SPL26 DEVELOPMENT, SUCCESS FACTORS, AND CHALLENGES OF “HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY MANAGEMENT” INITIATIVES IN JAPAN
Authors: Mori Koji 
Published: July 2024

1. Rapid Population Aging in Japan: Japan’s working-age population is rapidly declining due to a decreasing birthrate and aging population. Consequently, extending the national retirement age is unavoidable to secure a workforce and maintain social security systems such as medical care and pensions. To enable employment for older individuals, it is essential to improve workers’ health and work fitness.

2. Health and Productivity Management Initiatives in Japan: Well-designed workplace health promotion programs have demonstrated a positive return on investment by reducing sickness absence, and medical costs, and enhancing job satisfaction. In response, the Japanese government has embraced “health and productivity management” (HPM) as a policy initiative, encouraging corporations to regard health promotion activities as an investment in their employees’ health.

This initiative encompasses several programs, the core of which are the HPM recognition programs. These include the HPM Stock Selection Program and the Certified HPM Corporation Recognition Program consists of large and small-medium enterprise sectors. Participation in these programs has increased annually, and "health and productivity management" has become a well-known term among employers, employees, and recruiters, far exceeding initial expectations.

3. HPM Survey Sheets: In these recognition programs, corporations are evaluated using self-administered HPM Survey Sheets. Participating corporations strive to achieve high scores on these sheets, requiring a design that enables the achievement of health and business outcomes, including becoming a preferred choice in labour and financial markets. This necessitates the HPM Survey Sheets to reflect the evidence and best practices in health promotion efforts and to disclose each corporation's efforts in a comparable format.

The HPM Survey Sheets are structured around four categories: "the positioning of HPM in the corporation’s philosophy and policies," "organized frameworks," "specific systems for implementing HPM," and "assessment and improvement." As outcomes, it anticipates health indicators linked to productivity, such as absenteeism, presenteeism, and work engagement. To facilitate strategic planning and the disclosure of efforts and outcomes, the "Guidebook for Disseminating Information regarding Health and Productivity Management" was created in 2016, and the "Guidelines for Health Investment Management Accounting" in 2020. Moreover, attaining a top title, equivalent to being among the top 500 large corporations, required agreeing to disclose the evaluation results of the HPM survey sheet and data on absenteeism, presenteeism, and work engagement.

4. Research efforts to improve the HPM initiatives: Efforts guided by the HPM survey and guidelines have been validated for their impact on health management outcomes, and various studies have been conducted to identify the factors contributing to the success of the HPM initiatives. Specifically, these studies aimed to 1) Determine whether companies with high survey scores achieve outcomes, 2) Identify the elements linked to outcomes, 3) Identify the factors significantly impacting presenteeism, and 4) Assess the effectiveness of the intangible assets created by HPM initiatives, particularly perceived organizational support. The findings from these studies have been utilized to improve measures, including revisions to the HPM Survey Sheets.

This presentation will discuss the success factors of HPM initiatives and the key points for better results based on research findings.