Our people

The Canon family

For Canon Medical Systems, 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.

The Canon family remains stable in its number of FTE, as shown in the diagram in total FTE.

Diversity

One of our objectives for 2021-2025 is to improve the gender balance 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.
Our company vision is “to be the best employer and best Customer partner in our sector”, also in terms of CSR. We have been investing in CSR and ESG since 2014. In terms of diversity, we established an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion or ED&I* focus group in 2022, next to our existing CSR focus group. Our employees receive more than a national living wage, we provide excellent working facilities and provide regular webinars about topics such as CSR, ESG and ED&I. We have already passed the corporate goal of 30% female employees a while ago and with two women on the board of directors, we have a good and diverse employee mix from an ED&I point of view and we have been recognized for it. During our bi-annual employee survey some our people state that they actually joined the company because of our CSR-related activities.”

- Darryl Collin, QA Manager, Environmental Representative and H&S Advisor UK and Austria


*Depending on the region, either ED&I (e.g. in the UK) or DE&I (e.g. in Australia and New Zealand) is used as an abbreviation for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. In this report, we use the term ED&I, but has a similar meaning to DE&I.
Gender diversity in senior management remains a challenge, but we did improve the gender balance at the senior management level, where we increased the overall number of female senior managers from 11% in 2021 to 13% in 2022.
‘The journey towards becoming an “employer of choice” requires a strong focus on ED&I*, with an emphasis on gender equality. An important initiative is to proactively advocate by demonstrating to the next generation what is possible for women in this amazing imaging solution industry. In 2022, we hosted the first of an annual ‘women in engineering’ information day, inviting 22 female students and teachers from my previous girls high school to visit our Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand office and warehouse. It was a fabulous event where we provided in-person demonstrations on our equipment and several women from our team shared their personal stories on how they have achieved wonderful careers in the imaging industry. It was a truly inspiring day for all involved.

And we do much more on gender equality and empowering women in engineering. We have a publicly stated commitment to ED&I on our local website, part of a comprehensive ED&I strategic plan, focused on policy and work process review, advocacy and celebration of achievements. We have a women’s committee to assist with driving positive change for our company. Progress requires a sustained team effort that involves all at Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand as well as our stakeholders, locally and globally!’

- Monica King, Managing Director, about CSR and empowering women at Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand

*Depending on the region, either ED&I (e.g. in the UK) or DE&I (e.g. in Australia and New Zealand) is used as an abbreviation for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. In this report, we use the term ED&I, but has a similar meaning to DE&I.

In terms of diversity, maternity leave and parental leave are promoted amongst our employees.
‘When I became a father, I was able to take parental leave for five months. In Japan, it is not common for a man to take parental leave. From an HR perspective, I am aware of the difficulty in finding a substitute for a highly specialized employee. Or managing higher volumes of work for a department when someone takes leave. When someone takes a leave of absence, the workload per person increases in the department. In my case, my colleagues had to take over my work and responsibilities. Nevertheless, everybody was very supportive. I was able to spend time with my family and saw my child grow and develop. It was an irreplaceable, priceless time. As a member of HR, I would like to contribute to establishing the environment and system to allow those who wish to take leave of absence.

- Munenao Nishijima, Chief HR at Canon Medical Systems Corporation, about CSR and parental leave
Support for communities
A family needs a healthy, happy community surrounding it. Canon Medical Systems invests in its surrounding communities, which are vital to its existence. These investments range from direct financial assistance to internships and shared activities.
‘We believe in leveraging our resources and expertise to make a positive impact on society. As part of our ongoing commitment to corporate social responsibility, we supported Helping Hands charity by engaging them to facilitate a team-building corporate workshop for all Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand employees. A total of 30 artificial hands were successfully built and donated to Helping Hands charity, providing victims of landmine explosions with prosthetic devices that improve their daily lives. The event brought tears of joy to many when we could see the incredible impact this technology that we built had on people’s lives.’

