Work-Life Balance Systems
Work-Life Balance Systems
Work-Life Balance Support Initiatives
Working Inclusion Training
To promote a workplace environment where each employee can work comfortably, respect individuality, and support one another as a team, we conduct annual training for all employees on themes such as nursing care, childcare, and gender-specific health issues.
“Balancing Work and Childcare” Forum
We host forums for female employees utilizing the short working hours system for childcare, providing opportunities to consult with senior colleagues, share concerns, and continue seeking advice on balancing work, household responsibilities, and childcare.
“Balancing Career and Life Events” Forum
To foster an organizational culture where both women and men can naturally balance “work” and “family,” we conduct online forums to deepen understanding of gender role awareness and encourage dialogue on equal sharing of responsibilities.
Nursing Care Seminar
To support employees in “balancing work and nursing care while continuing to work with vitality,” we conduct seminars tailored to managers and all employees, covering essential caregiving knowledge and approaches to building organizational culture for work–care balance.
Paternity Leave Meetings
We hold information-sharing sessions for managers to deepen understanding of early and long-term paternity leave, as well as sessions open to all employees.
Career Design Training (Age 26)
Before employees encounter major life events or take on management roles, we provide training to learn about gender role awareness and gender-specific health issues, with the aim of envisioning one’s “ideal career 10 years ahead” while considering future life events.
Promoting Paternity Leave
At MARUI GROUP, we have shifted from a top-down management style to team-based management that leverages the individuality of members across generations. This has cultivated a corporate culture that supports each employee’s aspirations.
Building on this foundation, we introduced a system in which managers encourage male employees to take paternity leave when reporting their partner’s pregnancy. As a result, we achieved a 100% paternity leave acquisition rate in FY2018, which has continued since. However, only a few employees were taking leave of one month or longer.
Recognizing that fathers’ participation in childcare from the newborn stage promotes their continued involvement and further advancement of women’s participation, we established a KPI in FY2021 for the percentage of men taking at least one month of paternity leave.
A company-wide survey revealed that the main reason men do not take extended paternity leave is “concern about burdening the workplace.” To address this, in FY2022 we held manager-focused sessions to emphasize the importance of early and long-term paternity leave, and in FY2023 expanded the training to all employees. From FY2023, we also introduced a system for employees to declare their partner’s expected delivery date and paternity leave preference twice a year, followed by interviews with their supervisors.
「Trends in Male Parental Leave Acquisition (incl. One Month or Longer)」
Work-Life Balance Systems
MARUI GROUP is systematically introducing systems for supporting employees caring for children or family members based on their needs. In this manner, we aid employees in balancing their work with childbirth, childrearing, and long-term care for family members. (Different standards exist for temporary employees.)
Pre-Childbirth Support Systems
- Work leave prior to childbirth: Can be acquired immediately after pregnancy is discovered
- Shortened working hours and reduced workdays during pregnancy
- Leave for childbirth by partner: 2 special paid vacation days
- Leave for infertility treatment: Up to 2 years
Post-Childbirth Support Systems
- Childcare leave system: Available up to child's 3rd birthday (7 paid vacation days provided to employees returning to work prior to child becoming 1 year and 2 months old)
- Partner’s childbirth leave: 2 days
- Shortened working hours and reduced workdays for childcare purposes: Available until child completes 3rd grade of elementary school
- Time period-limited full-time work system: Available until child completes 6th grade of elementary school
- Shortened workdays: Option to take up to 4 days off per month
- Full-time work with up to 4 additional days off per month (for those on shorter-hour contracts)
- Child nursing care leave: 5 special paid leave days a year provided to employees with 1 pre-elementary school child (can be acquired as 10 half-days or in hourly increments) and 10 days for employees with 2 or more applicable children (can be acquired as 20 half-days or in hourly increments)
- Childcare fee subsidy (MARUI Welfare Association)
- Work location limitation and exemption from relocations for childcare purposes
Long-Term Care Support
- Long-term care leave system: 1 year, in principle, and up to 2 years per applicable family member (can be taken in increments)
- Shortened working hours and reduced workdays for long-term purposes: 3 years, in principle, and up to 5 years per applicable family member
- Special long-term care leave: 10 days (can be acquired in hourly increments) of special paid leave days per year provided to employees with 1 applicable family member and 20 days (can be acquired in hourly increments) for employees with 2 or more applicable family members
- Work location limitation and exemption from relocations for long-term care purposes
- Shortened Working Days System (allows employees to take up to 4 days off per month)
Rehiring System
- Available to employees that have left work for reasons related to long-term care, childcare, or work relocation by partners
- Application can be submitted up to 5 years from date of resignation
Promotion of Paid Vacation Day Acquisition
To facilitate the work-life balance of Group employees, we hold two consecutive vacation day programs a year (offering seven to eight consecutive days of vacation each time) and have also introduced Work-Life Balance Day, a program through which we encourage employees to acquire three consecutive paid vacation days on two occasions during each year. Furthermore, we allow allocated yearly paid vacation days to be taken in half-day or hourly increments in order to enable all employees to embrace flexible and efficient work styles. The goal of such initiatives for promoting the acquisition of the allocated yearly amount of paid vacation days is to help employees enjoy more fulfilling work and lead more balanced lives.
