LIXIL is committed to respecting diversity and recruiting and developing high caliber talent across the company. We believe that harnessing the intelligence and perspectives of our diverse workforce is critical to driving growth and innovation.

Our Approach

At LIXIL, we believe diversity is the very thing that enhances our uniqueness and competitive edge. Diversity is what drives innovation and sustainable growth as we strive to develop the products and services that meet diverse needs and realize LIXIL’s Purpose to “make better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere.” Creating a comfortable working environment and culture for all members helps us become an organization of people who feel empowered to tackle difficult challenges with an entrepreneurial spirit and see their achievements justly rewarded.

In FYE2018, we published our Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Declaration and determined our priority areas for D&I to promote initiatives. In April 2021, we updated our D&I Strategy. We have stated that our goal is to embed a culture of inclusion across LIXIL and achieve key gender equity goals by 2030.

To help achieve this goal, in FYE2022, we determined action plans for talent development and acquisition and for creating an inclusive working environment, and have been gradually implementing relevant initiatives.

We are also seeking to strengthen D&I more broadly in order to embed a culture of inclusion across the company. As part of that drive, we are focusing on creating a workplace where people with disabilities play an active role.

Diversity & Inclusion ＞

Our System

In FYE2020, we established our Global D&I Department, which is tasked with developing common global measures for promoting D&I. In FYE2021, we set up the D&I Committee consisting of our CEO and other executive officers and leaders, and updated our D&I Strategy and promotion measures. The D&I Committee implements various measures based on the D&I Strategy, and the results of the committee discussions and deliberations are reported to the Impact Strategy Committee to accelerate D&I initiatives across our organization.

Governance Structure ＞

Fostering an Inclusive Culture

In FYE2022, we newly pursued the following activities in order to embed the inclusive culture that we declared as a goal of our D&I Strategy.

We have launched five Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) on a global scale focusing on Better Together, Multicultural, Ability, Working Parents & Caregivers, and LGBTQ+. ERGs are employee-driven groups that strengthen ties between employees when conducting activities. We assign an executive officer to each group to support the group’s activities as an executive sponsor.

We also conduct workshops and e-learning on a global scale designed to promote understanding of D&I elements such as unconscious bias and psychological safety. In FYE2022, LIXIL International conducted over 90 D&I workshops which were attended by over 1,200 employees. In Japan, we offered e-learning opportunities for all employees, with 81% of employees and 93% of managers having completed the course to date.

We also added inclusion as one of the KPIs in our biannual LIXIL VOICE employee opinion surveys. This enables us to gain a clear grasp of employee awareness of D&I promotion and the current situation, which we can then reflect in our strategies and measures.

Employee Listening Systems ＞
Encouraging Employee Activities ＞

Empowering Women in the Workplace

LIXIL is accelerating gender equity based on our CEO’s commitment. As part of our drive to correct gender inequality, in FYE2022, we incorporated a D&I perspective into our People and Organizational Development (POD) processes designed to help formulate successor development plans for key positions, and identified key female talent across the company. As of FYE2022, women constituted 27% of the selected successor candidates.

We are also working to develop high-potential employees through our selective NEXT and NEXT 2nd next-generation talent development programs regardless of gender, which were launched in Japan in FYE2021. In addition, we are focusing on creating environments in which employees can continue to advance their career even after childbirth and childcare leave. This includes offering opportunities to discuss future career goals and available support systems with managers.

As a result of these efforts, the percentage of female managers in Japan has increased from 0.9% in March 2012 to 6.5% in March 2022.

We also set suitable targets for the percentage of women in each region around the world by job level, race, etc. and are making efforts to achieve them. In the EMENA region, we held a D&I workshop focusing on gender balance as part of our efforts to achieve gender equity, and discussed issues in business or innovation and potential action plans.

Initiatives for Employees with Disabilities

LIXIL seeks to create environments in which employees with disabilities can better perform and enjoy their work by tailoring jobs to suit each individual’s skills in a wide range of areas including R&D, production, sales administration, and planning management. As of June 1, 2021, LIXIL had 442 employees with disabilities in Japan, constituting 2.42%* of the total workforce.

In 2014, LIXIL launched our WING NIJI office that focuses on employment of people with disabilities. In addition to supporting employees with different disabilities to perform their work assignments, conducting career aptitude evaluations, and offering job development opportunities, WING NIJI has been undertaking many initiatives to explore the type of environments that would enable employees with and without disabilities to work together most effectively. We strive to create comfortable working environments based on barrier-free concepts by, for instance, introducing software that increases the font size for people with impaired eyesight and adjustable-height desks for wheelchair users.

In Japan, LIXIL is also strengthening company-wide efforts, including introducing sign language interpretation in training sessions and putting subtitles on intranet videos for employees with hearing disabilities.

We have been making various efforts and considerations to improve job assignments and working environments to suit the capabilities and characteristics of individual employees. For instance, we ask people who are prone to anxiety to do tasks at their own pace, or leave an empty desk in front of an employee who gets distracted by other people around them or allow them to work in a free space.

