Basic Policy

Sumitomo Forestry Group believes that maintaining and promoting employee health contributes not only to the well-being of each and every employee, but also to improvement of productivity and efficiency at work. Sumitomo Forestry Group Declaration on Health Management was formulated based on this policy on Oct. 1, 2021.

Initiatives to Maintain and Improve Employee Health

Sumitomo Forestry Group is committed to health management in order to create an environment in which workers can thrive, as well as to prevent absenteeism*¹ due to injury or illness, and avoid reduced labor productivity caused by presenteeism*² from poor physical or mental health.

Sumitomo Forestry maintains a 100% medical examination rate for regular health checkup which are vital to preventing illness. In addition, we have a system in place that offers regular health checkup, stress check aftercare, and consultations with industrial physicians during overwork and other stressful situations, which are also available to employees working at sites with a small number of staff through the appointment of industrial physicians even at locations with less than 50 employees. For those with abnormal test results, the health supervisor and industrial physician at each site recommend that they undergo medical examinations or check the status of their hospital visits. Additionally, working with the health insurance society, we encourage employees eligible for specific health guidance to participate in programs. The specific health guidance implementation rate was 0.7% in fiscal 2021, 28.8% in fiscal 2022, and 12.7% in fiscal 2023. A clinical psychologist and public health nurse are assigned to the Workstyle Diversification Department run by the Personnel Department to implement a variety of health measures and provide employees who are forced to take leave for health reasons with a system that allows them to focus on their treatment and return to work without worry.

*1The state in which a person finds it difficult to work because a physical or mental disorder causes them to be late to work, leave work early, be absent from work and/or take unpaid leave.

*2The state in which a person goes to work while suffering from some disease or symptom, and their ability to perform work or productivity is impaired.

*Among the results of the health checkup, the five items of blood pressure, glucose metabolism, lipid metabolism, liver function, and anemia are priority management items, and the percentage of employees who fall under any of the five items

*Trend in the percentage of respondents who answered "yes" to the question “Do you exercise or play sports at least 1 time a week (regardless of how long)”?

Organizing Walking Event

Sumitomo Forestry has been holding regular walking events since fiscal 2021 as part of its "health management" efforts to maintain and promote the health of each and every employee so that they can work vigorously and in good health. The 2023 spring event was attended by 1,041 people across the Group. The event was a continuation of the same event held in the autumn of 2022 and featured the theme “Part 2: Let’s Walk Across Japan! Sumitomo Forestry Group Greenery Promotion Walking Event." The idea is that for every step a participant takes, a tree is planted on a virtual map of Japan. At the 2023 spring event, participants aimed to reach Hokkaido from Tokyo, where the 2022 autumn event reached. After the event, approximately 80% of participants responded that they were "very satisfied" or "satisfied,” and an increasing number of employees have made exercise a routine as a result of the event. The number of Group companies participating increases with each passing year, making the event established throughout the Group. Going forward, we plan to continue holding this event.

Health Literacy

Sumitomo Forestry continued to hold health-related live seminars during lunch breaks with the aim of improving lifestyle habits and productivity in terms of sleep, diet, and exercise. We will continue to hold Health Live Seminars in the future.

Health Literacy Education

So that each and every employee can work vigorously and in good health., Sumitomo Forestry provides e-learning and video content that can be viewed at any time on a smartphone or other device with the goal of encouraging employees to take a greater interest in their own mental and physical health, make efforts to improve lifestyle habits, maintain and improve health, and raise productivity. In fiscal 2023, based on the overall trend of results for employee health checkups and stress checks, we created an original e-learning program that incorporates content covering certain issues, such as sleep, diet, and exercise. We have made this program mandatory for all employees in order to raise awareness of health. The participation rate in fiscal 2023 was 92.4%.

In addition, as a measure to address women's health issues, we have participated in the Kenko Kigyokai, an external organization, every year since 2016. In fiscal 2023, we were active every month as leader of the organization’s Women's Health Subcommittee. By disseminating reports on our activities within the company, we are raising awareness of women's health.

