Ever since establishing an air-conditioner manufacturing plant in Shanghai in 1995, the Daikin Group has positioned China as a key region in its management strategy and has worked to make the company a truly regional entity by hiring locally. And from FY2005, the company began activities in the three areas of social welfare, education, and environment in its aim of becoming a locally rooted company. As part of its social welfare efforts, Daikin Air-Conditioning (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. hires the disabled.
Under Shanghai municipal laws, the disabled must account for at least 1.6% of a company’s workforce. At Daikin Shanghai, the company built a line operated entirely by people with disabilities for assembling product packaging and other items, and as of March 2007 there were 72 disabled employees on five lines, accounting for 4.32% of all employees.
Daikin Shanghai strives to make the workplace comfortable for these employees: it has built slopes and easy-access washrooms for wheelchair employees and provided sign language interpreters for the hearing impaired. As well, it educates employees daily on keeping the workplace safe and has speed limits for vehicles using the on-site roads that are used by disabled employees. These are just a few of the efforts to ensure the safety of employees with disabilities.
And like all other employees, the disabled are evaluated and compensated based on a performance-based pay system. This is based in the belief that having a concrete evaluation system for individual jobs will make work more rewarding and contribute to self-reliance for the handicapped.
This system was out of the ordinary for China when it was first implemented, and some employees were not sure what to think of it. However, talking to disabled employees and their families resolved their worries and uncertainties. Today, these employees show enthusiasm for their work and have helped make Daikin Shanghai a shining example for local companies.
