Sustainability

Human Capital

Basic Approach
Management
Targets and Results
Initiatives

Basic Approach

The H.U. Group promotes the development of an organizational culture that is diverse, healthy, and active, and carries out human-centric activities based on its Human Rights Policy, Diversity Policy, Occupational Health and Safety Policy, and Training and Development Policy.

Human Rights Policy

Established on July 29th 2019
Revised on February 1st 2021

The H.U. Group respects internationally recognized human rights declarations and principles such as the International Bill of Human Rights and the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. We pursue initiatives that reflect our belief in respecting the human rights of all people involved in our business and in taking responsibility to protect the rights of workers.

We respect human rights and do our utmost to avoid and reduce any negative impact on human rights in all processes related to group activities.
We never discriminate unfairly on the grounds of age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, origin, nationality, race, color of skin, presence or absence of disability, religion, or political beliefs.
We comply with labor laws and regulations related to employment, wages, and other matters related to working conditions in the countries in which we conduct business.
We forbid child labor, forced labor, or human trafficking of any type.
We will work to remedy the situation through appropriate internal and external procedures if it becomes clear that the H.U. Group has caused or contributed to a negative impact on human rights.
We provide appropriate education and enlightenment to ensure this policy is incorporated into all activities of the H.U. Group.

Diversity Policy

Established on July 29th 2019
Revised on July 1st 2020

The H.U. Group promotes diversity to strengthen ongoing corporate growth and global competitiveness in a society of declining birthrates, aging populations, and rapid globalization. We give rise to innovation and create new value as each individual in our diverse base of human resources maximizes their skills, contributing to our corporate activities.

We create systems that provide career path support and reward employees according to their contributions to ensure every employee can express their full potential, regardless of personality or personal attributes.
We will provide an environment that hires, promotes to management, improves rates of return from childcare leave, and engages in other measures to encourage women to work longer careers within the H.U. Group to create a society in which women can express their individuality and demonstrate their abilities (promoting women's participation and advancement).
We engage in creating rewarding work for people with disabilities, actively hiring such individuals and providing a comfortable working environment that respects individuality.

Occupational Health and Safety Policy

Established on July 29th 2019
Revised on July 1st 2020

To embody the corporate philosophy of the H.U. Group, we must provide employees with an environment in which they can participate in a healthy and active manner. We create work environments that incorporate considerations of labor, safety, and hygiene, resulting in workplaces in which our people can work comfortably and with peace of mind.

We comply with relevant laws and regulations, as well as internal rules, concerning occupational health and safety.
We have established a health and safety system to ensure a healthy working environment in which employees can work safely and securely.
We pursue measures against the risk of dangers and hazards, including disasters, accidents, and infectious diseases. We respond promptly to any occurrence, and we implement detailed measures to prevent recurrence.
We continue to enhance and strengthen workplace accident prevention education for employees to ensure compliance with the preceding policies.

Training and Development Policy

Established on October 11th 2019
Revised on July 14th 2022

The H.U. Group believes that growth based on the self-directed career development of each employee is the most important, essential element in the Group's sustainable growth and ongoing contribution to society. To achieve this, we promote career development based on self-reliance, self-direction and self-responsibility, supporting employee growth by providing more opportunities to learn and gain experience.

Based on individual skill development plans, we ensure that each employee can gain experience through their daily work activities while creating and supporting strategic learning opportunities through group training, E-learning and so on.
Through internal recruitment, regular job rotations and elective training, we provide opportunities for employees to try new types of work and gain experiences to expand the potential of each employee.
We respect that employees will recognize and think about their own values and future aspirations, make and act upon choices for various learning opportunities toward their self-realization, and take responsibility for their own actions.

Management

The Human Capital Subcommittee, managed by the division head of Human Resources at H.U. Group Holdings as its main driver, promotes activities linked to various policies. In addition to the Human Capital Subcommittee, we have established a Health and Safety Committee and Health Management Promotion Structure, and will regularly monitor the progress of these activity plans and their results, striving to act and take corrective action going forward.

The Central Health and Safety Committee at Company headquarters identifies activity reports, urgent issues, and important company-wide promotion issues at each business site, sets semi-annual health and safety targets, and improves and refines the environment through the PDCA cycle.

