Corporate Blog

Starting from June 30, 2021, the Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan Group has implemented workplace COVID-19 vaccination, targeting employees of the Group, their families and vendors, at five locations in Tokyo, Saitama, Aichi, Osaka and Fukuoka.
This report features the efforts taken to realize the workplace vaccination by General Affairs Department, a responsible department of this vaccination program, and the atmosphere of vaccination venues.

Set up internal regulations concerning vaccination

"Attendance for vaccination'' was decided in response to the vaccine roll-out in Japan. CCBJI has decided to permit employees to receive the vaccine even during their work hours, and exempt them from work during such time. Furthermore, if employees feel sick and become difficult to work on the day of vaccination due to its side effects, they are allowed to take special paid leave on the day of your vaccination. If they feel sick on the following day or later, as a general rule, they are allowed to take one special paid leave day.
（ See here for details.）

"Let's proceed with workplace vaccination!'' – We developed a team specialized in the workplace COVID-19 vaccination

On June 21, the government announced that it would start "workplace vaccinations" at corporations, universities and other organizations. Following the announcement, we began to consider whether we could also implement a workplace vaccination program. In order to implement this program, the General Affairs Dept. took the lead and a cross-functional team specialized in workplace COVID-19 vaccination was developed. Needless to say, no one had experience with workplace vaccination, and the preparation initiated with very little information. Team members sometimes felt uneasy and anxious, wondering if "everything would be ready in time before the target implementation start date."

Persons in charge held daily team meetings, sharing progress, issues, and concerns among all team members, and prepared for the workplace vaccination. The most difficult part of the process was finding medical institutions that could provide vaccinations. In some areas, persons in charge made a phone call to a medical institution one by one with a phone book in hand before finally deciding on a medical institution in charge.

After medical institutions were decided, implementation of workplace vaccinations became feasible. We have moved to the next stage to adjust vaccination schedule and introduce a system where employees can easily book a vaccination.

Conduct survey to properly understand the current situation; provide correct information

We have conducted a survey understand the employees' opinions on vaccination.
In the survey, when asked, "Would you like to get workplace vaccinations?," many employees, more than we expected, answered that they wanted to get workplace vaccinations. At the same time, we learned that many employees were anxious about vaccination and its side effects. Thus, we provided support to lessen such anxiety for those who wanted to get vaccinated. For instance, we regularly informed employees that a public health nurse working at the Health Promotion Office would be available for consultation.
After the survey, we have also sent out information on the progress of the implementation of workplace vaccination, including booking status by venue after the start of booking, on a daily basis through Intra and internal social network. We were advancing steadily with the preparations for the "Big day."

Workplace vaccination program has finally kicked off!

On June 30, workplace vaccination has kicked off at the Akasaka office in Tokyo. Employees from various departments engaged in the venue's staff operations, including guidance, reception, and check of a prevaccination screening questionnaire. The employees serving as venue staff wore bright red bibs with the company logo to make themselves stand out at a glance, and the venue finally opened.

Everything was new to the venue staff and things got confusing sometimes, but the first day of vaccine rollout ended without incident. After completing each day, all staff members respectively commented improvement points about their responsible areas for the following day. Implementation of this workplace vaccination program was made possible with a concerted effort by each team member.

Company employees participate as venue staff at the first day of the workplace vaccination

Workplace vaccination venue served as a place of communication!?

In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Company has made it a rule for employees to work from home in principle, so new and mid-career employees have online interactions only and seldom meet other employees in person. Workplace vaccination venues, where a few hundreds of employees visited, unexpectedly served as a place of communication for many employees, allowing them to meet, even for a short greeting, their colleagues or those whom they usually communicate only via email for the first time in a long time. Some new employees met other new hires in person for the first time.
Many employees broke out in smiles despite feeling nervous about getting vaccinated for COVID-19 for the first time. Workplace vaccination was an event that contributed to promoting not only physical but also mental wellness.

Through the consistent efforts to help the employees maintain and promote their health, Coca-Cola Bottlers Japan intends to continue providing high-quality products and value-added services as a total beverage company committed to enrich people's daily lives by delivering happy and refreshing moments at every occasion available.