Talent development
At Mizuho, we work diligently to build a talent portfolio that balances the career ambitions of each and every employee with the number and type of personnel required to realize the strategies of each business field. Our talent development process is conducted strategically on a global, group–wide basis in accordance with each employee's stage of career development.
Since 2019, we have been expanding the range of opportunities for learning and development with a heavy focus on enabling employees to develop their specialist skills and maximizing the universally recognizable value of our workforce, based on the new HR strategy of our 5-Year Business Plan.
Career design support through learning and development
Learning opportunities for individual development
Further information
ESG data: Talent development (PDF/759KB)
Career design support through learning and development
It is important for each and every employee, regardless of age or job title, to take the initiative in consistently taking on opportunities for learning and development in order to maximize their universally recognizable value. At Mizuho, in addition to providing employees with opportunities for learning and development through globally expansive duties, we are also actively working to provide opportunities for learning and development outside Mizuho, as well as to create a work environment that fosters such opportunities.
To ensure that learning and development do not fall by the wayside for employees during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are optimizing our learning platforms to allow remote participation and accommodate different lifestyle needs. We hold each type of training session online and are expanding on the online learning contents available from home.
Our career design support framework
M–Nexus learning and development digital platform
M–Nexus is a digital, group-wide platform that serves as the foundation for providing employees with diverse opportunities for learning and development, enabling them to think, act, and deliver based on their own career design. It allows employees to gain not only knowledge in finance, but also the latest business skills and digital-related knowledge through e-learning. The platform also offers visual tracking of development actions, such as applications to various training programs and internal job openings; a database of individual experience and skills; and a function to form communities to promote mutual learning. We are working to provide personalized career design support through talent management that leverages the tracking and visualization of each employee's learning and development.
Learning opportunities for individual development
In addition to supporting the growth and application of employees’ expertise through roles in various fields of business, we also provide diverse opportunities for learning, including various training programs and support for self-development, both in and outside Mizuho.
Leader development initiatives
We offer leadership training programs, available to targeted employees by application, through which each and every employee can enhance their leadership, acquire new knowledge and skills, and develop their competencies on their own initiative as core talent shaping Mizuho's future. Further, we have an industry exchange program through which select employees can enroll in business programs at universities or other educational institutions in order to enhance their leadership skills and expertise.
In an effort to expand diversity and inclusion by promoting the employment and advancement of diverse talent, we are also implementing training programs to accelerate the pace at which non-Japanese and female employees are appointed to management positions.
The objective of these programs is to transform mindsets and behaviors. This includes deepening participants’ understanding of the ways in which cultivating an inclusive work environment leads to innovation, successful strategies, and other positive outcomes. Participants consider the actions leaders can take to recognize unconscious bias and better enable each individual to utilize their unique qualities and strengths.
Global talent development initiatives
We are committed to developing talent that can perform at a global level. Our study abroad program allows employees to apply to an MBA , MS (Master of Science), or LL.M. (Master of Laws) course at a graduate school outside Japan to extend their global networks, acquire wide-ranging knowledge and international outlooks, and develop broader perspectives and mindsets toward becoming more innovative. Our international assignment training program allows employees to work at an office outside Japan for a set period of time to cultivate talent capable of handling global business. We also offer an English language study program with the goal of strengthening employees' ability to communicate with people around the world, as well as subsidies to support other language study.
Developing DX human resources
Mizuho has positioned DX as a growth strategy, and is promoting DX throughout the company by increasing sensitivity to new technologies and new business trends and actively utilizing external resources starting from the perspective of customers and users in the new society. To develop human resources who can quickly adapt to changes in the business environment and realize the Mizuho DX strategy, we are creating opportunities to learn cutting-edge technologies by sending individuals to gain experience and knowledge at external companies and by collaborating with universities to provide training programs. We are also expanding our e-learning menu to raise the digital literacy of all employees. Mizuho will advance its DX by developing core human resources who will take the lead in forwarding the DX strategy and by improving the digital literacy of all employees.
