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Konica Minolta With You, Inc., Konica Minolta’s Special Subsidiary that Aims to Promote Employment of People with Disabilities, Receives the Innovation Award at the Good Career Company Awards 2019
November 5, 2019
Konica Minolta, Inc. (Konica Minolta) announced that its special subsidiary,* Konica Minolta With You, Inc. (Konica Minolta With You), received the Innovation Award at the Good Career Company Awards 2019 hosted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. The award was presented by the Director-General for Human Resources Development of the Ministry.
Innovation Award at the Good Career Company Awards
The purpose of the Good Career Company Awards is to increase public recognition of the importance of career development support so that such support will be widely available in society. The Innovation Award is given to companies with a track record of achieving exemplary results in human resource development, corporate management or other aspects by helping employees develop career paths on their own and offering focused support for their personal development as part of corporate efforts to address their key objectives.
“Good Career” means that employees are encouraged to develop their own career visions in a manner that contributes to the management objectives of their companies and in anticipation of social and economic changes, and to continue career development efforts on their own to achieve the visions.
Reason for the Award
Konica Minolta With You was given the award for its unique career support program that aims to maximize the career skills of its employees with disabilities by assigning them to various different jobs and helping them develop long-term career visions.
Unique Career Support Program
At Konica Minolta With You, employees with disabilities rotate jobs within the company for the first three years, being assigned to a different job each year. Experiencing different jobs helps them to discover aptitudes for jobs they thought they were not good at, and improve their ability to perform various tasks. The program thus helps employees achieve personal growth and development.
In the fourth year, each employee is formally assigned to the department that is considered most suitable based on their three years of experience and that is likely to help the employee design their career path. The employees also participate in training offered by a career development school for people with disabilities. Moreover, the company provides career development support to employees with disabilities by: applying the same job-grade program (personnel treatment program) as for employees without disabilities (instructors); grouping them in three different courses in consideration of individual aptitudes and preferences for the purpose of performance evaluation; offering carefully-planned training programs for employees with disabilities; and carrying out long-term individual job capacity-building plans.
Support to Maintain an Employee Retention Rate of 100%
Konica Minolta With You’s employees without disabilities (who serve as instructors) not only support those with intellectual disabilities in daily business but also help them develop career skills so that they will stay with the company for longer. The company holds regular study meetings for the employees without disabilities, makes them participate in training, both internal and external, and pays part of the cost of obtaining national qualifications. Backed by such support, an increasing number of employees without disabilities have gained qualifications as social workers or psychiatric social workers. They also work in partnership with local special needs schools and public institutions such as career development schools for people with disabilities through job training opportunities and use the insights gained to improve the work process and workplace environment.
In this way, employees without disabilities use their expertise and skills to improve the retention rate of those with disabilities, while supporting them in a manner that motivates them to continue working. As a result, all 94 regular employees with disabilities, who have joined the company upon graduation from schools in the past six years since its establishment, remain with the company, a remarkable employee retention rate of 100%.
Konica Minolta With You
Konica Minolta With You was established as a special subsidiary* of Konica Minolta with the aim of helping people with disabilities achieve social independence through employment. The company offers high value-added services such as digital printing, an area in which Konica Minolta excels, and related business, while working to include people with disabilities in the local community on an equal footing with those without disabilities.
The word “You” in the company name refers to not only people with disabilities but also all stakeholders associated with the Konica Minolta Group. The phrase “With You” is meant to remind the public that the relationships between people with and without disabilities are mutually beneficial and supportive, and convey the hope that its employees with disabilities can work in cooperation with all its stakeholders, including customers, business partners, local residents, government officials and educational personnel, and thus create added value as independent members of society, and grow together.
| Company name | KONICA MINOLTA WITH YOU, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Head office location | Konica Minolta Tokyo site Hachioji 2970 Ishikawa-machi, Hachioji City, Tokyo |
| Representative | Teruaki Tonomura, President |
| Date of establishment | October 1, 2013 |
| Capital | 10 million yen |
| Number of employees | 144 as of April 2019, including 94 with disabilities |
| Business |
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Konica Minolta With You is striving to create an environment that enables people with disabilities to work as independent members of society by formulating career advancement plans for them so that each employee can achieve personal growth through meaningful employment.
*Special subsidiary means a subsidiary that takes special measures for employment of people with disabilities under the Japanese Act on Employment Promotion etc. of Persons with Disabilities.