Working with our Employees
Employee Health
Here at the Mitsui Chemicals Group, we provide our employees with the support they need to take good care of their health, via industrial physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
We believe that healthy employees make for a healthy company. Based on that philosophy, we assign with full-time industrial physicians, nurses and healthcare managers to healthcare sections at our Head Office, Sodegaura Center and all five of our works. We also assign part-time industrial physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals to our smaller plants and to major plants operated by our affiliates, in an effort to improve the health of all group employees.
Once again in fiscal 2011, we continued to focus on preventing mental health conditions and lifestyle-related diseases, and on reducing hygiene risks.
Reducing occupational health risks
We are committed to reducing occupational health risks and improving working conditions via the Occupational Safety and Health Management System (OHSAS 18001) scheme and through onsite inspections conducted by industrial physicians and healthcare managers.
In fiscal 2009, we determined that a total of 815 local ventilation systems were in need of improvement. In fiscal 2010, we carried out improvements to 20% of the relevant systems. Having completed all improvements at our Sodegaura Center in fiscal 2011, that total now stands at 40%, including other sites. We will continue to carry out planned improvements in the future, with the aim of completing work in fiscal 2014.
Health management
We promote good health via activities such as medical examinations and health guidance, carried out by industrial physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals. As part of our initiatives during fiscal 2011, we stepped up employee health classes, continued to run the Health Mileage Program, improved our staff cafeteria, reinforced health guidance and measured employees' visceral fat for diet program.
We continued to organize comprehensive medical check-ups, combining regular medical examinations with special medical check-ups and cancer screening, for the third year. We achieved an uptake of almost 100% for special medical check-ups and managed to increase the rate of special health guidance (aimed at combating metabolic syndrome) from 25% in fiscal 2010 to 35%. As a result, we noticed a decline in the rate of metabolic syndrome in employees aged 40 or over.
In terms of lifestyle-related diseases meanwhile, there was a decline in the percentage of employees diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure and problems with cholesterol. The uptake rate for cancer screening came to roughly 60%, representing a 15% increase compared to fiscal 2010. As a result, cancer was detected at an early stage in 20 cases.We will continue to work on improving the uptake rate for cancer screening in fiscal 2012, as well as introducing more rigorous criteria for medical examinations and improving health guidance.
In an effort to combat new strains of influenza, we have been stockpiling facemasks, disinfectants and other supplies since fiscal 2009, and have continued to reinforce preventive measures and treatment for infected individuals. As a result, we have succeeded in keeping the infection rate amongst employees to around 45% compared to the infection rate for the general public in Japan.
Positive diagnosis results
Mental Health Initiatives
Once again in fiscal 2011, we continued to implement initiatives such as mental health training (for new recruits, managerial staff, line managers, etc.), counseling and e-learning. We also updated our communication e-learning program for new recruits.
Having made improvements to our existing occupational stress questionnaire, we trialed a combined occupational stress and mental health climate questionnaire, geared more towards identifying improvement perspective in the workplace, at four of our sites.
We have also stepped up follow-up activities to help prevent relapses in employees with mental health conditions and have started to share information between industrial physicians and managerial staff at selected sites, in an effort to identify stress factors and employees with high stress levels as early as possible.
As a result, we have seen a decline in the percentage of employees suffering from new mental health conditions and relapses compared to fiscal 2010. Following a surge from the second half of fiscal 2009 onwards, the number of days off work due to mental health issues started to fall again in fiscal 2011.
During fiscal 2012, we intend to roll out combined occupational stress and mental health questionnaires on a companywide basis and identify good practices based on workplaces with a positive environment, so they can be extended out to other workplaces. We are also planning to reinforce mental health initiatives aimed at new recruits.
Breakdown of days off due to illness
A wide range of health management programs
We run a range of programs as part of our employee health management activities here at the Mitsui Chemicals Group, revolving primarily around our Health Care Section and Health Insurance Society.
Health promotion events
| Description | Participants | Details |
|---|---|---|
| No smoking trial | 42 | No smoking event using nicotine patches Campaign to measure the age of employees' lungs, open to non-smokers as well as smokers |
| Visceral fat measurement program | 65 | Employees had their visceral fat measured to begin with, and then remeasured one and a half months later after making improvements to their lifestyles |
| Fitness classes | 729 | Series of 14 simple exercise classes designed to make employees feel refreshed, plus three four-session courses of yoga classes |
| Mental health training for new employees | 53 | e-learning-based training for new employees |
| 1st walking event: Kujukurihama 70 km | 218 | Event for which employees walked at least 70km over the course of 16 days (at least 140,000 steps, calculated at 0.5m per step) |
| 2nd walking event: Walk the Length of Japan | 257 | Event for which employees walked at least 330 km over the course of two months (at least 470,000 steps, calculated at 0.7 m per step) Plans to extend activities in the future, to include six Walk the Length of Japan events |
Labor relations based on open dialog and mutual understanding
Here at Mitsui Chemicals, we are committed to establishing stable, cohesive labor relations based on the principle of open dialog and mutual understanding. In April 2008, we revised our labor agreement and set out a clear emphasis on cooperation between labor and management in areas such as improving productivity, achieving our Grand Design and developing human resources. We are fully committed to two-way communication and will continue to lay the necessary foundations to provide individual employees with a sense of personal and professional motivation.
