Promotion of Workplace Health and Safety

Employees of Kyowa Kirin Group and people around us work on the Wellness Action (behavior change) with our own motivation and excitement, and contribute to the company and society in addition to reducing our own health risks and improving the well-being.

Initiatives for Health and Productivity Management

Policy for Health and Productivity Management

In May 2015, our top management team announced the Declaration of Health Promotion and initiated the Kyowa Kirin Group Wellness Action 2020 through collaboration between the Company and its health insurance association.*2

Kyowa Kirin Group Declaration of Health Promotion

The Kyowa Kirin Group declares it will promote the health of its employees with the aim of enhancing their lifelong quality of life.

While employees make spontaneous efforts to improve their own health, the Group aspires to promote its employees' health from a preventive perspective, aiming for a higher level of health.

The Group implements measures to motivate each and every employee to take actions for improving their health, and to help them sustain such actions.

Conceptual Framework of the Kyowa Kirin Group's Health and Productivity Management

Kyowa Kirin Group's Health and Productivity Management

[Global]Kyowa Kirin Group Wellness Action 2025 [Objective]Employees and people around us:-Reduce risks to our mental & physical health -Improve the well-being Society:-Cope with social issues* *e.g. medical cost increase, obesity, activity qty decrease, imbalanced diets -Promotion of the Wellness Action has a good influence on outside of the company Company:-Enhance corporate value by improving performance of each one of us -Develop corporate culture to get over the wall through the Wellness Action [Ideal behavior]Employees and people around us work on the Wellness Action with our own motivation & excitement [Make employees active]Increase ratio of Most Effective Employees [Target in 2025]To exceed FY2020 result [Behavioral change for health]Habit of exercise Habit of meals Habit of sleep Non-smoking Others [KKC Group Talent Management Policy]Employees Acting autonomously and take on the challenge Encouraging its employees to co-create new value KKC Group [Business philosophy, Vision, Core values, and code of conduct of Kyowa Kirin Group]

Organizational Structure

The human resources director of Kyowa Kirin heads up our initiatives to promote health and productivity management, which are operated by the Collaborative Health Promotion Committee composed of representatives of each business site and the Working-Level Conference for Collaborative Health Promotion. Committee members and working-level staff collaborate with industrial physicians, public health nurses and occupational health and safety divisions to execute initiatives tailored to the characteristics of each business site.

The progress achieved with regard to the initiatives is discussed and monitored at the Executive Committee and the Group CSR Committee.

Measures Implemented

We implement Group-wide measures for health promotion and disease prevention, as well as individual measures at each business site.

Our health insurance association issues an annual Health Report, in which trends in illnesses by age group and lifestyle survey results are introduced to illuminate the Company’s health-related issues and raise employees’ health awareness.

Examples of Group-wide measures

  • Interactive communication using in-house social networking site “Beats Live”
    Using the in-house social networking site, we are working to bring smiles to employees’ faces and trigger small changes in their behavior through casual initiatives that are unrestricted by the time and place they work.
    Initiatives include the lunchtime “10-minute Radio” by members of the “Smile Project,” which is a project launched by volunteers amid the coronavirus outbreak, and health-related quizzes. Employees can freely post messages on the site, too.
    Health-related quizzes on the in-house social networking site “Beats Live”

    The pre-launch promotion for the “10-minute Radio” was also proposed by members of the “Smile Project.”

    Live streaming of stretching exercises and other content by Kyowa Kirin’s table tennis and tennis teams (videos are posted on the site after the live stream) are designed to allow everyone to get involved regardless of where and when they work.

  • Walking Campaign in a board-game style for playful spirit
    We formed several teams such "by business site" and "by age group" and set matches between those teams in a board game. Teams moved on the board according to the team’s participation rate and average footstep counts. At the match "between business sites," representative leaders such as the President and business site directors competed on the board, and we had an exciting activity.

