How workplace wellness changes the future for women at work: the front line of employee benefits

"I just don't feel right."

Many women working in offices get through the day carrying something like this. Health issues specific to women, from period pain to PMS to menopausal symptoms, are often at the pre-illness stage, which healthcare struggles to address.

Workplace wellness means thinking about staff health from a management point of view and acting on it strategically. Wellness that responds to health issues specific to women in particular does a great deal for both productivity and women's careers.

What women's health issues mean for a company

According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2024 published by the World Economic Forum, Japan ranks 118th of 146 countries on the gender gap index, which by world standards is a wide gap. In the economic sphere in particular, everything from labour force participation to the ratio of men and women in managerial work sits near the bottom.

Health issues specific to women are thought to have a great deal to do with this. According to a survey by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, about half of women staff said they had struggled at work because of a health issue specific to women. What effects does that have in practice?

Lost productivity through presenteeism

Being at work but with concentration and judgement below par is known as presenteeism. Because the loss is not visible the way absence is, it tends to be dismissed, but in practice it lowers efficiency and raises mistakes, and costs a company a great deal. Plenty of women staff work while carrying period pain, PMS or menopausal symptoms, and as a result often cannot perform as they otherwise would.

The risk of losing women staff

Where a company's understanding and support around health issues specific to women fall short, good people find it harder to stay. Around life events such as pregnancy and birth in particular, whether support exists has a large effect on whether a career continues. Without enough thought given to it, people may leave or their careers may break off. A company facing women's health issues seriously is an important part of not losing people.

How to support women at work through workplace wellness

So how do you practise wellness that responds to women's health issues? Let us look at effective approaches from companies leading the way.

Building arrangements that take health issues specific to women into account

For women to keep working with confidence, flexible arrangements matched to how they feel and to their stage of life matter. Not making people push through, and building an environment where support can be used naturally when needed, are the points to design around.

• Ways to rest when you need to: a workplace culture where menstrual leave can be taken without awkwardness
• Flexible working: flexitime, working from home and other choices about where and when to work
• Making screening easy to attend: time set aside and costs supported for gynaecological screening and the like

None of this is exotic; it amounts to building an environment where people can work with confidence day to day. Each person being able to value their own health raises the energy of the whole company in the end.

Health support through food with Yasai Yakuzen

Yasai Yakuzen, which combines the wisdom of yakuzen grounded in Chinese medicine with everyday vegetables, is drawing attention as a new approach to women's health issues. Because it uses supermarket vegetables rather than special kampo ingredients, anyone can keep it up without strain.

The programme offers support like this.

• The Yasai Yakuzen constitution check: seven questions make each person's constitution visible
• A chat for questions: individual advice from a yakuzen practitioner on everyday complaints
• Health reports: tendencies analysed by team, usable in planning
• Online learning: 40 three-minute videos, built for busy working people

What marks it out is that it comes at vaguely feeling off, a state healthcare struggles to address, through food.

What supporting women's health does for a company

What does a company gain by taking women's health support seriously?

Higher productivity and an end to presenteeism

Responding to health issues specific to women clears presenteeism, being at work with concentration and judgement below par. Women staff can then perform as they can, which raises productivity across the company.

A stronger position in hiring

Health measures have become a condition for being a company people choose, particularly among younger candidates and women. A company active on women's health has something that attracts good people and puts it ahead in the competition for them.

Health and Productivity Management certification

Support for women's health is among the assessment items in the Health and Productivity Management Organization certification scheme run by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. Certification improves the company's brand image and how it is regarded socially.

What leading companies do about women's health

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's site supporting women's health carries many examples of companies building environments where women and men alike can work in good health. Here is one worth looking at.

A leading example: Kao Corporation

Kao Corporation treats staff health as the foundation of the company's development and its contribution to society, and since its 2008 Kao Group Health Declaration it has worked actively on women's health. What marks it out is practical measures for women staff, including the many beauty advisers working across the country.

• A women's health help desk
  Kao has a women's health help desk that can be reached by email from anywhere in the country. Occupational physicians answer directly, covering how to deal with symptoms and what the company offers. Matters hard to raise face to face, such as fertility treatment, are easier to bring up, and use of the desk rises every year.
• Support for gynaecological cancer screening
  Gynaecological cancer screening is built into the regular health check, raising take-up and leading to earlier detection. Interviews and adjustments to work for returning after treatment are in place too, supporting an environment where people can keep working.
• Women's health seminars
  Occupational physicians and nursing staff run regular seminars on themes matched to each stage of life, covering pregnancy and birth, cancer, the menopause and lifestyle disease. Male staff are given the chance to attend too, building understanding of women's health across the company.
• Women's News on the intranet
  A theme matched to the season and to different age groups goes out once every three months. It gives staff a way to learn in line with how they feel and where they are in life, spreading sound knowledge and shaping the culture.

Kao works from the view that supporting women's health across the whole company gives each person confidence and underpins the company's sustained growth, and it stands as a leading example of building both the arrangements and the culture.

Source: https://www.bosei-navi.mhlw.go.jp/health/kao-co.ltd.html

Workplace wellness and the future for women at work

The relationship between workplace wellness and women's careers will matter more and more. In Japan, with its falling birthrate and ageing population, women's work is a precious management resource. Drawing the most from it depends on support on the health side.

A company facing women's health issues seriously and providing proper support goes beyond employee benefits into management strategy. Building an environment where women can work in good health and with energy leads to sustained growth and competitiveness.

There will be support for women's health your company can start tomorrow. From a small step, build the virtuous circle of workplace wellness and women at work. The future that wellness changes for women at work has already begun.