Health and Safety Committee

Targets and Results

We have created KPIs covering the respective areas of the Human Rights Policy, Diversity Policy, Occupational Health and Safety Policy, and Training and Development Policy, and are working to achieve our three-year targets.

Sustainability Roadmap for Human Capital

In light of the actual results of the three years from FY2020 until FY2022, the H.U. Group established a new roadmap (two-year targets) in FY2023.

＜Three-Year Targets and Results（FY2020～2022）＞

KPI					[Reference results]	Performance		Performance 2022		Three-Year Targets and Results
Major Category	Subcategory	Item		Unit	2019	2020	2021	Target	Actual	Target	Actual
Compliance with labor-related laws and human rights in the countries and regions where business is conducted	Violation of labor condition laws and regulations	-		Cases	0	0	0	0	0	Percentage of female managers 20%	20.2% [Achieved]
	Forced labor / child labor	Number of forced labor reports		Cases	0	0	0	0	0
	Forced labor / child labor	Number of child labor reports		Cases	0	0	0	0	0
Promotion of work-life balance	Promotion of taking paid leave			%	-	54.6	61.7	70	68.0
	Promotion of taking paid leave		Japan ^*1	%	60.1	48.2	52.0	70	57.1
	Average overtime hours per month			Hours	-	16.9	20.4	5	21.2	Acquisition of White 500 status	○ [Achieved] Two consecutive years from FY2021
	Average overtime hours per month		Japan ^*1		20.7	17.1	22.2	5	23.3
Diversity promotion status	Percentage of persons with disabilities hired		Japan ^*1	Hours	%	1.86	2.30	2.24 （2.37）^*2	2.3			2.34
	Percentage of female managers			%	-	16.8	18.6	20	20.2
	Percentage of female managers		Japan ^*1	%	14.2	13.4	12.2	20	14.7
	Childcare support	Female employees taking maternity leave		Peoples	-	234	205 （96）^*3	200	89 ^*3
			Japan ^*1	Peoples	173	219	196 （87）^*3	200	-
		Percentage of female employees returning to work after maternity leave		%	-	97.9	98.8	100	100
			Japan ^*1	%	96.8	97.7	98.6	100	-
Engagement survey promotion	Response rate	-		%	80	- ^*4	88	- ^*4	- ^*4
Promotion status of human resources development	Average annual training hours per regular employee	Total time for group training, E-learning, distance education, etc.		Hours	7.8	23.4	35.3	25	32.1
Health management	White 500 certification	-		-	-	-	〇	〇	〇

＜Two-Year Targets（FY2023～2024）＞

KPI				[Reference data]			Annual Target
Major Category	Subcategory	Item	Unit	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024
Compliance with labor-related laws and human rights in the countries and regions where business is conducted	Violation of labor condition laws and regulations	-	Cases	0	0	0	0	0
	Forced labor / child labor	Number of forced labor reports	Cases	0	0	0	0	0
	Forced labor / child labor	Number of child labor reports	Cases	0	0	0	0	0
Promotion of work-life balance	Promotion of taking paid leave		%	54.6	61.7	68.0	70	70
	Promotion of taking paid leave	Japan ^*1	%	48.2	52.0	57.1	70	70
	Average overtime hours per month		Hours	16.9	20.4	21.2	15	15
	Average overtime hours per month	Japan ^*1	Hours	17.1	22.2	23.3	15	15
Diversity promotion status	Percentage of persons with disabilities hired	Japan ^*1	%	2.30	2.24	2.34	2.5	2.5
	Percentage of female managers	-	%	16.8	18.6	20.2	21	22
	Childcare support	Percentage of female employees taking maternity leave ^*1	%	96.9	95.8	100	100	100
		Percentage of female employees returning to work after maternity leave ^*1		97.9	98.8	100	100	100
		Percentage of men taking extended leave or leave for childcare ^*1		34.8	50.8	71.4	75	90
Promotion status of human resources development ^*1	Average annual training hours per regular employee	Total time for group training, E-learning, distance education, etc.	Hours	23.4	35.3	32.1	30	30
Health management ^*1	White 500 certification	-	-	-	〇	〇	〇	〇
Ideal workplaces ^*1	Percentage of employees who responded “Satisfied with work” in a survey of employees	-	%	41.9	42.9	47.0	52	55
Engagement survey ^*1	Engagement score	Sympathy for the corporate philosophy	%	- ^*4	66	- ^*4	68	70
Engagement survey ^*1	Engagement score	Growth opportunity	%	- ^*4	50	- ^*4	52	54

