A Positive Work Environment

Last Updated: 2024.11.08
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Fast Retailing strives to offer a healthy and safe work environment for every employee. The topic of healthy and safe working environments is covered in the Fast Retailing Code of Conduct, which states, "We shall not commit a wrongful act or act in bad faith at work and shall maintain a safe working environment."

Health and Productivity Management

Guided by the Fast Retailing Group Health and Safety Declaration, we care for the physical and mental health of each individual employee and are committed to providing safe and healthy working environments. We also strive to promote the health of people across society through our company products and activities.

Fast Retailing Group Health and Safety Declaration

Fast Retailing Group believes that it is our company's responsibility to ensure the physical and mental health and safety of each and every employee. With the aim of becoming the most respected company worldwide for health and safe in the workplace, we have adopted a Health and Safety Policy and Eight Health and Safety Principles, which are communicated to the entire company through displays at our offices and stores.

• Fast Retailing Group Health and Safety Declaration (79KB)

Management Framework for Occupational Health and Safety

Fast Retailing Wellness Center

Fast Retailing established its Wellness Center in Japan in 2014, which offers initiatives, mental health care, and other support for our employees, and is staffed by more than 120 occupational health physicians, public health nurses and counselors, as well as relevant departments at Fast Retailing. The Wellness Center seeks to ensure health and productivity management within the Fast Retailing group, and works to promote health and workplace engagement to keep employees physically and mentally well. We also have Health and Safety Managers in each country and region. The Wellness Center works with these managers to ensure uniform safety and health activities across the company's global network.

Roppongi Head Office Wellness Center

Ariake Head Office Wellness Center

Occupational Health and Safety Initiatives (Japan)

Recognition as a Certified Health and Productivity Management Outstanding Organization

Fast Retailing Group is recognized as a Certified Health and Productivity Management Outstanding Organization (Large Enterprise Category) for three consecutive years from 2022 under the joint program operated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi. The system rewards outstanding companies that consider employees' health and productivity management from a business-management perspective and strategically implement initiatives to help maintain and promote health.

Priority Health and Productivity Issues

Fast Retailing seeks to promote long-term employment and productivity, while also reducing medical costs through effective health management. In pursuit of these aims, we have set the following metrics: 'absenteeism' (absence from work due to illness or injury), 'presenteeism' (attending work but not being able to perform full duties due to health problems), and 'work engagement' (vitality, enthusiasm, and immersion in work).

Supporting these objectives, we prioritize three areas of focus: FR health issues (includes quitting smoking), improving health literacy, and enhancing mental health.

Initiatives Relating to Our Priority Issues

Priority issue 1: Reducing the smoking rate
It has been shown that smoking during working hours, a decline in general health, and time off work due to smoking-related illnesses can lead to a decline in labor productivity. We aim to reduce the percentage of employees who smoke from 23.1% in the fiscal year ending August 2021 to 12% in the fiscal year ending August 2032, and are taking the following measures to achieve this.

• We provide the Ascure Smoking Cessation Program and assistance with the purchase of smoking cessation aids throughout the year. We also work to create an environment that makes it easier for employees to quit smoking through initiatives such as free distribution of smoking cessation gum on No Smoking Day and collaborative measures during medical checkups.
• We actively convey information on ways to quit smoking, including one-minute quit smoking videos, regular emails, and internal poster displays.

Priority issue 2: Improving health literacy
The average age of the Fast Retailing Group employees is around 38 as of the end of August 2024, but this figure is increasing year after year. In line with this, the figures relating to lifestyle diseases are also on the rise. To this end, we are working to improve health literacy and safety awareness as part of our efforts to raise health awareness among young people and increase the number of employees who can maintain their health and work for long periods while maintaining high productivity.

• At Fast Retailing Group, women account for around 70% of employees, and one of the issues we face is the large number of employees with anemia (C2 or above according to Fast Retailing standards). In particular, to prevent secondary accidents at work caused by anemia, we aim to achieve 100% ongoing checkups, and we are implementing individual measures such as distributing materials on anemia and encouraging employees to undergo medical examinations.
• We are working with the FR Health Insurance Organization to provide health education at medical checkup venues, which are attended by many employees from the head office. The participation rate for health education in the August 2024 period was 81.7%, and the use of a quiz format allowed employees to participate while having fun. Surveys conducted at our Ariake and Roppongi head offices showed our employees were most interested in topics relating to diet, exercise, and sleep.
• We have introduced health apps to encourage young people to make healthy behavior a habit. Our aim is to make it easier to maintain a healthy lifestyle in a fun way.
• We are working to improve health literacy by holding seminars on different themes and learning from experts. In the fiscal year ending August 2023, we held a seminar on the theme of 'Women's Menopause and Careers'. Although the theme was about women, we made it easy for men and managers to participate, and the participation rate on the day was 1.7% of all employees at the head office in Japan, which was higher than expected. For employees who were unable to attend the seminar, we provided on-demand streaming on YouTube.
• In addition, we are implementing the following initiatives to improve health literacy and safety awareness.
  • Regular training for new employees and newly appointed managers on mental health and the prevention of workplace accidents
  • Regular online training for health managers and health promoters to promote health and safety activities in stores
  • Monthly safety and health committee meetings are held at each office to discuss and resolve specific issues such as safety management, employee health management and mental health care. Surveys and deliberations are carried out in consultation with worker representatives as appropriate
  • Persons in charge of Health and safety are appointed in each country and region. Those persons at the head office actively visit local areas to provide support, including surveying the workplace environment, checking safety measures, and giving advice on health and hygiene.