    Board game played by teams across business sites

    Board game competed between teams formed by age group

  • Strengthened our regular physical checkup program with additional test items, exceeding legal requirements (e.g., biochemical tests, cancer screenings)
  • Program to protect high-risk individuals from aggravation
  • Lectures on health-related topics
  • Mental health counseling service and training programs offered by industrial physicians and contractors
  • Walking events and other sporting meets
  • Discounts on sports club membership
  • Financial support for medical care to quit smoking and anti-smoking medication
  • Financial support for preventing diseases (e.g., comprehensive health checkup, seasonal flu shot, elimination of Helicobacter pylori infection)
  • Support for employees undergoing cancer treatment while continuing to work (available only at Kyowa Kirin); and support for employees returning to work after a long period of sick leave
  • Issuing of Health Report

Individual measures at each business site

  • No smoking policy declared by the heads of each business site

  • Health support program (sleep support)

  • Healthy menu and complimentary salad offered at worksite cafeteria

Health investment and expected effects

Each initiative is checked and assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively at the corporate strategy meetings and other occasions.
Through the initiatives for health we aim to solve management issues.

Kyowa Kirin Group’s problem before quitting smoking

Although Kyowa Kirin is a company engaged in the pharmaceutical business and has a management philosophy of “striving to contribute to the health and well-being of people around the world,” the smoking rate among employees was higher than the nationwide adult smoking rate.
→The company will work to help employees quit smoking, because the health, well-being and smiles of employees and their families lead to the fulfillment of the management philosophy.

Good points of Kyowa Kirin’s no-smoking initiative (qualitative assessment)

  • Each employee, including non-smokers, is encouraged to treat the problem as their own and to take on the challenge
  • Continuous support by top management, heads of business sites and the human resources departments of business sites 
  • Setting no-smoking rules in stages (no-smoking day -> no-smoking during working hours ->no-smoking during working hours + no-smoking on company premises)
  • Regularly checking on smoking status and sharing the progress
  • Collaboration with the health insurance association (the company will be responsible for employee communication, health insurance association will be responsible for smoking cessation subsidy program)
  • By focusing efforts on indicators in the Wellness Action 2020 GOALS that were not improving as expected, the initiative quickly led to employees’ behavior change
[Health investment]Take sufficient time to explain to employees how serious the company [Indicator on the status of health investment measures]The percentage of smoking employees who have submitted their declaration to stop smoking [Indicator on the changes in employees’ awareness and behavior]Smoking rate [Goal indicators on health]Productivity growth through smoking cessation [Management issues we want to solve with our health and productivity management]Establishing a new way of working in adapting to a world with the coronavirus (employees’ health, safety and security) [Health investment]Main investments: explaining and responding to employees (about 5,000,000 yen) [Indicator on the status of health investment measures]Target for 2020: 100% Result as of August 2020: 79.5% [Indicator on the changes in employees’ awareness and behavior]Target for 2025: Continued below 5%. Actual result in May 2022: 4.0% [Goal indicators on health]The main expected effects: lower morbidity among employees, including non-smokers, better labor productivity etc. (about 293,643,000 yen)
The percentage of employees who smoke 2017: 21.2%, 2018: 18.0%, 2019: 12.2%, 2020: 4.4%, May 2021: 4.7%, May 2022: 4.0%
Investment in stop-smoking measures and estimated effect Investment: 5 million yen Estimated effect: 297 million yen

Below is how we consider the estimated effect from the investment.

Calculation method for estimated effect: 1 × (2 - 3)

  1. 1.
    Annual cost for the company: 553,000 yen (reference: Seattle University Professor William Weis, PhD 1981)
  2. 2.
    The number of smoking employees in 2017: 692 (from the regular physical examination questionnaire)
  3. 3.
    The number of smoking employees as of May 2022:155 (from a regularly-conducted survey)

Kyowa Kirin Group's Problems with exercise

  • In the final year results of the Wellness Action 2020 GOALS, less than half of employees engaged in appropriate amount of exercise.
  • It was necessary to intentionally create opportunities for physical activity under the restriction of going out due to the spread of the new coronavirus.
    →Wellness Action 2025 will target specific actions that are easy to understand and implement, such as the participation rate in walking campaigns and the average number of steps taken.

