Special Feature

2 Everyone working lively, continuing
to grow and being a proud
corporate group

Introduction of Diversity & Inclusion and Work Style Reform

At the Furukawa Electric Group, our aim is to continue growing
and creating new values, by allowing our diverse human resources
to feel a sense of work satisfaction and to be able to demonstrate
their individual strengths, while also exhibiting our total capability
with unified values and judgment standards according to theprinciple of “One Furukawa”. To accomplish this, we are engaging
in various initiatives so that each individual can take a leading rolein independently managing his or her own work-life balance, andcan successfully achieve both personal development and thegrowth of the organization and company.

“One Furukawa”
Activating diverse talent
Improving productivity
per hour

Improving job satisfaction& work styleCreating new value

Autonomous work-life
management

Wellness
promotionWorkstylereformStrategic
human resource Diversity &development & inclusion
promotionutilizationGroupphilosophy
permeation

Human resources who embody Core Values and create the next generation

Diversity & inclusion
Although we have taken continuing actions toward arranging
better working conditions for women and promoting employee
work-life balance since the 2005 fiscal year, we are also
proceeding with a wide range of other measures to accelerate thecreation of working environments which can allow our diverse
human resources to be fully active. These measures include theestablishment of a Diversity Promotion Office in April 2014,activities to enhance the awareness of diversity and inclusion,
measures to promote the activity to promote women's careers,
and advancement of autonomous work-life management byemployees.
In September 2014, we began the “Furukawa ‘V’ Challenge!!”,the activity to promote women's careers. In tandem with other

Furukawa“V”Challenge !!
SloganChallenge to the Vital issues
by Viable approaches
to realize“Various”“Vivid”“Valuable”Work & Life !

VariousVV
Valuable

Vivid
VVViable
VVitalAt the “V Challenge!! Forum”: Report conference on networking activities(upper right) and scene from group work activities (lower right)

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FURUKAWA ELECTRIC GROUP SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2017

measures, we started networking activities in FY2015 for ourroughly 70 young female employees, including those in our Groupcompanies. The objective of these activities is to build new
networks among female employees that are not limited byorganization or job type through investigating issues andimprovement measures under the 4 themes of “balancing familyand work”, “forming careers”, “managing and creating time”, and“work style reform”. In July 2016, roughly 160 participants,including executives and supervisors, gathered together for the “VChallenge!! Forum”, where proposals and opinions werecommunicated from members to the top management on varioustopics. A portion of the proposals from this event have been
incorporated into our initiatives as well.

Work style reform
Our company established a specialized organization for “workstyle reform” in May 2015 and began related initiatives with the aimof balancing sustainable corporate growth with the enhancement of
the individual lifestyles (lives) of our employees. We are promoting avariety of measures from both the perspectives of “reforming workstyle”, with the objective of improving both productivity and job
satisfaction, and “reforming our organizational culture”, whose goalsare to reinforce the core values of our company Group: “innovation”,“ownership and speed”, and “collaboration”.
In January 2017, we introduced a “telework *1) system”. By
removing restrictions on work locations, this system will enable
employees to perform their conventional duties more efficiently andfocus on creative work. This is expected to bring about improved
productivity per hour and other enhancements to work quality andperformance. Furthermore, allowing work in hourly units at locations
outside of the company, such as in cases where employees cannot
perform work at specific times due to personal affairs, has the goalof improving work style and job satisfaction. This system functions
differently from the existing “home work system” (introduced inFY2012) which is intended to support child care and nursing care, as
it is usable by anyone meeting certain conditions such as applicationof the flex-time system.
*1) Telework
A work format which uses telecommunications technology to remove
limitations on places and times for performing duties.
The term is formed from a combination of “tele” (“distant”) and “work”.

Sustainable growth of the company & enhancement of individual lifestyles (life)

Reforming organizational culture

Reforming work style●Dialogue and empathy●Sense of ownership●Innovation / challenge●Improve productivity per hour
●Improve creativity and added value●Autonomous Work-life management

Section Managersessions

Leader education

Enhancement of talks in the workplace
Permeation of “Ikuboss”

More efficient meetings

Simplification of
meeting materials

IT utilization

Business improvement /standardization

System and environment improvement for
flexible working styles (such as telework)

Voluntary activities of all divisions (department / section unit)“IkuBoss”: A boss (manager) who develops him/herself, employees working
under his/her jurisdiction, the organization, and society throughwork and personal life to produce outstanding results.

Feedback fromTelework
Rieko Tanaka(Production Control Section, Optical Fiber Production Department,
System User MieWorks)
In the past, I experienced a lot of stress from having to take a full day off forjust a 1-hour event at my child’s school, even though I had tasks that needed tobe completed within the week. Telework lets me effectively use the time for bothwork and my family in total, letting me do my work comfortably and withoutworry. I can also concentrate on tasks such as summarizing financial settlement
data or preparing reports more fully than at my office, so I can finish them more
quickly. Within the rules for telework, such as indicating work content in advance,
reporting on output, and sharing information while using the system, are followed
and people use it properly with consideration for each other, I believe it can help
to enhance the overall output of the workplace. It has also given me the desire toexpand the range of my own duties.

“I hope we can help each other out at work,and use telework to achieve even greaterresults”, says Ms. Tanaka (left).

Initiatives of Group Companies
Furukawa Automotive Systems Inc.
At Furukawa Automotive Systems, numerical goals to bereached by the year 2025 have been set and a variety of measures
are being implemented to promote women’s careers, so thatfemale employees can be enthusiastic and highly motivated intheir work while balancing their careers with important life events.
In FY2016, we implemented activities to encourage child careleave taken by male employees. The results of these measures
have been highly praised, allowing us to obtain the “PlatinumKurumin” certification mark, the highest rank granted tocompanies supporting the development of our next generation.
We are also currently planning training and other activities to raise
the awareness of managers and women themselves.
Furthermore, we are implementing
diverse initiatives for “work style reform”.
We are re-examining the orderliness of ourwork operations and our rules on acompany-wide level, taking quick andtimely action for reforming work styleacross the entire company. Examples ofthese changes include standardizing theformat of meeting materials to 1s h e e t o f A 3 - s i z e p a p e r,
conducting “stand-up meetings”
which are held with participants
standing up instead of sitting,and actively using Skype *2) forconferencing. Actions are being
taken to change the mindset of
employees by thoroughly
enforcing steps throughout thecompany such as designation of
every Wednesday and Friday as Scene during stand-up meetingdays for leaving work at settimes, and patrols conducted by our President himself. As a result,the monthly average number of overtime hours per person has
been reduced by 20% during the 2-year period from FY2013 toFY2015.
*2) Skype conferences
Web-based conferences using communication systems shared across the Group.

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