Sustainability / Social Report / Creating Attractive Workplaces Initiatives to Help Employees Maintain Mental and Physical Health

Basic Approach

The Daicel Group’s personnel measures are aligned with its Human Resources Policy and Human Resource Guidelines.
The Daicel Declaration on Health Management was established in FY2019/3 based on our belief that maintaining the health and vigor of our employees will create a favorable balance between the quality of life of individual employees and the sustainable development of the Company. At Daicel, healthcare committees play a central role in helping employees manage their health by organizing health checkups, providing guidance on well-being, monitoring the stress level of employees by conducting stress checks, and alleviating stress.

Daicel Declaration on Health Management

The Company will strive to offer a safe and comfortable workplace based on the conviction that its business foundation relies upon the mental and physical health of each employee.
The Company will act in collaboration with the health insurance society to help each employee as well as their families engage in autonomous and proactive efforts to maintain and improve their health conditions.

President and CEO President and CEO Yoshimi Ogawa

Our Structure for Health Promotion

In 2003, the Company established the Healthcare Committee, consisting of representatives from labor unions, management, and Daicel’s health insurance society, to create workplaces where individual employees can demonstrate their individuality and capabilities while ensuring their mental and physical well-being.
To further enhance the Groupwide health support system, we set up a Central Healthcare Committee along with healthcare committees at each business site.
In FY2023/3, we raised the level of the entire Group’s health maintenance and improvement programs and accelerated their implementation. In order to do so, we established the Employee Wellness Promotion Center as a specialized health management organization at the Corporate Support Headquarters.

Employee Wellness Promotion Center

The Employee Wellness Promotion Center assists each individual employee of the Daicel Group with independent and proactive measures to improve their health. In order to achieve the two aims of enabling individuals to achieve a fulfilling life and to encourage the continuous development of the Company, we established the Employee Wellness Promotion Center as a health management organization at the Corporate Support Headquarters. Our objective in doing so is to maintain and increase the health of employees throughout the Daicel Group.

Central Healthcare Committee

In addition to formulating plans and measures and developing the framework for healthcare activities for the entire Group, the Central Healthcare Committee checks on the progress of initiatives by the healthcare committees at each business site and provides assistance. In planning measures for healthcare activities, the committee seeks advice from pertinent outside organizations as needed.

Healthcare Committees at Each Business Site

The healthcare committees plan and execute healthcare activities for each business site, including various health education programs and health-related events, and an improvement plan for the working environment based on group analysis of stress check results. The improvements are implemented in collaboration with the individual worksite leaders.

Structure for Health Management Promotion

Health Management Strategy Map

We have created a health management strategy map to identify the links between management issues that we want to solve through health management and various measures for maintaining and promoting health. We set indicators to measure the effectiveness of each measure, as well as medium-term targets, and implement a CAPD cycle*. The status of these initiatives is posted on our website on a regular basis.

*Instead of a Plan, Do, Check, and Act (PDCA) cycle, the most widely known approach to continuous improvement, Daicel has adopted a CAPD improvement cycle to avoid the risk of overlooking crucial facts and realities that often lie hidden in the initial planning stage.

Strengthening Our Structure for Health Promotion

To strengthen our healthcare promotion structure, Daicel has designated a team of industrial healthcare staff comprising full-time corporate health nurses and contract psychiatrists. The team provides employees with daily guidance on health matters, addresses the needs of employees with mental disorders, and supports their reinstatement at work. It also conducts preventive education to provide early detection and a timely response to mental issues while making it easier for employees to seek consultation.

Initiatives Undertaken by the Health Nurse Team

We have 13 full-time nurses (as of April 30, 2023), who work together as a team across business sites to build a cooperative framework and promote information sharing. The team participates in formulating and executing action plans to improve the workplace environment for each business site based on the results of mandatory stress checks. Moreover, it is involved in educational sessions focused on preventing physical and mental health issues. Team members share their insights as lecturers during position-specific training and orientation training for new graduates and lateral hires. These activities help prevent any health issues from arising and support corporate health nurses in improving their planning and teaching skills.
Furthermore, these nurses provide information on managing physical and mental health by regularly publishing a health newsletter to raise employee awareness on how to maintain well-being and take preventive health measures.

