Health and Productivity Management

Health and Productivity Management Initiatives

Health and productivity management promotion: purpose

In order to realize the corporate vision of “creating excitement and peace of mind for the people of the world,” JVCKENWOOD promotes “innovation” and “growth.” Recognizing our employees as the source for achieving our vision, and their mental and physical health as significant management issue, we published the JVCKENWOOD Health Policy Statement. JVCKENWOOD will aim to create a “workplace environment that enables all employees to stay healthy and motivated to work” in a sustainable manner. 


JVCKENWOOD Health Policy Statement

JVCKENWOOD strives to create a workplace environment that enables all employees to stay healthy and motivated to work in order to realize its corporate vision of “creating excitement and peace of mind for the people of the world.”


Our ideal vision and issues to be solved through health management

Under the JVCKENWWOD Health Policy Statement, we endeavor to create a workplace environment where all employees can do their job with health and vitality, and we recognize improving employee performance to be a key challenge for management to address. Through health management, we aim to reduce absenteeism and presenteeism, improve work engagement, and enhance work-life balance. We have compiled our health management goals and initiatives into a Health Management Map, which all employees work together to achieve.


Health and productivity management structures

JVCKENWOOD established a Health Management Initiatives Promotion Committee led by the officer in charge of HR & General Administration with the cooperation of the management team, industrial physicians, Health Management Office in the Human Resources Department, General Administration Department, and Health Insurance Association. At the location level, the Safety and Health Committee, the person responsible for HR & General Administration and the Union and the person in charge of Health and Productivity Management Promotion address priority health and safety issues. As one of the top companies in the industry,  JVCKENWOOD extends its guidelines and measures to Group companies and collaborates with them on joint activities.


Health and productivity management structures

*The Health Management Initiatives Promotion Committee is composed of members from the Company, industrial physicians, labor union, and health insurance association.

*The Safety and Health Committee is composed of members appointed by the Company and members nominated by the labor union.


Health Promotion Initiatives

Regular health checkups and follow-ups

Health checkups are the foundation of health and productivity management, and JVCKENWOOD has a 100% checkup rate among its employees. Its Health Support Center encourages those found to have potential problems to seek re-examination and more detailed testing, and provides guidance aimed at early improvements and the prevention of illnesses from developing into something more severe.

We also work with the Health Insurance Association to encourage cancer and ob-gyn examinations, work with industrial physicians to confirm and consult on findings, and encourage re-examinations and provide guidance where necessary. Employees stationed overseas likewise receive regular health checkups, and the results are collected and monitored to provide recommendations and guidance.

JVCKENWOOD's Cloud-based Health Management Systems enables employees to monitor their checkup results over time, aiding them in tracking and managing their own health.

  FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022
Regular health checkups Checkup rate 100% 100% 100%
Percentage of potential problems 66.5% 70.3% 71.3%
Percentage of blood glucose test findings 17.4% 17.2% 13.5%
Percentage of blood pressure test findings 22.7% 20.3% 16.0%
Percentage of blood lipid test findings 38.5% 37.1% 32.7%
Percentage of employees undergoing full medical exams 26.7% 72.8% 82.6%
Percentage of employees with blood pressure risk*1 0.7% 0.4% 0.7%
Percentage of employees considered to have blood sugar risk*2 0.8% 0.6% 0.5%
Percentage employees receiving treatment for high blood pressure*3 81.3% 87.5%
91.1%
Specified checkups Percentage of specific health consultation 16.1%
14.9%
18.5%

Percentage of non-Metabolic syndrome

68.6%
65.0%
66.0%
Gastroenterology checkup Gastric cancer screening
65.0%
Colorectal cancer screening
78.0%
Gynecology checkup Breast cancer screening
41.0%
Uterine cancer screening
33.0%
Sleep and rest*4
67.4% 69.4% 70.0%
Exercise habits*5
23.4% 27.8% 28.0%
Obesity rate*6
31.2% 30.4% 31.0%
Number of participants in walking events 251
392
400

*1 Percentage of employees with systolic blood pressure of 180 mmHg or higher or diastolic blood pressure of 110 mmHg or higher

*2 Percentage of employees with fasting blood glucose of 200 mg/dl or higher

*3 Percentage of employees who answered "yes" to the question "I use blood pressure-lowering medication" in the standard questionnaire given at the time of specified health checkups.  

