Relationship with employees

Personnel Recruitment System to support employees’ drive

In the KOSÉ Group’s “Framework of Corporate Philosophy,” the Action Guidelines include the following two items: “Go beyond the conventional” and “Never lose your enthusiasm and the desire to improve” To make the best of employees’ experience and drive, KOSÉ has introduced a Personnel Recruitment System which enables employees to pursue the challenge of performing new kinds of work. Recruitment from each department is announced once a year, and successful applicants are given notice through internal company bulletins. The system allows all employees, regardless of their current operational status, to submit applications as long as they meet the conditions of the recruiting department.

For instance, some employees transfer from marketing to planning, some from beauty consultant positions to product development, and so on. More and more employees are taking advantage of this opportunity to use their experience and display their talents in operations of their choice.

Career development support

KOSÉ sponsors a wide variety of types of education and training to improve the careers and develop the potential of each and every employee. KOSÉ focuses particularly on providing sophisticated, specialized training for beauty consultants so they can have the confidence to provide appropriate advice and counseling to help customers use cosmetics properly. For sales staff as well, KOSÉ provides education and training that relates directly to their work. KOSÉ pro-actively encourages its employees to participate in various seminars for self-development purposes. These include the Takeoff Seminar for employees who have entered their third year with the Company, and the Brush-Up Seminar for promising middle-level staff members.

Also, KOSÉ recently launched a Women’s Form starting in 2006 to help female employees develop and advance their careers. KOSÉ also offers correspondence courses so employees can take advantage of educational opportunities at their convenience. KOSÉ selects and introduces courses ranging from language instruction and business development, to courses designed to help students achieve specific qualifications or to raise their cultural refinement. KOSÉ has also created a system whereby employees can have half of their course fee exempted if they successfully finish the course.

Lifestyle support through a rotational area system and a confined work place system

Balancing work and free time is an important theme for employees in structuring their lifestyles. The KOSÉ Group offers a variety of support systems for employees to give their best at work and at the same time live fulfilling private lives. The two most representative systems include a system whereby employees can designate in advance the areas they would like to rotate, and a confined work place system whereby employees can fix their work place for family or other reasons. The confined work place system is applicable for employees 40 and over.

Comprehensive services offered through the Comprehensive Welfare Center

KOSÉ established a Comprehensive Welfare Center in 1993 to provide health insurance, mutual aid, and corporate pension services more swiftly and fully. The Center’s main activities include health insurance-related operations, health check-ups and lifestyle disease examinations, medical benefit payments, recreation facility management, congratulatory or condolence benefit payments, and various financial assistance payments.

Mental health support

Providing health management and instruction services for each and every employee is important, but so is looking after their mental health concerns which tend to frequently go unnoticed. The KOSÉ Group has, with the cooperation of external specialist organizations, introduced a mental health support system. Mental health support requires professional knowledge given the difficulty of counseling, privacy protection issues, and other challenges.

KOSÉ established a system, with the help of external doctors and professional staff, in which employees can easily receive counseling by phone, in person, or even anonymously. Employees can receive mental health counseling 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and KOSÉ also has a system in place to provide employees with information regarding medicine, health, child-rearing, nursing, and medical institutions.