We are promoting diversity so that young employees, mid-career employees and female employees can work actively at the managerial level. In 2022, a system was revised under which young employees in their early 30's can be promoted to managerial positions. In addition, we have proactively employed mid-career employees at the managerial level. Currently, approximately 100 mid-career employees, accounting for 16% at the managerial level, work actively for us.
Concerning promotion of female employees, the percentage of female employees at the managerial level remains at 4.1% (FY2022) and it is one of our issues. At first, in order to increase female employee candidates for management positions, we established a goal, "percentage of female employees at the team leader level of 15%" within two years from April 2021, based on the Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life, and we achieved the goal. We aim to achieve 10% female employees at the managerial level by FY2026 and 20% by FY2031. With the aim of achieving this goal, we will develop a structure and environment where we can employ, train, and retain human resources equally regardless of gender.

Employing mid-career persons

We are also focusing on career recruitment, to employ human resources with the skills, knowledge, and experience that we need as an immediate force. Especially since FY2014, when we started to actively promote mid-career employment in view of changes in the business environment, we have been actively hiring mid-career employees in a broad range of jobs, including MR, R&D, safety information management, digital / IT, and managing section. In FY2022, about 60 mid-career recruits joined our company.
In July 2023, we established OPhrs Co., Ltd. as a strategic subsidiary with a unique personnel system, etc. to acquire "highly specialized human resources in digital and innovation, etc. fields." We will proactively engage in the employment of highly professional human resources who contribute to promoting our growth strategy.

Number of employees hired by Mid-career recruitment

Balancing Work and Childcare, and its Goals (Act on the Promotion of Women's Active Engagement in Professional Life)

Childcare Support Initiatives

We believe that society as a whole should support families raising children and that creating an environment that supports childbearing and childrearing is one of the challenges that companies should address. We formulated an action plan based on the "Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children," and are working to support employees in balancing their work and childrearing. As a result, we were certified by the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare as a standard-compliant general company, and we were awarded the mark of certification as a childcare support company (Kurumin*) five times between 2008,　and the Platinum Kurumin certification in November 2019.
After April 2017, we introduced a new childcare support system, "Encouraging Leave for Childcare Participation," and we are also developing an environment to promote understanding of the workplace among male employees who take childcare leave that child-rearing is a life event for both men and women. In concrete terms, we provide guidance for the purpose of support from pregnancy, the start of childrearing, and reinstatement (pre-mother, pre-father guidance) and orientation at the reinstatement from childcare leave for the purpose of reducing anxiety at reinstatement and supporting smooth returns to work as well as follow-up seminars after reinstatement from childcare leave for employees and their supervisors (seminars to support work-life balance starting after reinstatement from childcare leave). Thus, we support our employees in balancing work and childcare. In addition, we publish open newsletters about the experiences of men taking childcare leave. In recognition of these activities to support a balance of work and childcare and create a supportive work environment, we received certifications.

Percentage of Male Employees Taking Childcare Leave

Retention rate of female*

• Retention rate＝100-(Turnover rate of each years)

We have set a goal, "Increase either the percentage of childcare leave or the percentage of reduced working hours taken by male employees to 80% or higher," to continue promoting male participation in childrearing, and we will continue to promote initiatives to further support the balancing of work and family life, including the establishment of personnel systems and holding seminars to support this balance.

We have established an "open recruitment system" and an "internal challenge job system" so that individual employees can acquire diversified experiences and perspectives. We also began to allow our employees to engage in "side business and concurrent business" from April 2023 in order to acquire new knowledge and experience that cannot be obtained from internal operations.
By acquiring diversified experiences and perspectives regardless of whether they are obtained from inside or outside the company, we aim for further improvement of productivity and the creation of revolutionary innovation.

[Systems that promote employee challenges]

Open recruitment system

We have used an open recruitment system to promote employee challenges and revitalize inter-departmental transfers. we have eased requirements for application based on the needs of employees and greatly expanded the number of positions available, and 25 employees were transferred to other departments. We renewed the system to raise awareness for more employees.

