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CSR 2022 - Our People

The Canon family

For Canon Medical Systems Corporation, our employees are our most important assets. We are always looking for talented people to join our Canon family, regardless of age, gender or background. We are a global organization with employees from every continent and cherish our diversity.

Global Network

We provide services to more than 150 countries and regions worldwide. In addition, we partner with expertise centers across the global to create Innovative technologies through joint research and development.

  • In general, in terms of number of employees, there were no major differences in 2021 compared to 2020.

Total FTE 2021-2020

Diversity

One of our objectives for 2021-2025 is to improve the gender composition in our organization to at least 40% female and 60% male by the end of 2025.
Currently, 76% of employees are men and 24% of employees are women at Canon Medical Systems Corporation. Gender diversity in management also remains a large challenge, as only 11% of senior managers are female.

However, we do see positive changes as a result of our policy. For example, we encourage our male and female employees to take parental leave. In 2021, this increased the number of male employees taking parental leave in North America to 55%.

Overview of employees 2021

Support for communities

A family needs a healthy, happy community surrounding it. Canon Medical Systems Corporation invests in surrounding communities, which are vital to its existence. These investments range from direct financial assistance to internships and shared activities.

Internships and apprenticeships

In 2021, we continued offering internships and places for apprentices to contribute to personal and community development. COVID-19 made such efforts more of a challenge, but Canon Medical Systems Corporation remained a place for young graduates and apprentices to explore and prepare for careers in the medical field. We had 220 interns and apprentices from various types of educational programs in 2021, compared to 305 in 2020. A high number of these were once again in France, but Olea Medical, Canon Medical Research USA, Canon Medical Systems Korea and Fysicon also hosted interns and apprentices in 2021.

Interns and apprentices

Internal and external cooperation on CSR

We are embedding CSR in our DNA in several ways, both internally and externally. For example, our subsidiary in Brazil formed an internal CSR committee. Externally, we are building a resilient network outside of our organization and strengthening cooperation to help future-proof our organization. Our subsidiary Skope Magnetic Resonance Technologies is working with a Swiss eco-NGO to enhance environmental sustainability. Olea Medical is working with other companies in its business park to link the business park to the central public transport station by bus and promote carpooling or car sharing. Canon Medical UK is working with a group of sustainability companies and their customer the NHS to promote environmental, social and governance practices in their business relationships and help each other meet new sustainability guidelines.

Vitality

2021 was another unusual year for our employees due to COVID-19.
Compared to 2020, more subsidiaries had policies ready to provide needed workplace facilities at home and increase remote work options. In the field, we kept insuring a safe and healthy working environment. There were fewer work-related incidents and fewer injuries during absence. We are aware this may be due to the COVID-19 pandemic and will watch this parameter closely in 2022.

We held digital meetings on an ongoing basis not only for business purposes, but also to encourage informal conversation and inquiries amongst each other. Also, several subsidiaries shared their on- and offline activities to keep everyone connected to the Canon Medical family.

Hybrid work and team building at one of our youngest member companies

Canon Medical Systems Argentina is one of the youngest members of Canon Medical Systems Corporation. Elizabeth Pereyra explains, ‘We started in 2019 just before the COVID pandemic hit us. 2021 was another strange year, but we worked hard to keep our customers happy. We also continued with the implementation of new policies and rolled out improved processes, as we were still starting up.’

‘In 2021, we focused on the newly established workforce that drives our company. We have a relatively young workforce as most members are between 30 and 50 years old. We focused on connecting and reaching out to each other throughout the company. This comes natural to Argentinians, who are always looking out for each other. And the size of our company makes personal connection possible. We even grew from about 40 to 50 employees.’

‘In terms of CSR, we feel we can really learn from our peers at Canon Medical Systems Corporation. We believe in learning by trial and error and look forward to increasing our knowledge of CSR internally. We already make some efforts such as waste management at the office and conscious use of energy, but we know more product and service-related requirements will be set by our customers. Especially in regard to environmental issues, we are eager to start investing more in CSR in the coming years together with Canon Medical Systems Corporation, our employees, customers and local communities.’

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Care at Canon Medical Systems Corporation is more than physical well-being

Delivering diagnostic imaging at the cutting edge requires employees who are both physically and mentally healthy. In 2021, COVID-19 proved to be challenging again to both aspects of our health. But we have seen many inspirational examples of overseas subsidiaries supporting their employees. Read the stories from our US and Canadian subsidiaries.

About well-being and good health

What does well-being and good health mean to us? Some insights from the United States of America:

Julia Guidi explains: ‘We take our Made for Life philosophy to heart at Canon Medical Systems USA. This philosophy reflects our commitment to improving the quality of life for all – including our employees and their families. This is our guiding star when developing our benefits and wellness programs. In our view, employee benefits should be designed to enhance your total well-being and help you live your best life possible.’

‘We are continuously benchmarking our benefits and wellness programs and our wellness program is one of our differentiators when comparing against our competitors. Some of our wellness programs include a weight-loss program, enhanced mental health services, and wellness coaching to help our employees meet their health goals. Our workforce represents all five generations, and our programs promote well-being for everyone at all ages.’

