Note:Departments and posts are as of the time of the interview(October 2019)
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SMBC Group is actively promoting work-style reform, and has introduced numerous schemes with the aim of enabling employees, whose beliefs and circumstances are varied, to work productively and with motivation. Here we meet an employee who is mainly taking advantage of teleworking to balance work and family.
Becoming the company’s first teleworker
“I live with my daughter, who’s a junior high school student, and it’s just the two of us. I wanted to find a workplace that would enable me to attend my daughter’s school events, make time for communicating with her at home, and also balance work and housework, so I started looking for a new job. And that was when I came across this company. At my final interview, I was told this: “We intend to be proactive in instituting work-style reform. You’ll be the first person, but we’d really like you to make use of schemes relating to work-style reform, such as teleworking. I hadn’t been specifically looking for a company at which I’d be able to telework, but for me that offer was a godsend. I still remember that I was so happy to hear the news.
The company offers a range of schemes relating to work-style reform, such as teleworking and flextime, but the one I utilize the most is teleworking, which enables me to work from home. When teleworking, I can move forward with my work while staying in touch with colleagues via email and the telephone. I can also take part in meetings using web-conferencing software, which means I can see the faces of the other people. I set my landline in the office to forward calls to my business cellphone, so I can also take calls when I’m at home. Because I can make progress with my work even when I’m at home, I’m able to use my time effectively. Now I’m able to attend my daughter’s school events, and I’m able to find more time for communication with her.
From just me to 180 people. The growing tribe of teleworkers
“In the beginning I was the only person making use of teleworking. Seeing me using the scheme, three out of the six members of my team also started taking advantage of it. A ripple effect occurred, and more and more people from other teams on the same floor began to utilize the scheme. Now, the number of users has grown to 180 people. To make use of the teleworking scheme, you need to register with the company beforehand, but the total of the number of people already registered and the number of people who have applied to register has surpassed 400, so it’s a considerable number.
When teleworking, you share your teleworking schedule for the following week in advance at the regular meeting on Friday. On each day, before you start work at home, you send a message along the lines of “I’m starting work now” from your PC. You also describe the work that you are going to do. In my case, for example, commuting to and from the office is a two-hour round trip, so on days that I’m teleworking, this two hours is freed up completely. As a result, I’ve become a lot smarter in terms of the way I use my time, and I feel that my work efficiency and productivity have improved. And the amount of overtime I do has also dropped as a consequence. Perhaps everyone saw this happening, and people who want to pursue various lifestyles felt that they also wanted to make use of the scheme, and that’s why the number of users has grown to 180 people.
Personally, the best thing has been that the amount of time I spend with my daughter has increased dramatically. School events that involve parents, such as parents’ meetings, are often held on weekday afternoons and when I was working at my previous company, I could hardly attend any of them. But now I attend them frequently, and I’m even serving on the PTA. The other parents are surprised, saying, “Ikata-san, how are you able to come to all these weekday events when you’re working?” (smiles). Attending also means that my daughter can have conversations on the shared topic of her school, so our communication is smoother than it was before.”
Work-style reform= lifestyle reform
“Teleworking is one means of achieving work-style reform. But shifting one’s perspective, I feel that “changing one’s work style” means “changing one’s lifestyle.” I realized that changing one’s lifestyle not only affects oneself, but also the people one lives with, namely the family’s lifestyle. When you’re working at home with your family around, you need to obtain their consent. It’s not just about you. There’s a huge difference in the amount of time you’re together with your family between working from morning till night in an office and taking advantage of teleworking to work from home. So I think “work-style reform” could be paraphrased as “lifestyle reform.”
Luckily for me, I came across teleworking, and the way I interact with my family, and the way I live my own life, have changed completely. I’m now able to spend time with my daughter and on my hobbies, which I wasn’t able to before. Of course, teleworking is a free choice, and some people might decide not to do. But what I want people to realize is that “lots of work-style options” are available to suit your own circumstances, and that “each person can choose the work style for them.” I think it’s important not to immediately jump to the conclusion that it’s not for you, but to instead give it a try. The number of options will increase going forward, so I think there are still plenty of new possibilities for work-style reform.
SMBC Group has introduced a variety of schemes aimed at enabling each and every employee to choose for themselves when and where they work and to work highly productively in line with their own lifestyle, values, job type, and so on. As such, we promote flexible work styles. In November 2019 our overall commitment in this area was acknowledged when Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group we picked up 4.5 stars in the 3rd Nikkei Smart Work business survey. And now and into the future, SMBC Group continues to focus on “work-style reform” for the benefit of all our employees.
Daily schedule
Special memory
Me teleworking
My hobby is playing the clarinet. “I took it up soon after joining the company, when I realized that teleworking would allow me to devote time to hobbies. So my years as a clarinet player and my years at the company are more or less the same.”
