To ensure that all employees can live free from anxiety about balancing work and private life, and enable ambitious employees to continue pursuing their chosen careers, we are endeavoring to expand schemes for supporting work-life balance and nurture a positive workplace climate in which people understand the importance of balance and assist each other in achieving it.
System and initiatives for work-life balance support
Balancing work and childcare
In addition to a maternity and childcare leave system that exceeds statutory requirements, we have various training programs and systems in place at each company to support career formation and a smooth return to work for those who took childcare leave.
Balancing work and nursing care
We have put various systems in place so that you can continue your career with peace of mind even when you need to provide nursing care to a family member. We are also fostering employees’ awareness by developing tools for work and nursing care balancing courses and distributing books on long-term care.
Interview
Creating an environment for all employees to thrive
At the SMBC Group, we are working on health management and workplace reforms to give every employee the opportunity to fulfil their potential through strong productivity and enthusiasm for work.
Balancing work and childcare
SMBC Group provides training and support systems to help employees balance work and family commitments. We have also developed a range of initiatives to facilitate a smooth return to work from maternity leave or childcare leave as part of career development. These include programs across Group firms to support men in childcare participation.
Link to details in ESG Data Book
Major systems to support balancing work and childcare
We have introduced systems to provide economic assistance and other support to employees with pre-school children as part of creating workplaces that facilitate balancing work with childcare responsibilities.
Work-related systems
Systems that support a smooth return to work from maternity or childcare leave include childcare leave, leave to care for sick children, and flexible working practices.
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(Example: SMBC)
A flexible personnel system matched to each life stage
We prepare systems to match each person’s life plan at all our Group Companies. We have a system in which an employee’s workplace can be changed if they move due to marriage or the job transfer of a spouse. Also, we rehire employees who left due to marriage, childbirth, childcare, nursing, or their spouse’s job transfer. And we also allow temporary retirement due to the transfer of a spouse’s job or for overseas study.
Partnership with a company-led childcare service provider
SMBC is partnering with NICHIIGAKKAN to develop a business to operate company-led childcare facilities in Tokyo and Osaka within bank-owned properties. The facilities provide childcare services to bank employees as well as local companies and residents. The partnership also covers a further company-led 90 childcare facilities across Japan operated by NICHIIGAKKAN, providing additional support to SMBC employees in returning to work.
Economic support for childcare
We offer allowances to assist employees with the costs of taking care of children outside of normal hours, including babysitting fees and the subsidy system aim to reduce burden of caring for sick children. The system provides economic assistance in other ways, such as allowing employees to access babysitting services at discounted rates based on contracts between the Group and babysitting agencies.
Major Initiatives to Balance Career and Childcare
Training and seminars
Training to support work-life balance
We have developed training on balancing career and childcare for employees in managerial positions. Training is designed to help employees planning to take maternity leave, those on childcare leave, and those who have returned from childcare leave.
Consultations with a superior are also organized for those employees either going on, or returning from, maternity and childcare leave.
Development of guidebooks
We have created the "SMBC Group Career Guidebook for Mothers." Distributed to female employees, aiming to help them in preparing for the next stage of life.
The Group has also created a special management guidebook containing communication pointers to distribute to managers with subordinates engaged in raising children.
Promoting male participation in childcare
In its efforts to promote participation in childcare among all its male employees, the SMBC Group hopes to achieve a 100% male childcare leave utilization rate and to have eligible male employees take 30 or more days of childcare leave(*).
We are seeking as a Group to encourage male employees to take advantage of short-term childcare leave, and to provide training for management to help create a workplace culture in which everyone, regardless of sex, can be actively involved in childcare.
(*) Available until the child turns two years old.
Encouraging an understanding of work within employees' families
To help employees' family members gain a better understanding of their work, we organize the evet so that children can visit their parents' workplace. We also encourage employees to take leave in the summer holiday season and promote leaving the office earlier in the summer months.
External evaluation and accreditation
Platinum Kurumin accreditation
SMBC, Sumitomo Mitsui Finance and Leasing, Sumitomo Mitsui Card and SMBC Consumer Finance have all been granted "Platinum Kurumin" accreditation by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare in recognition of the high level of support for childcare that they provide as companies.
External evaluation/accreditation
Balancing work and nursing care
Even if it becomes necessary for an employee to care of a family member, our aim at the SMBC Group is to ensure employees do not have to leave the company or sacrifice their career out of a desire to provide care. We have put in place a range of support systems for careers, and we also provide opportunities for employees to gain information about nursing care. Our aim is to provide environment where employees can continue to work with peace of mind while being able to prepare for nursing care.
Major initiatives to balance work with nursing care for family members
(Example: SMBC)
We provide support to help employees continue working without giving up their career due to their nursing care responsibilities. The main support systems include nursing care leave and shortened working hours for these employees.
Systems to Support Work-Life Balance
at SMBC Group Companies
Major Initiatives to Balance Career and Nursing Care
Work and nursing care balancing course
We are developing e-learning tools for work and nursing care balancing courses offering basic knowledge on balancing work and nursing care in a TV drama format that allows you to learn in an easy-to-understand manner about “initial responses” for nursing care and the key points for maintaining work and nursing care balancing. We are working to improve literacy from an early stage by extending these courses and disseminating information to all employees so they can balance work and nursing care.
Guidebook production
We have created guidebooks on how to balance nursing care responsibilities with a career. At SMBC, a book on this topic has been distributed to all employees. The book is divided into four sections on preparation, implementation, success stories, and advice. It is packed with useful information on balancing a career with nursing care responsibilities including articles on nursing care in Japan; a checklist of how to prepare for providing nursing care; details of various support systems and nursing care insurance services; case studies of providing nursing care at home, or through service providers located at a distance; and relevant contact numbers for use in emergency situations.
Nursing care information website
In partnership with Internet Infinity Inc., which provides a variety of health care services, we have set up a nursing care information website that makes available information useful for nursing care, search services for nursing care facilities nationwide, and bulletin boards allowing you to consult with care managers across.
Nursing care help desk established
We have created a help desk to provide consulting services on nursing care to employees or family members. We receive a wide range of consultations from persons wishing us, for example, to introduce them to care managers, match them up with nursing care facilities, or provide them support in applying for nursing care insurance. You can consult us by telephone or e-mail or in person. We have created an environment that makes it easy for employees and their families to consult us.