‘In 2022 employee nominated charities each received $100 from Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand plus further donations from our staff were encouraged. The charities included the Cancer Council, Newcastle Special Children's Xmas party, Giving Pause 4 Parkinson's, Beyond Blue, Variety and many more. We also have a customer survey response donation program in place where, for each customer survey response received, Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand donates $1 to a list of nominated charities. We are also particularly proud to sponsor the amazing work of Assistance Dogs Australia (ADA).’

- Jane Jelisavac, HR manager, about the importance of giving at Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand
Internships and apprenticeships
In 2022, we continued offering internships and places for apprentices to contribute to personal and community development. Several subsidiaries hosted interns and apprentices, contributing to a positive development on the number of interns. The number of apprenticeships declined and we will continue to monitor this in the coming years.
Financial support of other organizations
The level of support in 2022 remained similar to that of 2021. There is a sharp decrease in reported in-kind support.

Vitality

Compared to 2020 and 2021, most subsidiaries had their policies ready to enable employees to work from home and promoted remote work options in 2022. We kept encouraging digital meetings, for both business purposes as well as informal conversation. Next to the direct effect of lower emissions due to less traveling, working at home also plays a positive role in wellbeing of our employees.
‘Something I am proud of at Canon Medical Systems Italy is that we did not reverse the policies for working at home. Most Italian companies did so after the COVID pandemic came to its end in 2022, making their employees commute to and from work every day. With all the traffic in cities and personal stress, we avoided this by making a rather simple strategic decision with a high impact on our employees’ wellbeing.’

- Luigi Mirco Amoreo, QA/RA H&S manager, about CSR and wellbeing in Canon Medical Systems in Italy
There were more work-related incidents reported in 2022. In 2020 and 2021 this parameter was lower due to the COVID-19 pandemic with fewer people on the premises. For the coming years, we will watch this parameter closely as we want to continue ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for everybody.
‘We organize regular activities at Canon Medical Systems Korea with the purpose to connect with each other as departments, teams and individuals. For example going fishing together or learning the Japanese language. But we also organized regular trips with other neighboring companies to clean up the natural environment surrounding our offices. These informal activities are part of our commitment to incorporate CSR in our ‘Made for Life’ philosophy.’

- Jungbin Lee and Heejee Mun, HR managers, about CSR and connecting to the Canon family in Korea
Our subsidiaries shared their on- and offline activities, which demonstrated their commitment to keep everyone connected to the Canon Medical family.

‘In November 2022, for the first time in over 15 years, the entire Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand team came together for the "BTE" (Big Team Event), a company-wide face-to-face meeting. The event, especially given the challenges of the previous two years, was a seminal occasion for the company, providing an opportunity to reflect on our corporate values in action, as well as connection, alignment, and of course enjoyment.’

- Jane Jelisavac, Australia and New Zealand, about the importance of celebration at Canon Medical Systems Australia and New Zealand

Training

The reported total amount as well as per full time employee (FTE) spent on training decreased in 2022 compared to 2021. Some regions invested more in training in 2021, as we were then still dealing with the challenging COVID-19 pandemic. And even though a little less than 2021, we continued to invest in our employees through training in 2022.
‘We have a special development program in place for employees, where we hire and educate them and provide them with the proper supervision to become high potential employees. Our CEO advocated for this personally. This is an absolute necessity for Korea, as there is a high demand for skilled personnel in our country. By offering them this unique development program, we encourage people to come and work at Canon Medical Systems Korea. Having a CSR strategy is also becoming increasingly important for our customers as well as our employees and something we will continue to invest in the coming years.’

- Jungbin Lee and Heejee Mun, Korea, about CSR and connecting to the Canon family

Standards of conduct

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

CSR-related certifications

We have the following CSR-related certifications for products, processes, and management systems:
  • ISO 14001: for production sites in Japan, China and Brazil; for subsidiaries in Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Canada; and as a group certificate for European Group companies in the UK, Sweden, Spain and Portugal. In 2022 preparations started for ISO 14001 certification in Italy, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands as well, with planned deadlines in 2023. In 2024 Switzerland, Germany and France are scheduled to be certified.
  • 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.