Seminars for Health Supervisors

Sumitomo Forestry conducted two online practical seminars for health supervisors in April and July 2023. In April, 114 employees took part in the seminar, where they confirmed internal rules and regulations to solidify the occupational health and safety system (build a collaborative system) and improve the practical skills of industrial health personnel. In July, 77 employees participated in the seminar and learned how to use the health management system operated in-house. This seminar, including lectures on relevant laws and regulations, as well as internal company rules, was designed to educate administrative officers, persons in charge of health management practices, and other persons in charge of group companies nationwide. Participants shared their own initiatives and innovations with each other via chat rooms during the seminar, making it a valuable opportunity to learn together. We will continue to offer seminars for health supervisors in the future.

Eliminating Absenteeism and Presenteeism

We are implementing various initiatives to maintain and improve the health of our employees, using absenteeism and presenteeism as indicators. Regarding presenteeism, since the measurement method was changed from the WHO-PHQ method to the University of Tokyo's one-item version in fiscal 2023, it is not possible to compare the previous year, but we will continue to monitor the trend in the future, including the status of absenteeism since the COVID-19 pandemic.

*Calculated by dividing the total number of days absent due to personal injury or illness (including paid leave taken) from January to December each year by the number of employees at the end of each year

*In fiscal 2023, the measurement method was changed from the WHO-PHQ method to the University of Tokyo one-item version

Practical Mental Health Care

Based on the Guidelines for Maintaining and Improving Workers' Mental Health formulated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Sumitomo Forestry implements four types of care for mental health: self-care; care provided by line managers; care provided by occupational health staff within the workplace; and care using resources from outside the business.

Collaboration with External EAP Agency

Employees who are certified as clinical physiologists have striven to assist mentally ill individuals with follow-up support and help them in returning to work in close cooperation with external provider of the employee assistance program (EAP)*.

In fiscal 2019, Sumitomo Forestry changed the external EAP agency alliance and established a new management consultation desk to further a system to better support line care. This help desk is not only available to employees but also their families and can support in English and Chinese, which offers better care for a wider range of employees.

All domestic Group companies have an external consultation service for EAP as of the end of fiscal 2022.

*A workplace mental health care service for employees

Support during Absence and upon Returning to Work

Sumitomo Forestry distributes a Mental Absentee Guidebook to employees who are absent from work due to mental illness, which includes information on how to spend time during leave and company rules regarding leave, etc., to the employees to reduce anxiety during their absence. We also distribute a Guidebook for Managers to supervisors, providing them with information on how to respond to the situation at hand.

We adjust stratified working hours and the work load to suit the circumstances of each individual by adopting an occupational rehabilitation system to help employees return to work to create and execute rehabilitation plans so that each person can both physically and mentally get used to the work environment.

Use of stress checks

Sumitomo Forestry has offered stress checks since fiscal 2013, ahead of becoming mandatory after amendments to the Industrial Safety and Health Law in December 2015. All of our employees (excluding employees who are on long-term leave due to pregnancy, medical treatment for illness or other such reasons) use the information provided on websites and in other media to help prevent mental disorders.

As part of care following stress checks, we distributed results of individual organizational analysis to each site and provided "Stress Check Feedback Training" to a total of 272 employees in all departments, including general managers (mandatory), other managers and supervisors (voluntary) in order to raise awareness about building an even more vibrant workplace environment in 2023. We are strengthening line care to enable early detection and improvement of mental illness among subordinates, and are planning and implementing measures to improve the workplace environment at each site. Individual consulting services were also provided to departments with high psychological burdens. In addition, in order to help each employee cultivate a healthier mind and body, we continue to raise awareness by offering various courses such as "Sleep," "Health Management for Workers," and "How to Deal with Stress" in the category of "Health Care" in our e-learning program.

*Ratio of high-stress employees: Calculated in accordance with the calculation method indicated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in the "Implementation Manual of the Stress Check Program Based on the Industrial Safety and Health Act" (the ratio of high-stress employees is about 10% of the total).