Finally, there is a company that wants its employees to sleep well. And if they do, they even get paid for it.
Exciting and unbelievable? But it’s true.
A company in Japan has decided that well slept employees is the key growth. Kazuhiko Moriyama is putting money on making this happen.
Crazy Inc., a wedding organizer in Japan, is awarding points to its employees who have slept at least six hours a night, for at least five days a week. The points can be exchanged for food in the company cafeteria worth as much as 64,000 yen ($570) per year. Nightly rest will be tracked using an app made by Airweave Inc., a mattress manufacturer.
Japan has a proven track record of sleep related issues. More than 92 percent of Japanese over the age of 20, say that they aren’t getting enough sleep, according to a survey by Fuji Ryoki, a health-products maker. This phenomenon is also a result of labour shortage and long-held cultural belief of noble sacrifice for the corporate good, that has led Japan to be known as acountry which believes in ‘death-from-overwork’, which claimed the life of an ad agency employee in 2015.
BUt now, with the advent of this concept, things could change in the island nation. According to Moriyama, employees with happier lives will lead to better performance at the office.
“You have to protect workers’ rights, otherwise the country itself will weaken,” he said. In addition to the sleep incentives, Crazy also promotes better nutrition, exercise and a more positive office environment. Child support mechanism is also available, as well the opportunity to take company vacations on regular business days.
New research says that there is some evidence that more sleep will lead to improved business performance and higher economic growth. Insufficient sleep costs the U.S. economy as much as $411 billion a year, or 2.28 percent of GDP, according to a 2009 study by Rand Corp. For Japan, the loss is estimated to be $138 billion, or 2.92 percent of GDP.
“I eventually want to reach a million employees,” Moriyama said. “I want to do something that other people will think is crazy.”