Good points in the Kyowa Kirin’s activity for exercise (Qualitative evaluation)

  • Looking back on lifestyle-related results and change to a target more familiar to employees led to change of behavior.
  • Working on the campaign while sharing good practice of other business sites led to activation of the campaign in all business sites beyond the boundaries of location.
  • Worked on the campaign in cooperation with the Health Insurance Association. (Communication with employees by the company, operation of application (software) by Health Insurance Association)
  • Since the executives took the leading roles to work on the activity, the company’s earnest effort was delivered to employees (the average step counts of executives: 7920)
  • By timely posting of the progress of the board game with playful spirit to the in-house newsletter, “visualized” result has been widely spread.

Issues found from Kyowa Kirin’s Walking Campaign

  • During the campaign in June 2022, the ratio of employees who exceeded the target of average footstep counts 5000 was higher than the previous year, but the result shows that participants of less than 4000 footstep counts account for 40%. KKC continues this activity aiming to increase the percentage of participants who exceed 4000 footstep counts, so that each one of us will work on this on our own initiative more than ever.
  • The effect to the final target indicators related to health will be studied in the long term.
[Health investment]Carry out Walking Campaign [Indicator on the status of health investment measures]Raise participation rate in Walking Campaign [Indicator on the changes in employees’ awareness and behavior]Raise average footstep counts in Walking Campaign [Goal indicators on health]Improve performance when working in the office (absolute presentism) [Management issues we want to solve with our health and productivity management]Establishing a new way of working in adapting to a world with the coronavirus (employees’ health, safety and security)Reforming corporate culture (overcoming walls and following through to the end) [Health investment]Main investments: explaining and responding to employees (about 2,200,000 yen) [Indicator on the status of health investment measures]Target for 2025: 80% Actual result in June 2022: 76.8% [Indicator on the changes in employees’ awareness and behavior]Target for 2025: average step counts 5,000 Actual result in June 2022: Average footstep counts 5,265 [Goal indicators on health]Reduce employees applicable to follow-up measure level 1+ (Health risks) Improve liveliness score (Wellness Action with excitement)
Transition of Walking Campaign participation rate 2019: 20.0%, 2020: 40.7%, June 2021: 75.4%, June 2022: 76.8%
Average step counts before and after Walking Campaign (per person per day) Less than 4,000 steps→June 2021:45% June 2022:40% 4,000 to 4,499 steps→June 2021:6%  June 2022:6% 4,500 to 4,999 steps→June 2021:5%  June 2022:7% More than 5,000 steps→June 2021:44%  June 2022:47%

Wellness Action 2025 (Numerical target) Progress

We work on monitoring of progress at each business site as well as evaluation and improvement of the activity through opportunities to share issues with the management.

You can see this table by scrolling horizontally.

FY 2021 May 2022
Goal Indicators on health liveliness score Positive answer rate to ”I think about the health and well-being of members in the workplace and people around them regarding it as my own affair, take care of them each other, and work on the activity with fun.” (Survey about Wellness Action) 62%
Performance when working in the office How would you rate your overall job performance on the days you worked during the past 4 weeks?
(Absolute presentism by WHO-HPQ)
61.98%
Work engagement Liveliness level (Calculated from percentage of relevant answers to Stress Check Questionnaire) 121
Health risk Ratio of those who keep right body weight according to the result of regular health checkup 66.9%
Indicator on the changes in employees’ awareness and behavior Exercise Participation rate and average footstep counts in walking campaign Participation rate 75.4%
Average footstep counts 5,056
Participation rate 76.8%
Average footstep counts 5,265
Leave Average number of leave days taken year-round 17.2 days
Smoking Ratio of smokers 4.3% 4.0%
Moderate drinking Ratio of employees classified in non-drinking group or low risk drinking group (AUDIT: less than 10 pts) 88.5%
Indicator on the status of health investment measures Ratio of employees who received regular health checkup Ratio of employees who received regular health checkup 99.9%
Ratio of employees who received secondary health checkup Ratio of employees who received secondary health checkup (close examination, reinspection) out of those applicable to follow-up measure level 3 based on the KKC health checkup follow-up measure guideline, excluding cases in which a corporate doctor judged medical examination unnecessary 90%
Interview by occupational health physician Ratio of employees who had the interview out of those applicable to follow-up measure level 3 based on the KKC health checkup follow-up measure guideline 100%
Mental health Ratio of employees who conducted the stress check 97.6%

Activities beyond the boundaries of company

  • Based on the Kyowa Kirin Group Wellness Action2025, KKC requests customers visiting its plants to refrain from smoking in the business sites.
  • KKC introduces its health and productivity management at explanatory meetings for business partner companies in the supply chain.
  • Led by the leadership of management, KKC has participated in the Association of Kenko Companies, which is actively working on improvement of employees' health, since 2015 as one of the founders. Through activities of "No Smoking Subcommittee" and "Data-driven Health Subcommittee" etc., it has workshops with other companies and provided them with its know-how regularly.

