Women’s Empowerment

We dispatch employees to women’s leadership training programs held by external organizations as an opportunity to improve their leadership skills, broaden their perspectives, and enhance their viewpoints. In 2023, we began dispatching female employees to shorter training programs that are easy for employees with childcare responsibilities to participate in, and to training programs for female department heads and executive candidates. By expanding the scope and number of participants, we are working to strategically nurture female employees at all levels of the organization. From those female employees who have participated in training mentioned above, we hear comments such as, “I have successfully decided my course of action,” and “I have broadened my perspective through networking with people in different industries.” At the same time, we hear good feedback about the participants from their workplaces (A total of 62 employees dispatched since 2016, 31 of whom were promoted).

In 2023, we hosted an alumni event for past participants in the series of small-group roundtable talks with a former female executive and candidates for managerial positions (Women’s Career Cafe) with the aim of helping female employees gain a positive attitude as “I want to be a leader”, think about their own unique image of leadership, and make empathic connections with other female workers. On the day of the event, we gathered in person, shared changes and new concerns since participating in the Women’s Career Cafe, and each person declared one action for the future. Participants commented, “I was able to look back on myself and get inspiration and tips from the people around me. I want to put them into practice,” and “It was a good opportunity for me to get to know colleagues in a similar position beyond the division,” leading to the establishment of a mindset for the careers of female employees and a change in behavior. (100% of participants were satisfied with the program, and there was a positive change in their attitudes toward their careers)

The voices of those involved in the Women’s Career Cafe revealed that female employees themselves have an unconscious bias about gender roles and images of leadership, which leads to a lack of self-confidence, as well as reservedness, and makes it difficult for them to think proactively about pursuing their careers. In order to raise the level of career awareness among all Kao Group female employees in Japan, we invited three female leaders in the Group in different areas to join a panel discussion to discuss their thoughts on careers, how they manage to balance work and childcare, and what makes taking on a leadership role interesting. The participants were highly satisfied with the panel discussion and the change in their awareness: “I realized I don’t have to give up either work or childcare, and I want to think about what I can do to achieve that,” “I felt it is good to have diverse leaders and that this is a strength of the organization. I want to consider my own strengths through dialogue with those around me and with myself.” (Viewed more than 1,300 times, including recorded delivery; 93% of participants were satisfied, and 73% had a positive change in attitude.)

We participate in study sessions that are voluntarily planned and operated together with companies from different industries that want to promote women’s empowerment. In 2023, a total of 25 female employees participated in lectures by female role models from other companies and exchanged opinions with women of the same level, leading to increased motivation for management positions and cross-industry networking.

As a way to encourage women to learn and improve skills and mindset necessary to be more active as department and section heads, we have started to subsidize the cost of public seminars for women. These seminars have led to the growth of highly motivated female employees, with feedback such as “I learned many things I can put into practice in my own mindset, career development, and team building.” (Two targeted seminars, total of 40 participants)

Aiming to shift from a homogeneous organizational culture to a transformative one that can respond to change and demonstrate creativity with diversity, flexibility, and equity, we are implementing a selective diversity promotion project that began in 2021. For the participants, most of whom are female employees, this project offers various opportunities for significant growth, resulting in the formation of high-level viewpoints and management perspectives. This enables the Group to foster future talents who will be able to proactively tackle difficult problems head-on and drive the next generation as pioneers and leaders of KCMK Group reform. As a result, three KCMK and one KBBC (Kao Beauty Brands Counseling Co., Ltd.) female executive officers were appointed in January 2023, serving as new role models for the next generation of employees.

Kao Now works as a community for engagement and support for all female employees, and in 2023 we actively hosted a variety of events throughout the year to include recognition of the following DE&I acknowledgements; International Women’s Day, Women’s History Month and Women’s Equality Day. In Women’s Equality Day, we invited outside speakers to discuss being brilliant at a moment’s notice, the thoughts that keep us from realizing our full potential, and some practical strategies to combat those thoughts.

In order for managers to train and promote a diverse range of members without bias, it is important for them to have dialogue with each employee and understand their thoughts. As an important element of this, we are carrying out activities to deepen managers’ understanding of psychological safety and unconscious bias.

To promote employee understanding of women’s empowerment, we launched a special page on the DE&I Portal to coincide with International Women’s Day in March. The page covers the Kao Group’s past efforts to promote women’s empowerment, including the concept of women’s empowerment promotion, educational videos, interviews with employees, and good practices in the workplace. We have received a lot of feedback saying, for example, “I now understand that women’s empowerment provides benefits not only to women but to everyone including men,” and “The message of hoping that one day the term women’s empowerment will no longer be necessary resonated with me.”

The gender pay gap^*3 is one indicator of women’s advancement and is 86.3% (managers: 103.4%, non-managers: 99.4%) in the Kao Group globally. We believe that this gap is due to the higher percentage of men among employees with more years of service, who tend to earn higher salaries, as well as among employees in higher-paying job groups, especially in Japan, since there is no established wage gap between male and female employees in the same roles. Therefore, as part of our strategy to eliminate the gender pay gap, we will continue to take steps to further improve our retention of female employees, and as appropriate, increase the percentage of women who are managers, senior managers and executives to align with the percentage of female employees in total in order to advance women’s empowerment in the workplace through our initiatives.