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Inclusion and Diversity

Inclusion and Diversity Policy

The NEC Group Code of Conduct strictly prohibits people at NEC from acting with prejudice on the grounds of race, belief, age, social position, family origin, nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity, as well as physical or mental disability, and strictly prohibits actions that belittle individuals, including bullying, harassment, child labour, and forced labour. Furthermore, the NEC Group Human Rights Policy sets out and advocates detailed policies for our initiatives on human rights based on the NEC Way and explicitly states that in all types of corporate activities we must respect the individuality of each person and not act in any way that may harm their dignity.

It is one of NEC’s management strategies to firmly establish a culture that is truly based on inclusion and diversity (I&D) in this way. We believe this is a source of innovation, and we are promoting initiatives on the following points.

  • Set out diverse human resources as one of NEC’s priority management themes from an ESG perspective— materiality—and develop employees who lead teams that are able to understand and accept different values and cultures and thrash out various ideas to create social value and drive innovation
  • Understand unconscious bias correctly and provide equal employment and career opportunities through management, regardless of age, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity, as well as physical or mental disability

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NEC’s ultimate goal is to “transform its organizational structure and culture into one that transforms individual differences into strengths, responds with agility to change, and continues to compete strongly and win.”

Medium- to Long-term Targets, Priority Activities and Progress, Achievements, and Issues

Medium- to Long-term Targets and Priority Activities

(Scope: NEC Corporation unless otherwise specified) Period: April 2021 to March 2026
M: Major non-financial indicators related to “materiality”

  1. M: Ensure diversity among leadership

    • Achieve the targets below by the end of FY2026 (including decisions on transfers that are to take place on April 1, 2026)

      • 20% ratio of women and foreign nationals among officers1
      • 20% ratio of women in all management positions
      • 30% ratio of women among all employees
  2. Recruit and employ people with disabilities
    • Continue to maintain statutory employment rate (including special subsidiary companies)
  3. Ensure that opinions can be expressed without fear of discrimination regardless of gender, age, career path, or job title
  • 1.
    Directors, corporate officers, Corporate SEVPs, Corporate EVPs and Corporate SVPs, as of April 1, 2023

FY2023 Goals, Progress, Achievements and Issues, and FY2024 Goals

FY2023 Goals

  1. M: Ensure diversity among leadership
    Achieve the targets below by the end of FY2023 (including decisions on transfers that are to take place on April 1, 2023)
    • Set goals for ratio of women as part of the succession plan for division general manager positions and higher
    • Identify female human resources who are keen to take action
    • Offer diverse career paths
  2. Recruit and employ people with disabilities
    • Enhance external promotions for inclusion of people with disabilities, including special subsidiaries
    • Establish system for hiring people who have psychological or developmental disabilities and welcoming them to the workplace, as well as providing retention support
    • Improve information accessibility at online events for people with disabilities
  3. Ensure that opinions can be expressed without fear of discrimination regardless of gender, age, career path, or job title
    • Spread factual knowledge and information to employees through webinars held throughout the year on I&D topics
    • Implement unconscious bias training

Progress, Achievements and Issues

  1. M: Ensure diversity among leadership

    • Promoted women’s empowerment and success

      • 14.8% ratio of women and foreign nationals among directors and corporate officers (as of July 1, 2023)
      • 8.9% ratio of women in all management positions (as of April 1, 2023)
      • 21.1% ratio of women among all employees (as of March 31, 2023)
      • The goals set in the succession plan for division general manager and above have been achieved for about half of the positions
    • Held meetings of the I&D Steering Committee chaired by the CEO of NEC twice during the year. Discussed topics related to female employees, made decisions on priority measures, and decided to hire new college graduates and to focus on increasing the ratio of female mid-career hires in FY2024
    • Selected approximately 100 elite personnel as management candidates with an eye on diversity ratios at each level of the organization, and continued on-the-job training
    • Held sponsorship program run by directors for the top female senior managers, with over half of the cohort being promoted in April 2023 (initial target: promotion of 60% by April 2024)
  2. Recruit and employ people with disabilities
    • Did not achieve hiring of people with psychological or developmental disabilities; however, conducted recruitment process using an expert consultant and will accumulate knowledge toward accepting such people in future
    • Renewed website of special purpose subsidiary, established a relationship with support center for students with disabilities at major universities in the Tokyo area and strengthened promotion through measures such as providing internships for students with disabilities
    • At NEC Visionary Week 2022, provided sign language interpretation and subtitles for main sessions, established a dedicated channel for customers with hearing difficulties, and implemented measures to have employees with hearing difficulties provide an overview of the seminar and key points using sign language
  3. Ensure that opinions can be expressed without fear of discrimination regardless of gender, age, career path, or job title
    • Around 18,000 NEC Group employees around the world participated in NEC Inclusion & Diversity Day 2023, an internal online event held on International Women’s Day
    • Held the internal online seminar “Dive into Inclusion & Diversity” five times during the year to update knowledge around inclusion and diversity, with approximately 3,600 employees attending in total
    • Employee Resource Groups for female, LGBTQ ally, and foreign national employees held self-organized internal events
    • Held unconscious bias training by external experts for director- and senior director-level management. In FY2023, approximately 800 people attended

