Creating a Comfortable Working Environment

Policy & Approach

The Prestige International Group aims to be a place where employees want to continue working for a long time. The Group strives to create, expand, and improve systems and environments aimed at realizing a diversity of working styles to facilitate employees at different life stages.

  • SDGs LOGO 5.GENDER EQUALITY
  • SDGs LOGO 8.DECENT WORK AND ECONOMIC GROWTH
  • SDGs LOGO 10.REDUCED INEQUALITIES
  • SDGs LOGO 11.SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND COMMUNITIES

Response to the COVID-19

Prestige International has established a COVID-19 Countermeasures Headquarters as an infection control organization. The Group is working to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 and maintain business continuity by implementing the necessary measures in a timely manner in accordance with the basic policy of the Group.

Basic Policy

  1. Prioritize the health and safety of employees and family members.
  2. Implement Business Continuity Planning (BCP) measures as far as possible and give the utmost effort to ensuring the continuous provision of services.
  3. Regarding the risk of the spread of the COVID-19 virus, promptly make management decisions that fully consider the various social impacts, fulfill the Group’s global-wide responsibility as a member of society without getting caught up in the pursuit of corporate profits or avoiding losses.
  4. Prevent an increase in the number of infections in the local community overall by following any reports of close contact persons to health institutions or office closure requests from government agencies based on social impact considerations in a timely manner.
  5. Make disclosures in a timely manner about the serious impact of the COVID-19 virus on business activities by swiftly determining management policies as required by stakeholders.
  6. Maintain the operating foundation/business continuity for all Group companies both in Japan and overseas.

Organizational Structure of COVID-19 Countermeasures Headquarters

Click to open expanded viewSystem chart

BCP (Business Continuity Planning) Measures

The Prestige International Group has always prepared for emergencies with mutual cooperation and backup systems in place at regional BPO centers in accordance with the BCP policies prescribed under company regulations. During the flu season, each employee is highly aware of preventing infection, which enables stable business operations. With the spread of the COVID-19 virus, the Group policy has been to implement BCP measures while not only further raising employee awareness of the risk of infection but also by dividing normally single work areas into multiple areas, to minimize the risk of simultaneous outbreaks through infected or close contact persons, and otherwise remain very careful to avoid infection.

Activity Examples

Orangery In-house Day Care Center

Orangery Day Care Centers are operated by Prestige International on the facility grounds of BPO centers so that anyone and everyone can continue to participate actively in the workplace for the long term regardless of any lifestyle changes they may experience. There are two types of day care centers—licensed and company-sponsored—and they are available to Group employees and the local community.

Four Pillars of Childcare

  1. Acquiring basic social skills
    Orangery aims to cultivate a foundation for children to lead safe and healthy lifestyles, as well as to further improve childcare quality.
  2. Learning social living rules
    Orangery has adopted age-appropriate curricula that teaches children the proper etiquette and use of public facilities in everyday life (supermarkets, trains, buses, etc.).
  3. Improving mental/physical capacity
    Orangery provides age-appropriate activities—including English classes, music and movement classes, gymnastics, swimming, reading/writing, and Aranmare sports classes—increasing the opportunities for children to feel “I did it!” and become more confident. In addition, Orangery hones children’s sensitivity and thinking thereby promoting growth by exposing the children to authentic activities incorporating cultural classes from outside the center.
  4. Support of Parents/Guardians
    Through mothers-to-be discussion groups and interviews, Orangery builds an environment where parents/guardians can easily seek counselling and advice. In addition, parents of children aged three years and older are provided with advice in preparation for the child entering elementary school.