External Assessment

Kyowa Kirin was recognized as a 2023 Health & Productivity Stock *3, and it is the consecutive 2nd year to be chosen as a Health & Productivity Stock. And Kyowa Kirin was recognized as a Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization (White 500) *4 for the seventh consecutive years, which are the outcome of the Survey on Health and Productivity conducted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI).

2023 Health and Productivity
2023 Health and productivity
  1. *1:
    The term "Kenko Keiei (health and productivity management)" is a registered trademark of the Workshop for the Management of Health on Company and Employee.
  2. *2:
    The policy and initiatives for health and productivity management are shared across the entire Kyowa Kirin Group, and practiced by each of the Group companies below:
  3. *3:
    One listed company per industry is selected for “Health & Productivity Stock” as a company that conducts outstanding health and productivity management among listed companies which are considering about employees' health and productivity management from a business-management perspective, and addressing it strategically. The purpose of the program is to help companies that are engaged in health management to gain social appraisal and further promoting health management initiatives by introducing them as attractive companies to investors who place importance on the perspective of ESG and long-term increase in corporate value.
  4. *4:
    The Certified Health & Productivity Management Organization Recognition Program endeavors to highlight outstanding enterprises engaged in efforts to advance health and productivity management and thereby aims to organize an environment in which such enterprises are able to gain enhanced public recognition, e.g., from employees, employment seekers, related enterprises and financial institutions, as organizations engaging in strategic health and productivity management efforts for maintaining their employees' health from a management perspective. Certifications under the program began in 2017.

Assessing Measures and Making Improvements

Those activities are checked and assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively at Executive Committee, etc.
Through efforts for good health, we minimize health risks and promote improvement to positive and lively workplace, aiming for solution of management issues.

Wellness Action 2020

Numerical target

In June 2018, in order to conduct a PDCA cycle for activities of health and productivity management, we developed "Wellness Action 2020" to be achieved in 2020.

FOCUS:Lifestyle improvement・Cancer prevention・Measures against stress・Work-style reform Wellness Action 2020 GOALS:[Employees undergoing regular health checkups]100%、[High-risk individuals receiving medical care]100%、[Workplaces implementing measures for positive mental health]100%、[Annual leave used]80%、[Employees engaged in appropriate amount of exercise]50%、[Employees who smoke]5% COMMITMENT:Provide enhanced support by industrial physicians and others based on health checkup results,Encourage employees to undergo cancer screening; establish systems to support employees undergoing treatment while continuing to work,Promote measures to support highly stressed individuals and measures to invigorate workplaces,Promote measures to encourage family members (dependents) to undergo health checkups,Promote measures to encourage exercising(e.g., walking), Promote measures against secondhand smoking and measures to support employees to quit smoking,Promote smart work, Promote measures to enhance work engagement

Results

You can see this table by scrolling horizontally.

Indicator Employees undergoing regular health checkups High-risk individuals receiving medical care*2 Annual leave used Employees engaged in appropriate amount of exercise Workplaces implementing measures for positive mental health Employees who smoke
Before initiative was introduced*1 96% 54% 71% 35% - 22%
FY 2018 results 99.9% 83% 72% 54% - 17.7%
FY 2019 results 99.9% 100% 78% 52% - 12.2%
FY 2020 results 99.9% 96% 75% 49% 100% 4.4%
Assessment Achieved Achieved
  • *1:
    The percentages for before the introduction of the initiatives are figures of the entire Kyowa Kirin Group in 2016.
  • *2:
    Ratio of employees who received secondary health checkup (close examination, reinspection) out of those applicable to follow-up measure level 3 based on the KKC health checkup follow-up measure guideline, excluding cases in which a occupational health physician judged commuting to hospital unnecessary.

