Setting our core themes

Process of Materiality Analysis for Sustainability

By means of the process based on materiality analysis described below, we identified material issues to engage in as Groupwide priorities, and summarize them to five core themes.

Process for setting up core themes

During materiality analysis, we held dialogues with roughly seventy stakeholders, including a diverse range of international NGOs and organizations specializing in sustainability, to receive various opinions on the social issues in which contribution from Recruit Group is expected. We then referred to the UN General Assembly Document and the 17 goals/169 targets of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are global sustainability themes adopted by a unanimous vote at a UN summit meeting, and categorized the expectations from stakeholders into the 18 social issues including human rights, and mapped them along the vertical axis.

Next, from the perspective of economic/environmental/social impact in relation to Recruit Group's various businesses around the world, these were mapped along the horizontal axis based on relevance to our business.
Five themes, both high on the vertical axis of "stakeholder expectations" and the horizontal axis of "relevance to our business," were identified as the themes that Recruit Group should address with much focus.

This process and conclusion of the materiality analysis were presented to the external members at the Sustainability Committee, which also includes our CEO and other members of our board of directors. Based on discussions held at two Committee meetings, it was recognized that these five core themes would be achieved through interaction with one another, which led to the conclusion that there would be no priority set among the five and a multilateral approach would be conducted.

In addition, in the March 2018 board meeting, the process flow to set up and the core themes were discussed in order to enable each member to fully recognize the current understanding and future challenges for the board to show its commitment.

Core themes derived from goal identified through materiality analysis

New core themes were set with "respect for human rights" derived from the realization of human rights of all those mentioned in the foreword; "closing the opportunity gap" from no poverty, quality education for all people, and reduced inequalities for people and countries; "respect for diversity" from realizing gender equality; "evolution of work" from decent work and economic growth; and "environmental conservation" from specific climate action.