Priority issue 3: Enhancing mental health
Fast Retailing has established a system of specialist counsellors and psychiatrists to actively work on improving the mental health environment.

• Fast Retailing group conducts annual stress checks for all employees in Japan. Employees with results showing high stress levels can follow up with an occupational health physician. We also offer therapy sessions with a counsellor for any employee who prefers this option.
• The Wellness Center cooperates with the Human Resources Department to improve the workplace environment of departments identified as higher risk through the annual stress check results.
• Our Wellness Center cooperates with the Human Resources Department to enhance our mental health education through e-learning for management, new employees and fulltime store staff members, and other tailored information services that help employees manage their mental health.
• For employees taking medical leave, we offer special programs to support a smooth return to work. We provide a range of support, from counselling to help employees return to work, to subsequent support counselling to help them settle in.

Health education at medical checkup venues

Example of E-learning module

Initiatives for Preventing Occupational Accidents

Fast Retailing Group is working to prevent occupational accidents and reduce the LTIFR (Lost-time Injury Frequency Rate) by developing safety and health activities globally based on its Health and Safety Declaration.

Health and safety activities, initiatives for preventing occupational accidents

• Establishment of a health and safety management system in accordance with ISO 45001
• Establishment of a cross-departmental task force to prevent occupational accidents
• Conducting assessments based on groupwide risk assessment standards, identifying risks, and implementing appropriate countermeasures
  
  High risk areas and risk mitigation measures
  • Potential risks related to equipment used in stores: Encourage the use of equipment and tools with safer design features. For example, introducing safer sewing machines and providing safety cutters for unpacking cardboard boxes.
  • Potential risks related to equipment used in warehouses: Improve safety in warehouse environments by introducing automated machines equipped with safety features and setting up restricted-entry zones.
• Providing safety and health education for employees, sharing cases of past accidents, and promoting training on identifying risks
• Improving safety awareness in the workplace through sharing examples of near-miss accidents (cases where people felt there was a risk of accidents occurring) to improve working environments.
• Prompt reporting any occupational accidents to our head office. The head office will then analyze the cause of the accident, determine appropriate countermeasures, and share any decisions across the company.

Lost-time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) (Fast Retailing Group in Japan)^*1

(The number of lost-time injuries in a workplace per million hours worked) ^*2

*1 LTIFR refers to the rate of accidents resulting in four or more days of lost work time.
*2 LTIFR data have been verified by SGS Japan Co., Ltd. since FY2019 to improve reliability.

There were no fatalities due to work-related injuries or illnesses during the above period at the Fast Retailing Group in Japan.

Reducing Working Hours

Fast Retailing respects international standards and national laws and regulations concerning maximum working hours, minimum breaks and rest periods. Team leaders in each division manage employees' working hours on a monthly basis. Fast Retailing pursues work styles that do not rely on overtime.

Monitoring and Corrective actions for Work-Hour Reduction at the Fast Retailing Group in Japan

• Strengthening management supervision of overtime by requiring consistent clocking in/out.
• Turning office lights out at 6:00 PM at Roppongi Head Office and Ariake Office to encourage employees to return home.
• Human Resources Department monitors individual employee working hours and paid leave at each department on a quarterly basis. Human Resources Division and Wellness Centers meet with employees (and their superiors) who chronically record excessive work hours, taking steps to reduce time worked. Supervisors are required to take and report action to review workload or re-prioritize tasks for employees with excessive work hours.
• Wellness Centers and Human Resource division conducts work style surveys and stress checks to identify any issues in working hours.

Initiatives for Improving Employee Satisfaction

Fast Retailing strives to create work environments and a culture that enables employees to grow and contribute over many years. Since January 2019, Fast Retailing has conducted employee satisfaction surveys to cover all companies in the Group as one measure to improve satisfaction.

Initiatives for Improving Employee Satisfaction

• Recognition for years of serviceEmployees receive recognition for years of service for every 10, 20, and 30 years of employment.
• Special awards: Individuals and departments who deliver outstanding results receive special awards and recognition.
• Family Day: Each year the Fast Retailing Group holds a special event for families and employees at the Yamaguchi headquarters and Ariake office.
• Benefit packages: Fast Retailing Group Health Insurance Organization in Japan offers benefits to employees that include discounts for fitness club memberships, amusement parks, etc.

Related Links

• Employee Engagement Survey

Metrics

The metrics related to the above initiatives are as follows.

*1 Percentage of employees who answered positively to engagement-related questions
*2 Management positions include block leaders, area managers, and store managers above a certain grade (sales), and corporate officers, general managers, and leaders (head office).
*3 Questionnaire responses from women's health session participants (response rate 33.3%)
*4 Launched in fiscal 2024
*5 Health tests were carried out as part of the health education program held at the company's regular medical checkup venues
*6 Full-time employees refers to those who are enrolled in the FR Health Insurance Organization

*7 Average number of days self-reported in response to the question 'How many days did you take off work due to illness in the past year?' in the stress check
*8 The SPQ (University of Tokyo 1-item version) was used as a question in the stress check. Presenteeism loss rate = 100% - average response value
*9 Percentage of employees who underwent medical examination among those who were subject to a thorough examination
*10 Percentage of employees who underwent medical examination among those who were notified that they were at high risk according to the company's internal standards

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