Employee Wellbeing in Japan: An Interview with Miho Yomoda, Deputy General Manager, Lawson Group Health Promotion Office

We sat down with Miho Yomoda, Deputy General Manager, Lawson Group Health Promotion Office and CHL Steering Committee member to discuss how employee wellbeing needs to be part of a company’s culture and examples of successful initiatives in Japan. 

Do you believe that employee wellbeing should be integrated into a company’s mission?

Yes, I believe that to successfully integrate a culture of employee wellbeing within a company it must start from the top.

All our employees at Lawson and at member stores are keen to be involved in our employee wellbeing programmes. But in order to implement a successful programme we must understand what our employees need. To that end, we have implemented a PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle of finding issues, addressing, and verifying them, with the goal of bringing awareness to the benefits of self-care to all employees and franchisees. We want our employees to prioritise their physical and mental health at work as ultimately it leads them to perform better and work energetically.

How is your internal governance system structured to promote employee health and wellbeing?

At Lawson’s the president concurrently serves as Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO) and the president of the health insurance union serves as assistant CSO to promote and strengthen health management.  We have also established the Lawson Group Health Promotion Office in 2018, staffed by health specialists, under the direct control of the president to develop various measures in cooperation with the assistant CSO, Human Resources Division, the health insurance and labour unions as well as the welfare association. This office works directly with our Human Resource Division to strengthen our wellbeing policies and spread awareness of health information pertinent to the workplace.

In addition, leaders who promote employee wellbeing activities in each district and members who actively participate in them serve as health ambassadors! They advocate for wellbeing in the workplace based on sharing best practices at bi-monthly meetings.

Can you give us a practical example of an employee wellbeing programme that you believe was successful?

That would be our health promotion program called “Genki Challenge” that we launched in 2017. The idea was to spread awareness about the importance of physical health and workforce nutrition. Using an app, our employees can track their steps, register their meals, and check their sleep status.  As an incentive they get awarded points based on their achievements and input status. What started as a Lawson stand-alone initiative has now expanded to include almost every company in the group and will continue to be implemented in the future.

How have you measured the success of this programme?

We measured the participation rate of employees which was 70%. Out of this, 70% of employees utilised the app. There is a difference in the rate of weight loss over time between participants and non-participants and participants claim that they are able to maintain their weight using our meal management apps. Thus, I believe that this initiative has contributed to maintaining the overall health and wellbeing of our employees.

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About CGF’s 2023 Year of Employee Wellbeing Campaign:

The CGF Collaboration for Healthier Lives Coalition of Action  has launched its #WellbeingAtWork campaign to raise awareness around the issue of employee health and provides a call to action for companies to create a workplace culture which actively promotes and supports wellbeing. Every month we will be publishing relevant content and sharing best practices in the form of a CEO video series, blogs, podcasts and more. Topics include Healthier Food at Work, Breastfeeding Support Programmes, Health Checks, Nutrition Education, Physical and Mental Health.

Contact the Health & Wellness team to participate and share your journey with your peers. 

Follow the campaign on social media.