Support for self–development
By offering opportunities and learning tools, we encourage our employees to acquire the latest skills and knowledge in order to keep ahead of the changing times. Our related programs include Mizuho College, which enables employees to enhance their business skills and digital literacy through Massive Open Online Courses and other means, and Mizuho Knowledge Forum, which brings in well–known experts as lecturers to provide employees with broader and higher level perspectives. In addition, employees who take advantage of correspondence courses to study advanced material at their own pace can receive subsidies for the cost of the courses upon completion.
Professional development leave
In FY2019, we established a new system that allows employees to take leave for a set period to focus on learning outside Mizuho in graduate-level schools and external programs. Perspectives and knowledge obtainable only from outside the company will foster the growth of both our employees and Mizuho.
Second jobs
We have introduced a second job system to offer employees the opportunity to start and operate their own businesses outside of Mizuho work hours. Stepping outside of Mizuho to leverage off-work hours and engage in new areas of business leads to a range of new experiences and discoveries, and ultimately promotes the growth of our employees as business people.
Career design opportunities
We encourage our employees to shape their own careers by offering diverse opportunities for development both from within and outside Mizuho.
Open recruitment programs
One way in which we help our employees further their professional development while on the job is by offering a wide variety of education programs. These diverse programs offer opportunities for a vast number of employees to gain knowledge and experience outside their everyday work. In doing so, they enable employees to develop their skills and overcome their challenges through their own initiative. Some examples of programs include the industry exchange program, in which employees take part in group work with next generation leaders at other companies in order to improve their own leadership skills; the instructor challenge program, in which employees interested in education take on instructor roles in orienting new employees; and the action learning program, in which employees with a range of backgrounds come together to create new business and solutions.
Job change program / Concurrent assignment program
This program allows employees to apply for other jobs throughout the group so that they can construct their own careers and obtain increasingly specialized capabilities. Every year over 200 positions are posted, drawing applications from employees at a wide range of stages in their careers. Aside from these regular job postings, there are also project–related positions open whenever a new project is launched. Also available are secondment opportunities at external companies, including positions at consulting firms and major manufacturers.
In FY2019, we began a concurrent assignment program with positions available both within and outside the Mizuho group. These concurrent assignments allow employees to apply the skills and abilities gained through self-development in a position of their choice while maintaining current duties to support the expansion of their potential and deepening of their expertise.
Further information
ESG data: Talent development (PDF/759KB)
Individualized career support
We provide a wide range of opportunities and support programs that allow employees to proactively design the future of their careers. In this regard, improving the communication skills of supervisors plays a decisive role in how employees can strengthen their expertise and leverage their skills, and also have a significant impact on business performance. We are striving to enhance management capabilities within the organization in an effort to create a supportive workplace environment that enables each employee to participate fully while developing their skills.
Management training program
Our management training program provides all supervisors the opportunity to improve their communication skills, gain skills related to personnel evaluation, and to deepen their understanding of personnel development and evaluation. This is to support the self-directed efforts of supervisors toward fostering the professional growth of employees. The program also offers extensive self-development content on such topics as coaching skills, allowing supervisors to review and strengthen their personnel management skills in areas that require improvement.
Through our efforts to strengthen the management skills of supervisors, we endeavor to encourage employee growth throughout the HR evaluation process, which consists of setting challenging goals, communicating on a daily basis, and providing constructive evaluation and feedback toward growth.
Career design programs
We are supporting our employees in planning their careers in line with the multiple career options available within Mizuho and with their own particular roles. At the end of their first year at Mizuho, new graduate hires attend a group–wide training program to consider their future career goals. In addition, all employees have access to a variety of career design support programs, including e–learning for self–led career design and online education with group discussions for each career stage.
Departmental briefings
Mizuho provides opportunities to learn about the wide range of career fields open to Mizuho employees through briefing sessions conveying information to introduce each department (division), the features of specific jobs, the type of personnel we are looking for, the expertise that can gained, and the breadth of career opportunities. The briefings also provide valuable opportunities to meet and speak directly with employees from the departments.
Career Advisor Consulting System
This system provides opportunities for employees to gain career advice in relation to marriage, childbirth, parenting, aging family member care, and other changes in their personal situations, as well as to changes in conditions inside and outside the Mizuho group. Employees can receive guidance on medium– to long–term career planning, including taking charge of their own careers, and supporting direct reports in developing and managing their own careers. They can receive advice tailored to their individual needs from nationally certified career advisors through an interview format.