also created a support booklet. At the seminar on child care, we encouraged employees on or reinstated from childbirth and child care leave to create a future career vision by exchanging opinions with other participants based on the experiences of female general managers. In addition, at the seminar on nursing care, we worked to provide deeper basic knowledge on nursing care and raise awareness of our systems related to nursing care through detailed explanations in order to prevent job turnover from sudden need to provide nursing care.
Other initiatives“Changing Work Flow”
We are concentrating administrative work at headquarters in order to reduce the administrative burden of sales branches. In addition, in an aim to improve the efficiency of operations at each branch through means such as revisions of meetings and the adoption of paperless operations, each and every employee is working to improve the quality and productivity of operations.
