What workplace wellness does for recruiting: the data on hiring power

Workplace wellness means thinking about staff health from a management point of view and acting on it strategically. It treats health not as a benefit but as an investment in sustained growth and in the company's value. In Japan, with its falling birthrate and ageing population, the shrinking workforce is a serious issue: the working-age population is forecast to fall to 52.75 million by 2050.

Source: https://www.soumu.go.jp/johotsusintokei/whitepaper/ja/r04/html/nd121110.html

Amid this hard-fought competition for people, workplace wellness is drawing attention as a new source of hiring power. In attracting younger people and women in particular, it is becoming an important condition for being a company people choose.

What workplace wellness actually does in the hiring market

What effect does workplace wellness have in the hiring market?

According to a survey on ways of working carried out by Nikkei Inc. in September 2023, covering 600 job-hunting students and 300 people changing jobs, 60.4% of all respondents said a company's work on wellness, or whether it holds Health and Productivity Management certification, is decisive when choosing where to work. The figure was 64.8% among job-hunting students and 51.7% among those changing jobs, showing that wellness is weighed across a broad range of people.

In the same survey, asked what they want from a working environment, 54.6% chose being able to work while keeping mind and body well, the most common answer, which makes clear that wellness feeds straight into how people choose a workplace.

Source: Action Kenko Keiei, survey of job-hunting students and people changing jobs, 1 September 2023 (accessed 30 August 2025)

Certified companies also gain a considerable advantage in recruiting. Use of the certification logo improves the company image and strengthens the pitch on recruitment sites and in brochures. Wellness work also travels easily on social media, and word of mouth helps. The reputation that a company looks after its people's health becomes something job-hunters and job-changers talk about.

The data on what wellness does for hiring power

The effects of workplace wellness are not a matter of impressions; they are backed by data. According to a survey by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, companies scoring higher on the Health and Productivity Management Survey tended to earn relatively higher returns at lower risk. That means investors think better of them too, which raises company value.

Source: Action Kenko Keiei, the benefits of workplace wellness (accessed 30 August 2025)

On how wellness measures affect results, analysis by the Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry shows that setting out workplace wellness in the company's stated principles and acting on it has a positive effect on profit margins. Specifically, building wellness into those principles, holding data on staff health and running work-life balance measures were confirmed to have a good effect on both health outcomes and results.

Source: https://www.meti.go.jp/policy/mono_info_service/healthcare/downloadfiles/kenkokeieiyuryohojin_jireisyu200327.pdf

A case study of NSK Ltd., published on Guppy Health Care, operated by FiNC Technologies Inc., reports the concrete outcome that wellness work dispelled a negative image particular to the industry and improved the company's hiring power. The company lent every member of staff a smartphone and provided a health management app, raising health awareness and hiring power at the same time.

Source: https://www.guppy.healthcare/case/2766469/

Workplace wellness is not a cost but a strategic investment in attracting people and growing the company.

Workplace wellness and hiring power at smaller companies

Workplace wellness does a great deal for hiring power at smaller companies too. For smaller companies, where shortages of people are severe, it matters as a point of difference.

Local authorities and chambers of commerce increasingly run seminars and award schemes on promoting workplace wellness, widening the opportunities for a company to show what it is doing. Using that support, a smaller company can raise its appeal and turn it into the people it needs.

Five ways workplace wellness raises hiring power

Workplace wellness raises hiring power for reasons beyond simply being good for health. There are clear mechanisms at work.

First, it makes visible that the company values its people. Health and Productivity Management certification is objective proof that a company takes staff health seriously.

Second, it shows the company takes a long view. Investing in staff health says the company weighs sustained growth, not only short-term profit.

Third, it helps build a positive company culture. A culture that values staff health makes for a better place to work and a stronger sense of belonging, which in turn becomes something to say in recruiting.

Fourth, it becomes a point of difference in the hiring market. In attracting younger people and women in particular, wellness work is an important factor in their decision.

Fifth, it shows management run on data. Certification requires understanding staff health and measuring effects, which is evidence of a data-driven approach.

Why workplace wellness matters for attracting women

Workplace wellness works particularly well for attracting women. Consideration for health issues specific to women, such as PMS, the menopause, feeling the cold and constipation, is an important part of a workplace where women can work well.

A health support programme grounded in Chinese medicine, such as Yasai Yakuzen, is well regarded as concrete evidence that a company gives thought to women's health issues. What marks it out is that it comes at vaguely feeling off, a state healthcare struggles to address, through food.

Pairing support for women at work with workplace wellness sharply improves your competitiveness in hiring women. Companies holding both Health and Productivity Management certification and certification for supporting women at work report an increase in applications from women.

• How workplace wellness changes the future for women at work: the front line of employee benefits
• Health issues for women at work and what actually helps: the moves that raise company value

Practical steps for turning workplace wellness into hiring power

Turning workplace wellness into hiring power takes a strategic approach. Start by aiming for Health and Productivity Management certification. The criteria differ between the large enterprise category and the small and medium enterprise category, but both assess work across five areas: principles and policy, organisational structure, putting measures into practice, assessment and improvement, and legal compliance and risk management.

Next, make a point of showing your wellness work in recruiting. Set it out concretely on your recruitment site, in brochures and at information sessions, and use the certification logo. Using staff voices works well too. Gather comments from people whose health genuinely improved through the work, or who feel the workplace got better, and use them in recruiting.

Showing the effect in numbers matters as well. Concrete outcomes such as a higher take-up of health checks, improvement in presenteeism, where people are at work but less productive, and lower turnover all make the case more convincing.

Finally, tying wellness to other management measures, such as diversity and reform of working practices, works well. Pairing it with support for women at work has a particularly strong effect on attracting women.

Workplace wellness in practice with Yasai Yakuzen

Yasai Yakuzen is a health support programme that combines the wisdom of yakuzen, grounded in Chinese medicine, with a practical way of eating built on everyday vegetables. Because it uses vegetables from any supermarket rather than special kampo ingredients, anyone can keep it up without strain.

The corporate programme includes the Yasai Yakuzen constitution check (seven questions that make each person's constitution visible), a chat for questions with individual advice from a yakuzen practitioner, health reports analysing tendencies by team, and online learning of 40 three-minute videos.

Introducing these raises productivity and strengthens your hiring position through better staff health. What marks the programme out is that it comes at vaguely feeling off, a state healthcare struggles to address, through food.

Meeting women's health issues: what a self-care workplace wellness programme built on vegetables and yakuzen looks like

In summary: workplace wellness is a new weapon for hiring

Workplace wellness is not a benefit but a strategic investment in sustained growth and in the company's value. In a hard-fought competition for people in particular, it has become a new weapon for hiring.

The data bears it out: wellness work brings concrete recruiting effects, from a better company image to more applications to lower hiring costs. In attracting younger people and women in particular, it is an important point of difference. Turning it into hiring power takes a strategic approach: gaining certification, saying so clearly, using staff voices, putting the effect into numbers and tying it to other management measures.

As the workforce keeps shrinking, workplace wellness will matter more and more. Take it on and you get two effects at once, better staff health and stronger hiring, and with them sustained growth.

If you are considering introducing workplace wellness, do take a look at Workplace wellness built on vegetables and yakuzen. With a practical programme built on the wisdom of Chinese medicine and everyday vegetables, we support better staff health and stronger hiring.