Mandarin Oriental Tokyo

Hirokazu Nomura

Hirokazu Nomura is Director of People & Culture, Mandarin Oriental Tokyo. He is an inspirational and empathic leader with strong sense of innovation and creativity.

He has exceptional leadership management and people relationship skills, providing motivation and timely coaching and is business acumen endorsed by diverse and broad experience and knowledge not only in the field of HR but also across sales, marketing, communications, customer service, and finance functions, having worked in multiple industries of hotels(Hilton and Mandarin Oriental), airlines (Air New Zealand, Qantas, Jetstar and Malaysian Airlines), motion pictures & home entertainment (Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures), manufacturing (Owens Corning) and FMCG (Imperial Brands) .

With strong expertise in over all human resources management in particular for organizational development, employee engagement and employee communications, he has the ability to manage and interact with all levels as well as to work effectively at both strategic and tactical levels. His strong communication, coordination & negotiation skills both in English and Japanese, supported by his actual experience working in marketing & communications, made him a trusted and reliable change champion and highly contributes to timely and effective problem-solving and organizational project management.

What are some of your key roles and responsibilities that you have on a daily basis?

Develop and execute strategic and innovative recruitment plans and guide, encourage and lead my recruitment team to attract high class talent and secure proper manning for the operation by winning over the intensified talent competition situation of hotel industry in Japan.

"For Resilience, HR may need to demonstrate strong leadership in managing performance and development and guide employees to go through the performance management journey by having clear goals and purpose, developing connections and overcoming difficulties & problems and achieving goals."

Being reliable HR professional and business partner for General Manager and fellow Executive Committee members by providing effective, timely and articulated advice based on strong skills and knowledge on Japan specific HR labour laws, regulations and practices to help resolve many kinds of people related issues and problems.

Work closely with Executive Committee to develop proper action planning based on the employee engagement survey result and lead executing effective changes as a change champion to improve employee engagement and motivation which have strong impact on talent retention.

The pandemic has propelled digital transformation four years into the future, and the employee-employer relationship has transformed. Although HR has been leading change and crisis in the past years, it runs the risk of missing the boat on this fundamental shift in how we work.Your views on this.

If we could use latest technologies and tools properly and effectively, I believe we can still keep an eye on and support employees to focus on their tasks and keep them connected and interacted as if they were working together in the same place. I think DX empowered us to be innovative and find and try find new and innovative ways to do business rather than missing the boat.

How do you expect HR to move towards a more proactive approach to wellbeing and resilience?

I think by being more approachable and reliable by every level of managers/employees, as well as initiate more connections and interaction with employees, HR can foster wellbeing further. It is also important for every HR professional to acquire the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to help employees to overcome difficulties to maintain wellbeing. For Resilience, HR may need to demonstrate strong leadership in managing performance and development and guide employees to go through the performance management journey by having clear goals and purpose, developing connections and overcoming difficulties & problems and achievinggoals. By coming through such journey, I believe people can become more resilient.

What would be your piece of advice for your fellow peers and leaders?

Don’t afraid to take on new challenges. Believe in yourself and be positive. Don’t forget to say thank you and respect others in particular those who have different views and be honest and do the best to find out amicable resolution.

Always keep your eyes open for new opportunities and new learnings. Cherish fortune, connection and right timing.