Internal challenge job system

Based on the needs of employees who wish to expand their horizons by learning about work in areas other than their own department, to grow professionally, or to deepen person-to-person exchanges across departments, we have introduced an internal challenge job system with the aim of challenging employees to work in another department for 20% of their prescribed working hours while still being in their current department, and raising employees' skills and providing career support. In FY2022, 20 employees engaged in concurrent business under the system as a test operation in limited departments

Side business and concurrent business

We implemented a system revision that allows employees to engage in side business in June 2023. By acquiring new knowledge and experience in various fields that cannot be obtained from operations in our company, we aim to achieve employee growth and career development in our company while maintaining the career of employees with diversified backgrounds. In addition, we also aim to increase productivity, to create evolutional innovation, and further growth of our company by increasing diversity as an organization and using the knowledge and experience obtained from outside the company for operations in the company.
In addition, we have enabled contract employees who have retired from our company to engage in side business since April 2023 with the purpose of achieving a more flexible working style and forming their second career after retirement..

Temporary assignment program to venture companies

To create opportunities to gain experience that is not possible in our company, we have introduced a temporary assignment program to venture companies, V2V (Voyage to Venture). For more details, please see here ("Training for Innovative Human Resources" in "Training for Human Resources").

HOPE

We are holding an internal business competition, "HOPE," for the creation of new business as a voluntary opportunity to bring the lessons and experiences of employees into practice. For more details, please see here ("Training for Innovative Human Resources" in "Training for Human Resources").

We are creating a work environment where employees can work safely and introducing a system to promote employee challenges (indicated under "Acquiring diversified experiences and perspectives") as a work style reform contributing to employing and training human resources. We are also engaging in an initiative to develop the support system and work environment where our employees can work in diversified ways so that every single employee can grow by working actively and can fulfill their abilities to the maximum. For more details of our support system, welfare program, etc., please see "Cultivation of Employee-friendly Workplaces/Safety and Health."

Effort made for promoting active participations of persons with disabilities

We have been proactively promoting the employment of challenged persons and creating a work environment where challenged persons can work easily. In April 2022, we established a 100% subsidiary, Ono Pharma UD Co., Ltd., in order to provide more working opportunities for challenged persons. In October 2022, it was certified as a specified subsidiary and engaged in printing business at the beginning. In the future, we will expand it as a place where challenged employees can fully show their abilities and work actively in a greater variety of businesses. As mentioned above, we would like to contribute to a sustainable society by providing worksites where employees can engage in meaningful work. As of July 2023, 33 employees are working actively.

Employment rate of persons with disabilities

Use of UD Talk

We introduced UD Talk* for business in 2016 as a communication tool for hearing- impaired people, and use it in almost all departments to which hearing-impaired employees belong. Currently, subtitles are displayed in real time on the screen of the Web conferencing system, and we will support an environment where people with hearing impairments can work lively without any inconvenience through in-house communication even in a telework environment.

• UD Talk is an application used for communication with the mainly hearing-impaired people using a smartphone. It enables us to convert voice into text using automatic speech recognition.

LGBTQ+ Initiatives

We are engaging in creating worksites where our employees respect diversity, such as sexual orientation and gender identification (SOGI), where individuals who are LGBTQ+ can ensure their psychological safety and work, as part of promotion of DE&I.
Additionally, we regularly implement e-learning courses for all employees, seminars with external speakers, and training specifically designed for managers in order to promote employees’ understanding of SOGI and enable them to respond appropriately based on accurate knowledge.
In recognition of these activities, we were awarded the "Silver" designation in the "PRIDE Index 2023," organized by the General Incorporated Association Work with Pride. This index evaluates the initiatives of companies and organizations regarding LGBTQ+ inclusion.
We will continue to steadily implement each of our initiatives to create a comfortable working environment for our LGBTQ+ individuals.
For more information on PRIDE indicators, please see here.