Society
Sysmex is a silver partner sponsor of the Signature Pavilion “Future of Life” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, produced by Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro of The University of Osaka, a leading authority in robotics. Inspired by Professor Ishiguro’s wish for sponsoring companies to envision the future together, Sysmex joined this co-creation project to explore what society and life might look like 50 years from now.
Around 50 employees from across divisions, occupations, and generations voluntarily came together to launch the in-house project. After three years of dialogue and trial and error, they developed ideas for three products to support the future of life.
Sysmex aims to balance value-added productivity and employee engagement. As indicators of the effects of human capital investment, we set value-added productivity and employee engagement scores and monitor them continually.
The value-added productivity* per employee of Sysmex Corporation for fiscal 2024 reached a record high of 15,042 yen per hour, which demonstrates the effectiveness of our human capital investment. The return on human capital investment (operating profit divided by labor cost) also reached a record high of 173.1%. These results are accomplished as high levels of employee engagement are maintained and employees are willing to take on new tasks. Our action plans to foster an organizational culture that balances value-added productivity and employee engagement have been producing consistent outcomes.
Sysmex Corporation uses various measures to encourage employees to take paid leave. They include the introduction of recommended dates for paid leave and a half-day paid leave system. Other measures include allowances paid under the “Cafeteria Plan*” (our welfare program) to employees who take consecutive paid leave days for travel, leisure, or courses at culture centers.
Sysmex Corporation has introduced several programs to provide family support, from prenatal care to child-rearing. These programs include leave for parenting, fertility treatment or morning sickness, a spouse’s childbirth, and the nursing of children. When childcare leave expires after an employee’s child turns two years of age, employees are entitled to reduced working hours and a work-from-home program until the child enters junior high school. We support employees returning to work after childcare leave, including with seminars before their return, as well as distribution of newsletters (including the Diversity Newsletter) to employees on childcare leave. Technopark, our R&D site, has an in-house daycare center called Sysmex Kids Park. It is also available for temporary use when employees’ spouses work part-time, children’s guardians are sick, or an employee is arranging a funeral. Through such support, we encourage all employees who desire to return to work after childcare leave to do so.
In recognition of such initiatives, we have received next-generation support certification (with a logo nicknamed “Kurumin”*) as a “company that supports child-rearing” from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In fiscal 2023, we were also selected as a “Next Nadeshiko: Companies Supporting Dual-career and Co-parenting” by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This program recognizes companies that make particularly outstanding efforts to support dual-career and co-parenting.
Sysmex Corporation implements measures to increase the number of male employees taking childcare leave. These measures include the distribution of Dad’s Childcare Leave Guidebook and the organization of seminars for male employees and their supervisors, inviting external lecturers. At the seminar, lectures were given and opinions were exchanged about the importance of men being involved in parenting, work-life balance, and the essentials of childcare, in addition to appropriate support by supervisors to allow male employees to take childcare leave. As a result of these efforts, the percentage of fathers taking childcare leave was 62% in fiscal 2022, 61% in fiscal 2023, and 77% in fiscal 2024, meaning that we achieved our target of 60% for three consecutive years.
Mbogo Ivan, HUP Business Division
Men typically have fewer opportunities than women to connect with their children during pregnancy, so I saw paternity leave as a valuable time to begin building a strong relationship with my child. I took approximately two months of leave.
When I shared my intention to take paternity leave, my supervisor and colleagues recognized the importance of participating in childcare, offered their full support, and even provided helpful parenting advice.
One of the biggest benefits of taking paternity leave was that it allowed my partner to return to work. Having gained substantial experience in childcare and housework during my leave, my partner can now confidently leave household responsibilities to me when my partner is on business trips or unwell. Taking leave also helped me better understand the challenges women face, and it gave me a deeper sense of respect and appreciation. I am truly glad I made the decision to take paternity leave.
Our Group companies also engage in various initiatives to provide a comfortable working environment.
The companies in the EMEA region1 have all received the Great Place to Work2 award for their excellent workplace environments and employee satisfaction. At Sysmex UK, all managers have completed training on well-being so that emphasis is placed on the health of each and every employee and a positive work-life balance is ensured for all employees. Sysmex South Africa is expanding systems to support a balance between work and child-rearing. The efforts include the incorporation of a maternity policy into its human resources policies and a guarantee of four months of paid maternity leave. Additionally, Sysmex Spain and Sysmex Portugal have been selected by El Mundo as two of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.”
Company | Initiatives |
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Sysmex RA |
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Sysmex America |
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Sysmex Europe |
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Sysmex Nederland |
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Sysmex Shanghai |
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Sysmex Asia Pacific |
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