Six steps for a mid-sized company starting workplace wellness: getting the most from what you spend

Workplace wellness, which treats staff health as a management resource worth investing in strategically, has been spreading fast among mid-sized companies. It is not an extension of employee benefits but an important management strategy that leads to sustained growth and competitiveness. For mid-sized companies, where attracting people is hard, it can be a weapon of differentiation.

According to AXA Life's study of smaller companies and workplace wellness, which surveyed 200 business owners and 15,000 working people across Japan, about 70% of staff at companies practising wellness said they find their work rewarding, a marked difference from companies that have not introduced it. The share saying they have dreams or goals for the future was also higher, showing that a positive outlook on life lifts motivation across the workplace.

The same study found high satisfaction on the physical side among staff at companies practising wellness, with 66.5% saying they were satisfied or fairly satisfied. Concrete measures such as regular health checks and gynaecological screening appear to give staff confidence and encourage greater health awareness.

Source: https://www2.axa.co.jp/pr/pdf/axa_hpm_actual.pdf

But are you thinking that with a limited budget and limited people, it would be hard at your company?

In fact, being mid-sized is exactly what makes the effects of workplace wellness show. The smaller the organisation, the greater the effect each person's health has on the performance of the whole. If only to get the most from a limited number of people, wellness is an essential strategy for a mid-sized company.

What workplace wellness actually brings

What does taking on workplace wellness actually bring a mid-sized company? Let us look at the numbers.

The first benefit for the company is better staff performance. In AXA Life's 2021 study of smaller companies and workplace wellness, covering 200 business owners and 15,000 working people across Japan, about 70% of staff at companies that had introduced wellness said they find their work rewarding, a clear difference from companies that had not. The share saying they have dreams or goals for the future was also higher, showing that a positive attitude lifts motivation across the workplace.

The same study found high satisfaction on the physical side among staff at companies practising wellness, with 66.5% saying they were satisfied or fairly satisfied. Concrete measures such as regular health checks and gynaecological screening appear to give staff confidence and encourage greater health awareness.

Workplace wellness also works on attracting people. Companies that push it not only keep staff longer but are thought better of in the hiring market. In hiring younger people and women in particular, it is becoming an essential condition for being a company people choose.

From the staff side too, workplace wellness brings a great deal. Greater health awareness and better work-life balance raise satisfaction at work and help in building a career over the long run. Individual follow-up based on health check results, and improvements to the workplace drawing on stress checks, make it possible to spot and deal with health risks early.

Six steps for a mid-sized company starting workplace wellness

So how do you actually start?

Here are six steps for a mid-sized company to introduce workplace wellness without strain. They are built from the experience of companies that gained Health and Productivity Management certification, with an eye to getting the most from what you spend. Work through them steadily and you can build something that lasts.

Five steps to introducing workplace wellness, a practical guide to getting it right

Step 1: commitment from leadership and setting goals

The first step to getting workplace wellness right is clear commitment from the top. Start with the president and board recognising that staff health is an important management resource, and issuing a wellness declaration.

In practice, that means writing the promotion of wellness into management policy and saying so across the company. It matters to set concrete numerical goals at this point, such as cutting turnover by 10% or improving the rate of abnormal findings in health checks. Clear goals also make it easier to measure the effect of what you do next.

Step 2: identifying health issues and planning measures

Next you need an accurate picture of your own health issues. Analyse health check and stress check results by department and age group, and make clear where the issues are and what they are.

Once concrete issues emerge, such as a high rate of obesity among men in their thirties or high stress in the sales department, work out measures to match. Surveying or interviewing staff at this point, and building in what they need and want, produces measures people actually join.

Step 3: building a structure to drive it

Driving wellness continuously works better with a dedicated lead or a committee. Choose representatives from each department, not only from HR, and build a structure that runs across the company. At smaller companies, appointing a single wellness lead first and widening the structure gradually is also effective. That lead becomes the point of contact with the health insurance society and the occupational physician.

Placing a wellness supporter at each site, for instance, and building a way for them to run health events and check in with people, allows activity that fits the realities of each site, and participation may rise sharply.

Step 4: putting concrete measures into practice

Act on the health issues you found. You do not need a large programme from the start. Beginning small and widening gradually is the realistic approach.

• Regular walking events
• A short stretching break during the working day
• An internal newsletter or notices on a health theme
• Seminars from outside speakers on food, sleep, mental health and the like
• A programme encouraging people to stop smoking

What matters is making it something people enjoy rather than something they are made to do. Build in an element of competition or play and participation rises of its own accord.

Step 5: measuring the effect and establishing a PDCA cycle

Improving wellness work continuously depends on measuring the effect and establishing a PDCA cycle. Measure indicators like these regularly and check whether what you are doing works:

• How health check results move over time
• Changes in stress check results
• Participation rates
• Staff satisfaction
• Changes in absence and turnover

Assessing measures on the data and feeding that into next year's plan is what makes wellness work better.

Step 6: certification and saying so outwardly

Once the work is running well, aim for Health and Productivity Management certification. The scheme makes visible the companies practising particularly strong wellness, with a small and medium enterprise category and a large enterprise category.

Certification brings benefits such as these:

• An advantage in recruiting
• A better standing with customers and financial institutions
• Higher staff motivation
• Preferential treatment from local authorities and financial institutions

Certification requires meeting set conditions: a health declaration to begin with, then an organisational structure, concrete measures and an established cycle of assessment and improvement.

Three ways to get the most from what you spend

Many mid-sized companies worry that workplace wellness will be expensive. With a little thought, though, a small investment can go a long way.

Here are three ways to get the most from what you spend on it.

1. Make the most of what you already have

Keeping new spending to a minimum means making the most of existing resources. Using the free services and subsidies offered by health insurance societies and the Japan Health Insurance Association, or growing a wellness lead from your own people, keeps outsourcing costs down.

Using existing channels such as the internal newsletter and morning meetings to pass on health information works well too.

2. Introduce measures in stages and check the effect

Rather than bringing everything in at once, introduce the highest-priority measures in stages and widen them as you check the effect.

Start by focusing on the highest-priority health issue from your health check results and run a small pilot. Once the effect is confirmed, widen the audience and the content, concentrating resources on what gives the best return.

3. Use networks inside and outside the company

Driving wellness effectively means using networks inside and outside the company. Inside, choose a wellness lead in each department and build a way for voices from the floor to reach what you do.

Outside, exchanging information with companies in the same area or industry, and attending wellness seminars run by local authorities or chambers of commerce, lets you learn from what worked and what did not.

Working with a company that offers a specialist programme, such as Yasai Yakuzen, also makes specialist health support possible where you could not provide it alone. Better eating grounded in Chinese medicine works particularly well on vaguely feeling off and on health issues specific to women, and combined with a way of making staff health visible it makes wellness work better still.

Keeping it going is what makes workplace wellness work

Workplace wellness is not a one-off event; keeping it going is what matters. Certification is not the finish line. Treat it as a process of steadily raising staff health and the energy of the organisation. The key to keeping it going is making wellness part of the company culture. That takes continued commitment from leadership, understanding and cooperation from middle managers, and each person taking part of their own accord.

What companies getting wellness right have in common is that they treat health not as a measure but as one of the company's values. Once wellness takes root in the culture, the effects show across many fronts and keep showing: stronger hiring, higher productivity, a better company image.

Why not create the same virtuous circle at your company, where staff and business grow together through workplace wellness?

To talk about introducing workplace wellness, or to learn more about the Yasai Yakuzen programme grounded in Chinese medicine, see Workplace wellness built on vegetables and yakuzen. Our specialists will propose the wellness plan that best fits your situation.