A health nurse discusses how to stay healthy and motivated
Attendees take turns giving presentations

TOPICSHealth Guidance and Consultations for Employees Posted Overseas

In FY2016/3, Daicel began closely assessing the working status of employees posted overseas. Since FY2018/3, we have been conducting follow ups for long-time workers such as counseling with corporate health nurses in accordance with domestic standards with the aim of robust health management.
In addition, since FY2009/3, the Company had been implementing measures such as providing in-person counseling with a nurse to employees whose working hours are deemed excessively long. However, we switched to online consultations in FY2022/3 due to COVID-19 and held consultations with all employees posted overseas. Daicel will continue to maintain and improve the health of these employees, who play an important role in the operations of overseas affiliates.

Utilizing Psychiatrists Employed Exclusively by Daicel

Currently, Daicel employs four psychiatrists (as of April 30, 2023) to bolster its follow−up care system for employees who have developed mental health issues. Every psychiatrist is assigned a geographical segment for his/her oversight, thereby ensuring that employees in need receive meticulous care.

Maintaining and Promoting Good Health

Regular Health Checkups

We implement regular health checkups, mandated by law, for employees of Daicel Corporation, thus the employee medical examination rate in FY2023/3 was 100%. In addition, to improve the re-examination rate, corporate health nurses encourage those employees who are subject to a secondary examination, to take it during a follow-up consultation.

ESG DataRegular Health Checkup Rate

Specified Health Checkups and Health Guidance

Daicel cooperates with the Health Insurance Union to implement specified health checkups and specific health guidance mandated by laws governing health insurance unions. This is to ascertain the status of employee health by analyzing the results and responses from medical interviews. We are working to prevent lifestyle diseases by seeking to achieve the national targets of 90% or higher for specified health checkups and 55% or higher for specific health guidance. In FY2023/3, the specific health checkup rate was 82.2% for 5,741 eligible employees, and the specific health guidance rate was 56.9% for 854 eligible employees. We have attained the target for specific health guidance since FY2020/3 and intend to further improve this rate.

Specified Health Checkups and Specific Health Guidance Rate

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Target value FY2019/3 FY2020/3 FY2021/3 FY2022/3 FY2023/3
Specified health checkup rate 90% or more 80.9% 84.6% 84.0% 81.3% 82.2%
Specific health guidance rate 55% or more 50.6% 55.6% 58.6% 58.2% 56.9%

Prevention of Secondhand Smoke Exposure

In view of the risk of damaging health from exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke, we are working to reduce the risk by limiting smoking areas inside the business sites. Since October 2020, the Health Insurance Union has been providing free online programs to support employees seeking to quit smoking by bolstering health management through a joint effort with the Company.

Mandatory Stress Checks

Aiming to develop a vibrant workplace, Daicel has been actively assisting each business site in efforts to better manage their working environments by, for example, utilizing the results of stress checks. In FY2023/3, the stress checks carried out by Daicel and its Group companies achieved 99% coverage of all employees. The Group provides employees with face-to-face sessions with a psychiatrist if they suffer excessive stress and are in need of counseling. Furthermore, nurses provide follow up for employees who suffer from excessive stress but do not want to have face-to-face sessions with a psychiatrist. In addition, the healthcare committees at each business site conduct comprehensive analyses of stress check results and then formulate and execute plans to tackle any issues that are identified in order to maintain and promote good employee health.

Training Related to Mental Health

Daicel conducts training for managers on mental health support for their subordinates and self-care. The training is designed to enhance communication skills through hands-on experience workshops in addition to acquiring basic knowledge of line care and stress management, and learning how to improve mental health through lectures by outside speakers. We have introduced online mental health training by corporate health nurses during rank-based training for new recruits, mid-career recruits and newly appointed managers.

Health Consultation Desk

The Daicel Health Insurance Union operates a free health consultation desk. Experienced health counselors including full-time physicians at external institutions are available to provide advice on health issues over the phone all day and year-round. Employees are encouraged to freely consult on physical disorders caused by prolonged periods of telework or concerns related to their everyday lives. To protect the caller’s privacy, personal information and what is discussed during the consultation are not made available to the employer or the Health Insurance Union.

