Respecting Human Rights
SmartHR Group’s Human Rights Policy
At SmartHR and its subsidiaries (hereinafter referred to collectively as “SmartHR Group"), respecting human rights is one of the key priorities in our business activities as we strive to fulfill our corporate mission. We have established a Human Rights Policy to guide the entire SmartHR Group in upholding human rights, ensuring it is well understood and embraced throughout the organization.
1.Commitment
SmartHR Group supports the International Bill of Human Rights and the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, and we are committed to respecting human rights in all our business activities, in line with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In situations where local laws and international human rights standards may differ, or where contradictions arise, we prioritize respecting international human rights standards.
We also strongly believe in the importance of safeguarding children's rights as they are the future of our society. We support UNICEF’s Children’s Rights and Business Principles and are committed to advancing initiatives that promote societal development through the respect for human rights.
2.Scope
This policy applies to all officers and employees of SmartHR Group, requiring that they respect human rights in line with this policy and do not allow any infringement.
3.Prohibition of Forced Labor and Child Labor
SmartHR Group strictly prohibits all forms of forced labor and child labor and is committed to eliminating any human rights violations related to labor while promoting respect for human rights.
4.Prohibition of Discrimination and Respect for Diversity
SmartHR Group prohibits discrimination and harassment based on race, nationality, beliefs, religion, origin, social status, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disabilities.
We aim to create a society where everyone can choose how they contribute by promoting DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging) and providing equal opportunities in hiring, work assignment, evaluation, and compensation for all.
5.Respect for Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
SmartHR Group respects the fundamental rights of labor, including freedom of association and collective bargaining. We will comply with local laws and regulations in the countries and regions where we operate and strive to foster healthy labor relations based on international human rights principles.
6.Fair Wages and Benefits
We provide employees with gender-equal pay structures and benefits for equivalent qualifications and job levels. Beyond merely complying with minimum wage laws, we strive to offer competitive wages and benefits that exceed local and industry standards.
7.Ensuring Employee Safety and Health
SmartHR Group aims to promote a healthy work-life balance for employees and ensure their safety and well-being. We go beyond compliance with local labor agreements and regulations, actively working to minimize overtime and reduce overall working hours to maintain our employees’ health and safety.
8.Freedom of Expression and Privacy Protection
SmartHR Group strives to respect and protect the right to freedom of expression and privacy for all stakeholders and make every effort to ensure these rights are not infringed upon.
9.Education and Awareness
SmartHR Group will regularly provide education and training to all officers and employees to ensure a clear understanding of this policy and to promote effective efforts in human rights protection.
10.Remedy Measures
SmartHR Group has established an internal and external reporting system composed of lawyers and other legal experts to promptly address any negative human rights impacts that may arise. This reporting system ensures the confidentiality of whistleblowers and prohibits any adverse treatment against them.
When negative human rights impacts are identified, we will take corrective measures and implement actions to prevent reoccurrence.
Promoting Respect for Human Rights
Addressing Harassment
At the SmartHR Group, we uphold our corporate mission, “Well-working: Solving societal issues surrounding work and creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute”. We have a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of harassment and are taking proactive steps to address it through the following initiatives.
Employee Education
We conduct regular harassment training, particularly for management, focusing on reporting and handling instances of bullying or harassment. Specifically, we offer e-learning courses developed and managed by a certified in-house legal professional (such as “Harassment Training: Remote Work Edition” and “Harassment Prevention Guideline Training”). These courses are conducted annually for all executives and employees.
Establishment of Consultation Services
As part of our commitment to preventing harassment, we have set up consultation services for all officers and employees.
Internal Whistleblowing System
Our internal whistleblowing system, which ensures confidentiality, is managed by external lawyers together with internal labor and legal personnel. In addition to offering consultation on harassment issues, it is also designed to seek solutions and work to prevent future incidents.
Addressing Customer Harassment
Under SmartHR’s corporate mission of "Well-working: Solving societal issues surrounding work and creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute", our own employees are naturally included as part of the "everyone" we aim to support.
The relationships involving "everyone" thus include both the company and its employees, as well as businesses and their customers. Mutual cooperation is essential for people in business-customer relationships to trust each other and thrive.
As part of our efforts to strengthen these relationships, we have established the "Guidelines for Addressing Customer Harassment". By implementing measures to acquire knowledge and coping strategies in line with these guidelines, and by setting up consultation services, we are striving to prevent and deter customer harassment.
Together with Our Employees
DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging)
Our Approach to DEIB
At SmartHR Group, we consider DEIB a key priority and strategy in alignment with our corporate mission of "Well-working: Solving societal issues surrounding work and creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute".