*4  Percentage of employees who answered "yes" to the question "I am well rested from sleep”.

*5  Percentage of employees who answered "yes" to the question "I do exercise that causes sweating for 30 minutes or more per session, at least 2 days a week, for at least 1 year".

*6  Percentage of employees with BMI 25 or higher, the standard set by the Japan Obesity Society


Stress checkups and mental health measures/work engagement

With regard to early detection of persons with mental health problems and support for their return to work, in addition to the ongoing initiatives in secondary prevention (response to persons with mental health problems) and tertiary prevention (support for returning to work and prevention of recurrence), we are promoting the creation of workplaces that are less prone to mental health problems through group analysis feedback and manager training at each workplace utilizing the results of stress checkups as primary prevention measures. As one of the indicators, we monitor presenteeism using the WLQ-J program, which measures the rate of productivity loss due to health issues.

For employees who have taken leave, the workplace, the Health Support Center, and the Health Management Office of the Human Resources Department work together to support them through to recovery and return to work through the Return to Work Support Program.

While improving communication within the workplace through such mental health measures, we are promoting the creation of an environment in which employees can vividly engage in work by visualizing their career aspirations, skills, and personalities from the results of career surveys conducted on managers and non-management employees, and by enabling them to play an active role in the right places. As an indicator of this, we are monitoring work engagement in the employee awareness survey.

  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Stress checkup rate 91.8% 95.7% 97.0%
Percentage of employees under high-levels of stress by stress checkups 10.1% 10.9% 10.0%
Number of employees participating in workplace analysis feedback(For managers and officers) 75 383 500
Absenteeism (Incidence of employees who have been absent for one month or more) *1 1.8% 2.1% 1.6%
Presenteeism*2 93.8% 93.8% 94.0%
Work engagement*3 52.0% - 58.0%
Average length of service 23.4years 24.3years 24.8years
Turnover rate/Number of employees leaving the Company 2.8%/93 3.9%/124 4.0%/124

*1 Number of persons absent from work due to illness for more than 1 month is tracked. There were 50 persons in FY2022.

*2 Results from the Work Limitations Questionnaire-Japanese (WLQ-J), a tool to measure presenteeism (number of people surveyed in 2022: 2,921, response rate: 100%)

*3 Percentage of people providing favorable responses in questions related to engagement in the employee survey (number of employees surveyed in 2022: 2,887; response rate: 90.7%)


Prevention of health issues due to long working hours

JVCKENWOOD recognizes long working hours as a major problem that could harm the health of employees or even endanger their lives. JVCKENWOOD has strengthened its management of working hours by requiring employees, including those in management positions, who work more than 45 overtime hours to obtain the approval of their division head, division manager, or director in charge, depending on the number of overtime hours. We also make improvements to workplace environments to prevent adverse health impacts. Additionally, managers and the Safety and Health Committee monitor the working hours of all employees and provide feedback to workplaces on a monthly basis. Moreover, JVCKENWOOD is promoting more effective measures, such as specifying the labor management of subordinates in the performance evaluation system for managers and locking the computers of employees who work longer than a certain number of hours.

In FY2017, the average JVCKENWOOD employee worked a total of 1,986 hours, which we successfully reduced to 1,890 in FY2022. With the rapid expansion in telework and the ability to log and manage personal computer use, the company is better able to objectively track and manage working hours, using this information to encourage the physical and mental health of all employees.

  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Total actual hours worked per year 1,872hrs. 1,893hrs. 1,890hrs.
Annual overtime working hours 133hrs. 177hrs. 193hrs.

