Whistle Blower Hotline

OMRON's in-house whistle blower hotline gives telephone, email and post access to OMRON Group directors, full-time employees and temporary staff as well as their families in Japan. Once a hotline contact is made, the staff in charge conducts a confidential in-house investigation. To raise awareness of the hotline and facilitate its use, the in-house electronic bulletin board posts data regarding hotline contacts. In fiscal 2005, hotline access also became available at outside law firms.

In fiscal 2006, several measures were taken to speed in-house investigation and facilitate response to hotline contacts, including increased hotline advisors, a reviewed system for handling hotline contacts and regular training for advisors. A total of 14 hotline contacts were made during the year. OMRON will continue promoting awareness of the hotline and improving response in fiscal 2007.

Corporate Ethics Month activities

As part of its drive to strengthen compliance for the OMRON Group in Japan, OMRON designated October as Corporate Ethics Month. Activities conducted during fiscal 2006 included distribution of corporate ethics/compliance posters and cards, workplace meetings, message from the President and seminars targeting directors.

Corporate ethics/compliance awareness enhancement

To stimulate corporate ethics/compliance awareness and practices among OMRON Group directors and employees in Japan, company intranets posted a Corporate Ethics Bulletin Board. In fiscal 2006, the newly opened 'Q&A' section introduced appropriate action for each anticipated case. For fiscal 2007, OMRON plans to upgrade the 'Q&A' content and put it into a booklet form for distribution to all OMRON Group directors and employees in Japan.

SSB Code of Business Ethics

The Social Systems Solutions Business Company (SSB), specializing in railway station systems and other public service-related products, has promoted its own compliance-related activities. These include a compliance talk in which employees have discussions on compliance issues at each worksite.

In October 2006, SSB formulated its Code of Business Ethics and in November of the same year, its Quality Assurance Code, and worked to put them into practice. Societal and customer expectations for SSB are changing, from that of improving efficiency of social infrastructure systems to safety, security and environmental conservation. Against this backdrop, these regulations, by specifying fundamental rules that SSB employees must abide by, provide basic judgment criteria that employees can refer to when they face difficulties in decision-making.

Corporate ethics/compliance awareness survey

In March 2007, OMRON conducted a total awareness survey targeting all OMRON Group employees inside and outside of Japan (see pg. 9 'The OMRON Principles') to grasp corporate ethics/compliance awareness among employees and evaluate their understanding of the guidelines.

OMRON aims to reflect the findings of this survey in measures to promote implementation of the PDCA cycle at each worksite around the world.