気ままなリライト４５

多様性配慮、経営力の源泉に　男性育休1カ月超へ腐心

More and more companies are devoting their efforts in pursuit of what derives a higher level of happiness at work from their employees as employee engagement makes a big difference in organizational performance and productivity. Many companies are reshaping their corporate culture with employee engagement strategies to bring more meaning to work and the lives of employees and to make them feel connected and respected while working towards shared goals.
 
Employee engagement strategies have been introduced in many companies to help employees to cope with mental health challenges in the workplace as making employees aware of how meaningful impact they create on the organization by fulfilling what they value is beneficial for their well-being. According to a survey by a management research company Smart Work in 2022, the healthcare-related cost per employee was 38,250 yen in fiscal 2021, a 5.7 % increase from the previous fiscal year. Nearly 24 % of the companies say that a strong sense of engagement is the key to addressing mental barriers holding employees back from reaching their highest potential at work, a 5.4 % increase from the previous fiscal year.
 
SCSK Corporation, an information technology company in Tokyo is aiming to make engagement grow strong by giving employees a feeling of connectedness and belonging as an essential part of the organized community while improving the well-being of employees through a technology-assisted physical and mental healthcare program. A sense of being valued as a community member is being shared with about 7,000 employees through a company-provided smart watch called Fit pit to collect a wide range of biological measures. Pulse surveys measuring the feedback from employees on anything that matters to employees are also introduced as an employee listening tool and an engagement measuring tool. Pulse survey results are being pushed back to employees to check whether employees are engaged or disengaged or what leaves themselves feel overwhelmed on a regular basis or what is missing to reach personal goals.
 
Another tool SCSK Corporation is relying on is a communication-stimulating app called Happiness Planet Gym developed by a subsidiary of Hitachi Group. The app is designed to boost employee engagement through team-based activities by getting team members interacting and working together toward shared goals. With the reputation of the app proved to be effective in the improvement of the scores of the exam for information processing technicians through the two-month onboarding session for new recruits as app users in some departments in Hitachi, the corporation is targeting newly hired employees joining on-site training in October 2022 to check how the app works for building teamwork, improving personal interaction to achieve shared goals by avoiding the potential conflicts between the members with different personality traits, without making the communicated messages misunderstood.
 
DMG Mori Seiki Corporation is providing a community-based approach as a way for employees to get through challenging things together after learning about what stands in the way of being productive and satisfied at work. In the company as a group of individuals sharing a mutual concern for each other’s wellness, self-led challenges such as burning off flab are encouraged through a health-improving program. The program is designed to get the program participants to rekindle a feeling of connection to the company’s mission to make each employee aware of how mindful he or she is in keeping healthy physically and mentally. In the site for personal healthcare management set up in June 2022 by the company, the tabulated data based on the information about employees’ medical checkups over the past ten years is helping each employee understand how the change in the biological measures affects his or her well-being and how the company’s mission is shared among employees.