Activities to improve health literacy and promote health

By improving health literacy, the Company aims to encourage employees to improve their health on their own initiative. Specifically, we provide education and training for managers, seminars and events that encourage individual employees to take an interest in their health, and video-based training to create opportunities for proactive and continuous access to health information.

Additionally, education and consultation by industrial physicians and nursing staff are regularly provided to raise health awareness.

  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Percentage of employees participating in line-level care training - 96.3% 94.9%
Percentage of women receiving training on women-specific health issues - 99.1% 87.9%
Satisfaction with training on women-specific health issues - 99.1% 99.3%

Smoking cessation and passive smoking prevention measures

JVCKENWOOD began conducting workplace-level antismoking activities as part of a collaboration with the Health Insurance Association in FY2018. These activities included explanatory meetings and smoking cessation seminars for employees, and the phased-in establishment of no-smoking days (initially once a month and gradually increased to three days per week). In July 2020, smoking was banned on premises at four of our major places of business, which helped us to achieve our target of preventing passive smoking within the workplace.

In addition, the Health Support Center posted a monthly article on the Company intranet, distributed awareness pamphlets, and collaborated with the Health Insurance Association (from a campaign to distribute smoking cessation medication to induce people to join the smoking cessation program subsidized by health insurance). The smoking rate among employees was 20.2% in FY2022. We will continue to provide support for smoking cessation as we aim for a smoking rate at among employees of 18.0% in FY2023.

  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Smoking rate 23.1% 20.3% 20.2%

Provision of health information

The internal portal site publishes articles on health-related topics by industrial physicians and nurses to improve employees' health literacy and understanding of health promotion.


Infectious diseases

JVCKENWOOD responded to the pandemic with a number of measures designed to prevent outbreaks in the course of business activities. The internal portal site communicated information about the disease and encouraged employees to work from home, and employees were given special leave on vaccination days. In the event that an employee tested positive for the infection, the workplace was disinfected and other measures taken to prevent spread of the disease, and clear standards were issued for the return of infected employees to their duties so that employees were able to report to work and return to their jobs with confidence and peace of mind.
JVCKENWOOD also works to prevent influenza outbreaks by having the health insurance union subsidize vaccinations and offering group vaccinations within workplaces.

Health Investment Amount

  FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Investment Amount 39.5 million yen 41.7 million yen 48.5 million yen

*Major uses in FY2022: 30 million yen for health checkups, 5.8 million yen for stress improvement, and 3.2 million yen for training, seminars, and communication promotion.


Initiatives for suppliers

We send self-assessment questionnaires (SAQ) to our major suppliers to evaluate human rights and occupational safety.

Existing suppliers whose responses to the self-assessment questionnaires (SAQ) identified a high risk in terms of items that could lead to significant violations of laws and regulations are given a written request to improve the relevant risk. If no improvement is observed after continuous requests, or if serious violations of laws and regulations are observed, we will confirm the situation through on-site audits and review the transaction details in the future. Through such ongoing requests for improvement and by providing guidance, we will continue our initiatives to avoid, prevent, and mitigate risks related to human rights, occupational safety, and other sustainability issues.

At the annual Partners' Meeting, we promote awareness and understanding of the Human Rights Policy and the the CSR Procurement Guidelines, Health and Productivity Management.


External Evaluation

Health and Productivity Management Award (White 500)

JVCKENWOOD has been recognized as an enterprise that implements good health and productivity management under the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition (Large Enterprise Category) White 500 Program, which is administered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) of Japan and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi, for seven consecutive years since 2018, and we are recognized as one of the Certified Health and Productivity Management Organizations in fiscal 2024.


Sports Yell Company

JVCKENWOOD has been certified as a "Sports Yell Company" by the Japan Sports Agency as a company for three consecutive years since 2022 that actively engages in sports activities to promote employee health. Among the activities cited in the decision were the development and implementation of a "Take the Stairs" program to respond to the spread of telework and reduced number of days spent by employees on site by encouraging employees to use the stairs when moving through company buildings. The Agency also noted JVCKENWOOD's subsidies for internal sporting clubs focused on running, yoga and other activities.