Health Management at JTI
Japanese Tobacco International (JTI) was formed in 1999 when its parent company JT Group acquired the non-US operations of R.J. Reynolds. Since then, its international workforce has driven the company forward with two decades of growth.
Today, it has more than 45,000 employees, made up of around 110 nationalities, distributing products in 130 countries across the world. It makes and sells many of the world’s best-known tobacco brands, including the globally-recognised Winston and Camel, and its ambition is to make its business not only the fastest growing of its kind but also the most innovative and sustainably run. Its approach to sustainability is about seeing meaningful, tangible results where they matter the most, which is why they have chosen four focus areas considered to be essential for the sustainability of its business.
From this, it has set itself a number of priorities. For each priority, JTI will measure and benchmark its performance over time and will report regularly on its progress as it strives to fulfil the commitments that it has made.
- Products and services: An even greater choice of tobacco products, focusing on quality, innovation and reduced-risk potential.
- Supply chain: A reduction in environmental and social risks and transparent and responsible practices enabled across the supply chain
- Regulatory environment and illegal trade: Inclusion in policymaking leading to fair and balanced regulation and enhanced co-operation with governments to combat illegal trade
- People: The employer of choice by investing in people, from minimising workplace injuries to maximising employee happiness and productivity,
It is this public commitment to creating a safe environment for its employees which underpins the ongoing relationship with wellbeing experts Park Health & Safety. Park Health, with its unparalleled reputation for excellence in workplace wellbeing, has been known to JTI for some time, not least because it was the first in its field to deliver an Olympic build (London 2012) without a fatality.
“We have an extremely constructive partnership with the team at JTI and we were a natural choice to work with them on their health and wellbeing programme,” explained Park Health’s TITLE Heather Mckinstry, who leads the relationship with JTI.”
“The senior team had identified a number of areas in their manufacturing business where they felt they needed external support to understand any potential health risks in their workplace and, from there, to help shape and implement immediate and effective solutions.”
“They approached us to work with them and, from the outset, it was a good fit as both organisations have innovation at the heart of their approach.”
“With Park Health, it is our industryleading 4Ws framework which provides a holistic approach to employee health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace. We consider the entirety of the employee, not Muscoluloskeletal just specific facets required to do the job.”
4Ws Framework
WORKPLACE
Designing-out workplace health risk. l Profiling, tracking and reducing possible health hazards by the use of Health Hazard Evaluation and Mitigation Plan and health risk assessment. l Preventing occupational ill–health through exposure to health hazards, including physical hazards such as noise and vibration; chemical & biological hazard; ergonomic stressors such as heavy and/ or awkward loads and repetitive tasks; psychological factors such as pressure of work and working time. l Providing training to all managers and employees, to ensure staff deal with health hazards in the same way as safety hazards and understand the importance of the hierarchy of control in reducing the risk of ill-health
WELLBEING
Providing a range of activities and information in the workplace to promote healthy lifestyles and encourage employees to make and sustain positive changes in behaviour. l Promoting wellbeing by using the workplace as a venue to promote healthy lifestyles.
WORKER
Where individuals have an existing health condition or where they experience ill-health, support will be provided to help manage their condition and to remain in work, or return to work while supporting ongoing recovery. l Monitoring the health of individual workers to highlight: suitability of controls (health surveillance); pre-placement fitness (pre-employment screening, safety critical medicals); individual susceptibility (lifestyle and functional capacity assessments); treatment of harm caused (first aid, physiotherapy).
WIDER COMMUNITY
Assisting wellbeing in the wider community by delivering initiatives that positively impact those surrounding the works. l Using the workplace as a base to promote healthy lifestyles to the wider community l Using information gained from national and local health data and local Primary Care Trusts to ensure that initiatives and advice offered to both staff and the wider community is based upon relevant local health needs.
With this as a starting point, Park Health undertook a full review of the JTI operations by visiting a number of global sites, including Canada, Philippines, Ukraine and Indonesia and by talking to individuals and groups of employees working in different functional areas. As Park Health started to get an understanding of the scope of the JTI business, they quickly realised they needed to create a toolkit that could be flexed in order to recognise and meet the many demands of varying tasks and cultures. The diverse nature of the JTI operations meant a ‘one-size, fits-all’ solution was out of the question.
“With musculoskeletal disorders a high priority and data indicating there were noticeable numbers of absences in the business, we needed to understand and address the issues people were facing in their daily routine,” added Heather.
“We assessed their work and their workstations and used this invaluable information to develop and populate an analysis tool. We inputted all aspects of each task into the tool, including details on the types of job, what they entailed and which part of the individuals’ bodies were affected, whether that was through repetition, stretch or exertion.
“This enabled us to identify critical areas and to create an action plan which would facilitate a positive and practical way forward to implement improvements.
“One of our top priorities was to implement a training programme so colleagues could use the toolkit correctly themselves to assess their own teams,” said Heather.
It was possible to modify the toolkit in line with cultural, religious or geographic variations to match the manufacturing environment and also to ensure it was fit-for-purpose for the back-office support teams such as Finance, IT, HR etc. “Creating a toolkit which could be adapted to work for every part of the JTI business was crucial,” said Heather, “and it was a steep learning curve for everyone involved in getting it in place as we came across a number of cultural challenges along the way.”
Heather added: “It was very gratifying to work with the team at JTI as there was a genuine ambition to make a positive difference for the employees and how they interact with their roles and the physical workplace.
“While processes are similar across the globe, people are individuals and applying the Park Health toolkit and the principles of ergonomics, where we see the relationship between the body and the workplace, are fundamental to maintaining employee good health.
“The team at JTI understand that and are determined to embed best practice into their business.”