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Cultivation of Employee-friendly Workplaces/Safety and Health

Promoting the Creation of an Employee-friendly Working Environment

We are implementing work style reform to contribute to employing and retaining excellent human resources and are engaging continuously in the improvement of work-life balance. We also implemented the promotion of DX for operational efficiency, improved the system using IT, and introduced a super flexible working hour system, telecommuting system, and interval work system where the core working time is removed for the creation of attractive work environment. In FY2022, improvement was seen in work style reform in association with a situation where a new normal work style was established to an extent under the COVID-19 catastrophe, resulting in an average of 15.9 hours of overtime per month and 66.0% of employees taking paid vacation days. We will further enhance flexible work styles, operational efficiency, and the amount of annual leave taken. In FY2023, we aim to decrease the average monthly overtime work hours per employee to 13 hours or less, and the percentage of employees taking paid vacation days to 70% or more and use them to enhance our competitiveness in employment and retaining excellent human resources.

[System that promotes flexible work styles]

Flexible working hours
We have introduced a super flexible working hours system that the eliminates core time throughout company, excluding some job types, departments and ranks. By allowing employees to choose diverse work styles, we improve their work efficiency and help them better balance work obligations and family obligations, such as childcare and nursing care. Since FY2021, we have made it possible for employees to take summer holiday on any day between July and September, except for certain occupations, and have increased the flexibility of taking vacations.
Telecommuting system
In order to achieve "fostering a sense of unity" and "various work styles" at the same time, we have introduced a telecommuting system where the upper limit of frequency of telecommuting system is "set by department," as a system where employees can show the maximum performance based on the job type. In addition, we emphasize communication between employees and, as a company-wide operation, we established opportunities for face-to-face communication between all team members two times or more per month in principle.
  • If there are other reasons, such as childrearing, nursing care, etc., the limit on frequency is eliminated.
Hourly paid leave system
Although annual paid leave may be taken in half-day units, we have made changes so that up to five days’ worth (eight hours per day) of paid leave per year can be taken in hourly units. This system is designed to enable employees to work flexibly to suit their needs.
Selective retirement system
The retirement age is 60 years old, but under certain conditions, if they wish to retire when they reach 55 years old, a special surcharge will be paid in addition to the retirement allowance to support their life planning.
Support of the transfer
Under certain conditions, if they are between the ages of 45 to less than 55 retire for independent self-employment, a special surcharge will be paid in addition to the retirement allowance for the purpose of supporting the start-up of a new life.

[Systems that exceed the standards specified by labor-related laws]

Childcare leave
The statutory period of childcare leave is, in principle, until the child reaches 1 year of age (maximum 2 years of age for certain reasons). However, our employees can take childcare leave until the last day of the month when the child reaches 3 years of age.
Shortened work hours for childcare
Although Japanese law stipulates that shortened work hours for childcare can be utilized until the child becomes three years old, we allow employees to shorten their working hours by up to two hours per day until March 31 of the year in which their child finishes the third grade of elementary school. In addition, as support for employees who desire to be reinstated from childcare leave earlier than scheduled, moving up the scheduled end date of childcare leave (moving up reinstatement) is allowed in principle.
Nursing care leave
Although Japanese law stipulates that nursing care leave can be taken up to 93 days in total per family member in need of care, we allow employees to take nursing care leave for up to a year in total.

[Legally required systems]

Shortened work hours for nursing care
An employee caring for a family member in care-requiring condition may shorten his/her working hours by up to two hours per day, aside from the period of nursing care leave.
Nursing leave system
Within the law, employees can take care leave to care for a child who has not yet entered elementary school and to care for a family member in need of assistance. Furthermore, our employees can take sick/injured childcare leave until the end of March of the third year of elementary school. Our employees can take 5 days off per year if they have one family member, or 10 days off (unpaid) on a day, or half day basis if they have two or more family members.

[Various leave and subsidy systems]

While employees may take leave when they cannot come to work due to attendance to weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies of their own or their family members, moving for job transfer, and accidents, disasters, and other events of force majeure, we also have systems in which special paid holidays can be taken under other circumstances.

