Global Initiatives

At PLSIND, the company is taking many steps to ensure the diversity of our workforce. Efforts are being made to enhance the diversity and internal mobility of talent through internal job postings as well as succession planning.

In addition, on-campus hiring is utilized to induct fresh talent from engineering and management colleges to build PLSIND’s talent pyramid and to keep our organization young.

To further diversity in PLSIND, we are promoting inclusivity through various initiatives strengthening top-down and bottom-up communication. This includes activities such as “Freewheeling” with Chairman, “One Team Dialogues” with MD & CEO, as well as “Be Free Feel Free” sessions with our CHRO.

Through “Heart 2 Heart” sessions, managers are encouraged to engage with their team members through conversation beyond work which helps them understand about the personal aspects of the members and promote mental well-being.

PLSIND also has annual programs like “Face Off” where members from across various teams are encouraged to come forward and share their views on a topic in a debate format. The objective of the activity is to encourage members to share their views freely.

Meanwhile, a training module entitled “Think Beyond” focuses on having “A Sunao Mind,” a concept important to Panasonic Group’s founder Konosuke Matsushita, and the training includes elements of unconscious bias and neuroscience. This workshop creates awareness among participants about how past experiences affect behavior and responses, thereby leading to conflicts. Participants are encouraged to practice the habit of “starting anew” everyday.

In addition, PLSIND also has a training workshop on emotional intelligence for managers in order to build an inclusive workplace.

PV held a “DEI Competition” in December 2023 as part of the second year of actively promoting DEI within the company. Through this competition, we hope to create an environment where all employees can utilize the diversity of team members while gaining wisdom and accelerating innovation. By empowering employees, we hope to improve overall employee engagement as well as support our company’s initiatives.

In this competition, employees addressed a variety of DEI issues, including interpersonal communication. Each team summarized their understanding of DEI and provided plans for improvement plans through skits and presentations. This event was a valuable opportunity for employees to understand and promote DEI internally. PV’s General Director noted that DEI will become increasingly necessary to allow individuals to demonstrate their full potential.

PV has also promoted DEI throughout the company through many day-to-day initiatives. In addition to training regarding unconscious bias in the workplace, the HR department creates DEI group discussion and games and distributes a DEI newsletter.

The Women in Leadership Program, launched in 2019, continues to gain momentum, as PE has now delivered the program twice and are in the middle of the third program. For the third program, PE welcomed women from outside of the Europe region to take part and 50% of the delegates are joining from outside Europe. The goal is to provide a platform for our female talent to be more visible, a locus for the discussion of women-specific leadership challenges and a healthy brainstorming environment. 82% of employees who completed the program have obtained more important roles or have been identified for critical roles in the future - and we are seeing more women than ever on succession plans, which is the acid test of such a programme.

We created Women Connect Europe back in 2021, to enhance gender equality and support the careers of female employees outside of our talent programmes. The Women Connect network now has around 350 members in 30 countries across 31 Panasonic companies.

PE is continuing our Unhelpful Bias education program in Europe, developed in association with the Psychology team of Durham University, taking a scientific approach to the topic. As the European business footprint covers a vast array of functions and industries, this allows us to tailor our approach to the nuances of each business. Part 1 focuses on all levels of employees to raise awareness and develop attitudes, values, strategies and skills that encourage a diverse and inclusive culture for all employees from all levels. Part 2 focuses on the Senior Managers to help them develop a meaningful strategy for their business. By taking this approach, training can help to shape the inclusive culture that our people desire.

Building on the foundation stone of Unhelpful Bias, we built a Cognitive Diversity e-learning module with the same team. This supports managers to harness the power of difference within their teams. It has been successful for a voluntary course - with high attendance levels and high completion of the e-learning module. For an optional workshop, this is a great result and a sign of PE’s traction with DEI!

We have also created a pan-European human resources team, to support DEI across Europe, called DIAG. The DIAG Group continues to meet regularly and discuss policy related issues which support an inclusive culture, most recently the group is working towards PE achieving the “disability confident” accreditation.

In 2023 a new business impact group “Embrace” was formed with a focus on ethnically diverse colleagues. It has run educational sessions celebrating many cultures in which all colleagues have become involved. The group is now over 60-strong.

PANABRAS has launched a DE&I (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) project aimed at creating a more equal and inclusive work environment. Under this project, we are working to disseminate correct knowledge about the basic concept of unconscious bias and its influence through our leadership development programs. We are currently in the first phase of training HR members as well as cross-company leaders and supervisors, including the Customer Care and Customer Experience teams, to enhance their sense of belonging, with expansion continuing through 2024. We also conduct unconscious bias webinar-training for all employees in leadership positions.

