SHIONOGI's approach to health and productivity management

By promoting health and productivity management, the SHINOGI Group aims to maximize the performance of people and organizations and create a virtuous cycle, thereby solving social issues, improving sustainable corporate value, and realizing well-being.
健康経営の好循環

Message from the Chief Health Management Officer (Dr. Ryuichi Kiyama, Senior Vice President, Administration Division)

In recent years, investment in human capital has been attracting attention in corporate management. We believe that investing in employees’ health helps energize individuals and organizations,brings about improved engagement and productivity, and increases corporate and social value. The SHIONOGI Group recognizes the importance of employee health as a crucial theme in human capital management and promotes health and productivity management under the "SHIONOGI Group Health Policy". In the fiscal year 2023, we restructured our promotion system, updated our strategic map, and reinforced the PDCA cycle for implementing initiatives,evaluating them, and making improvements. This fiscal year, we are further promoting collaborative health activities with Shionogi Health Insurance Association and strengthening cooperation with labor unions to improve the health literacy of employees , maintain and improve the mental and physical condition, and maintain and improve the workplace and environment. We will continue to ensure our employees’ wellbeing and valuable advances in healthcare.

Picture of the Chief health Management Officer

Health Promotion System

Health Promotion System

At SHIONOGI, we have established a health promotion system with a Chief Health Management Officer responsible for overseeing the health management organization. This officer is responsible for setting the direction and action plans for health management and monitoring the activities, which are discussed and decided upon in the Corporate Executive Management meetings.

To achieve our health management goals, we have developed a "Strategic Map" and strengthened the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle for implementing and evaluating initiatives towards achieving the SHIONOGI Group Health and Productivity Management Policy policy.

Furthermore, we promote collaborative health activities with the Shionogi Health Insurance Union to maintain and enhance the health of our employees. Through monthly Health Promotion Meetings, we share and discuss the analysis results of the employer's activities and the health-related projects and information provided by the Shionogi Health Insurance Union. These discussions help us in reviewing and refining our health management policies and action plans.

The Health Management Promotion Committee includes medical staff such as occupational physicians, health management promotion officers from the workplace, and labor unions. This committee engages in discussions to share the outcomes of our activities and address issues and improvement measures.

Promotion of Health and Productivity Management through unification between the Company and employees

We revised the SHIONOGI Code of Conduct as our criteria for all SHIONOGI people in their daily behavior. As a corporate group that contributes to the maintenance and improvement of health and the realization of a comfortable life for people around the world, we have stated in "6.Optimization of work practices and enhancement of the workplace environment" that we will promote health management and enhance employees’ wellbeing in order to create better healthcare in the future and contribute to the realization of a sustainable and healthy society through our business activities. Moreover, in order for the Company and employees to actively work to maintain and improve the health of employees and create a comfortable environment from their respective standpoints, we have stipulated in the Work Rules as follows.

“In order to respect human life and protect assets, the Company shall establish safety facilities and set safety rules to realize a comfortable workplace environment and shall strive to ensure the safety and health of its employees.” (Article 90)

Employees must comply with safety and health regulations and work to maintain their health, improve their environment, and prevent accidents.” (Article 91)

strategy

To promote health and productivity management, we have formulated a "Strategy Map" that outlines the goals we have set below, the measures we will take to resolve health issues, and the indicators necessary to achieve these goals.

 

Based on the "Strategy Map," we are working to strengthen the PDCA cycle by confirming the progress of each measure and verifying the effectiveness of each indicator through a quantitative understanding of the progress of each measure and changes in awareness and behavior, and then making improvements.

Goals and indicators

Health management policy

Item Goal Indicator

① Improving health literacy

Education/communication •Change in consciousness/behavior  •Employee/management education: Participation rate of 95% or more
②Maintenance and improvement of mental and physical health Health checkup •Early detection/early treatment •Regular health checkup: Attendance rate of 100%
Lifestyle-related diseases

•Improvement of lifestyle habits

•Prevention of aggravation/suppression of worsening of lifestyle-related diseases

•Rate of employees with findings: Obesity 15% or less, lipids 25% or less, other 10% or less

•Smoking rate: Zero (declaration of quitting smoking)

Mental health

•Self-care/Managerial Support

•Prevention/early detection

•Reduction of mental health leave

•Training: Participation rate of 95% or more

•Ratio of employees with high stress: 5.0 or less

•Ratio of employees on mental health leave

③Improvement of work environment Organization/workplace

•Increase in healthy organizations

•Fostering a rewarding organizational culture

•Deviation score of stress response: 55 or more

Business performance indicators

We have set three business performance indicators to verify that our efforts to maintain and improve employee health as part of our health management initiative are helping to resolve the management issues set out in the SHIONOGI Group's Health Management Policy and Strategy Map, thereby contributing to improved corporate value and the development of society.

