ABOUT US Employees
Promotion of Female Employees' Career Development
Declaration on promotion of female employees' career development
Declaration of intent
Lawson declares its intention of promoting active participation
by women in its commitment to human capital diversity.
Lawson shall strive to cultivate personnel who exhibit selfmotivation and innovation. Lawson shall continue to recruit a diverse range of employees, beginning with women and foreign nationals, and to maintain an environment in which they can all participate actively while guiding their development. We shall continue our proactive promotion of active participation by women as a means of improving our corporate value.
Targets for Empowering Women
Lawson's qualitative target for empowering women is to create a workplace where female employees, including those who are mothers, can excel. Our quantitative target is to raise the ratio of managerial positions held by women to 30% by fiscal 2020.
We have been actively recruiting women with the goal of "raising the ratio of female recruitment among new graduates to 50%" since 2005.
Data on Female Employees
| FY2015 | FY2016 | FY2017 | FY2018 | FY2019 | |
| The number of female managers (Ratio to total female employees) | 65 7.40% |
78 8.20% |
88 8.50% |
104 9.70% |
111 10.27% |
| The number of female senior managers (Ratio to total female employees) |
10 5.50％ |
14 6.90％ |
15 7.60％ |
16 8.16% |
16 9.30% |
| Number of female (Deputy) Senior Vice President* (Ratio to total female employees) |
0 0％ |
0 0％ |
0 0％ |
0 0％ |
1 3％ |
| The number of female corporate officers* (Ratio to total female employees) |
4 33.30％ |
4 33.30％ |
4 33.30％ |
4 33.30％ |
5 41.67% |
* Corporate officers include members of the Board, executive officers, and the deputy senior vice president
* Executive officers include directors.
Key Initiatives to Empower Women
- Training for Female Executive Candidates
We provide senior management leadership training program for female executive candidates though our in-house educational program. We also create opportunities for top management to directly meet with female employees on a regular basis.
- Female employee career development training
Going forward, we plan to determine the personal career aspirations of female employees whose stage in life gives them a high potential for balancing their life circumstances with employment through panel discussions with board members and senior employees, who are themselves actively employed after reconciling work with their own life experiences. We will then conduct training to help the trainees realize their aspirations.
- Training Programs for Employees on Childcare Leave
We offer group training for employees on childcare leave. This training is designed to share information about the current status of the Company, support employees' career development upon their return to work, and help them network with colleagues, including others currently on leave. This program helps to relieve the anxiety employees often have toward returning to work and empowers them to excel.
- Publication and distribution of the "Work Style Handbook" promoting active participation by female employees
Messages conveyed from top management to Lawson personnel encourage female employees to play active roles by informing them of available career paths and acclimatization support systems as well as by introducing female employees to serve as role models. We hope that distributing this information among all employees, rather than limiting distribution to women, will enhance its effect on the women’s bosses and colleagues as well as on management personnel.
- Diversity Training for Managers and Executives
We provide training for managers and executives covering many aspects of diversity, including understanding of childcare support, to create a more understanding workplace.
Childcare Support Measures and Systems
| Reduced working-hour system during childcare | Employees who have children in the third grade of elementary school or below may elect to reduce their working hours by up to three hours per day. |
|---|---|
| Reduced working days | Employees who have children in the third grade of elementary school or below may elect to work only three or four days per week. * Employees may use this system together with the reduced working hour system. |
| Special holiday on national holidays | Employees who have children in the third grade of elementary school or below may elect to take national holidays off. |
| Telecommuting | Employees who have children in the third grade of elementary school or below may elect to work from home up to two days per week. * Employees must have worked for the Company for more than one year to be eligible to use this system. |
| Transfer to accompany spouse | When the employer of an employee's spouse transfers said spouse, resulting in a change of residence, consideration is given to moving the employee's place of work to the same area. |
| Reduced working-hour system for managerial and sales employees | This system offers managerial and sales employees an opportunity to continue working in their current positions while using the reduced working-hour system. |
| Babysitting service support | Through this system, the Company subsidizes babysitter costs. |
| Laptop computer loans for employees on childcare leave | This system allows employees on childcare leave to access the Company intranet in order to view internal information and take e-learning courses to improve their professional skills. |
| Short-term childcare leave | This system was created to encourage male employees to participate in childcare. Employees may take up to five days off, which are counted as special paid leave. * Employees must have worked for the Company for more than one year to be eligible to use this system. |
- Lawson received the "Platinum Kurumin" Certification Mark
as a supportive company for employees with children
- Lawson received the "Kurumin" Next-Generation Certification Mark
as a company that works to improve its employees' work-life balance
- Happy Lawson Daycare Center
In fiscal 2006, we started to look after the children of our employees at an internal daycare center on national holidays. Our business operates even on national holidays, but regular nursery and elementary schools do not. As a result, working mothers expressed their concern at being unable to work on these days as they had nowhere to leave their children. In response, we established the in-house daycare center. In July 2014, we established the Happy Lawson Daycare Center on the first floor of Gate City Ohsaki's east tower, where Lawson's headquarters is located. We established the daycare center to address the persistent shortage of daycare in Tokyo and to enable employees seeking to quickly return to work from childcare leave for the sake of their careers to do so. Employees of the Lawson Group can use the center on a monthly basis or only on national holidays.
- Encouraging Male Employees to Short-term Childcare Leave
We conduct the “Ikumen” campaign, our promotional activity for men's involvement in childcare aiming to encourage male employees to take paternity leave. Giving an example, we established the “Short-term Childcare Leave System” in FY2014, and strived to increase an awareness among male employees, and create a work environment where they can easily take childcare leave by putting up posters in the workplace. As a result of such efforts, the paternity leave uptake ratio exceeded 80% in FY2016/FY2017, and 90% in FY2018 /FY2019.
- The Percentage of Employees Taking Short-term Childcare Leave
Return-to-Work Rate after Childcare Leave
Lawson's ratio of employees reinstated after childcare leave is quite high, at 93.8% (cumulative basis since fiscal 2000). The ratio of working mothers to all female employees has increased approximately five fold since fiscal 2001.
Appreciation from Outside
Lawson was selected as a “Nadeshiko Brand” for five consecutive years in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 in recognition of our achievements as a listed company in promoting female employees’ career development. Selection for the award is made jointly by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
In 2015, moreover, Lawson was honored with Diversity Management Selection 100 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in recognition of the Company’s achievements in generating innovation by utilizing the diverse talents of women, foreign nationals, and elderly and physically challenged people.
Lawson became the first convenience store to be honored with the Special Award in the 2015 Ikumen Company Award competition by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The Company received the award for its active support of male employees who are raising children, including its use of internal campaigns to foster a culture of respect for these employees.
