Currently, as society progresses, it faces a challenge of increased social security expenses. It is important for companies to promote health, in order to suppress the growth of social security expenses. Considering this, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry initiated the “Health and Productivity Management Stock Selection” and the “Certified Health and Productivity Management Organization Recognition Program.” However, as health and productivity management (HPM) is a relatively new perspective, individuals within a company, who are responsible for HPM, are struggling to identify the problems to design and conduct HPM activities.
2. Proposal
We propose the following two items. The first is a capability maturity model for health and productivity management (CMM-HPM) and the second is a guideline to utilize the CMM-HPM in accordance with the objectives.
2-1 Development of the CMM-HPM
The purpose of this research is to establish a system that enables business managers in charge of HPM to comprehend the overall picture, clarify issues, make specific efforts, and improve HPM activities.
In order to realize the above purpose, we extracted 19 evaluation criteria, based on the “HPM superior corporation certification” announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
We defined the criteria of each level as follows:
Level 1 is the “Initial Level” in which the HPM activities are not performed or are performed temporarily. There is no evidence to confirm that these activities were continuously conducted. Level 2 is the “Managed Level” in which a specific person leads the HPM activities. These activities can continue as long as the specific person remains in the respective position. However, there is no evidence to confirm that these activities would be continuously conducted after the person moves to another position. Level 3 is the “Defined Level” in which the activities are defined in the company rules and/or processes. These activities are expected to be continuously conducted, considering that the rules and/or processes do not change. Level 4 is the “Quantitatively Managed Level” in which the performance of the activities is measured and managed, based on the measured data. Level 5 is the “Optimizing Level” in which processes or activities can be improved, based on the analysis of the measured data.
In order to develop the CMM-HPM, we divided the 19 evaluation items into five levels.
2-2 Developing guidelines to utilize the CMM-HPM
Using the CMM-HPM, it is possible to identify the current status of HPM activities. However, it is not easy to decide the starting point of the 19 evaluation items of the CMM-HPM. Therefore, we developed guidelines that state the starting point of the CMM-HPM, according to the purpose of the HPM.
As a result of analyzing the companies that conducted HPM, it was identified that there are three major patterns of HPM objectives. The three patterns are “improving productivity,” “creating a safe workplace,” and “matching with the business.”
We conducted a system analysis for each objective and created causal-loops. Moreover, in order to meet the research objective, we developed guidelines to identify the most appropriate item of CMM-HPM to commence from, for the efficiency of the activities.
3. Evaluation
The validity of the CMM-HPM and the guidelines were evaluated for 41 companies.
The 41 companies evaluated are selected from companies listed in the “Health and Productivity Stock Selection”, examples of efficiently conducting HPM in previous research, and the “Corporate Case Study on HPM Activities” by the Japan Economic Organization Federation.
The results confirm the validity of the CMM-HPM and the guidelines.
