Japan telecom NTT eyes remote work as norm for all 320,000 employees

Newswire

Tokyo: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. said Tuesday it is considering allowing all 320,000 employees of the telecom giant group to work remotely as the norm and abolishing job relocations, in a drastic shake-up of its management style for a post-coronavirus society.

The parent of NTT Docomo Inc., NTT Data Corp. and NTT Communications Corp. among other group companies at home and abroad plans to begin decentralizing its headquarters and management departments from the capital to core cities in regional areas in fiscal 2022.

NTT also outlined the goals of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions within all group companies by fiscal 2040 and eliminating the use of paper by 2025 through digitization.

As part of reforms to staffing and work style, the company will more than quadruple the number of satellite offices to over 260 from the current 60 by March 2023 to make it easier for employees to choose where to work.

A “job-based” personnel system, in which duties are clearly defined and treatment is based on results, will be expanded to all management positions from October this year. The company aims to have women account for 25 to 30 percent of executive positions by fiscal 2025.

NTT aims to accelerate the development of businesses related to primary industries such as agriculture and fisheries.

NTT President Jun Sawada said that wining-and-dining scandals involving communications ministry officials, which came to light in March, presented an opportunity for the company to review its work style.

“It is not good for a public institution to continue working in an (outdated) style. I want to lead by taking the initiative to make changes,” he said during an online press conference.