DEIB Initiatives
Why DEIB Matters at SmartHR
We see DEIB as a way to bring out the best in our people, by mutually recognizing individual strengths and creating an environment where those strengths can shine. We believe that unleashing the full potential of everyone at our company will create a stronger organization with greater potential for growth.
That’s why we are committed to building a workplace where every employee can do their best work, as part of our broader mission to realize “well working, well being”—solving societal issues surrounding work and creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute.
Work-Life Balance
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Support for Employees Returning from Parental Leave
To ensure employees returning from long-term parental leave feel supported and confident in resuming their careers, we are strengthening our return-to-work support, particularly in the sales divisions. We have built a sustainable framework to enable a smooth return and continued success: this includes treating employees returning from long-term leave in the same way as new hires for budgeting (sales target setting) and onboarding purposes, creating tailored onboarding plans to help them catch up on business updates and work, and holding structured one-on-one meetings with their managers before, during, and after leave based on standardized guidelines.
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Other Flexible Programs
We are enhancing our work-style programs so that employees can balance work and life in ways that fit their current situation. Our offerings include a flextime system that allows flexible working hours between 5:00 AM and 10:00 PM with no core hours, a company-wide remote work program, Birth Preparation Leave that provides five days of paid leave before a child is born, and Self-Care Leave that can be used for symptoms related to menstruation, PMS, or menopause. We also offer a Babysitting Subsidy program to further support employees who are raising children.
Supporting Women at Work
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Tracking KPIs for Representation
Achieving true DEIB requires that diverse perspectives be reflected in decision-making. To increase the number of women in such decision-making roles, we have set a KPI for the proportion of women in leadership positions. Our long-term goal is gender parity at every level of the organization, but as our first milestone, we aim for women to account for 29% of Manager and Director roles (equivalent to department and division heads) by 2027.
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Individual Development Support
We create and implement individualized development plans for women who are candidates for Manager and Director roles. We clarify the expected management direction and key focus areas, visualize the action plan in line with these, and support their growth to lead to a formal appointment.
Supporting Employees with Disabilities
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Inclusive Hiring
In 2024, SmartHR launched the Diverse Ops Unit, a team that specializes in creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We focus on hiring individuals with mental and developmental disabilities, a group where the number of job seekers is increasing, regardless of their prior work experience. Rather than simply aiming to fill the statutory employment quota, the Diverse Ops Unit has designed a selection process that includes opportunities for job trials and workplace visits in addition to interviews. This enables both candidates and the company to form a realistic picture of how they will work together after joining.
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Step-by-Step Support and Development
As many employees in the Diverse Ops Unit have limited work experience, we have created a framework that allows them to take on new challenges in small, manageable steps. We have established an onboarding system that actively involves employees with disabilities themselves and fosters a workplace where members can learn from each other and exchange feedback. In addition, we develop work manuals and clearly document tasks and responsibilities within the unit to prevent unhealthy over-dependence on any one individual and to maintain a stable working environment.
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Other Systems and Programs
To build an organization where people can succeed regardless of disability, we are putting various systems in place. These include the introduction of a dedicated performance evaluation system and a program for conversion to regular full-time employment, the design of internal transfer programs to other departments, and the establishment of a consultation desk dedicated to reasonable needs accommodation.
Supporting LGBTQ+ Employees
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Inclusive Policies and Benefits
We are advancing policies and programs to ensure LGBTQ+ employees do not experience inequality or unnecessary anxiety at work. This includes systems that recognize diverse family forms by extending eligibility for company programs and benefits to common-law partners (both same-sex and opposite-sex) and their children, treating them the same as spouses and children within a legally-recognized marriage. We also have mechanisms in place that allow employees to apply to use and register their self-identified gender.
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Consultation and Support
To create an environment where LGBTQ+ employees can focus on their work with peace of mind, we have established a dedicated consultation desk. It accepts inquiries from individuals themselves (such as concerns about the workplace or procedures related to gender transition), as well as from managers, colleagues, and other team members who wish to better support them. In addition, we operate a separate third-party consultation service, available to all employees (with an anonymous option), to address a wide range of concerns including potential harassment.
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Participation in Tokyo Pride
SmartHR participates as a sponsoring company in Tokyo Pride, an event that seeks to address diverse human rights issues related to the LGBTQ+ community. We are committed to creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute. For us, this means being able to work and fully demonstrate your abilities without fear or anxiety, regardless of gender, age, race, background, nationality, religion, disability, or any other aspect of your identity. Our participation in Tokyo Pride is one way we express this commitment and signal SmartHR’s collective resolve to advance this mission.
