2025 marks both the 25th anniversary of the UN Global Compact and the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. In this year’s International Women’s Month, the United Nations Global Compact Liaison Office in China host the China-Japan-Korea Business Roundtable: Business role in building family-friendly workplace and inclusive culture for male allyship and launched the report, Parents at Work: Companies Building Family-friendly Workplaces and Inclusive Culture with Male Allyship in Beijing. 

China, Japan, and Korea, as the three largest economies in East Asia, share new demographic trends and the challenge of gender equality, which have far-reaching implications for economic development, talent management and sustainable development across the region. Regional dialogue and collective action are essential in responding to such new situations.

In response, the UN Global Compact Liaison Office in China is coordinating across businesses East Asia, collaborating with Country Network Japan, and Korea to jointly publish this guide to promote family-friendly workplaces, sharing good practices and innovative solutions for business sustainability transformation while encouraging more enterprises to take pragmatic collective action toward achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Following the 2024 publication of Women at Work: Chinese Companies Taking Actions on Gender Equality, this report serves as another thought-leading knowledge product in the same series to promote gender equality, focusing on “parents at work”. The report includes:

• An analysis of progress made by companies in China, Japan, Korea, and the broader Asia and Oceania region in fostering family-friendly workplaces and supporting male allyship, based on quantitative analysis tools and the latest data insights. 

• Case studies and specific initiatives from businesses of different industries and scales in China, Japan, and Korea that support working parents, implement family-friendly policies, and promote an inclusive corporate culture, providing replicable and scalable solutions to global business. 

• A seven-step action guide based on the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs) for businesses to build family-friendly workplaces and inclusive culture, helping businesses to take systematic actions from the three directions of leadership and accountability, management systems to support working parents, as well as collaboration in supply chain, market and community engagement. The action guide also provides tailored advice for companies at different stages of development.