1 Domestic companies subject to internal control evaluation
2 Domestic companies eligible for special subsidiaries (excluding Nihon Rinsho and Care'x)
3 Figures after the revision of the "Act on the Welfare of Workers Who Take Care of Children or Other Family Members Including Child Care and Family Care Leave."
4 Conducted every other year till FY2022

Initiatives

Human Rights

As suggested by our name derived from "Healthcare for You," we believe that all of us are equal in our desire for good health, which is a universal desire of mankind. We recognize that respect for human rights is essential for our businesses. The businesses of the H.U. Group are as diverse as lab testing and its related services (LTS), in-vitro diagnostics (IVD) and healthcare-related services (HS). All require a high standard of ethics and a strong sense of mission because they are related to life. The H.U. Group is advancing stakeholder engagement activities to recognize and identify human rights issues.
In addition to its Human Rights Policy, the H.U. Group has established the item (1) Respect for Human Rights in Section 4, Relationship with Society in its Code of Conduct, which states, The H.U. Group will respect internationally recognized human rights. H.U. will respect the rights of all persons involved in the business activities of the H.U. Group and make its best efforts to ensure that such rights will not be infringed upon. This is in accordance with the stipulations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and with the United Nations' International Bill of Human Rights. In addition to complying with laws and regulations, we clearly state that discrimination, harassment, forced labor and child labor are prohibited in order to ensure a higher level of effectiveness, and we are increasing awareness among employees through various training programs. In March 2019, we participated in the United Nations Global Compact and made clear our corporate stance on the 10 principles covering Human Rights, Labour, Environment, ant Anti-Corruption.
In our induction training programs, including mid-career recruitment, we strive to educate employees and improve their effectiveness through learning about key concepts such as diversity, equal opportunities, and prohibiting discrimination in the workplace.
We also provide an in-house training environment where all employees—including managers—can receive harassment training at all times, and are working to create a workplace that ensures mutual respect for each other's values and philosophies. The training includes explanations of specific actions that managers should take when they receive a report of harassment.

Diversity

In addition to its Diversity Policy, the H.U. Group advocates respect for diverse values under the Mutual Respect section of the Values and Traits under its Group Philosophy system, ensuring diverse human resources regardless of nationality, age, or gender. Employees range in age from the late teens to the late 60s, and many new graduates hired in recent years are women. Furthermore, we are focusing on promoting the success of women, setting a high ratio of female managers and those returning to work after childcare leave, and otherwise developing measures to create an environment in which more women can play active roles. Highly evaluated for our gender diversity, we have been selected as a constituent of the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) for the fifth consecutive year since 2019.
In April 2019, we established H.U. Cast, which has been certified as a specified subsidiary, providing a place to demonstrate a variety of personalities, and we are gradually expanding our business to promote the employment of people with disabilities.
We believe that by eliminating unreasonable discrimination, satisfactorily treating employees regardless of their selected style of employment and building a workplace environment with diverse workstyle options that can be freely chosen from under the Diversity Policy, we can provide opportunities for every employee to fully demonstrate their capabilities. Therefore, for employees with identical qualifications and identical duties, we apply identical wage systems with respect for diversity, in addition to observing the relevant laws and regulations in each country or region where we conduct business activities.

