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For the team, improving employee experience starts with asking a simple question: "Where is work harder than it needs to be – and what should we fix?"
As employee expectations continue to evolve, many organisations are responding by launching new wellbeing initiatives, engagement campaigns, or workplace benefits. Mizuho Bank took a different route.
Rather than asking what new programme to introduce, the bank focused on a more fundamental question: What makes work harder than it needs to be?
From simplifying processes and improving collaboration to creating greater clarity around decision-making and leadership, its employee experience strategy has centred on removing friction from employees' everyday work. The belief is simple: when people can work more effectively, they are better equipped to serve clients, collaborate across teams, and deliver stronger business outcomes.
The approach has resonated both internally and externally. At the Employee Experience Awards 2026, Singapore, Mizuho Bank received:
- Gold for 'Best HR Communication Strategy',
- Gold for 'Best In-House Recruitment Team',
- Silver for 'Best Employee Feedback and Listening Strategy',
- Silver for 'Best In-House Candidate Experience', and
- Bronze for 'Best Recruitment Referral System'.
Catching up with HRO, the team reflects on why employee experience is ultimately an organisational responsibility rather than an HR initiative, how leaders and employees worked together to drive lasting improvements, and why the future of EX lies in designing work that enables people to perform at their best.
Q Tell us about the biggest insight or lesson that influenced your EX approach this past year.
This year reinforced a simple truth: in a bank, employee experience is not a standalone initiative — it’s how effectively the organisation runs day to day.
What shapes experience most are the everyday “moments”: clarity of direction, quality of leadership, speed of decisions, how teams collaborate across functions, and whether processes help people deliver for clients while meeting our control and conduct standards.
So we shifted from “What new programme do we add?” to “Where is work harder than it needs to be — and what should we fix?” That focus on removing friction and improving consistency made a tangible difference, because small improvements at scale compound quickly.
This recognition isn’t a finish line. It’s confirmation that progress happens when the whole organisation aligns on a culture and workplace that enable performance.
Q How did you bring leaders, managers, and employees together to support the execution and success of the initiative?
We approached it the way we approach any business priority: shared ownership, clear roles, and continuous feedback.
- Leaders set expectations and tone — linking people priorities to strategy, client outcomes, and our risk and conduct culture.
- Managers made it real — through day-to-day leadership: clear goals, timely decisions, coaching, recognition, and fair workload management.
- Employees kept us honest surfacing what helped performance and what created friction and partnering on practical improvements.
"The key wasn’t 'HR driving engagement.' It was leaders and teams choosing to work differently having direct conversations, acting on feedback, and being transparent about what could change now versus later."
That’s what built trust and momentum.
Q What challenge behind the scenes tested your team the most, and what did it teach you about building stronger employee experience programmes?
The hardest part was balancing improvement with the realities of banking: competing priorities, regulatory requirements, and limited capacity, without adding complexity or creating unintended risk.
That forced discipline. We learned that progress doesn’t always come from launching more activity. Often it comes from strengthening the basics: simplifying processes, improving clarity, and making experiences more consistent across teams.
It also reinforced that transformation is ultimately about people. Sustainable change takes alignment, repetition, and follow-through, not a one-off rollout.
Q As you reflect on the journey, what does this recognition at the Employee Experience Awards 2026 mean to you and your team?
Behind it is real work across the bank: leaders who role-model the culture, managers who invest in their teams, and employees who spoke up and helped shape improvements.
That collective effort matters, because a better employee experience strengthens execution, resilience, and collaboration — things that directly support our clients and the organisation.
This recognition motivates us to keep raising the bar — keep listening, keep improving, and keep building a workplace where people can perform at their best.
Q Finally, as employee expectations continue to evolve, what is one area of EX you believe HR teams will need to rethink in the year ahead?
The biggest rethink is moving from “HR programmes” to enterprise experience design: improving how work happens across the bank.
Today's workforce values transparency, purpose, and genuine involvement. They want to understand why decisions are made and know that their feedback leads to meaningful action.
AI and technology will change how we operate, but they won’t replace the fundamentals — trust, clarity, fairness, and leadership quality.
Technology should reduce admin and increase time for meaningful conversations, so people can focus on serving clients, managing risk well, and developing their careers.
"In short: transformation is about people, and it only works when the whole bank owns it."
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