Discover how companies in Japan are prioritizing employee well-being during dangerous summer heatwaves.
The life-threatening heat wave is going to be part of Japanese summer. Once, workers were simply expected to bear up under the scorching heat, but now, employees’ well-being is an increasing consideration. Informed by science and technology, the ways some companies are looking to protect their workers from heatstroke are: Citing the danger of heatstroke, Trinity, a company that develops and sells smartphone accessories based near Tokyo, is having their workers work from home on days with heatstroke risks.
Explore how Trinity, a Tokyo-based firm, utilizes science and technology to recommend remote work on high-risk heatstroke days, ensuring a safer and more comfortable work environment for all.
The company adopts a WBGT number of 33 to implement its policy for hot weather. Workers can check it for themselves as a safeguard using a smartphone app. Additionally, they get a company notification when it’s reached the threshold for availability for alternate work sites, generally meaning from home. That happened on four occasions between July 1 and 23 this year. On a half-day declared for the first one of these, about 40 percent of the employees worked remotely.
Trinity used to have the forecasted high as its threshold to start promoting remote work amongst their people. Trinity’s hot weather policy would work at 38 degrees Celsius for last year, and 39 for the year before.
There were a few days that met that description, and the company’s leadership determined that its standard needed to be updated.
This summer, it has been replaced with a heat stress index as a benchmark. The index, or Wet Bulb Global Temperature, is calculated with the temperature, humidity, and radiant heat. During the summer season, the environment ministry declares the observed and expected values. The health equipment manufacturing company Tanita has installed sensors at six places covering the entire park. The sensors keep an eye on the temperature and humidity, among other details.
Beat the heat this summer!
Two of the sites give updated information every 10 minutes, so managers can gauge the worsening threat of heatstroke in these locations. One mid-July day, shortly after the system was up and running, it was displaying “danger” at two sites in the park. The system relies on headsets that monitor a worker’s forehead temperature along with the humidity and temperature in the surroundings. Whenever there is a growing risk of a heatstroke, the system alerts a smartphone app. The company added that the system also enables managers to ensure that workers take reasonable breaks.
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