Health & Safety

Policy

Framework

Main Activities and Results (Fiscal 2012)

Objectives and Achievements

Policy

Based on the fundamental principle that "NEC will maintain and enhance comfortable and supportive workplaces to ensure the health and safety of all people working at its business sites," NEC provides various preventive health programs. The General Affairs Division and the Health Care Centers, which oversees occupational health and safety (OH&S), and OH&S management organizations at business sites at NEC Corporation lead and coordinate these initiatives.

【Fundamental Principle】

Company-wide Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) Policy

NEC will maintain and enhance comfortable and supportive workplaces to ensure the health and safety of all people working at its business sites.

【Action Guidelines】

From fiscal 2013, the foregoing fundamental principle and policies will be shared across the NEC Group, with the aim of strengthening corporate governance and the NEC Group’s platform for OH&S activities, in addition to activities within the Company. At the same time, NEC is striving to enhance the quality of OH&S activities at various NEC Group companies, by clearly indicating the scope and methodology of OH&S activities through the addition of an OH&S category to the NEC Group Management Policy, which has been established separately.

1. Improve OH&S management systems by continuously and efficiently implementing OH&S activities.
2. Promote the identification of sources of danger, as well as risk assessment and risk management, with the aim of reducing labor accidents to zero.
3. Comply with laws and regulations, and other rules and decisions regarding OH&S.
4. Strive to make OH&S obligations known to ensure understanding and fulfillment of these obligations.
5. Actively provide disclosure of information regarding OH&S activities.
6. Endeavor to enhance the mental and physical health of workers and develop comfortable workplaces.
7. Ensure the appropriateness and effectiveness of these policies and OH&S management systems through regular reviews.

Framework

With regard to the OH&S management framework, NEC Corporation has established at each worksite regional OH&S committees comprising overall OH&S managers, occupational safety managers, sanitation managers and industrial physicians in accordance with the Japanese Occupational Health and Safety Law. Site-based occupational health and safety activities are conducted at each worksite to bolster daily OH&S management.
As a voluntary initiative, at each business site we have organized an Expanded OH&S Committee in which NEC Group and partner companies located within the business site participate in OH&S activities encompassing the entire business site. Furthermore, in order to share information on safety and health within NEC Corporation, since fiscal 2009 we have regularly held meetings where industrial physicians, the business line personnel managers and the safety and sanitation managers from each region meet to exchange information.

Looking at activities spanning the entire NEC Group, in order to address OH&S issues and various other risks, from fiscal 2010, NEC has held information exchange meetings where OH&S managers from NEC Group companies gather together to share information on OH&S, health management and other topics. This is in addition to existing information sharing schemes centered on a conference of the general affairs managers of NEC Group companies in Japan, and the NEC International Emergency Safety Measures Headquarters abroad. Looking ahead, NEC will continue to promote such global initiatives based on these programs.

Main Activities and Results (Fiscal 2012)

Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S)

Furthermore, at NEC Group companies, including those overseas, NEC has reassessed OH&S management systems focusing on companies with production lines or exposure to similar risk, while selecting companies that should obtain OHSAS certification or implement equivalent systems as necessary. Preparation for introducing these systems is currently under way.
NEC is exploring the development of a system for centrally managing global labor accident data.
Through these activities and the development of expertise, NEC will continue working to enhance the quality of its OH&S management systems.

Prevention of health impairment due to overwork

Industrial Health

NEC manages workplaces to make sure that workers are not working too many hours based on agreements between labor and management. Specifically, such efforts include using a work management system to ascertain the number of hours employees are working on a daily basis at worksites and personnel affairs divisions, and automatically issuing a monthly alarm e-mail from the system to workers who may be working long hours.
For employees who have worked long hours, based on the Comprehensive Program for the Prevention of Health Impairment Due to Overwork by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, we use a Web-based interview sheet (health check sheet) to ascertain accumulated fatigue. The Health Care Centers select employees for compulsory follow-up on the basis of the working hours (long hours) and health check (regular checkup and metabolic syndrome examination) data, and have them consult with an industrial physician/health professional, and restrict work hours, among other measures.

Mental health care initiatives

NEC Corporation positions mental health care as a key health care priority. Accordingly, NEC conducts measures focused on prevention and is creating healthy workplaces by maintaining the mental health of employees.
In February 2005, NEC Corporation introduced the Mental Health Support Program. This program consists of three elements: 1) early stage support focused on early identification and treatment of mental disorders; 2) follow-up support for people receiving treatment for mental disorders; and 3) a return-to-work support program that helps people on leave make a smooth return to work.

In fiscal 2011, NEC worked to enhance initiatives to help employees on leave smoothly return to work. This was achieved by clarifying the process and standards for determining whether an employee on leave may return to work through revision of the return-to-work support program. By making these sorts of programs known, early stage consultations from individual employees and their worksite supervisors have increased, instilling a stronger recognition of mental health care within NEC.