Accumulated leave
Under this system, our employees can set aside expired annual paid leave under certain conditions and use the time for reasons such as personal injury/illness, family care, infertility treatment, or secondary examination of regular health checkups. Some employees take paid leave for sudden diseases of children.
Childcare participation encouragement leave
We allow employees to take up to two days of leave for child-raising until the child reaches the age of 1. This system can be used in a wide range of situations such as regular health checkups and immunization.
Maternity protection leave
A female employee who is pregnant or within one year after childbirth can take leave up to the number of days specified according to the pregnancy period to receive health guidance or a health examination. Besides reasons such as health guidance and a health examination, this leave may be taken up to five days during the pregnancy period when work is not possible due to morning sickness, threatened premature delivery, etc.
Volunteer leave, and bone-marrow donor leave
To encourage employees to participate in volunteer activities, we have introduced a volunteer leave system, under which special paid leave of up to five days a year may be granted. We have also introduced a bone marrow donor leave system to grant special paid leave (necessary period for bone marrow donation) to employees who donate bone marrow.
Subsidies for day-care centers and babysitting
A subsidy is available upon application to eligible employees with preschool children whose spouse is also working when they use day-care centers or babysitting services. Even if the spouse is not working, a subsidy will be provided when such a facility or service is used due to the spouse’s illness.
Subsidies for sick child care
A subsidy is available upon application to eligible employees with children under the age of two whose spouse is also working when it becomes necessary to use a sick child care facility or service. Even if the spouse is not working, a subsidy will be provided when such a facility or service is used due to the spouse’s illness.
Support for medical checkup
Our employees who are 35 years of age or older can take a comprehensive medical examination in lieu of an annual legal health checkup, and we bear all expenses. Furthermore, we also support comprehensive medical examination for dependent spouses who are 35 years of age or older.

[Other systems and benefits]

Support for employees with cancer
Employees who are diagnosed with cancer will work in the midst of many challenges, including regular hospital visits, side effects from various treatments, and financial problems. To support employees who wish to continue working while receiving cancer treatment, we have established various systems, including a leave of absence extension system, an income guarantee system to eliminate non-earning periods, a system that allows employees to take their accumulated leave in half-day units, and a system that allows employees to work shorter hours for cancer treatment. Furthermore, we have established a workplace support system to ensure employees with cancer receive adequate support in their workplace. To disseminate this workplace support system widely to our employees, we have created a handbook and posted it on our intranet. We are also working to improve colleagues’ understanding and provide necessary work adjustments to enable employees with cancer to continue working while receiving treatment. Thus, we are implementing multifaceted initiatives to support employees with cancer.
Use of company cars to pick up and drop off children
MRs are allowed to use company cars for the purpose of drop-off and pickup of their children from day-care centers.
Childcare Future Concierge [day-care center enrollment support system]
In order to support the smooth reinstatement of employees who have been taking childcare leave, our employees can use information provision services by external institutions, such as providing a daycare center matching service, various consultation services and other content..
Re-employment registration system
We provide an opportunity for former employees who left the company because of difficulty in balancing work and family life due to major life events, such as marriage, childbirth, childcare or family care, to return to the company when certain conditions are met.
Temporary re-employment system
Employees who have retired after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 may be reemployed as temporary employees up to the age of 65 when certain conditions are met.
Employee stock ownership association
When employees join the treasury stock investment association, they receive incentives from the company according to the number of reserves. We recommend it as part of employee asset management.
Using the Welfare Website (Fukuri Kosei Club)
Employees will be able to utilize a benefit package that includes international and local travel, hotel accommodations, leisure facility tickets, car services, interior accessories, shopping for items such as sundry goods, movie theater tickets, fitness, and restaurants at special prices and plans.
Use of contract recreation center
Contract recreational facilities such as Tokyu Harvest Club (37 facilities nationwide), Daiwa Royal Hotel (24 facilities nationwide), and ANA Crowne Plaza Resort Appi Kogen, etc. can be available.
Residential Support
A variety of residential supports for employees can be available including leased company dormitories for single employees, company housing for transferred employees, housing allowances, and housing subsidies.
Congratulation or condolence payment system
Payment supports for employees’ life events can be available, such as marriage congratulatory money, childbirth congratulatory money, and children's entrance congratulatory money. In case of illness and injury, illness and injury allowances, condolence money and/or disaster condolence money etc. will be paid.
Group long-term disability (GLTD) system
If an employee is absent from work for a long period of time due to an illness or injury, and the period of payment of illness and injury allowance and additional illness and injury allowance provided by the health insurance society has expired, the employee will have no income. For such a case, we have introduced a system in which the company pays the premium and the insurance company compensates for a certain amount of income up to the age of 60.

