Working with our Employees

Building an Employee Friendly Working Environment

We run a range of support programs in order to suit the working environments and lifestyles of individual employees.

Promoting a work-life balance

Here at Mitsui Chemicals, we regard our employees as crucial stakeholders without whom we couldn't achieve our corporate mission. We are therefore committed to striking a balance between the sustainable growth of the Mitsui Chemicals Group and the happiness and self-fulfillment of our employees. In order to achieve that, our goal is to create a relationship in which the company and its employees stimulate and actively enhance one another.
With that in mind, we have established an employee-friendly working environment complete with a full range of support programs, from childcare and family care schemes, such as reduced work hours, nursing care leave and subsidies for babysitting and home-care services, to housing and welfare support. We will continue to make any necessary improvements to working environments in the future, so as to cater to our employees' increasingly diverse needs.

General Business Owner Action Plan in Accordance with the Act for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation

We have formulated and submitted a General Business Owner Action Plan* in accordance with the Act for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation. Details of our action plan are available on the Balanced Living Forum section of our website.

*
General Business Owner Action Plans are supposed to be formulated by business owners in order to improve working conditions and help employees strike a balance between work and childcare

List of Support programs

Time off and leave ● Nursing care leave
● Childcare leave (eligibility extended to encourage male employees to take childcare leave)
● Special leave
● Family care leave (eligibility extended to enable employees to take leave when family members are certified as being in need of support)
Working hours ● Reduced work hours for childcare
● Reduced work hours for family care
● Limitation of overtime (childcare/family care)
● Limitation of late night work (childcare/family care)
● Work-from-home program (childcare/family care)
● Company childcare center
Income ● Maternity pay
● Childcare assistance
● Family care assistance
● Subsidies for home-care services
● Subsidies for babysitting services

Staff Comment

My wife and I love spending time together with our two children. As we both work however, there are times when we have to call on the services of a babysitter. It's reassuring to know that Mitsui Chemicals has a range of programs to help employees balancing children and work commitments, such as working from home or reduced work hours. Subsidies for babysitting services are a great help too.
I think that it's essential to provide employees with an environment that helps them achieve a work-life balance that reflects their actual lives and values, so that we can concentrate on fulfilling our potential. The range of childcare and family care schemes at Mitsui Chemicals really makes for a good environment. I think we should all think carefully about how to achieve the ideal work-life balance in the future.


Hirotaka Uozaki
Coatings & Engineering Materials Division

Ichihara Dream Plaza Mitsui Chemicals daycare center

To provide additional support for employees continuing to work whilst raising children, in April 2009 we opened our very own Mitsui Chemicals daycare center near the Sodegaura Center and our Ichihara Works (Chiba prefecture). Although the center started out with just seven children, all 20 places had been filled by the end of fiscal 2010. We increased the center's capacity to 25 children in fiscal 2011.
The center's excellent facilities include a south-facing wall made entirely from glass and under-floor heating. It is the sound of children's laughter however that really brings the spacious grounds of Ichihara Dream Plaza to life.


children playing at the Ichihara Dream Plaza

Respect for Diversity and Individuality

We implement a range of measures based on respect for diversity and individuality here at the Mitsui Chemicals Group.

As part of our diversity activities, we have put in place schemes to facilitate the professional advancement of female employees, promote disabled employment and provide reemployment for older workers.

In May 2006, we set up the Promotion and Development of Women Team, a dedicated body tasked with promoting the advancement of female employees. The team focuses primarily on (1) promoting a corporate culture that actively encourages diversity, (2) providing career development support for female employees, (3) promoting face-to-face networking (both internally and externally), and (4) helping employees to achieve a work-life balance.

We are also committed to creating jobs for disabled people and have achieved the legally required rate of disabled employment (1.8%) for seven years in a row, ever since fiscal 2005. We will continue to create accessible working environments and promote disabled employment in the future.

We introduced a reemployment program for older workers in April 2006. The program provides employees who have reached retirement age with various opportunities to utilize their advanced skills and abilities, effectively giving them more options for the future.

Promoting diversity

  FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011
Number of female managers 91 107 115
Rate of disabled employment 1.92% 1.91% 1.84%