Creating a safe, comfortable workplace
Creating a comfortable work environment
At Mizuho, we make every effort to ensure a comfortable and safe work environment where employees' rights are respected. To establish a relationship of mutual trust between the company and our employees, Mizuho promotes ample communication between management and employees, and endeavors to create workplaces where employees are highly motivated.
In addition, Mizuho defines human capital risk as the risk of losses due to employee turnover or lowered morale. To deal with this form of risk, Mizuho has an ongoing initiative to enhance management methods and conducts monitoring to identify and reduce human capital risk, such as via staff surveys.
Workplace safety and hygiene, and health management
In accordance with occupational safety and health regulations, we are putting in place a safe and comfortable work environment by conducting various types of medical checkups, providing health management by industrial physicians, and establishing a health committee.
We also promote health management initiatives to assist employees in maintaining and improving their health, such as introducing welfare programs to support women's health, providing opportunities for exercise, and holding various seminars on health topics.
Mizuho's commitment to promoting and improving employee health (PDF/419KB)
Principal Initiatives
- Establishment of company medical centers staffed with full–time industrial physicians.
- Provision of annual health checks1, and health advice from industrial physicians for all employees.
- Thorough promotion of preventive measures and provision of information about infections and care procedures for all employees2 and their families for influenza and other communicable diseases, including subsidizing the cost of influenza vaccinations.
- Distribution of the Mizuho Health Insurance Society newsletter to all employees.
- Discussions at Health Committee meetings between representatives of management and workers of ways to improve workers' health, including prevention of overwork.
- Continual improvement to the work environment by measuring office lighting, air quality, temperature, humidity and other elements more than twice a year.
・Promotion of regular health checkups and coverage of reexamination costs
・Introduction of welfare services to support women's health
・Provision of exercise opportunities, such as by distributing videos
- Annual health checks are provided to all employees, including part–time workers.
- Costs are subsidized for all employees, including part–time workers.
Recognition under the 2021 Health & Productivity Stock Selection
Five core group companies–Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Trust & Banking, Mizuho Securities, and Mizuho Research & Technologies–were recognized under the 2021 Health & Productivity Stock Selection. This program administered by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry recognizes organizations that take a management approach to monitoring employee health and strategically practice such an approach.
Mizuho recognized under 2021 Health & Productivity Stock Selection
Further information
ESG data(Numbers of work–related accidents) (PDF/759KB)
Initiatives to safeguard and improve employees' mental health
Mizuho recognizes mental health as an important pillar of employee health–care management and has adopted various measures accordingly. We have been providing employees with self–care tools to check their own stress levels since before the introduction of the stress check requirement following reforms to Japan's Industrial Safety and Health Act. Alongside this, managers are given awareness–raising training, while industrial physicians and other occupational health–care staff provide local guidance and other support on an ongoing basis. We have also set up a consultation system that employees can access easily, establishing advice services where employees can talk to expert counselors about their concerns and anxieties.
Efforts to improve legal compliance and working environments
Mizuho monitors the following items on a regular and as–needed basis to improve our working environments as well as to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations, including minimum wage.
- Status of compliance with minimum wage laws, "36 Agreement", and other legislation
- Status of overtime work and leave taken
- Status of work–related accidents
Maintaining a sound relationship between the company and employees
The Mizuho Financial Group Employees' Union operates under a union shop system and is active within Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, and Mizuho Trust & Banking. (Mizuho Securities and Mizuho Research & Technologies both have their own separate unions, the Mizuho Securities Employee Union and the Mizuho Research & Technologies Employee Union, which also operate on a union shop basis and are active within Mizuho Securities and Mizuho Research & Technologies, respectively.)
Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, and Mizuho Trust & Banking have concluded a labor agreement with the Mizuho Financial Group Employees' Union, and Mizuho Securities has concluded a labor agreement with the Mizuho Securities Employee Union. Mizuho Research & Technologies has also concluded a labor agreement with the Mizuho Research & Technologies Employee Union. In order to maintain and improve the working conditions of the union members and to achieve the sound development of the organization, Mizuho and the union hold collective bargaining discussions on a variety of issues, while respecting each other's positions, with the objective of building and maintaining sound labor–management relations. Mizuho also conducts its business in strict compliance with local labor laws and regulations in all of the countries it operates.
Further information
ESG data (Mizuho Financial Group Employee Unions) (PDF/759KB)
Management Council
The council meets to exchange opinions on management policy and business results, and to solve problems in the case of disputes or potential disputes.
Central Labor Council
The council meets to discuss the revision of employees' work conditions such as work hours, salary and bonuses, benefits, and revisions to HR systems, labor contracts, and office regulations.
Workplace Council
The council meets to discuss each workplace's work conditions and other topics such as welfare benefits.
Staff survey
Each group company annually assesses employee morale and views by carrying out a survey which includes questions regarding the level of respondents' job satisfaction and pride in being a Mizuho employee.
Further information
ESG data (Employee satisfaction) (PDF/759KB)
Employee stock ownership plan
To provide incentives for increasing the Mizuho Group's corporate value and as part of activities to support employee initiatives to build their assets in the medium–to–long term, Mizuho has introduced its employee stock ownership plan for all the personnel of Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Trust & Banking, and Mizuho Research & Technologies.