Efforts made regarding wages

We comply with the Minimum Wage Law and pay our employees more than the minimum wage. We protect the lives of our employees and promote the creation of workplaces where employees can work with peace of mind.

Regular feedback on evaluations for employees

We have adopted an interview system of activity goals for the purpose of improving employees' motivation to work and developing human resources. Through interviews with supervisors, all employees set goals for their activities once every six months and align their goals based on our vision. In the middle of the term, the progress of the activity goals is confirmed, and the course is revised in an interim meeting with the manager. At the end of the term, feedback is provided about the overall performance of the activities, individual strengths and weaknesses, and evaluation results, and the next term activity plan, development policy, and future career development are discussed through the summary meeting and feedback meeting of the evaluation results. As described above, we are implementing the system by holding eight times a year interviews to increase employee satisfaction, leading to human resource development. Evaluation consists of performance evaluation and behavior evaluation; the performance evaluation evaluates the degree of achievement against individual goals based on the outcomes and process each employee used, and the behavior evaluation is based on how the employees behaved compared to the required behaviors determined according to each employee’s roles; results that combine the performance evaluation and the behavior evaluation are the final evaluation. In addition, multiple evaluators evaluate in principle, which ensures objectivity and fairness, and the results of evaluations are reflected in employee compensation.

Safety and Health

As safety and health risk management activities, we are implementing potential risk management by "compliance with laws and regulations," and industrial safety risk management for potential risks that are "matters exceeding laws and regulations."
Concerning compliance with laws and regulations, we carefully inspect the action status for legal requirements that have been organized for each plant, laboratory, office, and other bases. We also implement "EHS Self-Inspection" where the sustainability department visits each site for investigation, checks the appropriateness of operations based on laws and regulations and omissions of actions, corrects defects, and thereby continues to improve in view of firm compliance with laws and regulations related to occupational safety and health.
Matters exceeding laws and regulations are potential risks. For example, work environment standard values have not been established by the national government for pharmaceuticals manufactured by our company. However, employees who handle them may be exposed to an amount greater than that from which actions as a drug can be observed, through the operation. Concerning the aforementioned risks where employees are exposed to chemical substances handled at plants and laboratories, we implement risk assessment and exposure measurement and take appropriate measures based on the risk. In addition, concerning potential risks in daily operations and risks leading to accidents, we implement risk assessment to identify issues. For risks at the middle level or higher, we consider that they must be corrected and engage in activities. These activities are shared and opinions on them are exchanged at the safety and health committee at each site and at the EHS committee that is held semi-annually. We thereby strive to provide a safe work environment for employees. In addition, at the safety and health committee, the correction of issues identified during safety and health patrols, which are implemented from the perspectives of checking fire prevention measures and disaster-prevention equipment, such as fire, etc., checking the safe handling of machines, checking the completeness of safety operations, checking transfer operations, checking sorting, organizing, and cleaning, etc., are discussed.
At offices in headquarters where a health committee is established, various measures to maintain employee health are examined at monthly health committees based on the results of work environment measurements. In addition, a central health committee is held semi-annually to share information and exchange opinions concerning reporting on health management activity status, company-wide health matters, and details and issues examined at safety and health committees at each site.
From FY2020, we have worked to increase employees' safe by equipping all sales vehicles with AI-based telematics (in-vehicle device with communication facility) and detecting unsafe driving behavior. This function helps to reduce not only the safety of employees but also CO2 emissions by reducing traffic accidents and violations, and improving fuel efficiency by driving and eco-driving.

In FY2022, the number of lost time injuries was 1 and lost-time injuries frequency rate was 0.16. For details including past data, please click here.

Relationship with the Labor Unions

We have two labor unions: the ONO Pharmaceutical Labor Union, which is a nationwide organization, and the ONO Pharmaceutical Chemical & General Workers’ Union at the Joto Pharmaceutical Product Development Center. As of March 31, 2023, the ONO Pharmaceutical Labor Union had 1,885 members and the ONO Pharmaceutical Chemical & General Workers’ Union had 13 members. Both unions have good relationships with the company.

ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO.,LTD., ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO.,LTD., system

Efforts made to promote employees’ health

Health Up Declaration 2018

Based on our corporate philosophy, Dedicated to the Fight against Disease and Pain, we desire to contribute to society through the creation of innovative drugs. In order to continue to make bold efforts toward the realization of our corporate philosophy, it is important to ensure that all employees are both mentally and physically healthy, that their workplaces allow them to fully demonstrate their abilities, and that the daily lives of employees and their families are fulfilling. We declare that employees, companies, labor unions, occupational health staff, and health insurance society will actively engage as a single team in maintaining and improving the health of employees and their families.

April 2018
Gyo Sagara
President, Representative Director
ONO PHARMACEUTICAL Co., Ltd.

Basic policy
  1. We will promote the maintenance and improvement of the health of employees and their families through the Health Up Committee, consisting of representatives from the company, labor unions, occupational health staff, and health insurance society.
  2. Employees will actively engage in health management for themselves and their families.
Major efforts being made:
  1. To realize completely non-smoking premises according to passive smoking countermeasures.
  2. To proactively support measures from disease prevention and early detection and treatment to reinstatement.
  3. To promote supports for the prevention of mental disorders, early detection, and prompt responses, to reinstatement and the prevention of recurrence.
  4. To develop an environment where employees proactively work on health maintenance/improvement.
ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO.,LTD., ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO.,LTD., system

Organizational structure to promote health management

Support for Disease Prevention, Early Detection and Early Treatment

  • All our employees are required to undergo health checkups once a year, and of these, employees aged 35 years or older can undergo a comprehensive medical examination in lieu of statutory health checkups. Excluding unavoidable reasons such as absence from work, the proportion of subjects undergoing comprehensive medical examination in FY2022 was 99.9%.
  • We hold contracts with medical facilities nationwide for thorough medical checkups. The number of contract facilities as of April 2023 was 226. We work to make it easier for our employees and their family members to receive thorough medical checkups.
  • We assist with expenses for cancer screenings. Many employees receive optional cancer-related screenings at the time of a thorough medical checkup. We provide mail-in cervical cancer screening kits to female employees under 35 years old.
  Medical examination rate Target
Stomach cancer screening 96.1% 100%
Lung cancer screening 99.9% 100%
Colorectal cancer screening 93.3% 100%
Breast cancer screening 89.0% 100%
Cervical cancer screening 38.9% 70%
  • Regular screenings for uterine cancer are recommended every two years.
  • We strongly encourage employees who have been identified as having a high risk of lifestyle-related diseases or have shown abnormal findings in various screenings but have not undergone re-examination or detailed examinations, to receive medical examination recommendations and health guidance from our occupational health staff. We also recommend their participation in specific health guidance programs.
  Participation rate of specified health guidance Treatment continuation rate*
FY2022 66.1% 31.3%
  • The treatment continuation rate refers to the percentage of individuals aged 40 and above who have undergone health checkups and are currently taking medication for conditions such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes.

The rate of employees on leave due to illness or injury in FY2022 was 1.7%. We will continue to promote health promotion initiatives in order to enhance employees' health literacy and well-being.

Mental Health Measures

  • To promote prevention, early detection, and early treatment of mental health problems, we conduct in-house training on mental health and individual consultations by industrial health staff. We also work in cooperation with industrial physicians to promote employees’ mental well-being.
  • We conduct stress checks once a year for all employees. The proportion of employees who received stress checks was 98.7% in FY2021, and 98.3% in FY2022, approaching the target of 100%. After the checks, we conduct a stress check group analysis and work to continuously improve each workplace based on the analysis results. Furthermore, The percentage of high-stress workers was 4.4% in FY 2022.
  • In addition to the stress check, which is performed once a year, we encourage employees to answer a simple self-check questionnaire, which can be taken whenever necessary.
  • We developed a system by establishing a free external fitness consultation window for employee mental and physical fitness so that employees and their families can consult experts by phone or email in addition to face-to-face consultation.