Occupational Health and Safety

To prevent industrial accidents, the Kyowa Kirin Group conducts risk assessments at each business site as part of its daily production or research activities and prior to construction work. By timely employing external consultants in safety audits, we are trying to understand issues faced by plants from a multifaceted perspective for further improvements. Health and Safety training is provided annually to newly appointed managers and safety management staff in order to promote safety awareness. Health and Safety activities are checked through risk management programs and audit, and the results are discussed by the Group CSR Committee and reported to the Board of Directors to be reflected in the action policy for the following year.

Kyowa Kirin Group Policy for Occupational Health and Safety

Established on November 22, 2018

We at the Kyowa Kirin Group (hereafter referred to as "Our Group") believe that ensuring the health and safety of all its employees is crucial in fulfilling its management philosophy of "striving to contribute to the health and well-being of people around the world by creating new value through the pursuit of advances in life sciences and technologies." Therefore we engage in ongoing activities to prevent occupational accidents and disasters. Our aim is to foster a deeply rooted culture that encourages each and every employee to think and act on their own accord so that the standards of Our Group's occupational health and safety can be enhanced.

  1. 1.
    By operating our management system for occupational health and safety, we promote ongoing improvements with the aim of enhancing Our Group's health and safety standards.
  2. 2.
    We strive to prevent occupational accidents and disasters by identifying and assessing sources of hazards in workplaces and taking measures to eliminate or reduce the identified risks.
  3. 3.
    We comply with laws and regulations concerning occupational health and safety in the countries and regions where Our Group conducts business activities, and make ongoing efforts to ensure the health and safety of our employees.
  4. 4.
    We implement education, training and awareness activities on occupational health and safety in a rigorous and systematic manner with the aim of raising employee awareness.
  5. 5.
    We actively encourage communication between the employer and each employee indispensable for ensuring employee health and safety, and implement health and safety activities engaging all employees.

In 2019, there was a one accident that required time off from work across the all location of Kyowa Kirin. The accident frequency rate*1 was 0.13 and the accident severity rate*2 was 0.0062. We strive to prevent recurrence by sharing across the Group case examples of accidents that required no time off from work and close calls.

  1. *1:
    Accident frequency rate: The number of fatal and lost time accidents per million working hours
  2. *2:
    Accident severity rate: The number of lost days per 1,000 working hours
All-industry Average/2015: 1.61,2016: 1.63,2017: 1.66,2018: 1.83,2019: 1.80 Kyowa Kirin Group[The numbers in parentheses are the number of accidents that required time off from work]/2015: 0.36(2),2016: 0.19(1),2017: 0.19(1),2018: 0.36(2),2019: 0.13(1)
Accident frequency rate*3
  1. *3:
    The plants and research laboratories in Japan of Kyowa Kirin, Kyowa Medex (excluded in 2018 due to deconsolidation), Kyowa Hakko Bio and Kyowa Pharma Chemical are covered until 2018. In 2019, all locations of Kyowa Kirin are covered.

Disaster Drills

In the event that an explosion or fire or a natural disaster such as an earthquake causes damage to one or more of our plants, the Kyowa Kirin Group's rule is to establish a crisis management division or a large-scale disaster management division led by top management to engage in rescue operations and support the site's restoration activities. Each plant has its own disaster response scheme and holds regular disaster drills to minimize the damage caused by a disaster.

Promotion of Safe Driving

Kyowa Kirin has a fleet of around 1,300 vehicles driven by sales representatives. To prevent accidents, we strive to promote safe driving using diverse approaches, including implementing measures to prevent risks and allocating effective resources for safe driving, in addition to raising safety awareness among drivers.

2015: 1.5%,2016: 1.3%,2017: 1.7%,2018: 1.9%,2019: 1.2%
Rate of personal accidents for the past five years

In 2008, we introduced a safe driving training program in which the driving skills of primarily new employees are assessed on a five-point scale to help them enhance their driving techniques and safety awareness. To support inexperienced drivers, driving recorders are installed in their vehicles. Furthermore, we introduced the pre-crash safety system into all our vehicles. As a result of these efforts, we are beginning to show results in the reduction of traffic accidents.