FY2024 Goals

  1. Ensure diversity among leadership
    • Set goals for ratio of women as part of the succession plan for division general manager positions and higher as a 10% increase from the current ratio
    • Set goals for ratio of women newly appointed as managers for roles of executive manager or higher
    • Continue and expand the sponsorship management program horizontally to strengthen the pipeline further
    • Increase the ratio of female mid-career hires
  2. Recruit and employ people with disabilities
    • NEC’s employment rate for people with disabilities is 2.40% (as of June 1, 2023), which is higher than the statutory employment rate; however, the Company will promote further increases in the employment rate to cope with increases in the statutory employment rate in the future. NEC will increase the rate for Group companies that do not meet the statutory employment rate by holding conferences for those responsible for the hiring and management of people with disabilities and sharing knowledge.
    • Continuously promote new businesses and job development at the special purpose subsidiary using the Company’s own technologies
    • Develop promotions that merge branding, such as recruitment activities and promoting para-sports, and connect to acquisition of high quality talent
  3. Ensure that opinions can be expressed without fear of discrimination regardless of gender, age, career path, or job title
    • Spread factual knowledge and information to employees through training, events, and so forth held throughout the year on I&D topics
    • One NEC Survey Diversity Score: Achieve 37%
    • Improve workplaces through collaboration with Employee Resource Groups
    • Continue to implement unconscious bias training

Inclusion & Diversity Framework

The Inclusion & Diversity Group, led by a corporate executive, works with related departments within NEC to promote a variety of measures, which include providing support for and promoting the understanding of women’s career advancement and active participation, and the employment of people with disabilities and sexual minorities (LGBTQ). This group is also engaged in measures related to smooth onboarding of non-Japanese employees working in Japan and mid-career hires.
In this way, we are fostering our in-house culture by proposing and implementing measures to enable these kinds of diverse internal human resources to make full use of their individuality and uniqueness to work and participate at their full potential.

To ramp up these efforts one step further, in fiscal 2022 NEC established the I&D Steering Committee chaired by the CEO, and the I&D Acceleration Team as Companywide entities. Under the strong leadership of senior management, managers, and other personnel in charge gather to hold theme-based discussions where participants propose ideas to promote I&D, and then decide upon and implement specific actions.

The committee posts the contents of its meetings via the company intranet and discloses decision-making processes of senior management internally.

NEC recruits locally for top positions in overseas subsidiaries.

The top performing local hires are appointed as corporate SVPs, to create a structure that reflects local voices.

Employee Composition

Promoting Women’s Active Participation in the Workplace

Measures for Promoting Women’s Active Participation in the Workplace

As a global company, we believe it is preferable to have more female employees participating in management decision-making and leadership positions. Accordingly, we have set three targets and are conducting initiatives to achieve them. (Medium- to Long-term Targets, Priority Activities and Progress, Achievements, and Issues)

All items subject to measures are presented below.

Joining the 30% Club Japan

NEC joined the 30% Club Japan in 2020 with the goal of improving the gender balance among our corporate officers.
As a member of the club, we will tackle a range of measures to improve the gender balance among our corporate officers.

Talent Management Program for Female Employees

We have developed and implemented a systematic, position-based development program for our human resources, with the aims of encouraging their further contribution as leaders who epitomize our Code of Values and producing corporate officers in-house.

  • Making a conscious effort to ensure a strong percentage of promising female employees are selected for participation in our human resource development programs at every level and encouraging their development
  • Providing our human resources at the assistant manager level with leadership development programs and forums
  • Conducting mentoring by directors, employee shadowing, and roundtable discussions under sponsorship program for senior female leaders
  • Holding roundtable discussions with officers and the CHRO regarding promising human resources

Events, Training, and Promotion Activities Inside and Outside NEC

In-house online event for International Women’s Day

On March 8, 2023, the Company held NEC Inclusion & Diversity Day 2023 to coincide with International Women’s Day. The in-house event, which was held online and themed on inclusion and diversity, expressed our goal to be a company that supports and appreciates the active participation of female employees as well as one that will continue to spark innovation through the active participation of a diverse group of human resources.