“Orangery In-house Day Care Center” (Official website)

Hourly Paid Leave System (Introduced in June 2019)

As Group-wide initiatives, Prestige International created a half-day paid leave system in the past (available to all employees except part-time workers) and systems encouraging employees to take paid leave consecutively. The Group has also undertaken a variety of initiatives aimed at career development, such as a system for publicizing available posts and job requirements in-house and recruiting applicants from within the Group (Open Position) as a means of supporting the career advancement of employees. In order to provide more flexible working styles and improve employee satisfaction, the Group introduced a system that enables employees to take paid leave in hourly units.
With women comprising more than 70% of Prestige International’s workforce, the Group responds flexibly to the individual circumstances of employees by allowing employees to frequently use hourly paid leave to attend school events or take their children to hospital appointments rather than using up a full day’s paid leave. This system also has the merit of increasing operations uptime.
By endeavoring to further improve employee satisfaction, moving forward, the Group will continue to make adjustments aimed at constructing support systems for diverse working styles and career paths.

JOB Return System (Introduced in December 2019)

Prestige International carries out a variety of different initiatives in order to create a comfortable working environment and climate for employees. The Group introduced the Job Return System for the purpose of providing options that match the diverse life plans of employees, which enable them to reuse the skills and experience acquired at our company.

Eligibility Requirements

  1. Persons who were employed at the company for one year or more before retirement/resignation.
  2. Persons who are in good physical and mental health, and who have no difficulties performing their work duties.
  3. Persons whose retirement/resignation was due to pregnancy/childbirth, child-raising, elderly care, spouse’s work transfer, career advancement, or another reason recognized by the company.
  4. The circumstances stated in 3 above have been resolved, and an environment is in place to enable them to return to work.

As our business activities continue to expand in the future, securing human resources will be a constant issue. We will create a system that enables us to take on outstanding human resources without being bound by Japanese employment practices.

New Lifestyle Support System (Introduced in May 2020)

Different life events can completely change a person’s lifestyle—marriage, childbirth, or elderly care. In order to provide employees with support in consideration of family circumstances, Prestige International introduced the following four support measures under the New Lifestyle Support System, in addition to the existing congratulatory/condolence allowance and leave systems.

  • Single Mothers/Fathers Support Allowance
    To reduce the stress and anxiety of raising children alone as much as possible, Prestige International provides employees who are single parents through divorce or bereavement with a lump-sum support payment.
  • Elderly Care Support Leave
    Because of the increasing aging rate, the number of elderly people needing care is expected to increase. For this reason, employees with family members who have been certified as requiring care at Long-Term Care Level 2 or higher are provided with five days per year of leave for one person requiring care and 10 days per year for two people or more.
  • Mothers-to-be Support Leave
    During pregnancy, the hormonal balance changes in preparation for childbirth. Pregnant women not only become easily exhausted but can also experience difficulty sleeping. For these reasons, female employees who notify the company that they are pregnant receive five days of support leave in addition to Outpatient Leave.
  • Fathers-to-be Support Leave
    Male employees who notify the company that their spouse is pregnant receive five days of support leave.

This system is used by many employees, especially Elderly Care Support Leave. The aging rate is higher in the regional areas than in central Tokyo, and the regions where Prestige International’s BPO centers are located have high elderly populations. Since the company establishes bases in regional areas, the Group feels that there is an especially high need for the Elderly Care Support System; moving forward, the Group will continue to listen to the voices of the employees and endeavor to further enhance employee satisfaction.

Employee Conversion System (Introduced in April 2021)

This system was newly established to provide support to employees so that they can achieve continuous growth and play an active role in the workplace over the long term through the ability to choose different working styles as their life stage changes. Employees who are not tied to a particular work location (region specific) and are eligible for transfer may convert to being a region-specific employee if they wish to work exclusively at their current location or do not want to be transferred again. Furthermore, region-specific employees can also convert when they wish to broaden the scope of business activities, regardless of work location. The Group will continue to review this system with the aim of creating a comfortable work environment for a diversity of human resources.

Regulations Regarding the Treatment of Same-Sex Partnerships (Introduced in April 2022)

To ensure that employees in a same-sex partnerships are treated equally to those in a marital relationship, Prestige International has stipulated the definition of marital relationship in the company’s labor regulations and the other regulations. In accordance with the Regulations Regarding the Treatment of Same-Sex Partnerships, in applying the company’s labor regulations or various other regulations, a same-sex partnership is recognized as a marriage or marital relationship, and the same-sex partner of an employee is deemed to be the employee’s spouse.