Tokyo- NTT Docomo Inc.  plans to allow employees to flexibly combine work from home and in office during a day as part of its work style reforms, Jiji Press learned Thursday.

The mobile phone giant will start a program in October to enable employees to split their daily work hours, covering 25,000 workers across the group, informed sources said.

NTT Docomo will launch the program after setting the conditions for the use of it.

In Japan, only a handful of big companies have such a program. The spread of flexible work programs would be a boon to employees rearing children and caring for aged family members.

At NTT Docomo, the regular daily work time is 7.5 hours. The current rule does not allow employees to split their daily work hours.

The envisioned program will allow employees to work 3.5 hours in office and the remaining four hours from home, for instance.

In addition, employees will be able to use the program for video conferences at night with overseas participants and inspections of construction sites. The program is therefore expected to help reduce overtime.

In April, NTT Docomo expanded the coverage of its telework program to the entire group from the parent company with 7,600 regular employees. Some 2,500 employees, or 10 pct of the total group workforce, are expected to use the program in fiscal 2017.

The company also introduced a flextime program for some 5,600 workers at its head office. (Jiji Press)