Looking after the well-being of employees, whether they’re in Japan or based overseas, has never been more considered. Get it right and it can hugely benefit both your employee and your business, which is why ensuring your health care provider understands what modern well-being entails is so important.

We all know about the importance of health, it’s the key to our everyday productivity and success, in and out of the work environment. Evidence can be found on the largest scale, with a McKinsey report highlighting that ‘about one-third of economic growth in advanced economies in the past century could be attributed to improvements in the health of global populations’1. Further research2 relating to more recent years, would find that health has contributed almost as much to growth of income as education.
Cigna Healthcare’s most recent International Health Study3, revealed that, among HR leaders, 65% believe health insurance plays a crucial role in talent attraction; 63% say it is important for enhancing employee loyalty; and two-thirds (66%) believe it reinforces a company culture that supports health. So, it makes sense that putting health first is going to have a positive impact on your business, but what does ‘health’ look like?

Modern-day well-being and ‘vitality’
Employee well-being would once be covered with a gym membership, fruit bowl and if you’re lucky a weekly visit of a masseuse, but today, reinforced by the pandemic era, the connection between mental and physical wellness is ever more apparent and important. Well-being is, almost, everything. It takes many forms, or rather the journey to positive well-being can take many turns. And what is going to cause mental tension in one person is likely to be different for another. Although, there are some areas that are recurring themes. For instance, the impact of loneliness came to the fore when people were isolated in lockdown, with the mental stress this can cause having the potential to manifest in physical symptoms. Financial concern is another area that regularly comes up as a cause of stress, so again, this could then have broader implications on the physical state in addition to the mental.

In short, positive health and well-being is about alleviating potential causes, which may not seem obvious, but as someone responsible for employees, you have to be prepared for. Or, even better, the best solution is to not have the problem in the first place, which is why preventative care is so important. For some health care providers, this holistic approach to health has long been deeply engrained. As an example, Cigna Healthcare’s approach is focused on vitality, what it takes for a person to live well and thrive. Eight aspects of health are considered: social, occupational, financial, intellectual, physical, spiritual, emotional and environmental. Continually monitoring these – through the Cigna Healthcare Vitality Study – ensures the Cigna Healthcare offering stays as culturally relevant as possible, forever aligned with the modern worker. As Dr Stella George, chief medical officer, Cigna Healthcare, states in the 2023 survey: “It’s clear that health and well-being are more complicated than ever before. As individuals and as employers, we need to take account of people’s whole environment – with all its interconnected facets and vulnerabilities.”

The changing face of well-being support
Preventative care is part of the holistic approach every employer should consider taking, it’s about having a framework in place that means – wherever your workers are in the world – they have the support in place for whatever may arise to impact upon someone’s well-being. Technology has a big role to play here. While telehealth existed before the pandemic, the change in circumstances considerably sped up its adoption, meaning its now common place for many workers to take advantage of. Cigna Healthcare ensures telehealth support is available in Japanese, meaning your employees can call upon assistance and advice whenever they need it.

Cigna Healthcare also allows employees to curate their own self-help programmes through digital hubs, where they can go through interactive learning modules in their own language (including Japanese) at their own pace.

Information is key to well-being, but so too is the support that helps them to understand that information, and implement changes into their day-to-day life, wherever in the world that may take place.
Health no longer has a simple sticking-plaster-solution, it’s more complex than that, but in some cases poor health and well-being is also avoidable. As long as you understand it’s not possible to solve with a one-size-fits-all resolution, and you know that every employee is individual, with unique needs, then in a digital age, with easily tailored information and support, the well-being needs of those you’re responsible for can be met. Well-being might be far broader and more intricate than we once thought, but now that we have more information and intelligence than ever before, we can manage it. Combined with the advanced technology to implement it, we’re better placed than ever to help deliver happier, more productive workforces.

What does this mean?
The changing needs of workers, and how supporting them in the right way can improve the performance of your business, means choosing the right health care provider is vitally important. It means you have many questions to ponder: do they consider the ‘vitality’ of employees? Do they offer a truly integrated solution? Are they continually monitoring, taking the pulse of the global workforce? Do they understand cultural differences between not only where they employees are based but also their country of origin? Can they support your workforce across the multitude of variables that can impact on their health, wherever they are in the world?

Why does understanding well-being matter? Because when you have employees coming from Japan, well-versed in how things work in their own country, adapting to the challenges that come with a different country, a different culture, and a different view on well-being, can be difficult, so be sure you choose a health solutions provider that understands the nuances of every destination while offering unrivalled health and vitality benefits for Japanese multi- national employers.

1 Health, Human Productivity, and Long-Term Economic Growth
2 Health and economic growth : findings and policy implications
3 International Health Study 2024