The Shin-Etsu Group places the highest priority on ensuring the stable employment of its employees. We believe we can grow when employees feel secure in their jobs, do good work, and achieve good results. Based on this idea, in addition to properly managing working hours and creating an environment where it is easy to take paid vacation, we have put in place systems that allow employees to deal flexibly with various matters that occur in their lives, such as marriage, childbirth, childcare, treatment of illness, and nursing care. These company initiatives have inspired a greater sense of belonging among employees and a greater willingness for employees to voluntarily contribute to the growth of the Company.

The Group aims to raise awareness about managing working hours, eliminate excessive working hours, and create highly productive workplaces. To this end, we are proactively introducing a system to accurately track working hours through systems such as smart cards for the security gate at the plant entrance and employee PC logs. In addition, we are promoting the development of systems and working environments that enable flexible and highly productive work styles, such as the flextime system and telecommuting.

We encourage employees to take paid vacation, and meticulously monitor whether they take it, through site- and workplace-specific initiatives, such as maintaining schedules of planned leave and offering incentives to take it. Currently, the rate of paid vacation taken is approximately 80%. As a company involved in chemical manufacturing, where continuous operation is essential, we have shift workers who support the plant 365 days a year, including the year-end and New Year holidays. Nevertheless, we have been able to maintain a high rate of paid vacation taken by fostering a culture of mutual cooperation. Employees work together with a strong commitment to support the plant and maintain safe, stable operations.

The Group supports employees’ childbirth and childcare. The Company has published the “Childbirth and Childcare Guidebook,” which summarizes systems and procedures related to childbirth and childcare, in an effort to create an environment that encourages employees to take advantage of our childcare support systems. As a result, many employees have utilized the childcare leave system, which allows employees to take childcare leave until their child turns three years old, and for two consecutive years, the average take-up rate for male employees has exceeded 80%. In addition, we grant a paid leave of five days to an employee whose spouse gives birth. Employees are allowed to use the short-time work system, which shortens their working hours for a maximum of two hours a day. This system can be used until their children graduate from elementary school. We also encourage use of the teleworking system. Childcare is supported according to local laws and regulations in overseas Group companies.

The Group has a nursing care leave system as shown in the chart below. The system enables employees to work in the company while caring for the elderly. In addition to the system documented in the chart below, we support caregiver employees through systems and operations that are as tailored as possible to each employee’s individual circumstances. For example, employees who are separated from their families due to caring for their parents are provided with travel expenses to temporarily return home once a month.

The Company publishes a Nursing Care Guidebook in which all of the necessary information on our nursing care system and care insurance is provided. Furthermore, we started health care and nursing support services in FY2014 to provide counseling by external experts.

If the annual paid leave granted in accordance with labor regulations has expired without being taken, a certain number of days can be treated as saved holidays. Employees may use these saved holidays for nursing care, for injury or illness, for volunteer work for regional disasters, or for donating organs or bone marrow transplants.