The Health of Each and Every Suntorian Serves as the Source of the Yatte Minahare Spirit
What we are aiming for in health management is enriched, fulfilling lives for everyone, including employees and their families. At the core of our health management approach, we want our employees and their families to be able to lead healthy, energetic lives and to work with a sense of challenge to make their lives fulfilling. We are convinced that the promotion of health management based on this concept will lead to further challenges for the Group and is linked with its future.
Suntory is working extensively to improve health checkups and prevent lifestyle-related diseases which can lead to various illnesses as one of its priority areas, and is developing various measures.
Suntory is also working to improve daily support by building a system that allows employees to consult with occupational physicians and nurses, and expanding new consultation services.
With mental and physical health as the foundation, we aim to achieve a state of well-being where employees can mutually enhance their work and private lives in conjunction with work style reform.
Suntory Holdings Limited
Vice President, Member of the Board, Director
Global Chief Health Officer (GCHO)
Director, Suntory Health Insurance Society
Shinichiro Hizuka
Suntory’s Aim for Health Management
In 2014, we issued the “Health Promotion Declaration”. Later in 2016, after management appointed a Global Chief Health Officer (GCHO), the new “Health Management Declaration” was set forth.
Health Management Declaration (Established in 2016)
Based on the idea that the health of our employees and their families is the source of Suntory’s challenge and innovation,
we aim to have all employees work in a healthy and motivated state, both physically and mentally.
Basic Policy
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●We will promote the creation of a foundation for employee health by improving the workplace environment and through work style reform.
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●We will work to improve health literacy by providing health information and individual support to employees.
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●We will work to improve lifestyle habits and promote physical health through prevention, early detection, and support for balancing work and family life.
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●We will provide support so that each employee can understand about mental health and take appropriate care.
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●Through these efforts, we aim to help our employees and their families realize enriched, fulfilling lives.
Health Promotion System
Health Consultation Support System
ISuntory has introduced a nurse in charge system where nurses are assigned to all business locations to support all employees. The nurse in charge acts as a contact point for employee consultations, while industrial physicians, psychiatrist, clinical psychotherapists, and others work together to provide consultation services and support to allow employees to work while maintaining good health.
In addition to our in-house occupational health staff, we have also set up external consultation services such as the E-Partner Consultation Service, which provides consultation on private family issues, and First Call, an online service that provides medical consultations 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
| Internal Consultation Services |
With Nurse | Provides support as a person deeply familiar with each employee through daily contact, including health interviews. |
|---|---|---|
| With Occupational Physician | With the supervising occupational physician taking a central role, occupational physicians provide post-treatment measures for regular health checkups, guidance for various interviews, and support for balancing treatment and work. | |
| With Psychiatrist | Psychiatrists who are familiar with mental health issues in the workplace work together with occupational physicians and nurses to support employees. | |
| With Clinical Psychotherapist | Counseling based on psychological knowledge is provided to care for employees who are troubled to help them resolve their problems. | |
| External Consultation Services |
EAP | An external consultation service that allows employees to consult with an external counselor about a variety of issues, including personal and family problems. |
| Online chat-based consultation service | An online service that allows employees to consult with a doctor via chat or video phone 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. |
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*1AP (Employees Assistance Program): An employee support program provided by businesses outside the company. In response to consultations from companies, the program provides stress diagnosis, counseling (telephone counseling, e-mail counseling, and face-to-face counseling), medical recommendations, mental health education and training, consultation for human resources and managers, and programs to support an employee’s return to work.
2025 Mid-term Goals
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*1Those that answered "Has been exercising more than 30 minutes, at least twice a week, for a year or more".
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*2Those that answered "Already working on it" for a question "Do you plan to improve your lifestyle habit such as exercising and daily diet?".
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*Regular health checkup implementation rate 2020 Results: 99.4%
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*Stress check implementation rate 2020 Results: 93.9%
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*Reexamination consultation rate 2020 Results: 57.0%
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*The results are of Suntory Holdings Limited, Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd., and other 14 Group companies
Various Measures
As a foundation for all activities, we conduct not only regular health checkups but also health consultations with employees conducted by in-house nurses to support individual health maintenance and encourage participation in measures tailored to each employee's condition.
Work Environment Creation/Health Literacy Training
We are working on health literacy education to foster health awareness among the younger generation and those who are not currently experiencing any health issues. In the monthly Healthma newsletter distributed by our nursing staff, we try to make people feel closer to health by introducing health information and measures. We also strive to provide opportunities for health seminars for the entire company, as well as seminars for each office in line with the issues they face.
We promote health management while firmly connecting that management to work style innovation.
Physical Health - Efforts for improving daily habits
We have collectively named our preventive measures for lifestyle-related diseases the Suntory Health Challenge and are implementing a variety of measures. In particular, in addition to specified health guidance, we provide the same level of guidance as the specified health guidance to those under 40 years old, and focus on raising awareness among the younger generation. We are also working on early detection and support for balancing work and family.
Mental Health - Initiatives for Mental Health
We have created two mental health management initiatives for the prevention and early detection of mental health problems: our self-care initiatives which aim to make employees aware of stress and take appropriate measures to counter it, and our line-care initiatives in which managers strive to improve the working environment and provide individual counseling. We are properly engaged in various health care efforts that include self-care in group training, courses in employee care overseen by a line manager, introduction of complete stress checks and counseling through clinical psychologist. We have also put in place a return to work support system for employees on leave to smoothly return to work.