We will verify the correlation and causal relationship between improvements in business performance over time and health measures.

 
Unless otherwise stated, domestic consolidated

Indicator

Definition

FY2023

Methods of measurement and calculation

Absenteeism

Absence from work due to illness or injury

2.0 %

Percentage of long-term absences or employees on leave.
Presenteeism A state where an employee is present at work but A state in which work performance (productivity) is reduced due to health problems

32.1%

Calculated using WHO-HPQ* (performed during stress check)
Work Engagement A positive and fulfilling psychological state related to work

3.53

The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale**

 Shortened 9-item version, 7-point scale

(Conducted in the HR department's annual engagement survey)

* WHO-HPQ:This is a measurement method provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is measured with three questions using the "WHO Health and Work Performance Questionnaire." Questions include the number of hours worked over the past seven days, and employees are asked to evaluate their own performance over the past four weeks on a 10-point scale. The actual value is the average of all employees' absolute presenteeism (0-100 points).

** The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) :used to assess the state of actively approaching work and obtaining energy. It consists of questions related to vigor, dedication, and absorption.

Health Promotion Measures

Main Initiatives

Some of the measures apply not only to employees of the SHIONOGI Group, but also to employees of our affiliated company, Shionogi Business Partner Co., Ltd.
  Main initiatives Specific details
① Improving health literacy Health literacy education

・Providing health information through "Kenpo Dayori" and web services

・Distribution of health age(“Kenko Nenrei”)  notifications (changes over time, comparisons with people of the same age, etc.)

② Maintenance and improvement of mental and physical health

Health checkups

・Regular health checkups: Regular health checkups: Addition of test items that exceed legal requirements (biochemical test, cancer screening, etc.)

・Project to prevent high-risk employees from having severe symptoms

・Subsidy for disease prevention: Complete health checkups, influenza vaccinations, eradication of Helicobacter pylori, etc.

Dental checkups

・Implementation of preventive dental check-up program "Dental IQ Plus"
Women's specific health issues ・Conduct a survey on health issues specific to physical gender

Measures for employees with lifestyle-related diseases

・Program for prevention of disease aggravation: Interviews / Encouragement to receive health guidance and attend a medical institution

・Specific health guidance program: Interviews for providing active support and motivational support / Goal setting with the help of registered dietitians, etc. and phone calls, emails, and interviews with them

Measures to develop exercise habits

・“Health Walk”: Held in autumn (three months: September to November) / throughout the year *Incentive points awarded based on number of steps taken

Walking event

・Streaming stretching videos by SHIONOGI women's softball team players

Measures to improve eating habits

・Improvement of eating habits through AI food management app, healthy menu in the employee cafeteria

・Kirin Beverage Co., Ltd. will be hosting a food seminar

Measures to sleep habits ・Survey on actual sleep conditions conducted by Nishikawa Corporation and seminars held based on the results

Measures against stiff neck and shoulders and lower back pain

・Back Tech’s web service “Pocket Therapist”

(personal coaching by medical professionals via Zoom, etc.) online lunch seminars held

Promotion of smoking cessation / Smoking cessation outpatient subsidy

・Subsidy for smoking cessation outpatients and drugs

[Smoking cessation promotion projects]

・“Smoking Cessation Challenger”: 1st term: Successful challengers 5/5; 2nd term: Successful challengers 2/2; 3rd term: Successful challengers 1/1

・Issuance of e-mail newsletters to promote smoking cessation / Promotion and awareness raising of smoking cessation through posters

・Support through a line organizational structure: Social gathering of smokers and nonsmokers

 

Mental Health

・Self-care and Managerial support training via e-learning

・Mental health consultations provided by occupational physicians and outsourced specialists (through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP))

③Maintenance and improvement of the workplace culture and environment

Implementation of stress checks and improvement measures

・Formulation and implementation of a response plan to relieve the stress of employees in the relevant organizations and follow-ups

・Implementation of ①feedback training, ②mental toughness improvement training, and ③engagement training by experts

Work style reforms / Personnel system & measures

・Introduction of a work-from-home system

・Abolition of core time for flextime workers

・Introduction of a selectable four-day workweek system / Relaxation of side job rules

Continuous employment support

・Support for balancing cancer treatment and work

・Support for returning to work after long-term leave due to injury or illness

Survey on gender-specific health issues

As a first step in addressing health issues specific to physical gender, we conducted an employee survey by Flora. In order to resolve issues identified from these analyses and surveys, we will work with the Shionogi Health Insurance Association in fiscal 2024 to improve the workplace environment by improving literacy. We will continue to analyze data on a regular basis and use it to consider measures and verify their effectiveness.

