Sega reports 'long overtime' hours cut by 80%

Sega's latest financial report claims "long overtime hours" (which the company defines as working more than 80 extra hours in a month) have been reduced 80 to 90 percent since establishing the anti-overtime initiative back in 2013.

According to Sega's 2018 Integrated Report, the effort has been focused at four divisions: Sega Games proper, the arcade division Sega Entertainment, animation studio TMS Entertainment, and Sega Toys. The report also highlights overtime reduction as one of the company’s biggest short-term goals. 

While the divisions listed above represent a small portion of Sega Sammy Holdings subsidiaries, Sega's main Japanese development studio is there.

"The main focus of the Group’s work-style reforms is the achievement of a balance between work and private life," the report says.

"We want employees to have quality time outside of the office so that they do not lose their creative drive. Well-established measures that the Group has introduced to reduce long overtime work have produced tangible results.”

Alongside with the Japanese government's work-style reform, Sega is also promoting remote work as a possibility for its staff.

The introduction of new systems aimed at developing a healthier work-life balance is a feat to be proud of, but it's worth noting that employees can be still work around four extra hours a day without being recorded in these figures provided. 

The report also includes an update on the Japanese firm's Road to 2020, a long-term business strategy towards increased profits, productivity, and sales.

The Road to 2020 has Sega aiming for ¥300 billion (~$2.6 billion) in entertainment content sales with an operating income of ¥30 billion (~$268 million) and an operating income margin of ten percent.

To reach this goal, Sega will put more attention to its global games business and catalog of intellectual properties to "create major hit products".