Measures against Passive Smoking and Promotion of Health

  • Since April 2019, we have completely banned smoking on its premises. We also conduct in-house questionnaire surveys on tobacco and publicize the results to raise awareness and motivate employees to quit smoking. We are promoting awareness-raising activities systematically, including producing and displaying original posters that use illustrations written by employees.
  • Also, to support employees who try to quit smoking, we provide subsidies for outpatient smoking cessation treatment and an online smoking cessation program. We are taking various anti-smoking measures to promote and maintain our employees’ health. The percentage of our employees who were smokers in FY2022 was 14.2%, down from 15.5% in FY2021. We aim to achieve 13.0% or lower in FY2023
  • We hold a walking campaign every year. In addition to all employees, employees' families, temporary employees, and subcontract workers are subject to this program. This program allows employees to participate voluntarily not only by themselves, but also with their families and volunteers in teams. In addition, we hand out local specialties from the earthquake-affected areas to individuals who have achieved a certain goal as achievement awards. In FY2022, we distributed a total of approximately 5 tons of rice (equivalent to 5 million yen). The activity has become more prevalent year by year, which leads to the habit of walking. The participation rate was 47% in FY2021 and 52% in FY2022, and we are targeting 60% in FY2023.
  • Sessions to measure body composition, blood vessel age, bone density, etc. are held each year at major business sites. Participants can check the conditions of muscles and bones that are not made clear by health checkups alone, and they can also receive individual advice on diet and exercise from medical staff members. The number of participants is increasing year by year.

Number of participants in walking campaign

graph

Health Management Support

  • In October 2021, we opened a health management portal site that integrates the transmitting and sharing of health information and health promotion content. According to an internal questionnaire conducted in FY2022, 67% of employees are satisfied with our company's health promotion activities, and 85% of employees are aware of their own self-care. We will promote efforts to encourage employees to consider self-care as their own issues by bringing together interviews of the Representative Director, Chairman of the Board & CEO on health promotion and other health-related contents, and will improve the quality of activities.
  • We have linked the health management portal site with an existing site where employees can check the results of their thorough medical checkups and periodic health checkups at any time via their terminals. The contents of the portal site include information to help employees accurately understand checkup results and improve their lifestyle habits and personalized advice on lifestyle according to individual health conditions. We are working to enhance the contents of the portal site to raise employees’ awareness of their health.
  • We plan and promote effective initiatives that lead to improvements in employee presenteeism*1 and absenteeism*2 by utilizing the annual questionnaire on health management effectiveness verification.
  • Calculate the monthly loss per employee using QQmethod as the measurement method.
    If there is any health problem, we ask questions such as “What is the health problem that has the most impact on your work”, “How many days in 30 days have you had the symptom?” etc, After understanding how much work you will have compared to when you have no symptoms, multiply the percentage of performance reduction when you have symptoms by the average hourly wage to calculate the amount of loss per person per month.
    FY2021: 56,396 yen(response rate 81.8%), FY2022: 61,987 yen (response rate 83.2%)
    FY2023 target: 31,460 yen (95% compared to FY2019 [pre-COVID])
  • Calculate the average number of days used for sickness absence and sick leave system for all employees.
    FY2021: 1.03 days, FY2022: 1.62 days
    FY2023 target: ≤ 1.00 days

Health Management Efforts

In March 2024, we were selected for “Health & Productivity Stock Selection 2024,” which is jointly implemented by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. This system selects companies that are implementing particularly outstanding initiatives from among listed companies that are strategically engaged in health management. In addition, we have also been accredited for six consecutive years as a “Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization 2024 – White 500 (Large Enterprise Category).”
We set the difference between an employee’s health age® and actual age as a KPI item as one of our activities to enhance human capital in FY2023, and are working to promote our employees’ awareness on their health. We set the goal of increasing the difference between an employee’s health age and actual age from -1.8 years in FY2022 to -3.0 years in FY2026 and will continue to engage in health management through different types of activities.

Strategic Map (Visualization of Health Management Strategies)

For effective and efficient health management, we have clarified the important issues and evaluation indicators (KPI) that we want to solve, and we have visualized the flow of initiatives toward the resolution of important issues as a story.

Strategic map of health management

Social value: Dissemination of health management to suppliers and local communities
Corporate value: An increase in the market capitalization of stocks
Health resource: Human and environmental health resources

ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO.,LTD., ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO.,LTD., system