Satellite Office with Kids' Space Network Shared by Companies – Experiment Started.
XYMAX Established Committee with Recruit, Softbank, Itochu Enex and Asahi Group.
XYMAX Corporation (head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director: Masafumi Shimada) ("XYMAX") had so far conducted field experiments with Recruit Holdings, in connection with new working style for working parents, by using the kids' space introduced within XYMAX's satellite office, Mobile Work Office "Choku Choku…"(*). Now we established the Shared Kids' Space Committee (the "Committee") (the committee office operated by XYMAX) and started an experiment to examine the effectiveness of expanding member companies, sharing the cost and kids' space, and adding a number of new shared kids' space.
Our field experiments so far proved some level of effectiveness of the kids' space. As a second stage, we decided to expand this experiment to include other companies too. Three other companies, SoftBank Corporation, Itochu Enex Co., Ltd. and Asahi Group Holdings Ltd., agreed the purpose of this experiment and joined us in the establishment of the Committee. The Committee's main roles are the set-up of the rules of the shared kids' space, the sharing of the know-how, and the evaluation and selection of child-care service providers. We appointed Mama Square Inc. as our first child-care service provider based on their achievements so far in our experiments.
It is increasingly more common for companies to have a child-care facility within their office for their own employees. Our approach is, however, unique because our kids' spaces are shared by several companies and we are going to establish and operate several kids' spaces at once. If a company tries to reduce its employees' stress of commuting with kids and to be fair with employees living in different areas, it needs to set up not a few satellite offices with child-care facilities in residential areas at enormous cost. Our idea is to share this workload and cost with other companies. This is our first step in trying to develop a new safety net for working parents, which is complementary with ordinary child-care centers.
After we establish a stable operation of the shared kids' space and the Committee, we will ask other companies to join our experiment and will expand the network by setting up more satellite offices with kids' space.
(*) XYMAX started Mobile Work Office "Choku Choku…" in April 2016. This is where business persons can work safely with mobile devices when they are away from their corporate office. Our approximately 30 offices are located near terminal stations in Tokyo and surrounding areas.
(https://www.xymax.co.jp/english/news/images/pdf/160414_News-release.pdf)
Then, XYMAX opened the kids' space within "Choku Choku… Shinagawa Higashiguchi" and "Choku Choku… Saginuma" in November 2016 and conducted field experiments of new working style for working parents, which allow employees of Recruit Holdings and employees of some other Recruit Group companies to bring kids to work. In the kids' space, certified child-care workers from Mama Square look after the kids while their parents concentrate on work in the office space. Parents see their kids through the glass wall.
