Professionals
KEY FIGURES
Ratio of
Female Leaders
Japan
Globally
Nationalities
Employed
/regions
Executive
Officers
Ratio of
Female EOs
Ratio of
non-Japanese EOs
Our Approach to Human Capital
At Shiseido, we always put PEOPLE FIRST. Ever since our founding, people have been at the heart of value creation at Shiseido. People are the key to fulfilling our corporate mission, BEAUTY INNOVATIONS FOR A BETTER WORLD, and diverse professionals remain an essential value driver for our business.
Shiseido also believes that value is created through the fusion of diverse knowledge and competencies. Throughout our 150-year history, we have always valued the spirit of diversity and inclusion (D&I), in which we respect and empathize with different values. We are committed to establishing the systems and people management reforms needed to create value and improve our organizational capabilities, emphasizing innovation through the promotion of D&I.
In the uncertain and rapidly changing times ahead, we expect values and lifestyles to become increasingly diverse. We will need to further evolve organizational capabilities to ensure that we continue to provide values which are tailored to the needs of each individual consumer and respond flexibly to changes in the external environment. To do so, all employees must become diverse professionals who can strengthen our organization by developing themselves as individuals and are capable of initiating change on their own.
Initiatives to Promote Diversity
Shiseido holds a large female consumer base, and with over 80% of our employees worldwide being women, it is essential to provide a working environment that encourages women to grow and flourish. Shiseido’s efforts to promote women’s activities have always led the way among Japanese companies.
In the 1980s to 1990s, we worked to improve the corporate infrastructure in response to major life events of employees, for instance, introducing a childcare leave system well before legislation was passed. In the 2000s, we went beyond uniformly enhancing existing systems and launched new systems and organizational reforms to accommodate diverse work styles and enable employees to balance life events with their career development. In addition to enhancing opportunities for women in the workplace, we have reviewed our personnel system and promoted management reforms to create an organizational culture of mutual respect and dynamic discussion among employees from different cultural backgrounds and beliefs.
Accordingly, under the VISION 2020 strategy launched in 2015, Shiseido accelerated the introduction of talent management and acquisition, in addition to restyling our working environment. We adopted English as our official in-house language at global headquarters in October 2018 to promote diversity and strengthen our foundation for value creation. We also launched Reverse Mentoring, an initiative where early-career employees act as mentors to executive officers and department heads, spreading the exchange of ideas in an egalitarian corporate culture that respects different opinions and values across generations.
As a result of our efforts, the percentage of female managers at Shiseido rose above 50% globally in 2015 and 30% across Japan in 2016. While the average ratio of women in senior management at global companies still hovers around 25%, and the percentage of female executives at listed companies in Japan is only about 7%, in 2022, the proportion of female leaders at Shiseido globally is 58.3%, in Japan, 37.3%, and the ratio of women on the Board of Directors, 46%. The percentage of female leaders exceeds 70% at Shiseido sites outside of Japan. Going forward, we aim to reach our 50% target for the ratio of female leaders at all levels of the organization, with Japan as a priority region.
Percentage of female leaders
Diversity & Inclusion and our PEOPLE FIRST Strategy
In addition to gender equality, Shiseido is establishing the mechanisms to acquire and promote employees who possess advanced skills and expertise, supporting the career paths of individuals from a variety of backgrounds, nationalities, ethnicities, ages, lifestyles, experiences, and work styles.
To ensure that the right person is in the right position at the right time, regardless of gender, nationality, and conventional organizational frameworks, we have introduced an Executive Officer System where each officer is responsible for the execution of Group-wide business operations, as well as a job-grade-based HR system. First introduced in 2015, this mission-based grade system has led to the development of over 20 job families, each with their own job descriptions. It was applied to several managerial positions in Japan in 2020 and extended to general employees throughout the country in 2021. As of January 2022, the Global Grade System is being gradually rolled out to serve as a common framework for the Shiseido Group worldwide, in order to efficiently and effectively carry out cross-border transfers and career development.
In 2020, in a bid to effectively manage our global human capital, Shiseido formulated the TRUST 8 Competencies, which describe our Group-wide image of professionals. The TRUST 8 Competencies serve as the basis of our globally standardized selection/evaluation and people development programs, allowing each employee with ranging expertise to grow in work areas where they can maximize their respective strengths.
PEOPLE FIRST is our guiding principle for promoting these efforts. It defines our approach to talent acquisition and retention and the kind of people we seek to invest in. It also clarifies the professionals that we seek, who are willing to learn and grow to contribute to our transformation and growth. At the same time, we are committed to building an environment for these individuals to thrive.
In addition, to promote management that emphasizes the safety and health of people working in the Shiseido Group and their families, the officer in charge of Human Resources is responsible for the maintenance and promotion of their safety and health.
Our Progress to Date
Progress on our major initiatives is as follows:
- Leader management policies (various workshops, management training, career planning training) for a new personnel system that leverages our diverse talent
- Conducting career workshops at our key companies in the Japan region to strengthen proactive career development and expertise in line with the job-grade-based HR system (held from 2020; 4,470 participants in total)
- Talent acquisition and development of professionals with advanced skills and experience through a talent management process (active recruitment of digital talent and foreign employees)
- Reverse Mentoring, where young talents act as mentors to executive officers and department heads (684 participants in total from 2017 to 2021)
- NEXT LEADERSHIP SESSION for WOMEN training sessions to foster female leaders (133 participants in total from 2017 to 2021)
- Speak Jam, a mentoring program for direct discussion of career development options between female executives and female employees (117 participants in total from 2020 to 2021)
- SHEseido, a program to empower female employees in the European region (56 participants in total)
- Shiseido Hybrid Work Style designed to optimize office work and remote work for each department
- Office renovations to encourage diverse work styles (The Global Vision Center at our Global Headquarters, Shiodome Office, in Japan received the 34th Nikkei New Office Award)
- Implementing a common HR database for all regions to align the right people in the right positions globally (currently under construction)
PEOPLE FIRST
What is Shiseido PEOPLE FIRST?
Our People are our most important asset.
Our People are the drivers of transformation and growth.
Our People are recognized for individual performance and contribution.
To reinforce PEOPLE FIRST, we will support people and organizations who:
- ・are ADAPTABLE and AGILE enough to navigate the rapidly changing consumer market
- ・possess the SENSE and SKILLS to lead the global beauty industry
- ・have a passion for LEARNING and SELF-GROWTH—those who strive to overachieve
- ・are COMMITTED to and ACCOUNTABLE for the creation and evolution of corporate value