Labor Practices

The H.U. Group has signed the UN Global Compact and supports the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, respecting the following labor-related basic principles and rights.
- No forced labor
- No child labor
- No discrimination in employment and occupation
- Safe, healthy work environment
- Freedom of association and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining

Occupational Health and Safety

In developing a comfortable workplace environment, the H.U. Group has established the Occupational Health and Safety Policy prioritizing occupational health and safety. Based on this policy, we promote activities in line with the Occupational Health and Safety Plan we formulate every fiscal year, and provide all employees of the Group with training on health and safety following our occupational health and safety regulations. In addition, we established the Central Health and Safety Committee in 2020 and have since been engaged in improvement activities, through which we share information from the company as a whole related to health and safety, identify urgent tasks, and implement a PDCA cycle by setting health and safety targets. These activities include the participation of industrial physicians, people from the personnel and general affairs departments, and other team members.
We work to improve systems, conclude labor-management agreements and on other tasks, in addition to tasks related to occupational health and safety, after discussion and agreement between the management and representatives selected from among the employees of each business site. Above all, we collaborate with health insurance associations in the enhancement of initiatives to maintain and improve the physical and mental health of our employees.
We will continue to develop a better workplace environment with our employees and management maintaining a sound labor-management relationship and regularly exchanging opinions about labor conditions, including wages and treatment, business environments and other issues.

Health Management

The H.U. Group has listed health improvement, which is reflected in its name, among its material issues, and it has instituted a range of associated measures for its employees and their families as well in the aspects of both mental and physical health. We published our Health Declaration in 2019 and established the Health Management Promotion Office (now the Healthcare Management Promotion Department) in 2020, thus strengthening our health management initiatives. In 2023, a total of four companies from the H.U. Group (H.U. Group Holdings, Inc. and three consolidated subsidiaries) were certified for the second consecutive year as White 500 companies in the large enterprise category of the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program, under which selections are jointly made by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi. As of that same year, a cumulative total of 11 companies from the H.U. Group had been certified under the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program (eight companies in the large enterprise category and three in the SME category). We will continue to pursue initiatives in health management, aiming to enable employees of the Group to bolster their health and thereby increase their vitality and productivity to continue to energize the organization.

More information is available here.

Prevention of Overwork

To prevent overwork that is harmful to health, we manage work hours appropriately and observe the laws and regulations of countries and regions where we do business so that our employees are not forced to work overtime, work otherwise long hours, or work irregular shifts. Therefore, in the General Employer Action Plan that we submitted to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (announced in August 2021), we set a target of reducing regular working hours 20% from the fiscal 2020 level. We ensure thorough management and supervision including confirmation by management, and use flextime and other programs to reduce overwork.

Encouraging Employees to Take Paid Leave

We have introduced a program under which up to 60 days of expiring annual paid leave may be carried over, thus building an environment that facilitates the use of paid leave. This program is also used to support employees who are taking care of sick family members or providing nursing care.

Our Approach to a Living Wage and Support Systems

The H.U. Group has a basic policy of not only observing the statutory minimum wages of countries and regions where it conducts business but also paying wages above the statutory minimum level. Based on appropriate labor agreements, we pay extra wages, establish payment methods, and take other actions in a fair manner regarding overtime work, etc.
In addition, we introduced a group long-term disability (GLTD) insurance program, for which the company assumes a certain amount of the premium, and a wage loss compensation system for employees on nursing care leave in April 2020. Under this program and system, we have created an environment that enables employees who have to remain absent from work for a long time due to injury or illness and employees on temporary leave whose period for receiving nursing care leave benefits (employment insurance benefits) have expired to concentrate on their treatment or nursing care while reducing their concerns about their livelihood, helping them return to work as soon as possible.

Training and Development

The H.U. Group clearly states in its Training and Development Policy that growth based on the self-directed career development of each employee is the most important, essential element in the Group's sustainable growth and ongoing contribution to society. It can be said that securing and training superior and highly specialized human resources is the basis for our doing business. However, many issues are present related to human resources, such as skills transfers and labor shortages due to the declining working population. With this context, the entire Group is exploring various measures, such as talent reviews, training for manager cultivation, and training for improving specializations at operating companies. We are also focusing our efforts on promoting work style reforms so that diverse human resources can play an active role.
To implement our corporate action guidelines in practice, we strive to ensure that respect for human rights, anti-corruption and anti-bribery measures are thoroughly enforced among all employees, through the distribution of compliance handbooks and in-house training.

Sustainability Subcommittee