Promotion of smoking cessation

In July 2018, an act to partially amend the Health Promotion Act was enacted (fully in effect from April 2020), and efforts to prevent unwanted passive smoking became mandatory instead of voluntary. Companies were required to ramp up their antismoking measures. We took that opportunity to issue the SHIONOGI Group Smoke-Free Declaration. Based on this declaration, we have taken thorough antismoking measures to protect not only SHIONOGI Group employees and their families but also all those associated with the Group from the health hazards of active and passive smoking.

 

As one of the specific internal initiatives, we have formed a smoking cessation promotion project team consisting of volunteer members. Project members issue e-mail newsletters to employees of SHIONOGI, including group companies, in order to provide smokers, non-smokers, and former smokers with useful information, including messages from the President and other management, information on smoking and smoking cessation, and the status of the smoking cessation program. They also provide support to smoking cessation challengers through online interviews, etc. In FY2022, two challengers successfully quit smoking for a year and were presented with a smoking cessation certificate.

 

In fiscal 2023, we encouraged our employees to take part in activities such as sending messages to employees from the Representative Director, President and CEO and the SHIONOGI Group's Occupational Health Manager. As a result, the smoking rate, which was 14.2% in fiscal 2019, has fallen to 3.2% as of fiscal 2023.

2nd Quit Smoking Ceremony
Photo of the award ceremony
Smoking rate targets and results

Employee-led walking seminar
– Change the way you walk to improve your productivity in both work and life!

In recent years, there have been major changes in work styles, including the spread of work from home and remote work due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and it is necessary to pay attention to the mental and physical abnormalities that accompany these changes. To contribute to people's health, we must first be healthy ourselves. Accordingly, based on the idea of improving presymptomatic disease , we raised funds through crowdfunding from internal volunteers under the theme of “walking style and posture.” With this fund, we invited a walking instructor from outside the Company (Ms. Seiko Ito, Representative Director of Canaan Walk) in July 2022 to hold a seminar in a hybrid in-person and online format. Participants from all over the country joined the online seminar, indicating a high level of interest.

A lecture was offered with practical instructions, with the advice that improving walking posture helps reduce the physical and mental burden of desk work and increases work efficiency, and that improving walking style helps improve employee health and enhance productivity.
ウォーキングセミナー講師写真
ウォーキングセミナー参加者写真

Stretching Videos by SHIONOGI women's softball team players

Stretching for the lower back and legs that can be done while doing something.  (Japanese version only)

Since FY2021, we have distributed stretching videos performed by players of the SHIONOGI Rainbow Stokes Hyogo, a SHIONOGI women’s softball team, to help employees relieve stiff shoulders and lower back pain.

Holding seminars focused on improving employees' eating habits

The results of regular health checks in fiscal 2022 showed that SHIONOGI employees have issues with obesity, lipids, liver function, and drinking habits. Therefore, in fiscal 2023, Kirin Beverage held an online seminar focusing on improving eating habits. A survey of seminar participants showed a high willingness to change their behavior.

食事セミナーの様子

Surveys on employee sleep habits and implementation of sleep seminars

Survey on actual sleep conditions conducted by Nishikawa
At SHIONOGI, the results of health checkups suggested that employees had issues with their sleep habits. Therefore, in order to improve performance by promoting employee health, we positioned sleep as one of our focus themes in 2022, and conducted a survey on sleep by Nishikawa Co., Ltd. and a seminar based on the results. The employee survey (n=1,185) showed that employees' sleep was insufficient in both quality and quantity, and that their productivity may have decreased. A maximum of 132 people participated in the online seminar, and the archived videos were viewed a total of 1,870 times. Sleep was improved before and after participation or viewing (n=126), but sleep time and behavior before bed did not change. By investigating and disclosing these results, we aim to establish more desirable sleep habits.

Work style reforms / Personnel system & measures

In July 2022, we established the Human Capital Strategy Office to maximize human capital through the planning and execution of personnel strategies aimed at achieving STS2030 and to demonstrate this to each stakeholder.

At SHIONOGI, we believe that people are the source of our competitiveness. In order to improve corporate value over the medium to long term, it is essential to invest in human resources. Based on this belief, we have introduced various systems and mechanisms in recent years.

Personnel system reforms aimed at enabling diverse human resources to play an active role and accelerating the growth of SHIONOGI

Amid the diversification of employees’ awareness and needs regarding lifestyles and career development, it is important to create a comfortable working environment and increase the motivation of individual employees so that they can fully demonstrate their abilities and increase their productivity, thereby contributing to the growth of SHIONOGI.