Unconscious bias training

We are currently holding unconscious bias training by external experts for all directors and senior directors. In fiscal 2023, approximately 800 people attended. In parallel, we held newly appointed people manager training, and provided unconscious bias information through required online training for all employees.

Work-Life Seminar for thinking about employees engaged in childcare and their supervisors

In fiscal 2023, as approaches to childcare leave diversify, the seminar was held for employees engaged in childcare and their supervisors, as well as employees approaching these life events who feel uncertain about how to balance work and family. 270 people participated in an online seminar, more than double the number from the previous fiscal year, including participants from Group companies.

Career development for women in sales

In fiscal 2023, 115 junior female sales personnel from different industries, including 30 from NEC, participated in an online networking event that has been held by four companies, including NEC.

Activities to promote diversity led by female employees

We held dialogue events and study sessions for female employees through Scarlet Elegance in NEC (SELENE), an association of volunteer women in management positions at NEC.

Involvement of senior management

In July 2022, CEO Takayuki Morita, two senior-level female leaders, and 52 Group employees participated in the International Conference for Women in Business, held online.

Efforts to Promote the Use of Childcare Leave Among Male Employees

  • Working to encourage male employees to take advantage of childcare leave by conducting interviews with both employees who have taken leave and their supervisors and then sharing their experiences within the Company
  • Published childcare leave guidelines for male employees in October 2022, followed by guidelines for supervisors and for female employees in March 2023

Initiatives to reduce the gender pay gap

  • In order to increase the ratio of women in the upper levels of the organization (managers and above, decision-making level), strengthen recruitment and promotion of women as a KPI for leaders, including directors and executives.
  • Introduce a job-based compensation system from April 2024 to eliminate the influence of individual attributes such as gender and length of employment, and determine compensation based on position.

Employment of People with Disabilities

Measures for Promoting Employment of People with Disabilities

NEC currently employs 411 people with disabilities, which is the total for NEC Corporation, NEC Friendly Staff, Ltd., and NEC Management Partner, Ltd., as of June 1, 2023. These employees work based on the principle of “each individual employee taking ownership of their career, regardless of any disability, and by working with motivation, living a full life and bringing innovation into the world using their individuality, capabilities, and experience.” As of June 2023, NEC Corporation exceeds the statutory employment rate of 2.3%, but some Group companies have yet to reach this rate. We will promote an increase in the employment rate for the overall Group through the following initiatives.

Employment Liaison Service for People with Disabilities

  • Established an employment liaison service for people with disabilities to promote a barrier-free recruitment process
  • During the selection process, every attempt is made to ensure applicants can understand information during written exams or interviews through real-time audio transcription, braille exams, or the use of large-print versions. In addition, we make efforts to ascertain each candidate’s disability through cooperation with a specialized agency and then investigate reasonable accommodations.2
  • Before a prospective employee with a disability joins the Company, they receive special support according to their disability that includes confirming with them to ensure that their assigned workplace and other frequented locations are barrier free.
  • Develop promotions that merge branding, such as recruitment activities and promoting para-sports, and connect to acquisition of high-quality talent
  • 2.
    Measures to improve conditions that are barriers for disabled workers so that they can exercise their abilities effectively

The NEC Group I&D Promotion Meeting

  • Confirms the NEC Group’s progress in employing people with disabilities as well as the nature of related initiatives
  • We encourage the exchange of information among those in charge of hiring people with disabilities at each Group company, and promote joint projects such as seminars and tours.

Signatory to The Valuable 500

NEC has agreed with and become a signatory to The Valuable 500 initiative for promoting active participation of people with disabilities in the workplace, which was launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in January 2019. In addition to continuously promoting initiatives to create environments that allow employees with disabilities to demonstrate their full potential, we will also strive to realize safety, security, fairness and efficiency to enable a rich range of social activities by supporting people with disabilities through employment and contributing to society through support for para-sports.

Special Subsidiary Company: NEC Friendly Staff, Ltd.

In March 2003, NEC Corporation established NEC Friendly Staff, Ltd., as a special subsidiary company for employing people with disabilities, including people with intellectual or mental disabilities. The subsidiary’s head office is located at the NEC Fuchu Plant, and employees work at offices in Tamachi, Abiko, and Tamagawa. As of June 1, 2023, the company employs 159 people with disabilities.

