SENKO HOLDINGS

Gender equality

The Group’s Medium-term Business Plan (which covers FY2023 to FY2027) sets the goal of increasing the percentage of management positions held by women (including those in assistant manager positions) to 15% in the Logistics, Trading & Commerce, and Living Support segments. We’re undertaking the following initiatives so that we can build workplaces where employees can make the most of their individuality and abilities without regard to gender or nationality.

●Female Manager Project (FM-PRO)

●Unconscious Bias Seminars

The term “unconscious bias” refers to the universal tendency to group together and simplify attributes such as gender, age, nationality, and ethnicity in ways of which people remain unaware, both in terms of the presence and extent of such thinking. Examples would be assuming that male employees dispatch trucks and do sales work, while women oversee document transfers and take care of clerical work related to sales.

The Group has identified mutual respect for diversity as one of its values. We strive to create employee-friendly workplaces where workers realize their own unconscious biases so that they can prevent inappropriate speech and behavior.

This seminar has been incorporated into the training curriculum for department, section, and workplace managers as well as other leaders, and we’re working to build a platform that’s conducive to gender equality and female participation in the Group’s management.

During FY2023, a total of 199 employees from throughout the Group participated in the seminars, as did numerous managers whose subordinates include female manager candidates.

Promoting hiring of foreigners and mid-career hires

The Group began accepting foreign human resources via a technical intern training program administered by the Japanese government in FY2018 to deal with labor shortages, and the program has accepted more than 200 trainees to date in areas including logistics and automotive repair work.

In addition, the number of foreign workers in the Group has been growing with each passing year since FY2022 with the addition of Self Grow Co., Ltd. and Kyoudou Project Co., Ltd. to the Group.

Going forward, the Group will continue to actively hire skilled foreign workers in businesses affected by labor shortages while accommodating the establishment of new programs resulting from a current, government-led effort to revamp the technical intern training program.

Promoting employment of workers with disabilities

Reflecting its policy of respecting human rights and working to create workplaces where employees can do their jobs in a safe, energetic, and healthy manner while manifesting their individuality, the Group encourages operating companies to directly hire workers with disabilities, and it has established Senko School Farm Tottori Co., Ltd. as a special subsidiary to further that mission.

Individual worksites take the characteristics of employees’ disabilities into account when crafting work practices and put in place structures that allow them to respond constructively to workers seeking advice.