In fiscal 2012, NEC began implementing primary care training for management-level employees as a prevention measure. This training program is designed to enable management-level employees themselves to consider how to provide care and manage their staff in order to prevent mental health impairment and disorders, including increasing communication, building even better human relationships, and developing worksite environment conducive to consultation. These considerations formed the basis for the participants to devise future action plans.

Moreover, NEC has put a system in place where employees and their supervisors can promptly consult with someone when they notice an irregularity, comprising consultation desks both in-house and outside the company. The in-house consultation desks are staffed by industrial physicians and health professionals using dedicated internal telephone lines called the "Mental Health Consultation Hotline" installed at the health care center of each business site. The external consultation desk is provided by a specialist external institution based on an agreement with the NEC Health Insurance Association. It provides a system for employees themselves as well as their families (dependents) to consult on mental health via the telephone and other means.

NEC Corporation has focused attention on metabolic syndrome since 2004. For employees* with many risk factors for cerebrovascular or heart disease, we have provided lifestyle improvement advice.
Furthermore, from April 2008, partly in response to Specified Health Examinations and Specified Health Guidance accompanying the amendment of laws, we have been enhancing NEC Health Innovation21 (NHI21), a program of activities designed to prevent metabolic syndrome.
* Persons who have four or more of the six risk factors (obesity, high blood pressure, hyperlipemia, diabetes, smoking, and age) in the danger range, based on questions and test results from health examinations.

NEC Health Innovation21 activities

In fiscal 2012, we rigorously enforced metabolic syndrome countermeasures, in addition to enhancing and continuing previous measures. Furthermore, in order to improve the implementation rate for legally required Specified Health Examinations, we implemented the following two key initiatives.

（1）Implemented walking activities based on the health enhancement service using mobile phones as a health enhancement measure utilizing IT
Working closely with health care centers, the NEC Group has long encouraged walking activities as a form of exercise that anyone can undertake easily and safely. In fiscal 2012, NEC conducted walking activities that effectively utilize the health enhancement service using mobile phones, which was introduced in fiscal 2010, and the NHI21 Portal, both of which are platforms for health enhancement activities for NEC Group employees and their families. In fiscal 2012, approximately 6,000 people participated in these walking activities across the NEC Group.

（2） Implemented the NEC Health Fair as a health promotion event
In fiscal 2012, NEC held the NEC Health Fair as a health promotion event at three locations in the Chubu, Kansai and Kofu areas. Approximately 600 employees and their families attended these events. The goal of this initiative is to ensure that NEC meets the Specified Health Examination and Specified Health Guidance targets established by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Accordingly, the events were designed to provide the opportunity for dependents of employees in rural regions of Japan, in addition to the Tokyo metropolitan area, to receive Specified Health Examinations, while fostering an awareness of the importance of promoting health.

The foregoing NHI21 activities are reported regularly to executives at meetings they attend, where opinions on these activities are exchanged. The executives take the initiative to execute the activities themselves to make NHI21 activities an integral part of NEC. Looking ahead, we will continue working to maintain and improve the health of employees and their families through the foregoing NHI21 activities.

Major Employee Training and Awareness Raising Initiatives in Fiscal 2012

• Implementation of education of new recruits and health consultations for all new recruits (health guidance based on results of health examination results provided when joining the company)
• Education of OH&S Committee members (held at individual business sites)
• Web-based mental health education (for all employees)*
• Mental health training for applicable personnel based on role and grade (for managers with subordinates who have mental health disorders)
• Mental health training for applicable personnel based on role and grade (primary care)
• Work-life balance training (career training courses for employees aged 30, 40, and 50 aimed at realizing a good work-life balance)
• Lifestyle disease seminar (conducted by business site, for certain designated ages or by request)
• Example: the Fuchu business site has health improvement programs aimed at people 25, 30, and 35 years of age
• (incorporating lectures, stretching, physical fitness measurement, etc.).
• Smoking cessation seminar (conducted separately by business site for smokers or people who wish to quit)

Objectives and Achievements

Objectives for the Medium Term (From Fiscal 2011 to Fiscal 2013) and Fiscal 2012, Achievements and Progress, and Degree of Completion

(Degree of completion: achieved/mostly achieved/some progress/no progress)

Fiscal 2013 Objectives

Labor Accidents and Disasters ［Scope: NEC Corporation, figures for fiscal 2011 and 2012 results in parentheses represent domestic NEC Group companies］

(*1) Frequency rate:
Number of deaths and injuries due to industrial accidents divided by total working hours times one million

(*2) Severity rate:
Number of lost working days divided by total working hours times one thousand

Promoting Diversity

Human Resources Development

Communication With Employees

Top of this page