In May 2016, we were certified by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare as a leading company in the active employment of people with mental health disorders and other disabilities. We aim to help create a social structure in which people with disabilities can participate actively by sharing these initiatives with other companies and government institutions.

Fueled by our aim to embed a culture of inclusion, from FYE2023, we will continue to focus on creating a workplace where people with disabilities play an active role, while also working harder than ever to conduct external awareness building activities and joint research with universities.

* Calculated based on the Employment Rate System for Persons with Disabilities by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Respecting Sexual and Gender Diversity

Since April 2017, LIXIL has been working to create a friendly working environment for sexual and gender minority employees.

In March 2019, we made some improvements to our human resource system and working environments for bases in Japan. For instance, we have started treating same-sex partners as dependents and applying the relevant congratulation or condolence leave and financial payments, arranging times and locations for undergoing health checks, and recognizing employees’ preferences for either male or female uniforms.

We are also promoting internal activities to expand understanding and support. In FYE2018, we held a series of online lectures relating to sexual and gender diversity and have been encouraging employees to watch them. We seek to increase the number of allies who understand and support sexual and gender minorities through venues such as study sessions, and distribute Ally badges and stickers to employees who support this initiative. We also seek to deepen understanding by arranging opportunities to interact with sexual and gender minorities. Thanks to these efforts, in FYE2019 we achieved our target of having two or more allies in LIXIL’s bases in Japan.*

* 86 bases with 50 or more employees, excluding the bases of our group companies.

Supporting a Healthy Work-Life Balance

At LIXIL in Japan, the executive management team actively supervises the creation of a rewarding working environment in which each and every employee can perform vigorously to their full potential.

We are committed to creating the necessary systems and cultivating the right atmosphere to support a good work-life balance, enabling employees to maintain a high level of performance throughout different life stages. In FYE2021, we created frameworks to further expand mechanisms for supporting flexible workstyles, childbirth, and childcare. From FYE2023, we will introduce initiatives to extend systems for supporting shorter working hours and encouraging male employees to take childcare leave.

Systems That Support Flexible Workstyles

In addition to expanding our remote-working system for working from home or satellite offices, in FYE2021 we also introduced a Superflex system that no longer requires core-time working hours and offers greater flexibility of working hours and locations.

Leave and Employment Systems Tailored to Different Life Stages

In FYE2021, we created a new 10-day paid leave for employees with preschool-age children (Childcare Leave system) and for employees who have to care for family members (Family Care Leave system). We also set up a Self-Care Leave system that covers morning sickness and fertility treatment in addition to the original menstruation leave.

Under our Career Return system, we rehire employees who left the company for reasons such as childbirth, childcare, nursing care, or relocation due to a partner’s job transfer.

Scope and details of employee-related data ＞

Expanded Support for Childbirth and Childcare

In FYE2021, we introduced a new system that facilitates shorter working hours to support childcare as well as a system that provides financial support to employees wanting to return to work early after maternity or childcare leave. From FYE2023, our system for shortened working hours for childcare purposes will be extended until the child is in the sixth grade of elementary school. We have also extended the period during which male employees can take Spouse Birth/Childcare Leave (Papa’s Childcare Leave) when their spouse gives birth from six to twelve months, and the length of that leave from five to ten days. In addition, we subsidize extended daycare fees or the use of a broader range of childcare facilities.

Promoting Flexible and Diverse Working Styles ＞

Developing and Supporting Diverse Human Resources

Encouraging Promotion to Management Positions

Based on our D&I Strategy, LIXIL is seeking to create an inclusive working environment and talent acquisition and development plans that consider diversity of all types.

When we nurture and promote the next generation of leaders, we ensure diversity in terms of gender, nationality, race, and career through a list of potential successors for 250 major group positions.

LIXIL Americas has set a goal to achieve an internal staff composition by race that mirrors the overall mix in the US by 2030. LIXIL Africa selects staff who have potential leadership qualities from among its factory workers and from particular ethnic groups who have traditionally found themselves in a disadvantageous position and are underrepresented in current management positions. These employees join a Future Leadership Program designed to develop the necessary skills to advance to management positions in the future.

Talent Development ＞

Promoting Multi-Cultural Understanding

LIXIL factories in Japan accept foreign-national apprentices. To enable these apprentices to work enthusiastically in Japan, we believe it is important to build better communication, so we hold events to help promote understanding of Japanese culture and Japanese language study sessions.

We have also launched a global group that focuses on multiculturalism as one of our ERGs, and are implementing initiatives to promote greater understanding of racial diversity.

Encouraging Employee Activities

LIXIL has established frameworks to support employee-driven activities. The employee networks in Japan and LIXIL Americas encourage employees to get together voluntarily to share and solve their problems and to improve individual skills. For example, the working parents network, which focuses on how to balance work and childcare responsibilities, holds monthly online lunch meetings where participants get to share any concerns or issues and formulate a course of action to solve those problems. Another example is our Mimishiru team run primarily by employees with hearing disabilities who hold sign language classes for people without hearing disabilities.

In FYE2022, we expanded these activities and set up global ERGs focusing specifically on Better Together, Multicultural, Ability, Working Parents & Caregivers, and LGBTQ+.

Fostering an Inclusive Culture ＞