Niterra regards the health of employees as one of its important managerial resources for sustainable corporate growth and is fostering the health of individual employees for “health and productivity management.” In December 2017, we made a declaration on health and productivity management as the entire Niterra Group and are implementing preventive and other measures against lifestyle-related diseases, mental disorders and passive smoking to proactively support the health of employees. In addition, in order to inform as many people as possible about our health and productivity management, we publish a "Well-being Report" that summarizes our initiatives and the results of analysis of the health status of our employees.
Takeshi Kawai
President & Chief Operating Officer
*Kenkokeiei is a registered trademark of NPO Kenkokeiei.
The health checkup rate, which is the basis of employee health management, has reached 100%, and we also focus on voluntary health checkups such as gynecological examinations and H. pylori examinations.
In addition, a cloud-based health management system has been established to enable industrial physicians and public health nurses to accurately grasp the health status of employees. This allows us to centrally manage employee health information, analyze and evaluate the results of health checkups, and provide health guidance and mental health measures tailored to each individual employ
As a measure to combat lifestyle-related diseases, a priority area of our health management, we provide various guidance, programs, and campaigns to help employees maintain and improve their health.
To help employees maintain and promote their health, we task industrial physicians, medical doctors and nurses with following up with employees who have been found to have problems as a result of undergoing health checkups. Such employees are also referred to appropriate medical institutions as needed. Moreover, we provide employees with a smartphone app, which is linked with the internal health management system, and employees are using the various functions of the app to promote their health.
As part of the collaborative health program, our Group and NGK SPARK PLUG CO., LTD. Health Insurance Society have been providing specific health guidance to employees and those who continue to be employed since 2021. For those with a BMI of 35 or higher or those at high risk, an interview with an occupational physician is conducted in conjunction with the initial interview.
A program named "Health Up" has been implemented for employees with a BMI of 25 or higher. This program supports weight loss for health through monthly physical data measurements, interviews with occupational physicians, and guidance by public health nurses.
Under this initiative, participants report every three months for one year on whether they have achieved their weight loss goals and exercise habits, and are awarded benefit points based on their level of achievement.
In FY2023, a total of 267 people, including those from group companies, entered the program and worked toward weight loss and exercise goals set for each BMI.
We are working on in-house and external Line-Care educational programs for managers and implementing to read the Self-care handbook in our workplace to make our employee prevent awareness of disease and self-management of health.
Also, we carry out stress checks to analyze the impact of work environments on employees. Based on the results, we provide them with a safe and comfortable workplace and prevent employees from suffering mental disorders due to stress.
The Self-Care HandbookNiterra has banned smoking on our premises at all of our business sites in Japan since April 2023.
We also provide support, including outpatient smoking cessation services, to those who wish to quit smoking.
To protect employees from various infectious diseases, we are working on prevention and control. We stockpile facial masks, disinfectants, and other countermeasures, and have formulated infection prevention measures and guidelines for dealing with infections in the workplace to ensure that all employees are aware of them.
In addition, we are continuing to gather information on new infectious diseases (novel influenza, novel coronavirus, etc.).
To protect employees from the seasonal influenza every year, we strive to prevent the spread of infection. Particularly regarding group infection at workplaces, which may affect our daily operations, we are ready to cooperate with the relevant divisions to implement immediate and intensive measures. During the flu season, we issue weekly reports so that all employees can share the information and take effective countermeasures.
In addition, we will be administering influenza vaccinations at workplaces in FY2022 and FY2023 as part of our efforts to prevent infection and serious illness.
Especially, in case of COVID-19, we have established temporally work rules within the Group and are working on prevention. Recently in Japan, we have been trying to balance infection control measures with production activities, we revised the rules and ensured that all employees were fully aware of them.
In addition, in FY2021 and FY2022, we vaccinated our Group employees, their families, customers, suppliers, and local residents in their workplaces with the new corona vaccine.
We will continue to take necessary measures according to the situation.
When employees go on overseas business trips or are posted overseas, they can receive vaccinations against infectious diseases that may be contracted in each country or region at the company's expense.
The company cafeteria holds "Healthy Day" twice a month, offering a healthy menu that takes health into consideration.
We issue this monthly newsletter to all employees of our group companies to provide health-related information in an easy-to-understand format.
Working together with the company and the labor union, the health insurance society provides a wide variety of programs to support the mental and physical good health of member workers and their families.
Specifically, health management and disease prevention efforts conducted by the health insurance society include: metabolic syndrome improvement / prevention programs; subsidies for flu vaccination; and other health management promotion programs such as walking tours. As an employer, we also promote collaborative health by providing support for specific health guidance and gynecological checkups, etc.
In recognition of these efforts, our Health Insurance Society has been selected as one of the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations (Small and Medium-Sized Enterprise Category) under a program jointly sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi since FY2022.
in June 2023, 200 companies and organizations working on health management practices across industries came together to launch the "Health & Productivity Management Alliance," and our company also participates in it and promotes health management by sharing issues, methods of planning, implementing, and evaluating various measures.
Thanks to the evaluation with respect to our activities, we have been certified as an “Outstanding Health & Productivity Management Organization” sponsored by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and Nippon Kenko Kaigi, for the eighth consecutive year since 2017. Of these, a total of seven times, we were recognized as one of the "White 500" top-ranking enterprises.
Outstanding Health & Productivity Management Organization is a system that recognizes large corporations, small and medium-sized companies, and other corporations that practice particularly excellent health management based on their efforts to address local health issues and the health promotion initiatives promoted by the Japan Health Council.
We actively support the health management efforts of our suppliers and neighboring companies.
We utilize the Health Management Check Sheet created by our company to understand the health management status of our suppliers and make recommendations for future measures.
