Promoting Employee Health

Good physical and mental health provides the source for working in a lively and energetic manner and is essential for ensuring the happiness of our employees and their families. DENSO positions promoting the health of its employees as an important management task and is therefore moving forward with “health and productivity management.”* DENSO announced its Health Declaration in September 2016. At the same time, to encourage activities that promote employee health and raise the level of health awareness in the workplace, DENSO is working to enhance its health-related initiatives from the perspective of both physical and mental.

* The term “health and productivity management” is a registered trademark of the Workshop for the Management of Health on Company and Employee.

The Healthcare Promotion Div. and related divisions have organized “Health Care Committee” to promote health promotion measures in DENSO.

We assign a "health leader" in each division, formulate an annual plan for health promotion (Health Action plan), work on health promotion with colleagues, work to improve personal health awareness (Health Literacy) and activate the organization.

In addition, we support the group companies in and outside Japan appropriately, based on the hygiene situation and medical environment in each region and country, thereby promoting mental and physical health of our associates.

The Company views the ability of its employees to perform at their best in a sound mental and physical condition as a management issue that it must aim to resolve through health and productivity management. To this end, we are working to achieve the ultimate goal of reducing absences from work due to illness (absenteeism) and controlling any potential decline in employees’ ability to perform due to poor health (presenteeism).

From fiscal 2023, we will focus on mental health and lifestyle disease countermeasures as priority initiatives, and promote health and productivity management by setting indicators related to employee awareness and behavioral change, such as our original “Employee Lifestyle Score,” rate of metabolic syndrome improvement, rate of thorough health examinations taken and medical institution visits, cancer screening rate, and ratio of employees with high stress levels.

1. Superior Health & Productivity Companies ^*2 (40 companies)

We are promoting a wide range of initiatives to promptly identify employees dealing with mental health issues and provide them with the care that they need.

We have in place a structure that allows employees to receive consultation from expert medical staff on a 24-hour basis. Through this structure, we provide mental health support that is closely connected to the workplace.

Since fiscal 2014, we have been implementing mental health checks, thereby establishing an environment where employees can check their stress levels in advance of the revisions to the Industrial Safety and Health Act. In addition to reporting the results of these checks to each individual employee, we relay the results of our workplace stress analysis to each company office in an effort to provide further support for the mental health of our employees. Additionally, we hold one-on-one meetings with employees who are under particularly high levels of stress in order to promptly provide them with care.

In 2020, we added questions to these mental health checks that help determine the sleeping patterns of employees in an effort to focus our attention on sleep, which is believed to have a great impact on mental or physical health.

Implementation Status of Sleeping Pattern Checks

To ensure that employees who have taken long leaves of absences due to physical or mental illness can make a smooth return to the workplace, we have established a support structure for returning to work under which occupational physicians and expert medical staff coordinate closely with the supervisors of such employees.

We hold training based on case studies for our managerial personnel, which is provided by occupational physicians. We have also incorporated a mental health-related curriculum in our training for new hires.

As ameliorative measures for those suffering from metabolic syndrome, a lifestyle-related disease, we have established a system for receiving specific health guidance from in-house experts during work hours.

To improve the health awareness of our employees, it is important to have them understand and thoroughly reflect on the conditions of their physical and mental health.

For employees who are approaching 39 years of age, we conduct a one-day training session called “Health Day.” In this training, employees undergo a health examination, measure their physical strength, receive instruction on health maintenance and healthy eating habits, and participate in educational activities. Employees also set health-related goals for their 40s.

By implementing nutrition education activities that make use of the employee cafeteria, we are creating opportunities for employees to raise their awareness toward health and balanced nutrition and improve their own dietary habits.

We are promoting education on healthy diets in a delicious and fun manner by offering healthy lunch sets that are well-balanced in terms of nutrients, devising ways to increase our employees’ intake of dietary fiber and vegetables, and preparing desserts that contain nutrients which women in particular tend to lack.

To reduce the health-related risks from smoking and prevent secondhand smoke, we have been engaging in a Companywide project since fiscal 2012 that promotes efforts to discourage smoking. As part of our environmental efforts, we put in place a total indoor smoking ban (completed in fiscal 2019) and strictly enforce a no-smoking policy during work hours in an effort to reduce health risks. We also hold seminars on how to stop smoking and have introduced outpatient treatment for employees trying to quit. In these ways, we are implementing a variety of activities aimed at improving the rate of non-smokers.