Examples of Mental Health Care Initiatives
Global Health Management × Sustainability Walking Event "One Suntory Walk"
Content of the Policy
One Suntory Walk is a program aimed to raise awareness of health among the participants and make exercise a habit through competing the number of steps they take within a month. The program has been held every year since 2017 targeting all Suntory employees, totaling approximately 40,000. This event is considered to be an event that unite Suntory globally and help promote health management. Engaging in sustainability of water, source of Suntory Group's business activities, at a global scale is put forth as message and core aspect of the event to raise awareness among the employees.
2020 activity results
One of the participants commented that awareness toward number of steps taken raise during October along with the will to increase them. In addition, walking rallies are held independently at each office at the same time, proving that the exercise is becoming a habit through events. We will continue to hold this event every year with "October is One Suntory Walk month" as the slogan.
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●Number of participants: 7,654
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●Steps taken and distances traveled: 880million steps (668,644km)
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●Participating countries: 38
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●Total donations: 75,640 USD (8,017,840 JPY)
10USD was donated per participant to MSF Covid-19 Crisis Fund of the Medecins sans Frontieres
Photo posted on the bulletin board by a participant
Various Health Measures
| Various policies | ||
|---|---|---|
| Illnesses, injuries, and disasters | Special leave that uses expired leave | Up to 60 days of leave can be accumulated from up to ten days of leave each year for paid leave not taken for injuries or illnesses occurring outside of work, for infertility treatments, and for the care of family |
| Hospital room subsidies for remaining balance | Subsidizes 70% of the costs incurred for rooms outside of the health insurance coverage while hospitalized | |
| Support Program for the Cost of Advanced Cancer Treatments | Subsidies for the Costs of Advanced Treatments Outside the Suntory Health Insurance Society Policy such as Heavy Ion Radiotherapy (up to 5 Million Yen per person per year) | |
| Subsidies for specific infertility treatment | If the patient receives "specified infertility treatment" approved by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 100,000 yen will be paid for the first treatment and 50,000 yen for subsequent treatments. (Maximum 5 times per person) | |
| Use of physical examinations | Employees over 40 years of age may have require physical examinations (once a year) without any cost to the individual for items designated by the company as periodic health assessments | |
| People over 30 years of age (including dependents) may have physical examinations (up to once a year) and only pay 5,000 yen of a one-day examine | ||
| Stress checks | Held four times a year and is always available | |
| Dental examinations | Once per year | |
| Mental Health Consultation | Consultation services from employees and their family members living with them on various matters related to the workplace, home, and private life through telephone, e-mail, online interviews, and face-to-face meetings. Consultations are available even for matters that are difficult to discuss within the company. | |
| Chat-type medical consultation | Medical consultation service available via chat or video call from PC or smartphone, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and family use is also possible. (To be introduced in 2021) | |
Number of users for various health measures
(employees)
| 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Illnesses, injuries, and disasters | Special leave that uses expired leave | 65 | 34 | 57 | 68 | 34 |
| Hospital room subsidies for remaining balance | 36 | 38 | 32 | 65 | 39 | |
| Physical examinations (over 40 years of age) | 3,333 | 3,286 | 3,648 | 3,721 | 3,805 | |
| Physical examinations (over 30 years of age) | 1,014 | 1,141 | 1,242 | 1,184 | 1,119 | |
| Physical examinations (family) | 2,046 | 2,122 | 2,207 | 2,214 | 1,540 | |
| Dental examinations | 3,632 | 3,773 | 3,803 | 3,737 | 3,680 | |
| Mental health consultation service (telephone and in-person)*. | 110 | 59 | 70 | 252 | 201 | |
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*Until 2018, we used the health telephone counseling system.
Suntory Health Challenge 2020 Program
| Program | Description | Number of participants Number of users (approx.) |
|---|---|---|
| Health Mileage | System to assign points for efforts to better health such as daily walking and radio exercises as well as health check-ups that can then be saved and exchanged for prizes | 8,000 |
| Radio exercises | Radio exercises are conducted every day at every office | 8,000 |
| Under 40 years old Specific health guidance standard | Online guidance for those under the age of 40 who meet the specified health guidance standards set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare | 400 |
| Health seminars (led by outside lecturers) | "Cancer in the working generation", seminars and sharing of experiences by specialist doctors and cancer survivors | 600 |
| Support in quitting smoking | Smoking cessation clinic support and In-house smoking cessation support "Mimamori-tai" system | 230 |
| Walking Event | Walking Event Held with Overseas Group Companies as a Health × Environmental Management Initiative | 8,000 |
Support of the Wellness of even the Employees' Families
The Suntory Group is supporting the lifestyle of employees and their families from a broad range of aspects. External consultation windows such as mental-health consultation and telephone consultation as well as the general SOS contact window are available to support a wide range of needs from health consultations to even legal consultations. We are receiving consults from our employees and their families. We have also established a system that plays a role in issues directly confronting the lifestyles of our employees in addition to resolving their fears with programs such as the subsidy program to assist in physical examinations of our employees and their families.
Promoting Health Management Within and Outside the Group
Suntory Group regularly exchange opinion among its Group companies and companies outside the Group to further promote health management. Gathered information is used to strengthen industrial health system and implement new health related measures. Results of a questionnaire conducted on Suntory Group companies showed that approximately 60% of the companies that returned an answer had issues related to industrial health system, which in turn lunched the start of building a Group-wide industrial health system. We also offer promoting health management to other companies through the use of our healthcare products and services.