March 16, 2020
Dentsu Inc. (hereinafter “the Company”) has been continuously driving various reform measures since later 2016 and the Company announced “Dentsu Japan Working Environment Reform Plan” on July 27, 2017, an initiative developed jointly by management and employees with input from external consultants. The purpose of this update is to revisit the objectives, the task force structure, and the main pillars of a series of reform efforts we have been making since 2016, and to report the 2019 results as well as the summary of the progress to date, and the policy and scope of announcement going forward.
Reform Objectives
The main objectives are: full compliance with labor regulations; elimination of excessive overtime; better working environment, and; putting an end to harassment in the workplace. Through our reform programs, we aim to achieve the reduction of working hours and improvement of the quality of business performance simultaneously.
Task Force Structure
Dentsu Working Environment Reforms Commission, headed by the former President & CEO and established in November of 2016, had been driving the reform initiatives until Dentsu Working Environment Committee, headed by the current President & CEO, was newly established in January of 2020 to continue the reform efforts.
Main Pillars of Reform
They include: thorough enforcement of labor management and enhanced care for employees; “Work-diet” and the improvement of business process; development of Smart- Work Style; improvement of office environment; introduction of programs to develop new work style through time-value maximization; improvement of employee health management, and; helping employees pursue self-development. We have implemented more than 250 programs, including our unique “Input Holiday”*1 and the assignment of HRM Director*2 in each of the Company’s divisions.
Policy and Scope of Announcement
Until last year, we announced updates on the Progress with Working Environment Reforms (results from previous year) once a year in February. From this year, the Company plans to provide additional information and announce the results every quarter with quarterly and accumulated figures. The next announcement is for the results of 2020 first quarter (from January to March) and planned for late April or early May. The information to be covered includes: Number of employees violating Article 36 of the Labor Standards Act (daily and monthly); Total work hours per employee; Hours in excess of statutory work hours (monthly average); Number of holidays taken per employee; Usage rate of paid-holiday per employee (statutory paid-holiday); and Number of consultations received at the in-house consultation desk (only for harassment-related consultations, not the number of cases that we have identified as harassment).
We will further drive our multifaceted and comprehensive reforms to achieve the reduction of working hours and improvement of the quality of business performance simultaneously.
2019 Full-year Results
| Indicators | 2019 Results | 2018 Results |
|---|---|---|
| Number of employees violated Article 36 (monthly)*3 |
0 | 10 |
| Number of employees violated Article 36 (daily) |
0 | 0 |
| Total work hours per employee | 1,903 hrs (-49 hrs vs 2018) |
1,952 hrs |
| Hours in excess of statutory work hours (monthly average) |
6.8 hrs (-3.0 hrs vs 2018) |
9.8 hrs |
| Number of holidays taken per employee*4 | 23.8 days (+2.9 days vs 2018) |
20.9 days |
| Usage rate of paid-holiday per employee (statutory paid-holiday)*5 |
62.8% (-3.2%pt vs 2018) |
66.0% |
| Number of consultations received at the in-house consultation desk (only for harassment-related consultations)*6 |
87 (+17 vs 2018) |
70 |
- A monthly non-statutory company-wide no-work day. (6 months applied in 2020.)
- HRM Director is tasked with special responsibilities to ensure that labor management is thoroughly enforced, employee guidance and training are properly carried out, and care for employees is adequately provided, to promote the well-being of each employee in the Company’s divisions.
- A number of violations were recorded in 2018 on the way to building the reform foundation. In September of 2019, we received a corrective recommendation from the Mita Labor Standard Inspection Office in Tokyo with regard to the 2018 violations and submitted an improvement report in October of 2019.
- Due to the change in the method of calculating the number of days of leave taken, legal paid leave, consecutive leave and input holidays are taken, the figures for 2016 and 2018 are different from the figures announced on February 14, 2019.
The number has doubled from 12.4 days in 2016, when the efforts for a series of working environment reforms started. - There was a decrease of 3.2 percentage points from the previous year, but there was an improvement of 6.8 percentage points from 2016 (56.0%), when the efforts for various working environment reforms started. We understand that the decline was mainly due to the introduction in June 2018 of Input Holiday, a non-statutory paid-holiday.
- This is the total number of consultations related to harassment brought to the in-house consultation desk and this is not the number of cases that we have identified as harassment. We believe that the background of this increase is the heightened awareness of employees as well as the creation of favorable environment for employees to speak up, which have been achieved through the efforts of employee trainings and proper staffing of the consultation desk as part of our working environment reforms. We will continue to provide guidance and training to put an end to the workplace harassment.