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‘We also receive regular feedback from our employees through satisfaction surveys. Our most recent internal wellness survey was conducted at the end of 2021. The feedback we received confirmed that the majority of our employees are very happy with the programs we offer, and they consider them a valuable component of our benefits package. We were also able to learn where we can make improvements and continue to meet our employees’ needs.’

Julia continues: ‘Our employees’ health and safety is our number one priority. In early 2021, it was challenging to navigate the COVID-19 landscape in the U.S. with vaccination and testing accessibility varying state-by-state. In addition to providing protective safety equipment to our employees in the field, we also implemented personalized resources for our employees to help them understand their eligibility for the COVID vaccine and where to locally obtain the vaccine and COVID tests.’

‘As a result of COVID-19, the majority of our onsite workforce transitioned to working remotely. In 2021, we formalized this policy which allows most of our employees to permanently continue working remotely. Not only does this impact our employees’ quality of life with added flexibility, it will also impact our environmental footprint by reducing car emissions, as well as water and energy use at our facilities.’
‘We recognize that CSR is a critical responsibility our organization has to our customers, employees, local communities and the planet. We will continue to strive to further promote CSR initiatives within Canon Medical Systems USA to reinforce this responsibility.’

About mental well-being and caring

The employees at Canon Medical Systems Canada can be described as environmentally engaged with a total workforce that is characterized by high personal interaction. Ryan Higgins explains, ‘That interaction includes interaction of employees with management. The COVID pandemic did affect our employees in 2021, in terms of stress and anxiety. But management was very approachable and available for everybody – even answering calls in the evenings and weekends, which showed high consideration and care of our Canon family. This way of looking after each other is also reflected in our employee survey which shows outstanding employee satisfaction every year.’

Care is also demonstrated by supporting local communities and charity. Sherry Lyons explains, ‘We have our customers reply to a semiannual survey. When they complete the survey, we make a donation to their choice of the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation or the Alzheimer Society of Canada.
Care is also central when it comes to the environment. Cheryl Silver explains, ‘We take small steps: we have a waste management system in place at the office, we switched to LED lighting and we are replacing our gas-powered vehicles with electric vehicles, albeit current supply has created a challenge to deliver. We are also restricted in options to further reduce our environmental impact by our buildings, as we lease them, but we do take small steps where we can. For example, mandatory but inspirational training on biodiversity was provided in 2021, which raised employee awareness of the importance of ecosystems and the impact of our products on biodiversity. Finally, we are conscious of our packaging materials and other types of waste management in our supply chain.’

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Training

As with the workforce breakdown, there were generally no major global changes in training in 2021 compared to 2020. However, some regions did invest more in employee training during the challenging COVID-19 pandemic.

Training per FTE

Environmental education for employees

Up-to-date knowledge and awareness of the environmental, social and governance aspects of our products and services is very important. At the headquarters of Canon Medical Systems Corporation and several subsidiaries, all employees receive environmental education through e-learning every year. In addition to individual training in 2021, Canon Medical Systems Corporation in Japan participated in Earth Hour and the government-recommended Environment Month to educate employees about the importance of the environment.

Standards of conduct

Our worldwide activities are guided by Standards of Conduct that summarize how our employees worldwide should strive for integrity and sustainability.

China is one of the R&D locations of Canon Medical Systems Corporation. Akira Horie and his team there work every day on creating new knowledge and innovations for Canon Medical Systems Corporation and its customers.

From an R&D perspective, CSR is important to us and we are committed to it. We especially focus on the environmental requirements of our products to ensure they meet the standards set by our customers, such as hospitals and physicians. But we also take measures to decrease energy use at our offices. This is in accordance with our obligation to help prevent global warming and is part of our routine environmental related activities.

We also take great care of our employees. In 2021, we kept investing in training of our employees and staff and our average salaries increased as in ordinary years, based on our investment policy.

We also received a new subsidy from the local government that was used to invest in our recruitment activities. To further improve the well-being of our employees and enhance employee satisfaction, we supported various activities such as birthday parties, summer vacation events and sporting events.

Regarding local employment, we mainly hire university graduates from the three northeastern provinces and most of our employees live within 10 kilometers of the office. We strive to give all of our employees enough room to develop themselves as experts in their respective fields and achieve a work-life balance for more fulfilling lives. CSR is part of that balance and part of our company philosophy, so we expect our employees to actively participate in CSR efforts.

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CSR-related certifications

We have the following CSR-related certifications for products, processes and management systems:

  • ISO 14001: for production sites in Japan, China, Malaysia and Brazil; for subsidiaries in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada; and as a group certificate for three European Group companies in the UK, Sweden, Spain and Portugal.
  • ISO 45001 for Japan
  • PAS 20260: for the UK
  • Additionally, the headquarters and all subsidiaries have quality-related management systems in place based on ISO 9001, ISO 13485, KGMP and MDA.