 

In FY2021, SHIONOGI introduced a work-from-home system, abolished core time for flextime workers, and reduced prescribed working hours by 45 minutes per day. To maintain employee salary levels, we pay salaries for the reduced hours as compensation for discretionary work, enabling them to work more efficiently with shorter hours. We hope that these initiatives will enable diverse human resources to choose flexible work styles, raise individual employees’ awareness of work efficiency, and help them to acquire stronger skills. These work style reforms have actually enabled employees who had to limit their work due to life events, such as childcare and nursing care, to work full-time and have made it possible for many employees to create time for learning and take on new business challenges by using their work time efficiently. We believe that we have created a comfortable and rewarding working environment for many employees.

 

In April 2022, we introduced a selectable four-day workweek system and relaxed the side work rules. For side jobs, in particular, who are gaining work experience in new fields, such as consulting, IT-related services, and education and learning support.

Ensuring diversity through personnel and labor administration

In addition to the revision of the personnel system and work system, SHIONOGI promotes the reform of various other systems to create a workplace environment where employees can work comfortably and find their work rewarding. Recently, we have established a self-investment support system with an upper limit of 250,000 yen per year, using the funds saved by reviewing personal and other allowances. We have also expanded the options for where to work because employees no longer need to work away from home due to the spread of remote work. Moreover, to further improve the workplace environment, each division checks the results of system enhancements, using the results of work engagement surveys, and identifies issues and needs in its workplace. Our efforts to continuously improve the workplace environment and enable diverse work styles have also led to continuous increases in the indicators of the ratio of female managers and the ratio of male employees taking childcare leave.

Results

Unless otherwise stated, domestic consolidated

 

Indicator

Unit

FY2019

FY2020

FY2021

FY2022

FY2023 index

Regular health checkup attendance rate※1

%

100

100

100

100

100 100
Rate of employees who have detailed examinations after regular health checkups %         78  
Specific health checkup attendance rate※2 % 85.6 87.5 90.3 90.6 100 100
Participation rate in the severe illness prevention program※3 % 22.9 26.5 53.6 68.1 25.5  

Participation rate in the specific health guidance program※4

%

65.3

79.8

75.3

75.6

75.3

 
Rate of employees with findings Obesity % 22.9 23.9 23.7 23.5 24.0 15
Lipids % 35.0 36.0 36.5 30.6 32.7 25
Blood pressure % 11.2 11.5 11.4 10.2 11.3 10
Liver function % 11.5 12.4 12.2 11.5 10.8 10

Blood

glucose

% 9.0 8.2 8.0 7.8 9.0 10

Walking event participation rate

%

41.5

40.4

31.4

36.2

27.9  

Smoking rate※5

%

14.2

11.0

7.1

5.0

3.2 0

Stress check participation rate

%

95

94

92.6

91.3

93.8 100

Percentage of employees with high stress※6

%

4.5

3.9

5.0

4.3

9.7 5.0

Deviation of stress response※7

 

55

55

54

55

48.6 55

Percentage of employees on mental leave

%

0.5

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.7  

Average days of paid leave taken※8

day

12.6

12.6

13.0

14.8

13.7  
  1. ※1
    Excluding those on leave and those posted overseas
  2. ※2
    Including dependents and successors
  3. ※3
    Eligibility: age 35 and older
  4. ※4
    Eligibility: age 45 and older
  5. ※5
    The ultimate goal of the smoke-free declaration: zero smoking rate
  6. ※6
    Plan based on past performance (year-on-year comparison)
  7. ※7
    Change in calculation criteria from FY2023
  8. ※8
    Range: Single target

Awards from Outside the Company

Outstanding Health and Productivity Management Organization

In March 2025, SHIONOGI was certified as a Health and Productivity Management Organization for ninth consecutive years as a result of its health management initiatives conducted thus far. Under the Health and Productivity Management Organization certification system, companies that implement particularly excellent Health and Productivity Management are certified as Health and Productivity Management Organizations based on their efforts to address local health issues and to tackle health promotion programs recommended by the Nippon Kenko Kaigi.

Health and productivity logo 2025

Affiliated Prganizations

SHIONOGI has been participating in the Health and Productivity Management Alliance since 2024. The Health and Productivity Management Alliance is an organization of over 300 companies and organizations with the mission of "revitalizing Japanese companies and realizing the sustainability of health insurance through employee health." We are working on three initiatives: study groups and seminars, health and productivity management assessments based on questionnaires and data analysis, and building an information platform for health and productivity management solutions.

Through our participation in this alliance, we will further promote and enhance our health and productivity management efforts by using best practices across industries as a reference for SHIONOGI's efforts and by disseminating the efforts of the SHIONOGI Group.

For more information about the Health and Productivity Management Alliance, please click here. Health and Productivity Management Alliance (kenkokeiei-alliance.com)

Health and Productivity Management Alliance