Overview
Human Resources Initiatives
Maximizing the Capabilities and Expertise of Our Employees Under the Concept of “Keep Mixed”
People are ORIX’s most valuable asset. Based on our concept of “Keep Mixed”, we hire diverse human resources regardless of nationality, age, gender or work history, integrating their diverse values and expertise with the aim of a Fusion of Intelligence to create new value and workplaces that maximize the capabilities and expertise of our employees.
We create fulfilling workplaces by establishing a culture and environment that respect diverse working styles and by reforming our human resource system in a way that is tailored to the current social climate and conventions we face. Additionally, we are enhancing training to offer opportunities to employees who embrace challenges and to enable employees to excel internationally.
Ideal Characteristics
Creativity: Proactively Creating New Businesses
ORIX intends to contribute to society through its businesses. In sensing society’s needs and consistently seeking out new businesses, our diverse employees pool their wisdom to provide innovative products and services. To remain a company that is essential to society, we look for employees with the flexibility and creativity to proactively create new opportunities and businesses.
Challenge: Taking on New Challenges and Acquiring a High Level of Expertise
To create new businesses, we believe that our employees must have a positive attitude about taking on new challenges without fear of failure. Because our sphere of activity requires various types of specialized competence, we seek out employees who regularly take on new challenges as they acquire a high level of expertise throughout their careers.
Teamwork: Respecting Diversity and Actively Driving Collaboration
ORIX has expanded its operations by emphasizing teamwork and pooling the wisdom of its various business divisions with their wide-ranging expertise. Therefore, we look for employees who display teamwork that respects diversity and actively drives collaboration.
Initiatives to Realize Our “Keep Mixed” Concept
We implement initiatives in the workplace to promote diversity and inclusion and create workplaces of value in line with the “Keep Mixed” concept.
Promoting Diversity and Inclusion
In our ever-changing social environment, the need for a wider array of working styles is increasing. We are promoting diversity and inclusion to create workplaces that are optimal so that individuals with different capabilities and expertise can excel, as well as to offer diverse working styles to accommodate different life events.
Promoting the Advancement of Women in the Workplace
ORIX was one of the earliest promoters in Japan of women’s advancement in the workplace. We started recruiting female university graduates for comprehensive work positions* in 1982, before the enforcement of the Equal Employment Opportunity Law in 1986. We have also expanded our human resources system accordingly and are actively engaged in strategically raising awareness surrounding gender equality. The ratio of female employees in managerial positions at ORIX Corporation increased from 18% to 25.3% in the 6 years between March 31, 2014 and March 31, 2020. We will continue to promote the advancement of female employees in the workplace by strengthening career support programs that help female employees develop their careers, expand their roles and pursue managerial positions regularly.
- In Japan, there are two different tracks to employment: comprehensive and general administrative. Comprehensive track employees work on business matters and are potential managerial candidates. They are expected to take on a variety of roles in a range of business areas and are therefore subject to transfers and relocations. General administrative employees, on the other hand, mainly provide administrative and clerical support to comprehensive employees.
Promoting the Advancement of Senior Employees in the Workplace
Senior employees are increasingly motivated to work due to economic reasons such as longer healthy life expectancies and an increase in the age at which pension payments begin. It is our belief that the knowledge and skills that senior employees have cultivated in their years of work are valuable assets to organizations. To create an environment where senior employees can work with a sense of security, ORIX raised its retirement age from 60 to 65 in April 2014. We believe that the continued participation of senior employees with extensive experience and expertise will enhance the company’s organizational strength as well as its vitality.
Promoting the Employment of People with Disabilities
ORIX established ORIX Business Support in April 2007 as a subsidiary to promote the employment of people with disabilities. Today, two business offices in Tokyo (Tachikawa) and Osaka help enhance ORIX’s operational efficiency by undertaking routine tasks outsourced from other companies within ORIX Group. As of April 1, 2020, 69 people with disabilities and 9 supervisors handled outsourced clerical services including printing and mailing contracts, digitalizing stored documents and preparing direct mailing enclosures, as well as other services such as washing and inspecting sales vehicles, cleaning offices and operating a cafe for employees.