Furthermore, in an effort to prevent secondhand smoke, we started gradually promoting a ban on cigarette smoking in fiscal 2021, and completed a Companywide ban on cigarette smoking in April 2021.

The sooner that cancer is detected and treated, the better the chances of recovery are for the patient. Accordingly, to ensure that employees are able to realize changes in their bodies at an early stage, we conduct various cancer examinations in-house. Going forward, we will promote efforts to help reduce the health risks caused by cancer.

1966~ Chest X-ray: Lung cancer; Barium swallow test: Stomach and esophagus cancer, etc.
1985~ Abdominal echo: Liver and kidney cancer, etc.
1995~ Fecal occult blood test: Large intestine cancer
2017~ Examination bus: Breast and cervical cancer

As a collaborative effort with the DENSO WORKERS’ UNION, we provide opportunities for employees to give consideration to their health by holding health-related events in which employees and their families can easily participate. Additionally, we made these events open to the public with the aim of promoting the health of local community members.

The major health check items offered at these events include: (1) simple physical strength test, (2) body balance test, (3) measurement of the sole of the foot, (4) measurement of visceral fat, (5) measurement of blood vessel age, (6) measurement of bone density, (7) measurement of skin age, (8) measurement of brain age, (9) measurement of lung age, (10) intraoral camera examination, etc.

To encourage proper exercise habits and raise health awareness among employees during winter, when people are less active and have more opportunities to eat and drink, we held a month-long session for promoting employee health. In fiscal 2022, we made preparations to enable online participation in this event, in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and implemented it accordingly.

As an effort to prepare for an outbreak of a pandemic, relevant divisions of the Company have formulated a basic policy and response manual from the perspective of preventing infection. In the event that such a pandemic occurs, we will promote the necessary infection prevention measures.

In addition, as a Company with many overseas bases, we recognize the importance of responding to global health issues, such as tuberculosis, malaria, and HIV/AIDS —the world’s three major infectious diseases—and are proactively implementing response measures. For employees on overseas assignments and their families, we provide information on infectious diseases as well as vaccinations and local medical support.

The Company has established its original “Employee Lifestyle Score, ^*4 an indicator based on data from individual employees’ checkups, which corresponds to the health behavior and health data targets set in Healthy Japan 21, ^*3 and has set the Companywide average value as a management target.

*3 Health Japan 21 is a policy formulated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to promote the health of Japan’s population with the goal of preventing lifestyle-related diseases and extending healthy life expectancy.
*4 “Employee Lifestyle Score” calculation method
A total score of 100 points, consisting of 80 points for health behaviors and 20 points for health data. Calculations are based on the results of employees’ annual health checkups.

Furthermore, we make office health leaders aware of the lifestyle scores for their respective workplace, thereby enabling them to formulate effective health action plans.

Based on their lifestyle scores, we distribute written notifications to employees that contain advice on their strengths and weaknesses as well as information on how they compare to employees of the same age and what kinds of efforts they should make in the future. By raising the percentage of employees with healthy lifestyle habits, these activities aim to increase our Companywide average Lifestyle Score by 10% compared with fiscal 2018.

In addition, Denso Kenko Station (DKS), developed in-house, is a health application that allows users to register not only Lifestyle Scores but also health checkup data, dietary data such as calories and salt content of food consumed at the Company cafeteria, weight, step counts, blood pressure, and other data. Employees can utilize the application in their day-to-day health management.

Denso Kenko Station (DKS)

We implement the following activities to contribute to health-related initiatives aimed at local communities and affiliated companies.

Since 1966, we have supported the blood donation activities of the Japanese Red Cross Society to contribute to the treatment of patients who need blood due to illness or injury. We also encourage our employees to volunteer to give blood at mobile blood donation stations.

For our suppliers, who represent important business partners, we offer health lectures and panel exhibits via our industrial physicians and introduce the health-related activities of various offices. We also provide opportunities for our suppliers to receive health-related measurements such as body composition measurements. In these ways, we strive to make our health-related efforts well known and help support the health of our suppliers.

With the aim of fostering a corporate climate where employees can continue to work in a healthy and energetic manner, the DENSO Group continues to support the creation of healthy lifestyles and is making strides in creating work environments that are safe, secure, and fulfilling. In addition, we will share policies with Group companies in Japan and overseas and undertake initiatives with the aim of strengthening our Groupwide health management. At the same time, we will create a corporate culture based on health-related themes to promote optimal health policies and encourage healthy lifestyles.