The S-Pool Group believes the physical and mental health of its employees is vital to the
achievement of our mission and vision and delivering high performance to stakeholders.
We undertake various efforts to provide environments in which our employees can work with safety
and peace of mind and concentrate on their work.
Promoting health management
The S-Pool Group has issued a Health Management Statement and appointed a Chief Health Officer (CHO) to coordinate health management Groupwide to maximize performance for customers. In addition, we have established an internal health care room and implement various periodic health examinations to thoroughly manage employee health and measures to help employees return to the workplace, including interviews, training, and other efforts. In these ways, we strive to maximize each employee's productivity and support their careers.
Health Management Statement
1. Employee health is essential to providing services that surpass client expectations.
2. Employee health is a prerequisite for taking on challenges without fear.
3. Mental and physical health are vital to enjoyable and rewarding work.
Good mental and physical health are essential to realizing the S-Pool Values (our guidelines
for employee behavior) and to demonstrating strong performance on behalf of clients and
society.
By tackling all challenges in good faith, we will continue to strive to realize environments in
which all employees can work with vitality.
Chairman of the Board, President and Representative Director
Sohei Urakami
Promotion Structure
We've appointed a Chief Health Officer (CHO) to coordinate health management Groupwide based on a consideration of broad management issues in and strategic implementation of health management. In addition, health management officers have been appointed at individual companies and sections to ensure organization-wide promulgation of health management initiatives.
S-Pool Group health and productivity management strategy roadmap
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S-Pool's workstyle reforms
By enhancing various programs, including flextime, work from home, and changes in job assignments for expectant mothers, we promote diverse work modes for individual lifestyles. We focus our efforts on employee health management and preventive healthcare through means such as suppressing long working hours and ascertaining actual conditions by managing overtime by the minute and confirming how long employees remain logged in on their computers. -
Establishing a health care room
We have established a health care room to promote the physical and mental health of our employees, to eliminate cases of retirement for health reasons, and to make it easier for employees to return to work after a leave period. Staffed full time by public health nurses and nurses, this room maintains a structure that welcomes consultations from employees at any time. -
Certified for three consecutive years by the Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program
S-Pool, Inc. was certified by the 2023 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program. This marks the forth consecutive year it earned this certification. The program is jointly administered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi to recognize large enterprises that practice outstanding health and productivity management.
It is noteworthy that Group company S-Pool Link, Inc. has received this certification three years in a row.
S-Pool, Inc. (four years in a row)
S-Pool Link, Inc. (three years in a row) -
Preventing lifestyle-related conditions and improving productivity
We implement thorough employee health management based on periodic health checkups, cancer screenings, and stress checks. We also provide individual counseling as necessary to improve employee health and enable early detection and improvement of health problems.
We introduced the S-Pool Group Point Program in 2020. The program awards points for healthy activities.State of initiatives*¹
2020 2021 2022 2023
（Including targets）Percentage of employees undergoing periodic health checkups 100% 100% 100% 100% targets Stress check uptake rate 85.5% 91.1% 90.0% 97.5% High Stress Ratio 12.9% 12.0% 18.3% 15.7% Percentage of employees who are nonsmokers 80.0% 76.9% 78.0% 80.0% targets Percentage of employees participating in specific health guidance*² 82.0% 90.0% 80.0% 85% targets Work engagement*³ - - - 2.56 Absenteeism*⁴ 2.89% 6.91% 5.51% 3.0% targets Presenteeism*⁵ 74.0% 74.3% 74.1% 70.8% *¹ Based on totals for S-Pool, Inc. and S-Pool Link, Inc.（Since FY2022, including blue dot green Inc.）
*² Since FY2019, we've provided in-house specific health guidance in cooperation with the Japan Health Insurance Association.
*³ Indicator of positive and fulfilled psychological state towards work. Based on the new brief occupational stress questionnaire, short version (80 items).
*⁴ Percentage of employees on mental sickness absence or leave in the past year (%)
*⁵ Assessment of own work over the past four weeks, using 100% as the work performance that could be demonstrated in the absence of illness or injury. -
Improving health literacy
With a focus on e-learning programs, we provide various types of periodic training in accordance with level of employee skill and understanding on topics ranging from self-care and employee care overseen by the line manager to mental health, nutrition, sleep, exercise, and lower back pain. We also communicate health information via the intranet as part of a comprehensive approach to promoting health awareness and helping employees take independent action to improve their health. -
Support for returning to work after leave taken due to poor health or other reasons
We offer leave programs for employees who find it difficult to work due to poor health or other reasons, providing continual support from the start of their leave through their return to work. Through a return-to-work support program and in cooperation with various sections throughout the S-Pool Group, we support successful returns to working careers tailored to employee working environments and work styles.
