Initiatives to Maintain and Improve Employee Health

Sumitomo Forestry Group is committed to health management in order to create an environment where people can work in a healthy way, 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, 12.7% in fiscal 2023, and 18.7% in 2024. 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, as are the percentage of employees who fall under the management criteria of 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. The 2024 spring event was attended by 1,322 people across the Sumitomo Forestry Group. We also held an event called "Hokuriku Support: Charity Reconstruction Walk," to benefit the Noto Peninsula, which was affected by an earthquake and heavy rains. Donations were made to local organizations based on the total number of steps of all the participants. The event far exceeded its goal, reaching approximately 99.45 million steps, with a donation of 500,000 yen. Participation was up 27% over the previous year. After the event, about 80% of the participants said they were either "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with it, with many saying "I participated because it was a charity event." Furthermore, a growing number of employees have established an ongoing exercise routine as a result of these events. The number of Group companies participating also increases with each passing year, making the event established throughout the Group.

Health Literacy Education

Sumitomo Forestry aims to encourage greater awareness of people's mental and physical health, improve lifestyles, and increase productivity. To that end, we offer various e-learning courses on topics such as sleep, smoking, cancer, how to read the results of health checkups, etc. Since 2023, based on the overall trend of results for employee health checkups and stress checks, we have created a proprietary e-learning program that incorporates content covering certain issues, such as sleep, diet, and exercise. We have made this program for all employees in order to raise awareness of health. The participation rate in fiscal 2024 was 91.1%.

Furthermore, to help address women's health issues, we held an online training called "Men Should Hear This Too! A Seminar on Women's Health for All" in November 2024. It featured an invited lecturer and focused on the topics of menstruation and menopause. 180 people participated, of which 30% were men. The training conveyed the importance of enhancing quality of life through the company's internal systems, appropriate use of medical facilities, and proactive menstrual management. 90% of respondents in a post-course survey said they "acquired new knowledge, skills, or ways of thinking" and that the training was "useful."

Seminars for Health Supervisors

Sumitomo Forestry conducted two online practical seminars for health supervisors in July and August 2024. In July, 61 employees took part in the seminar, which was held to solidify the occupational health and safety system (build a collaborative system) and improve the practical skills of industrial health personnel. It focused on how to respond to employees whose health checkups revealed something of concern. In August, 66 employees participated in the seminar and learned how to handle overworked employees through the health management system operated in-house. These seminars, including annual lectures on relevant laws and regulations, as well as internal company rules, were designed to educate general administrative managers and those in charge of health management practices nationwide. They resulted in the improved responsiveness of each site's sanitation management systems, and we will continue to hold them moving forward.

Eliminating Absenteeism and Presenteeism

We are using absenteeism and presenteeism as indicators to maintain and improve the health of our employees. The method we use for measuring presenteeism was changed in fiscal 2023 from the WHO-PHQ method to the University of Tokyo's Single-Item Presenteeism Question. Presenteeism showed improvements over the previous year. We will continue to promote health management moving forward, with the aim of eliminating losses caused by absenteeism and presenteeism.

*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

*Measured through additional questions during the stress check