Leaving a Positive Impact on the Environment and Society through Our Corporate Activities

Sharing our passion and initiatives for sustainability transformation to prosper together with all stakeholders.

By setting “Prosper Together” as one of the three pillars of our corporate strategy, Recruit Group aims to contribute to a sustainable growth of the company by making a positive impact on society and the planet. In this context, the Sustainability Transformation Department (which we call SXD) has two major missions. Our first mission is to promote group-wide activities to fulfill our ESG commitment by FY2030, which we announced in May 2021. With regard to the environment, we aim to achieve carbon neutrality in terms of greenhouse gas emissions throughout our business activities and our entire value chain. For our social goals, we aim to achieve two targets: to create social impact, and to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) within the Group. With respect to social impact, we aim to halve the time it takes to get hired compared to FY2021, and to support 30 million job seekers who face various bias and barriers in the global job market such as age, disability, race/ethnicity, criminal record, or educational background. As for DEI, we aim to increase the representation of women in the Group's senior managers, managerial positions, and total employees to approximately 50% respectively. In terms of governance, we aim to increase the representation of women on the board members to approximately 50%. As the global headquarters of Recruit Group, Recruit Holdings’ SXD are responsible for providing the necessary support to steadily drive these specific ESG-related initiatives by monitoring their progress in close cooperation with the people in charge at each Group company.

SXD’s second mission is to communicate our initiatives to both internal and external stakeholders, in order to give them a better understanding of our activities. In recent years, ESG investment has been a focal point for investors and their expectations and requests are increasing. We have been responding by preparing an "ESG Data Book" to explain our initiatives in detail in addition to disclosure materials such as annual reports, and setting up dialogues so our management can directly discuss these issues with investors. We also communicate with rating agencies that evaluate the ESG activities of various companies to ensure that our activities are properly evaluated in our ESG ratings. In addition, we plan and execute communication using all available methods in cooperation with the IR and PR teams, such as our corporate website, and events related to ESG goals, and our "Recruit Group Profile: Inside Out," a report which introduces our corporate activities. In this way, we share our passion for SX with our various stakeholders around the world.

Be the Start of a big wave that will change the world for the better.

When I was a child, I was shocked to see pictures in a textbook that depicted the lifestyles of people living in developing countries. Since then I have always had a desire to address social issues. After graduating from university, I was directly involved in supporting the development of emerging countries on the ground, participated in the launch of a social business, and was engaged in the planning and operations of SDGs marketing activities utilizing social media at an advertising firm. However, I keenly realized that a stronger force is required to change the world. For me, working on SX at the company means trying and challenging a new approach to solving social issues.

Since joining the Company, I have been impressed by the company-wide efforts toward SX, from the management team to each and every person on the frontline. The goals we set are very high, and the scale of social impact we are going to create is huge. Because of this, our efforts are attracting a lot of attention from outside the company, and I realize every day the influential power of a large company. In particular, in the area of "Social Impact," Recruit’s approach is quite unique, and we are attracting a great deal of interest from investors and other people outside the company. Recruit Group has been addressing social inadequacies such as inconvenience, dissatisfaction and anxiety, and our goals have been praised as being true to our character. On the other hand, because it is difficult to quantify or set indicators for success, we frequently receive questions such as "What kind of milestone would you achieve that shows that you have met your goal?” or “What kind of impact will your success have on society and the environment?” We are now in a trial-and-error process to see how we can best communicate our goals to our stakeholders and obtain their understanding.

As interest in sustainability grows worldwide, many best practices will begin to emerge. We aim to be the first in the world to develop these best practices. Then, we will actively share with other companies to spread these practices. We hope it will eventually be the ripple that leads to a great wave that will change the world. I would be very happy to play a part in this process.

A company that has both the scalable impact of a large company and the agility of a venture company.

The Company is the fourth company I’ve worked for. Before Recruit, I have only worked for small companies with less than 120 employees. The scale of each project, including the budget and the number of people involved, is something I have never experienced before. It’s so exciting. The team is richly diverse. Some team members are generalists concurrently working in several departments. There are also specialists with a high level of expertise in particular areas. As you can imagine, the challenges we take on are all very difficult, but we never give up. For example, even if we can't handle something right away, we think of achieving it over the long term with a positive attitude. We are really a great, happy team. If I make a proposal, there will never be a negative response, and will always be met with a “Let's try it,” or “How about doing it this way?”, and then the team will work out the details on the spot and move the proposal forward. We are quick, too! Recruit is one of Japan's leading corporations, but it is a different kind of company that respects the ideas of each employee and has the spirit of a venture company to move things forward speedily.

On the other hand, every day I am keenly aware of the difficulties of large-scale projects and the importance of communication. In the past, if something happened, it was sufficient to gather everyone together and have a conversation on the spot, but this is not the case with a project that involves so many people on a global scale. What surprised me the most after coming to the Company was the amount, and quality of information shared inside the company. Discussions are held after everyone has seen the same information. Concerns are addressed in advance through conversations with all parties involved. Plans are adjusted to take into account the circumstances of other departments based on a prior understanding of their situations. In this way, the decision-making process is very detailed and strategic, and I am learning a great deal every step of them. Here, you can develop project management skills that are essential for working on large-scale projects. If you want to take on the challenge of a big job with a social impact, this is an attractive environment.

When you change jobs, you hope that your new workplace will be full of opportunities. I’m afraid there is no company that can guarantee that you’ll be 100% satisfied. Whether you can get 100% satisfaction or not is totally up to you. In a new environment, you have to appreciate the differences and make moves proactively on your own. In fact, some companies may not recognize your efforts no matter how hard you work. Every company has a different level of open-mindedness in accepting people from different cultures. When you choose a new company, this is an important point to consider. In this respect, Recruit Holdings is a very open and generous company. I can wholeheartedly recommend Recruit.