Creating an Inclusive Culture
To ensure diversity becomes a genuine strength of our organization, we are working to embed DEIB throughout the company so that employees recognize the value of different perspectives, respect one another, and are able to make the most of their individuality. We provide opportunities for employees to access information and engage in dialogue through initiatives such as workshops on diversity, learning sessions on LGBTQ+ topics and disability, and monthly newsletters covering DEIB-related topics. We track participation and frequency for these initiatives and use this data to continuously improve our efforts.
Improving Accessibility
In January 2022, we established the Progressive Design Group, a dedicated team focused on improving accessibility and localization for SmartHR products. This team aims to create services that are inclusive of all differences—whether environmental, cultural, physical, or ideological—ensuring equal usability for all employees.
The group is made up of specialists with diverse expertise, including engineers with disabilities, multilingual managers, and product designers who advocate for accessibility and multilingual design. This team not only contributes to product development but also plays a critical role in raising awareness of DEIB across the company. To further promote an inclusive workplace, we also provide the necessary tools and equipment for employees with disabilities, such as braille displays, to ensure that everyone can work comfortably.
Raising Awareness of LGBTQ Issues
At SmartHR Group, we aim to cultivate an environment of respect and acceptance by ensuring that all officers and employees have accurate knowledge of LGBTQ issues. To achieve this, we regularly conduct internal training sessions led by specialists in the field.
Each year, we invite external LGBTQ experts to lead training sessions for interested employees. These sessions help participants gain a deeper understanding of what LGBTQ means, why corporate engagement is important, and what the PRIDE Index entails. Through these initiatives, we ensure that both officers and employees develop the necessary knowledge and understanding of LGBTQ topics.
Raising Awareness of DEIB
At SmartHR Group, we implement various initiatives to raise DEIB awareness among our officers and employees. In 2021 and 2022, we collaborated with external organizations to host workshops on understanding unconscious biases. These workshops enabled employees from different departments to explore biases that often go unnoticed, particularly those affecting employees with disabilities or gender minorities. Our goal is to foster a shift in organizational values and create a workplace where diverse talent can thrive.
Talent Development
Our Approach to Talent Development
At SmartHR Group, we prioritize skill and talent development to make sure our employees truly embody our values of “Be the Spark, Not the Spectator” and “Exceed What People Want”. We support proactive actions by creating an environment that fosters sustainable growth—including reskilling and relearning—so employees can independently shape their careers with an eye towards the future. Specific initiatives that contribute to employee development and self-improvement include reimbursements of book purchases for internal study sessions and covering participation fees for external training, courses, and seminars.
Together with the Community
SmartHR Group’s Social Contribution Activities
In addition to our daily business activities, SmartHR Group is committed to solving larger social issues in collaboration with stakeholders, as part of our efforts to achieve our corporate mission of “solving societal issues surrounding work and creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute”.
Through the use of our services, technology, and employee expertise, our social contribution activities inspire every employee to take on a broader societal perspective. These activities strengthen the sense of connection with society and contribute to the realization of a society where everyone can choose how they contribute. To support this, we provide various programs and opportunities for employees to engage in social contributions.
Free Access to SmartHR for Businesses with Fewer than 30 Employees
In many small businesses (< 30 employees), owners are often required to handle HR tasks like payroll and labor procedures on their own, which can be time-consuming and costly. Recognizing these challenges, SmartHR introduced a "¥0 Plan" in 2016, providing core HR functions for companies with fewer than 30 employees at no cost, helping streamline HR and labor processes for small business owners.
Work Learning Academy
The Work Learning Academy is a program aimed at fostering the next generation of talent by leveraging the human and intellectual resources of the SmartHR Group. In collaboration with stakeholders addressing social issues, as well as educational institutions, we provide learning opportunities across various disciplines for both students and professionals. In 2024, our UX and accessibility team conducted the "Fundamentals of UX and Web Accessibility" course for technical college students, while our HR Research Institute hosted the "Understanding Work Styles Through Payslips" workshop for university students. These sessions were conducted at two institutions, with a total of 49 participants. To date, 437 participants from 12 institutions have taken part in our learning programs. In March 2024, the "Fundamentals of UX and Web Accessibility" course was recognized at the HCD-Net Award 2023, hosted by the Human-Centered Design Organization. The initiative received high praise for being closely aligned with our corporate mission and services, for its curriculum design based on actual product development, and for its impact beyond knowledge transfer—helping to shift students' perspectives. As a result, the course was awarded the Excellence Prize. Through this program, SmartHR not only shares its knowledge and experience with society but also emphasizes two-way communication to build learning environments that help create a society where everyone can choose how they contribute.
