New HR management under CANADE

Mizuho has published the "Human Capital Report" to comprehensively explain how we will create value together with our customers, the economy and society through "Enhancing Human Capital" and "Transforming Corporate Culture". For details on our various human capital initiatives.
Further information
Human Capital Report (PDF/11,948KB)

New HR framework in Japan, CANADE
An HR framework to support self-driven endeavors

New HR framework in Japan, CANADE

Mizuho has launched a new HR framework “CANADE” across five core group companies to sustainably enhance our human resources, the source of our value creation, under the new Corporate Identity. The name “CANADE” contains our desire that “management and employees should establish a bright future for Mizuho together in harmony”.
CANADE focuses on employee narratives originating from each employee’s individuality. Mizuho truly connects with each employee to encourage them to leverage their strengths and skills, stay healthy both physically and mentally, feel a sense of satisfaction in self–development, and take pride in working for Mizuho. We are committed to implementing three major initiatives: “Support our employees’ self-driven endeavors”; “Reward their contributions”; and “Build a supportive environment”, to encourage our employees to feel rewarded and supported.
CANADE also improves the link between business strategies and HR strategies to thoroughly implement strategic HR. It develops human capital capable of leading management and different business, and implements flexible personnel allocation according to the various business strategies.

An HR framework to support self-driven endeavors

Compensation and allocation

Compensation and allocation of personnel according to scope of duties and level of responsibility

To create a rewarding place to work, it is important to fairly reward employees for their contributions and achievements.
Our new HR framework in Japan rewards employees for their contributions according to scope of duties and level of responsibility through a new role-based compensation system. As part of the new framework, we have also removed multi-tiered organizational performance from the factors that determine employee bonuses, which are now based on achievement of individual goals and performance contributions. These changes have made for a clear system in which each employee is rewarded according to their roles and achievements and which provides employees with incentives to grow and take on the challenge of larger roles.

Enabling appointment and selection independent of seniority

The introduction of role-based compensation has made it possible to allocate the right person to the right job based on their skills and abilities, regardless of age or seniority, and promote early career employees to a greater extent than before. At the same time, a previous system that resulted in lower compensation at certain ages, regardless of individual skill and ability, has been abolished, expanding opportunities for experienced employees. By reforming our HR system under the motto of “understanding every individual,” we are enabling employees to take on more challenging tasks and greater responsibilities as they grow, irrespective of age and seniority.

In addition, we have made a shared HR platform for the five core group companies^*1 and revised the compensation system so that employees with the same role will receive the same compensation, even if they work for different entities. This allows for efficiently allocating personnel across entities.

*1 Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Trust & Banking, Mizuho Securities, and Mizuho Research & Technologies.

Evaluation

Growth-oriented evaluation system

At Mizuho, we aim for every employee to grow on their own terms and take on more challenging roles with greater responsibility. We believe that HR systems and management should support this. In the past, our evaluation system linked evaluation results (rank) directly to salary and assignment. Consequently, employees would focus on obtaining a higher rank at the expense of self-driven endeavors and personal growth. To address this situation, we have shifted to a more growth-oriented evaluation system so that employees and managers will be able to consider issues together and focus on individual growth through dialogue. This will encourage employees to reflect and take initiative toward their own growth.

Framework for evaluating personnel who embody Mizuho’s Corporate Identity

In addition, the previous evaluation framework centered solely on skill level and ability. In order to keep all employees in sync with our Corporate Identity (Purpose and Values) and translate this into better performance for Mizuho, we have both redefined our Corporate Identity and updated our evaluation framework to emphasize not only skills and abilities but also embodiment of our Values, which serve as the axis for employees behavior based on our Corporate Identity.

Details of employee evaluation and scheme for supporting employee development

Employee evaluation system

Mizuho implements “performance evaluation” and “action evaluation” for all employees to encourage them to review their own action/performance and develop themselves and Mizuho as a whole. The annual evaluation and the feedback allows our employees to appropriately recognize their own strengths and areas for improvement, and dialogues with managers contribute to personal/career development and improved performance.

◆Performance evaluation
A system in which each employee sets their own targets to achieve as individual targets towards organizational targets/goals at the beginning of the term, and the manager evaluates the achievement level at the end of the term.
In this system, personal goals are set in the light of organizational goals, and the accumulation of the personal performance contributes to the realization of Mizuho’s overall performance plan/strategies.
In addition, we value and ensure that the manager and the employee are on the same page at the beginning of the term regarding specific achievement levels, so that the employee is comfortable that the evaluation result will be fair. 
Although evaluations are conducted once a year, regular dialogue is held regarding progress towards objectives and measures for improvement in task execution. High-frequency, effective, and agile communication is conducted with respect to achievement of personal goals.

◆Action evaluation
This system evaluates how well each employee puts Mizuho’s Values into practice based on the Mizuho Corporate Identity. The level of capability of each employee in their role including knowledge, skills and specific abilities which the employee has displayed through putting the Values into practice is comprehensively evaluated. The results are used to review their own performance for further development. In addition, this system evaluates how well employees follow compliance requirements at work, to encourage them to be constantly aware of and adhere to the requirements. 
The role of each employee is reviewed and adjusted, if necessary, based on the evaluation results. The system emphasizes extension of roles via Values implementation, while discouraging employees from simply aiming for promotion only and encouraging them to preserve strong sense of purpose towards their self-endeavors and professional development. This allows employees to take on new challenges, grow professionally, and take on greater roles.

◆Feedback
Mizuho emphasizes providing feedback to ensure that the evaluation is transparent and authentic, and leads to the professional development of each employee. All employees receive feedback after their annual evaluation, and discuss with their managers about the rationale, strengths, areas for improvement, and future expectations. Furthermore, we conduct an employee survey to check the status of feedback and how employees feel about it, and share the results with their managers. This helps the opinions of employees to be reflected in not only HR initiatives but the operations of each department. In addition to the feedback, other forms of communication between employees and their managers, such as daily conversation about the status of and measures for achieving personal targets, and about their professional growth and career development, are also carried out.

Results of employee survey on feedback

Systems to support employee growth

Mizuho consciously creates communication opportunities as a framework supporting employee growth. We also conduct 360-degree feedback to encourage middle management employees to review their own performance and use it for their professional development.

◆Communication for employee/career development
We believe it is necessary that each employee increases their knowledge, skills and abilities to keep making positive contributions as well as to build their own career, in order to continue growing professionally and take on new challenges. Therefore, apart from the conventional daily communication, we have created a new opportunity for communication focusing on employee growth. The regular dialogue between employees and their managers about how to overcome challenges and enhance their strengths, and the PDCA cycle throughout the year encourage employees to continually develop.
We have also implemented “career development framework” initiative to encourage employees to take charge of their own career development. The annual one-on-one career meeting in which employees discuss their professional traits and career intentions with their manager and make sure they are on the same page leads to better human resource allocation and development.

◆360-degree feedback
In order to realize the human capital management that we are aiming for under CANADE, it is necessary to transform the mindset and behavior of middle management, who drive employee development and affect the behavioral patterns of the organization as a whole. Therefore, we conduct annual 360-degree feedback targeting middle management, with respondents from both inside and outside their departments. Middle management employees review their own strengths and weaknesses, talk with their managers about the results, and use the information to put Mizuho’s Values into practice via improvement and transformation in their mindset and behavior.