Inclusion of Mid-career Hires

LGBTQ Initiatives

In creating a workplace environment where every individual can fully express themselves without fear of discrimination, we believe that having a correct understanding of LGBTQ issues and increasing the number of “allies”3 are top priorities. Also, to provide LGBTQ employees with equal opportunities to use our systems, since fiscal 2020, we have provided training for management to better understand LGBTQ issues as well as training for employees who work at our primary consultation desk to ensure LGBTQ employees who use the service can do so with a sense of safety and peace of mind.

  • 3.
    Someone who understands the situation of, and strongly supports, LGBTQ individuals

Launch of an Ally Community and the Promotion of Understanding Among Employees

  • A visible consultation desk (ALLY) responds directly to inquiries and consultation requests from LGBTQ employees.
  • A community of LGBTQ allies was launched by volunteer employees in the NEC Group to start promoting understanding through information dissemination, events, and other initatives.
  • To coincide with PRIDE Month in June, the Group invited LGBTQ people from outside the Company to a Companywide online event with around 1,500 participants, helping to accelerate understanding.

Revision of Internal Regulations

In October 2019, we revised 14 internal regulations, such as adding “a person who is a de facto marriage partner or in a partner relationship” to the definition of “spouse” in order to give de facto marriage partners, including same-sex marriage partners, equal treatment to legally married couples.

Participation in DIVERSITY CAREER FORUM 2022 as a Sponsor

For the sixth consecutive year, we exhibited at DIVERSITY CAREER FORUM. The fiscal 2023 forum was held online, and university students with a high level of interest in diversity issues participated from all over Japan. Through the conference, we provided participating students with an understanding of our I&D initiatives. Also, at an online networking event, our LGBTQ allies and promoters of I&D took the platform as role models and spoke directly with participating students.

Rated “Gold” in PRIDE Index 2022

  • Repeating our achievement in fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022, we received a “Gold” rating—the highest rating—in PRIDE Index 2022, which is formulated by the voluntary organization “work with Pride” and reflects evaluations of initiatives for LGBTQ individuals and other sexual minorities at companies and organizations in Japan.
  • We met five out of five of the evaluation criteria with respect to a declaration of conduct, a community of concerned parties, awareness-raising activities, human resource systems and programs, and social contributions and liaison activities.

Toward Fair Recruitment Activities

We added the following items about LGBTQ issues in interview manuals. Since then, we have been promoting awareness so that recruiters can carry out interviews appropriately. We also abolished the field for stating gender on the entry form.

  • Absolutely do not conduct interviews that discriminate or violate human dignity from the perspective of human rights
  • Even if a person comes out as LGBTQ, for example, during an interview, do not ask questions only concerning LGBTQ issues
  • Judge a candidate only by the person’s capabilities and suitability for the job

Employment of Foreign Nationals

Measures for the Promotion of Global Recruitment of Human Resources

To achieve global business expansion, NEC is working through the following initiatives to recruit non-Japanese individuals in its research, technology, sales, and corporate administration departments.

  • In addition to accepting international students as new graduate hires, NEC also conducts recruiting activities targeting researchers at overseas universities, such as the Indian Institute of Technology. (Number of new non-Japanese graduate hires in fiscal 2023: 4)
  • We work proactively to recruit employees of international subsidiaries for employment at the NEC head office, to facilitate interactions with these personnel and to develop human resources.
  • This system enables international students, Japanese students enrolled in universities abroad, and other students studying abroad to join the Company in October instead of April, when new employees usually join Japanese companies.
  • A prayer room has been established in the head office building for employees who need to make religious observances.

Supporting Diverse Workstyles for Seniors

Extended Employment

  • NEC has introduced a post-retirement re-employment system for employees who wish to work beyond the age of 60.
  • Since fiscal 2021, NEC has operated a personnel recruiting system and flexible treatment based on the system for those extending their employment that works to match the needs of individuals and hiring organizations, based on the type of work, job description, employment terms, and other conditions.
  • Personnel recruiting system and flexible treatment based on the system for those extending their employment

Dispatch and Placement Arrangements to Locations Inside and Outside the Group

  • Beginning from fiscal 2022, NEC launched a career consultation and matching service to boost employees’ sense of career ownership through a lifelong career at NEC. This initiative creates opportunities for senior personnel to make long-term contributions to society in ways suited to their lifestyles.