Oki Electric Establishes Oki WorkWel, a Teleworking Company for Severely Challenged People
- Aims to Become a Special Subsidiary, First in Japan -
Tokyo, Japan, March 22, 2004 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced, as of April 1, 2004, it will establish Oki WorkWel Co., Ltd., a company that aims to become a special subsidiary(*1) that specializes in employing teleworkers with severe physical challenges, a first in Japan. Oki WorkWel will be applicable as a group company, providing greater opportunities for physically and mentally challenged workers within major Oki group companies. By increasing the number of employees at Oki WorkWel, Oki group aims to achieve the statutory employment rate(*2) for the challenged by the end of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2005.
In 1998, Oki recruited three severely disabled employees and established a teleworking employment system to expand job opportunities for workers who have a hard time commuting due to their disabilities. The teleworkers are IT engineers who hold information processing or entry-level administrator qualifications. Through their PCs and use of the Internet from home, working as OKI Networkers, they have provided IT-related services that include developing web systems, creating and consulting websites with high accessibility, and designing posters. OKI Networkers' achievements have been greatly valued, which has helped to spread the teleworking employment system throughout the Oki group. As of March 2004, Oki has 13 OKI Networkers in five group companies.
"We believe the establishment of Oki WorkWel Co., Ltd. will widen the job opportunities for severely challenged people," said Ryoji Kimura, newly appointed President of Oki WorkWel Co., Ltd. "Because the people we hire have various skills and talents, we would like to see them actively participate widely within our group. As an IT company, we eventually plan to provide opportunities where employees can upgrade their skills through e-learning and expand their job activities."
Oki's teleworking employment system allocates a coordinator with an SE background between teleworkers and clients. The coordinator is in charge of sales, SE, delivery date management and quality check. This makes both the client and the teleworker, who worked as an OKI Networker, at ease, because coordinators give advice or assign work in detail, according to the teleworker's skill and physical condition. In addition, by holding frequent discussions with clients, Oki receives high commendation for controlling quality and progress status based on the clients' desired specifications and delivery dates.
All the coordinators and OKI Networkers will transfer to Oki WorkWel, which aims to become a special subsidiary by the end of April 2004. By becoming an Oki group company, Oki WorkWel consolidates the recruiting of challenged employees for all Oki group companies, eliminating the need for each group company to establish separate teleworking employment systems and manage personnel administrations. By utilizing e-learning, Oki WorkWel plans to increase their job opportunities and upgrade teleworkers' IT skills, including Java programming. Oki WorkWel also will set up a workshop for business card creation to recruit mentally challenged people in the near future.
- *1 Special subsidiary
- A subsidiary company based on the Japanese law that gives special consideration to employ challenged people. This system expands job categories for challenged people and establishes an office environment and a flexible way to work according to their special characteristics.
- *2 Statutory employment rate
- A Japanese law that requires private companies to employ more than 1.8% of mentally challenged or physically challenged people of its total employees.
About Oki WorkWel
| 1. Name of Company: | Oki WorkWel Co., Ltd. |
| 2. Location: | 11-17, Shibaura 4-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan |
| 3. Establishment: | April 1, 2004 |
| 4. President: | Ryoji Kimura (Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. Philanthropy office manager) |
| 5. Number of employees: | 25 (20 challenged employees)
 Detail of challenged employees
17 Physically challenged people (teleworkers)
2 Mentally challenged people
1 Visually challenged people |
| 6. Capital: | 10 million yen (100% Oki Human Network Co., Ltd.) |
| 7. Sales target: | 100 million yen for the fiscal year ending March 2005 |
| 8. Business content: | Design and consult websites for web accessibility
Develop web systems (mainly for visually impaired people and teleworkers)
Create business cards (mainly for mentally disabled people)
Consultation to introduce teleworking employment system |
About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Founded more than a century ago in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan's first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarter in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, "Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society," Oki Electric provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its telecommunications systems, information systems and electronic devices segments. All three segments are integrated into one effective organization that functions as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies, including information and telecom converged solutions. Through its business activities, Oki Electric satisfies a spectrum of customer needs in various markets.
Press Contact:
For Europe and Americas:
Public Relations Division
Phone: +1-408-737-6479 |
For Asia and Other Areas:
Public Relations Division
Phone: +81-3-3580-8950 |
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