The Consultation Desk covers:

  1. (1)24-hour telephone health consultation service
  2. (2)Mental health counseling service
  3. (3)Second opinion service
  4. (4)Secondary medical examination arrangement service
  5. (5)Support for medical examination for lifestyle diseases
  6. (6)Arrangement and introduction service for medical examinations
  7. (7)Support for balancing cancer treatment and work

Promotion of “Health Accelerator 6”

We have named the six health behaviors we want to promote “Health Accelerator 6,” and call on Group employees to put them into practice.

Promotion of “Health Accelerator 6” Promotion of “Health Accelerator 6”

Based on the themes of exercise, diet, sleep, drinking, snacking, and smoking, we use internal social media to disseminate the health maintenance and promotion initiatives of top management and conduct online training with public health nurses. We will continue to improve employee health literacy and promote behavioral change through providing information.

TOPICS“Working Women and Health Issues Seminar” Health Seminar

As one of the initiatives aimed at creating a workplace where working women can play an active role, and in which both men and women can support each other, we conducted e-learning sessions in September, October, and November 2022. The sessions focused on health issues specific to women, such as hormones and menstruation, pregnancy and childbirth while working, and menopause health management for all employees, including male employees. A total of 2,326 Daicel Group employees of all ages and both genders participated. Going forward, we will continue to provide information and training on health issues specific to women for all employees, including male employees, so that female employees can continue to work more energetically.

TOPICSRecognized for the Fourth Consecutive Year as a “WHITE 500” Organization under the 2023 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program

In March 2023, Daicel Corporation was recognized together with Polyplastics Co., Ltd. as a “WHITE 500” organization under the 2023 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program. This marks the fourth year and first years that Daicel and Polyplastics have been recognized as “WHITE 500” organizations, respectively. With this program, co−sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi, companies are selected for their excellent health management initiatives such as those tailored to the needs of local communities and initiatives that are in line with the goals of Nippon Kenko Kaigi.
In Daicel, under the themes “mental health care” and “physical health care,” members of the Central Health Care Committee, which is organized by labor management and the health insurance society, and industrial health staff (medical specialists in industrial health, public health nurses, etc.) and psychiatrists, take action together to maintain and improve the mental and physical health of employees. Their activities also involve supporting the reinstatement to work of employees with mental health disorders, preventive education to provide early detection of such disorders, responding in a timely manner to mental health issues and developing frameworks. These efforts have led to us receiving this honorable recognition.

TOPICSPolyplastics Obtains Top-Tier Rating from DBJ for Employee Health Management

In 2020, Polyplastics Co., Ltd. was recognized for outstanding health management of its employees, and it received the top-tier rating under the Employees’ Health Management Loan Program of the Development Bank of Japan Inc. (DBJ).

Polyplastics received high recognition for the following points.

  • Led by its healthcare team, the Company addresses the health issues identified by analyzing various data and making a thorough effort to prevent any deterioration in health and raising awareness among employees.
  • Adhering to its work style (the Shi-A-Wa-Se happiness framework), Polyplastics is creating a workplace environment that caters to the diverse needs of employees and their work styles.
  • Aiming to enhance engagement, Polyplastics shares its mission, vision and values with employees. It also holds workshops at each division on issues mentioned during employee awareness surveys to prepare for the formulation of future measures.

TOPICS“Workshop for Mental and Physical Health” Workplace Leader Seminar

In response to workplace health issues, we held an online mental and physical health promotion workshop so that workplace leaders can proactively work on their health. In the workshop, group discussions were held among workplace leaders using stress check and health check group analysis reports as inputs, and the participants were encouraged to incorporate this information into improvement plans for their own workplaces and put them into practice. In FY2023/3, the seminar was held 15 times in total, with participation from 210 workplace leaders.

TOPICSGamba Osaka Soccer Class

In FY2023/3, we held a soccer class with players and coaches from Gamba Osaka, with whom we are an official partner, to help employees, their families, business partners, and local residents maintain and improve their health. A total of 122 people (69 adults and 53 children) participated in the event. In addition, we set up a health check booth to measure vascular age, bone health, exercise function, and vegetable intake, and health advice was given by a public health nurse. The Daicel Group will continue to work on health and productivity management with the aim of ensuring that everyone is both physically and mentally healthy.