We also assign specialized coordinators to help balance treatment and work, as part of our efforts to realize a structure in which employees can work stably with peace of mind. -
Physical and mental healthcare for female employees
We offer in-person consulting provided by female industrial physicians, public health nurses, and nurses to ensure a safe, encouraging environment in which employees feel comfortable raising any issues they might face. Online counseling is offered to women working in remote locations.
To encourage screening for cancers affecting women, the Company covers the costs of breast cancer and cervical cancer screenings as part of regular health checkups. -
Use of the Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
The free Employee Assistance Program (EAP) empowers employees to consult with specialists at external institutions without Company knowledge, an effort to establish an environment in which employees feel free to consult experts regarding mental or physical conditions that may be difficult to discuss at work. -
Establishing a department to encourage good health through eating vegetables
The Group includes many younger employees. To promote the health of those not eating enough vegetables, young single employees in particular, we have established an internal section that specializes in growing vegetables and operate an S-Pool farm. About once a month, vegetables from this farm, where many special needs employees work, are delivered to our facilities across Japan. Employees donate 20 yen/bag for the vegetables, which helps pay for school lunches in developing countries through the activities of Table for Two, a nonprofit organization.
Health Management Effects and Analysis
Results of analysis suggestive of the efficacy of health management
- Increased percentage of employees with blood pressure in the normal range
- Increased percentage of employees with normal liver function values
- Decreased percentage of employees with abnormal lipid metabolism
- Increased percentage of employees with normal blood sugar levels
- Increased percentage of employees undergoing stress checks
- Analysis of presenteeism over the years
Providing working environments with safety and peace of mind
Since 2017, we have continually implemented S-Pool's workstyle reforms, under which we implement
various measures to provide working environments in which employees can work with safety and peace
of mind. In addition to complying with various labor laws and regulations (e.g., the Labor
Standards Act, the Industrial Safety and Health Act, the Labor Union Act, and the Minimum Wage
Act) as a matter of course, we strive to foster a highly ethical corporate culture by achieving
diversity, equality of opportunity, equal pay for equal work, and the elimination of
discrimination.
We also publish each company's rules on personnel and labor management on the intranet and conduct
comprehension tests in our e-learning programs and periodic compliance training to ensure thorough
promulgation throughout the organization.
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Strict management of working hours
In addition to its own employees, the Group creates employment for more than 10,000 people/year through various human resource businesses. For this reason, we consider strict management of working hours for all employees (e.g., management of labor hours by the minute and verification of times logged into and out of personal computers) to be an important matter of business execution. We believe rigorous management in accordance with applicable laws and regulations will provide peace of mind to workers and, by extension, deliver even greater value to customers. -
Establishment of Health Committee
In addition to workplace-based health committees, the S-Pool Group operates a monthly Health Committee, which is attended by health and safety personnel from each company, mainly from the Health Office.
The purpose is to facilitate smooth information sharing in occupational health and safety and to improve the working environment by providing a forum for personnel from each company to share their views on a regular basis.
-Report of occupational accidents (monthly)
-Confirmation of workplace inspection checklist
-Review and share seasonal hygiene lecture materials
-Stress Check Deliberations
-Report on the status of implementation and results of health checkups, stress checks, e-learning
-Progress sharing on promotion of health management
-Planning of annual health and safety plan (once a year/end of the fiscal year) -
Initiatives to reduce excessive working hours
To maintain the physical and mental health of our employees, the S-Pool Group strives to control long working hours to prevent health problems due to overwork.
We have adopted a system to identify and manage daily hours worked to ascertain employees' health conditions at an early point. In addition, we ascertain the conditions of overwork (i.e., more than 60 hours of overtime per month) and heavy workloads (i.e., more than 45 hours of overtime per month). Actions to prevent overwork include reporting this information to the management committee; providing guidance to labor managers and receiving improvement reports; and instructing employees to adjust working hours. In addition, the health office undertakes fatigue checks and personal interviews for those eligible to maintain and improve their health. We also offer initiatives like the following based on working conditions in specific departments:
- Adopting no-overtime days
- Establishing monthly average overtime hours as assessment indicators for semiannual target management
- Reducing total working hours through the promotion of digital transformation (DX) initiatives such as adopting IT systems -
Compliance with the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace and Eruboshi certification (three stars)
As a Group that emphasizes the promotion of diverse work styles, the Group regards promoting women within the workplace as a key aspect of its personnel strategy. Each Group company has earned either the maximum of three stars or two stars in the Eruboshi certification program established by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for companies promoting women in the workplace. -
Encouraging communication and enhancing engagement
We aim to enhance engagement by fostering a company culture in which people express their gratitude in little ways every day, by adopting an internal communication tool for saying “Thank you.” We are making progress on building systems to make communication easy by sending messages to express feelings of gratitude that may not be readily visible otherwise.