Mid-career Employees and Hiring New Graduates Overseas
We also focus on recruiting mid-career employees and hiring new graduates overseas to secure diverse human resources aligned with our changing businesses. Since its establishment, ORIX has been active in hiring mid-career employees with career experience in fields not only related to finance, but manufacturing, consulting, trading, and real estate as well. 66% of employees who joined ORIX in the fiscal year ended March 2020 were mid-career hires*. Since 2016, ORIX has focused on recruiting students with diverse values, including hiring new graduates from overseas universities in China, Taiwan and South Korea as well as students from overseas living in Japan.
- Total of 10 ORIX Group companies: ORIX, ORIX Rentec, ORIX Auto, ORIX Credit, ORIX Real Estate, ORIX Computer Systems, ORIX Bank, ORIX Life Insurance, ORIX Eco Services and ORIX Asset Management & Loan Services.
Creating Workplaces of Value
ORIX defines a “workplace that offers value” as a dynamic, fulfilling working environment in which employees can achieve their full potential in good health, free of unnecessary concern. We are implementing a variety of initiatives to foster workplaces that offer value for all employees: in 2016, we launched our Work Style Reform Project under a direct mandate from the CEO, and we are continuously working to enhance and improve efforts to support various working styles and raise employee awareness. To grasp how employees feel about their daily work and to obtain data to use in future human resource initiatives, we introduced a survey of employee morale in 2004. The ORIX Group leverages these survey results as a reference when making decisions relating to human resource efforts, and for measuring the effectiveness of initiatives that are already in place.
Work Style Reform Project
In October 2016, by direct request of the CEO of ORIX Group, we launched our Work Style Reform Project. The project aspires to create high productivity and efficiency, and support activities with a focus on fostering a culture that recognizes diverse working styles.
Work Style Reform Project Timeline
Fiscal Year Ended March 2017: Launching the Work Style Reform Project and Identifying Employee Needs
We established a committee made up of more than 200 employees from 10 major ORIX Group companies—this committee discussed specific issues and efforts over the course of about 6 months and then proposed approximately 120 ideas to the CEO.
Fiscal Year Ended March 2018: A Year of Promoting Work Style Reform
Based on the proposals made by employees during this project, we implemented 80 measures centered on our human resources system to promote diverse and flexible working styles. Notably, we enhanced working hour flexibility by establishing a new super flextime system that eliminates the core working hours of the prior flextime system, established a system of annual paid leave in one-hour units, and expanded the incentive system to encourage employees to use their vacation days. We also launched an internal intern system to support diverse career prospects.
Fiscal Year Ended March 2019: A Year of Investing to Improve Productivity
To increase workplace flexibility and support various working styles, we built an infrastructure to enable work outside the office by upgrading our IT equipment and expanding external satellite offices. At the same time, we launched a system of financial support for self-improvement so employees can effectively utilize free time created through the promotion of work style reforms.
Fiscal Year Ended March 2020: Continuing to Improve Productivity
As a way of positively influencing employee mindsets, we circulated positive examples of work productivity and efficiency through seminars and an employee portal on our intranet, in addition to useful information regarding how employees are benefiting from leveraging company policies. Company-wide, we have also encouraged employees to consider enhancing productivity through methods that accommodate their respective businesses on a department/division level.
Enhancing the Workplace Environment
In April 2017, we changed our prescribed workdays to end at 17:00 from the previous 17:20 with the aim of improving productivity and reducing long working hours. Additionally, in an effort to increase the annual paid leave acquisition rate* to 80% or higher, we have established a system that incentivizes employees to use their vacation days.
- Annual paid leave acquisition rate = number of annual paid leave days used
Work-Life Balance
In order to support a better work-life balance, we have established several systems to allow people to work flexibly according to various significant life events such as marriage, maternity, childcare, and nursing care. In addition, we also hold seminars for maternity and childcare leave recipients to respond to more specific problems and provide advice on how to balance work and life outside of work. We have also been implementing a seminar for people who have children, as well as nursing care seminars centered around family members in nursing care.