Report on the Sixth Meeting of the Group DEI Promotion Council

Photo: A group of people are pointing at a target together. Photo: A group of people are pointing at a target together.

The Group DEI Promotion Council is a forum for continuous dialogue on group-wide initiatives, based on a shared understanding of the DEI issues that need to be addressed in order to achieve the Panasonic Group’s commitment to ensuring management that enables each employee to reach their full potential.

The Sixth Group DEI Promotion Council Meeting was held in September 2023, attended by seventeen CEOs and CHROs from the operating companies, Panasonic Holdings Corporation, and Panasonic Operational Excellence Co., Ltd. Whereas previous meetings had a fixed theme for each session, this time, one consistent theme, “What kind of DEI should Panasonic Group aim for within the next three years?” will be examined through continuous discussions.

All information and persons is accurate to the time of the events.

Background for Setting the Theme

The status of individual DEI initiatives at the Panasonic Group level has been changing drastically since the Group reformed its DEI policy two years ago. While Panasonic Group has a long-term vision for DEI, the specific, short-term goals have never been discussed at the whole Panasonic Group level, as initiatives for DEI are mainly addressed by each operating company.

In order to set the common goal of DEI activities between the Group and each operating company, the theme of this session was set as “What kind of DEI should Panasonic Group aim for within the next three years?” Therefore, these discussions intend to clarify Panasonic Group’s DEI initiatives within the next three years, the critical themes linked to them, as well as clear indicators to show the progress of each of the initiatives.

Discussions

In this meeting, the participants identified current DEI initiatives, as well as any bottleneck factors, and discussed how to deal with issues to attain the envisioned initiatives. Some of the opinions in the discussion were as follows.

  • In the year and a half since transitioning to an operating company system, Panasonic Group has made progress in DEI communication and activities within each operating company. Employees talk about DEI or unconscious bias more often in our workplaces than before.
  • To acquire understanding and empathy of employees, it is crucial that DEI communication and activities are in line with what is said and done in the workplace.
  • We must reach a point where we can assert that diverse employees are performing at their best and are also able to participate in the decision-making of each department or section.
  • There are differences in the degree of understanding and practice among operating companies, as well as those among each employee. This means that we must take care of these differences and see what we can do to improve them.
  • In order to promote diversity, we need to review proper, objective indicators as well as how to make those public.
  • The promotion and implementation of DEI is about fundamental human rights. For example, if an incident occurs in which an employee’s dignity is violated, it is essential to feel the same sense of indignation and empathy.
  • There were three perspectives why DEI should be promoted by our companies.
    1. With rapid changes in customer demands, we will not be able to survive if we continue to manage our business with high homogeneity in our employees, especially in Japan.
    2. Fundamentally, a company must be a place where diverse people can make the most of their talents. Otherwise, our company will not be able to hire the necessary people.
    3. Corporate culture and systems must include a policy for DEI in order to utilize employees having diverse backgrounds.
  • The importance of DEI is becoming better understood. However, there are too many different messages about what should be important and that might have led to a lack of understanding regarding DEI initiatives.

Going Forward

Through the discussion, the participants prioritized what we should do to specify “What kind of DEI should Panasonic Group aim for within the next three years?” In further Group DEI Promotion Council Meetings, management will continue to clarify the direction we will move in for the next three years.

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