Recruit Holdings has been ranked third place in the "Forbes JAPAN WOMEN AWARD 2023
"(only in Japanese) corporate rankings — one of Japan's largest women's awards hosted by Forbes JAPAN.
Forbes Japan has given out this award annually since 2016, seeking to empower companies and women by sharing best practices for closing the gender gap. This year’s corporate ranking honored the top five companies out of approximately 1,900 firms, including those listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange prime market index.
In her acceptance speech at the award ceremony on October 31, Vice President Yuko Nishimura of the Human Resources Department and Sustainability Transformation Department at Recruit Holdings focused on Recruit Group’s drive to achieve gender equality.
“Set high goals by backcasting from where we aspire to be.” Recognition highlights and what Yuko shared at her award-winning speech
At the award ceremony, Forbes JAPAN announced that Recruit Holdings was evaluated highly based on the following points:
Top class in the industry*1 based on diversity-related indicators such as the number of women in managerial positions and executives
Provides broad range of employee support to help them balance their life and work and creates an environment in which women can play active roles
Top class in the industry*1 in the scale of investment*2 in employee training, with enhanced talent development initiatives including online training and a coaching system.
In her acceptance speech, Yuko shared the background of Recruit Group’s focus on promoting gender equality and its latest positive signs she sees through their group-wide efforts.
“Thank you very much for this wonderful award. I understand that this year approximately 1,900 companies — including those listed in the TSE prime market — were screened for the award. We are so honored to have been selected as third place among them.
“Since Recruit Group was established in 1960, we’ve continued to grow as a company by respecting each and every individual as we value in our corporate philosophy, and by betting on ideas and passions of our diverse employees to create innovation. We believe that diversity is so much more than just a ‘nice thing to do’ for our company. It’s a survival mechanism that is essential for our growth.
“Recruit Group now operates in more than 60 countries, so diversity priorities vary widely from country to country and region to region. One common issue worldwide is gender equality. With this as the Group’s common theme, we’ve set a goal of increasing the ratio of women at all levels*3 to approximately 50% by 2030.
“I’m often asked, ‘Why 50%?’ The reason is simple: since the ratio of women employees in our Group is 50%, we think that the ratio should be 50% at all levels. If you ask me if we are clearly looking at a concrete path to achieve that at this point, the answer would unfortunately be ‘not there yet.’
“However, I can certainly say that we are happy that we’ve discovered that by setting specific numerical targets that we backcasted from the ideal future state — rather than targets perceived as an accumulation from the present — we’re seeing more out-of-the-box ideas and initiatives that question what was previously taken for granted or what we thought was common sense in the business field. This is exactly what we are trying to do. We believe this is precisely the key to innovation.
“As we accelerate our various initiatives to achieve this goal, with the entire Group working together, I’d like to share our entire journey with you, including both things that are working well as well as tough challenges we strive for."
Please watch the video of Yuko’s speech at Forbes JAPAN WOMEN AWARD 2023.
Recruit Group’s initiatives are receiving recognitions around the world
Recruit Group’s efforts to establish gender equality have been widely recognized in Japan and globally. On October 31, the day of the ceremony, Forbes in the US announced its World’s Top Companies for Women 2023, with Recruit Holdings being recognized for the third consecutive year.
Recruit Group will continue to advance DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) including gender equality, and make efforts tailored to each region and business to realize its ESG commitments toward 2030.
*1 “Capital Goods and Services" industry in the GICS industry classification
*2 Evaluation based on training expenses per employee and the number of times the keyword "training" appears in external disclosure materials.
*3 Senior executive positions are defined as senior vice presidents and corporate officers of Recruit Holdings and the Matching & Solutions Strategic Business Unit (SBU), and CEOs of the company's major subsidiaries and heads of key functions in the HR Technology and Staffing SBUs. Figures for managerial positions and employees are calculated from Recruit Holdings, SBU Headquarters and the primary operating companies of each SBU. Managerial positions refer to those that have subordinate employees.
Yuko Nishimura
Vice President, Sustainability Transformation Department Vice President, Human Resources Department Lead, ESG Communication, IR Recruit Holdings Co., Ltd.
Yuko Nishimura is Vice President of Sustainability Transformation and Human Resources and an industry-leading expert in advancing Human Capital Management, specializing in people and the workplace. Yuko is currently leading Recruit Group’s HR and environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies, while also serving as a spokesperson for those themes when communicating with the capital market around the world. She drives the planning and execution of their ESG initiatives “Prosper Together”, one of the Group’s strategic pillars aimed for delivering both long-term, sustainable growth while creating a positive impact on society and the planet through the Group’s entire corporate activities. With more than 25 years of experience in leading and advancing HR and sustainability agendas in the technology industry, her deep expertise spans key corporate essentials such as corporate governance, succession planning, talent development, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion), employee engagement, as well as ESG strategy and communications. She has also served as an expat specialist supporting policy-making initiatives at the KEIZAI DOYUKAI — Japan Association of Corporate Executives — focusing on labor law and human resource management.