Ensuring Diversity of Human Resources

The Brother Group delivers products and services to customers all over the world with manufacturing and sales facilities in more than 40 countries and regions, and all employees are active as members of the Brother global team on the world stage, where business environments differ by ethnicity, language, culture, custom, and other factors.

The foundation for achieving this is laid out in the Basic Policies of the Brother Group Global Charter (Global Charter), which stipulate that "the Brother Group respects diversity and provides a working environment that enables our associates to utilize their talents and abilities to the fullest, and also gives them great opportunity through challenging work assignments and provides them with fair, attractive financial rewards." The Codes of Practice in the Global Charter set forth that "we must always honor individuals and diversity, and act with trust and respect." According to these principles, the Brother Group companies aim to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on race, nationality, religion, belief, gender, educational background, age, disability, or anything else, in hiring, evaluation and promotion and also prohibit child or forced labor. As for employment, the Brother Group guarantees pay higher than local minimum wages. In addition, the group respects employees' rights to form and join, or not join, a union (the rights to organize) as a means to conduct negotiations between labor and management about working conditions and environments, pay levels, and so forth. It also upholds employees' collective bargaining rights and engages in sincere negotiations and dialogues with them. The management and employees of the Brother Group will make constant concerted efforts to comply with related regulations and rules, respect different cultures and customs, evolve the group's personnel system in line with the Global Charter, and continue to create a better working environment.

The Brother Group has been promoting the globalization of its executive personnel by appointing qualified persons, regardless of their nationality, to the executive positions of the group companies in various countries and regions to realize community-based management. At facilities of the Brother Group, we are actively promoting local employees to executive positions—this includes promotion to the position of president at sales facilities of regional headquarters in the U.S. and China. In the group companies outside Japan, local employees occupied 67%^* of management positions in FY2019, increasing from 29% in FY2014.

When establishing new facilities and expanding its existing facilities, the Brother Group hires local people to revitalize regional economies and societies through job creation. The factory established in the Philippines in 2012, for example, employs approximately 7,000 local workers, and in Vietnam, three expanding manufacturing facilities, which are printer, home sewing machine, and industrial sewing machine factories, employ more than 12,000 local workers in total.

• Including Domino-related companies

The Brother Group has a system that fairly and impartially evaluates employees based on their motivation, abilities and achievements and reflects the evaluation results to their compensation. Brother Industries, Ltd. (BIL), for example, assesses its general employees in a way that highly satisfies them, using a target management system with clear criteria. Each employee receives the results of the evaluation of his/her performance and is subsequently informed of the reasons in a meeting with the supervisor. This approach, which helps employees review their own performance and raise their motivation to advance toward new challenges, has been contributing to talent development. BIL uses the annual salary system for its employees in management positions.

The proportion of female managers among all managers differs between the Brother Group companies because the history of women's social advancement and their lifestyles and main occupations vary depending on countries and regions. However, women are active in many group facilities.

Numbers and percentages of female managers in the Brother Group

Changes in the percentage of female managers (Brother Industries, Ltd.)

At BIL, employees with disabilities are working actively in the occupations and workplaces that suit their aptitudes and abilities.

In Japan, companies beyond a certain scale are required by law to ensure a certain percentage of their total workforce is comprised of persons with disabilities. In FY2019, the employment rate of persons with disabilities at BIL was 2.03%, which underperformed the statutory employment rate of 2.2%. We will continue to hire persons with disabilities and undertake measures to support their activities in the workplace.

Changes in the employment rate of persons with disabilities (Brother Industries, Ltd.)

BIL is continuously committed to its policy of building a workplace environment where employees, with or without disabilities, can deepen mutual understanding, strengthen collaboration among them, and maximize their abilities based on "Trust and Respect" stipulated in the Codes of Practice of the Global Charter.

To respond to legal changes, such as the revision of the "Act for Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities," BIL has been providing employees with e-learning programs that teach the outlines and concepts of laws and workshops by the Brother Group employees who serve as job coaches to facilitate specific actions. In addition, BIL selects work and life consultants for disabled people, who provide advice and other support for employees with disabilities, from among employees in respective factories, and provides those consultants with a continuing educational program by an external teacher. In such ways, BIL builds a system that enables the entire workplace to understand and support employees with disabilities.