Pleasant Working Environments

The MEDIPAL Group creates workplace environments in which employees can work without sacrificing their own lifestyles and values, and provides support to help them lead healthy lives, both mentally and physically.

Promoting Workstyle Reform

We are promoting more effective work styles through the introduction of a new work scheme and more flexible systems, including staggered and variable working hours and working from home. We are also working to reduce overtime work and increase the rate of use of paid leave.

Initiatives for Optimal Time Management and Reduction of Overtime Work

Work hours, including the start of work and end of work, are managed and recorded objectively through the use of IC cards and other measures. We work to promote awareness of optimal time management among all employees and hold discussions between labor and management with the aim of reducing overtime work.
These initiatives enable them to work more systematically and efficiently, which can help improve the quality of their work and ensure that they have time to spend with their families or on their own hobbies and studies. These initiatives help to save power, as lighting, multifunction printers, and air-conditioning systems are used for shorter periods of time.

Supporting employees' Work-life Balance

We strive to create employee-friendly workplace environments in which employees can use a number of systems (childcare and nursing care leave systems, shorter working hour system, caregiving leave system, etc.) to realize their work-life balance at every life stage.
At the MEDIPAL Group, the percentage of male employees taking childcare leave is 20.1% (fiscal year ending March 31, 2023). We will continue to make employees aware of this system and educate on its importance in order to actively promote a better understanding of different work styles and encourage more male employees to take childcare leave.
In addition, to support employees’ work-life balance, MEDICEO CORPORATION has introduced the job return system, which offers reemployment opportunities to persons who left the company due to unavoidable family-related reasons, such as marriage, childbirth, childcare, nursing care and spouse job relocation.

Human Rights Protection Initiatives

In the course of its business activities, the MEDIPAL Group respects the individuality of its employees and protects their right to pursue happiness. We protect the human and working rights of all our employees, and work to improve the workplace environment by establishing internal regulations and a hotline that enable smooth work operations. We also respect the human rights of the various stakeholders in our business.
The MEDIPAL Group is keenly aware of the need to consider human rights and has established a Harassment and Interpersonal Relation Hotline as part of efforts to eliminate harassment or discrimination based on gender, age, race, nationality, beliefs, religion, social status, or physical and mental disability. We will analyze results from the regular workplace culture surveys from the perspective of human rights protection in order to identify risks and prevent issues like discrimination or harassment from arising.

Development of Harassment Prevention Regulations

Group companies have established the necessary regulations to prevent various forms of harassment and have set up systems that allow all employees to work with peace of mind. Ensuring that anyone making a consultation about harassment will not face disadvantageous treatment, we take strict measures in cases of improper actions.

Establishment of a Harassment and Interpersonal Relation Hotline

We have established an external hotline that employees can use for consultations regarding sexual harassment, power harassment, gender harassment, interpersonal relation issues and other workplace problems. Counselors are qualified industrial counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychiatric social workers. Consultations can be made 24 hours a day via telephone or the Internet. It is also possible to make a consultation anonymously.

Substantial Employee Welfare Benefits

All Group companies offer substantial employee welfare benefits, including systems that offer a leave of absence or grants for employees to develop new skills or increase their motivation for their future career, as well as admission to employee welfare services, Group mutual aid associations, asset accumulation saving systems, and payment of congratulatory or condolence monetary gifts or relief funds.

As a distribution networking group that supports the business fields of “Pharmaceutical, Health, and Beauty”, the MEDIPAL Group actively carries out initiatives to maintain both the physical and mental health of its employees.

Improvement in Health Checkups and Increase in the Participation Rate

The MEDIPAL Group provides regular health checkups for employees to detect any illness early and to maintain and improve wellness. The participation rate is nearly 100%. Our health checkups offer a wider range of tests than the legal requirements, and we actively encourage employees to receive follow-up health consultations.

Mental Health Measures

The Group is dedicated to protecting the mental health of its employees, provides mental health education and performs awareness-raising activities at all Group companies. We have also established an EAP Hotline*.

* EAP (Employee Assistance Program) Hotline: Employee contact point offering counseling on work-related and private concerns.

Introduction of the Shift P Medication Support System

MEDIPAL HOLDINGS has worked with MTI Ltd. since 2019 on “Shift P” project activities that provide medication support for those taking the low-dose pill.
This project also aims to disseminate accurate information on the low-dose pill, increase disease awareness. The concept is to achieve a “shift” in the image of the pill and address problems women face with period cramps, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), or premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD).
The Shift P medication support system* is a part of this Shift P project. This system has been launched to provide MEDIPAL Group female employees suffering from dysmenorrhea with opportunities for obstetrics and gynecology consultations and medication support to help ease concerns over taking the low-dose in order to create workplace environments where female employees can work in good physical and mental health.
While respecting gender diversity, the MEDIPAL Group is also working to better understand different physical characteristics due to gender with the goal of making society where all of the people can have healthy lives, both mentally and physically.

Mindfulness

We have produced a video on mindfulness (brain and mental relaxation method based on meditation) as one of our efforts to promote improvement of mental and physical health. This is aimed at providing relief for mental and physical stress, improving concentration, and enhancing the ability to handle stress.

Encouraging Employees to Take the Japan Master of Health Literacy Test

The Group employees take the expert course of the Japan Master of Health Literacy Test* in order to improve their health literacy and better contribute to society. To date, a total of 4,161 employees have passed the exam (as of March 31, 2023).

* Japan Master of Health Literacy Test: Conducted by the Japan Master of　Health Literacy Test Association, this test program enables participants to gain health literacy based on the latest health information, and acquire qualifications.

Recognition as a “2024 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organization”

We have been recognized in the 2024 Certified Health & Productivity Management Outstanding Organizations Recognition Program, administered by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Nippon Kenko Kaigi.