In addition, we also keep an updated event calendar for our employees while including a DE&I section in PANABRAS’s marketing newsletter. Our newsletter is called Café com Panna and the DEI theme will be an agenda for this newsletter that already exists, sent to all Panasonic employees by email.

At PANABRAS, we are also working to improve accessibility and workplace environments to create a more comfortable workplace for employees with disabilities. Examples of steps we have taken include making improvements to buildings, creating accessibility maps, ensuring inclusive recruitment and selection, and promoting education and training.

In the units located in Extrema, Brazil, we have also adopted specialized bottles for use by people with upper limb disabilities.

Once a quarter, we also hold a special “Open Chat with PWD,” where all employees with disabilities can share their experiences in the workplace. It is an opportunity for employees to speak directly with people with disabilities and address any needs.

We actively raise employee awareness throughout our company on the topics of accessibility and disability in association with the annual International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3 every year.

We hope to instill a more inclusive culture across our company through active communication on the theme, “break your bubble,” so that all employees can leave their comfort zones and be open to new things.

“Break your bubble” is an awareness-raising action in which a DEI-related message appears when a balloon is popped

We are proud to share that PNA is a recipient of the Equality 100 Award: Leader in LGBTQ+ Workplace Inclusion by the Human Rights Campaign, receiving a score of 100/100 in the 2023 Corporate Equality Index.

The Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s Corporate Equality Index is the national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits pertinent to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer employees. This important certification is a culmination of more than a year-long, employee-led effort to carefully examine, reflect, and act on improving policies, introducing processes, and expanding existing program offerings for LGBTQ+ employees at PNA.

Spearheaded by our PRISM* Business Impact Group and supported across multiple functional groups, PNA’s journey to apply for the Human Rights Campaign Foundation’s certification began in the Spring of 2022 as we sought to expand our Self-ID Program to include gender identity and sexual orientation. From there, PNA worked to develop and publish a Supplier Diversity Policy, LGBTQ+ Benefits Guide, expand our healthcare coverage for transgender employees and domestic partners, and continue our support for the broader LGBTQ+ community through the incredible work of PRISM and Pride Month initiatives.

*PRISM is an abbreviation of “Pride, Respect, Inclusion, Support, Mindfulness” and is the name of a PNA employee community working as allies to support the LGBTQ+ community.

Beyond being a testament to our commitment and accountability, it is a testament to the very real impact our Business Impact Groups can have on our workplace. In addition, PNA continues to support its other Business Impact Groups, including RISE (formerly Women’s Connect), Veterans Group, Level Up (Millennials), and the BLAAC Employee Network (BEN) for Black, Latino, African American, African and Caribbean employees.

The mission of PNA’s Executive and Employee DE&I councils is to foster a workplace that promotes diverse thoughts and experiences to support the strategies and actions around Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. The respective councils have focus areas that council members will represent including but not limited to Retention, Recruitment, Inclusion, Community & Communication.

Throughout the year, it is important that we all take time out of our busy schedules to observe the traditions and practices that mean the most to us. At PNA, we currently support our employees in enjoying and recognizing several publicly observed occasions by providing paid time off for twelve national holidays per year. While we are proud to offer our current paid holidays, we also have recognized a need and an opportunity to support our increasingly diverse workforce with an additional paid holiday for celebrating religious and traditional practices outside of our standard paid national holiday schedule. PNA employees are eligible for one paid Floating Holiday per calendar year to be used to observe an unobserved public holiday. Whether it is to take part in a preferred holiday, religious or traditional practice, we believe that you should have the flexibility to do so without having to use personal or vacation days.

At PNA, we are committed to ensuring that supplier diversity is an integral aspect of our strategic sourcing strategy and that our procurement processes are structured in a manner that promotes inclusion of diverse suppliers. Our commitment to supplier diversity transcends our procurement practices and permeates through all levels of management. We will strive to create an equitable environment where diverse suppliers have opportunities to gain our business and to join us in our journey to deliver technologies that move us.

We also further enhance our unconscious bias training to deepen our understanding of DEI. In addition, PNA’s human resource leaders are working to operationalize a talent assessment process that includes how well performance on diversity and inclusion is evaluated. We have also introduced an employee awareness survey on DEI to gather opinions and basic data.