An optimal HR portfolio strategy
evolving by enabling employees
to take on challenges
and exercise autonomy

Our human resource strategy plays the role of building an optimal HR portfolio, maximizing the potential of our employees, and driving the Company's sustainable growth in line with our Long-term Vision of “providing Next-generation Social Infrastructure essential for the development of a digital society.”
Building this optimal HR portfolio means using generative AI to boost productivity and efficiently manage existing business domains, while strategically reallocating human resources to new domains such as generative AI and domestic cloud businesses. By combining the recruitment of specialized talent like AI and security engineers with the reallocation and reskilling of existing employees, we have shifted approximately 1,000 employees to new domains over the past two years, while keeping the number of employees at SoftBank on a standalone basis nearly unchanged.
This optimal HR portfolio is supported by a corporate culture that enables each employee to proactively exercise their capabilities, and by HR systems that promote this culture. We have valued our employees' willingness to chart their own career paths and to take on challenges with a forward-looking attitude. As a result of more than a decade of recruiting and developing such talent, this mindset has become firmly embedded within our organization, as evidenced by the large number of applications we receive whenever we post openings for transfers to new businesses. Behind this lies not so much the system itself, but rather a strong sense of ownership in which employees approach their work as their own responsibility. We believe that as this mindset continues to spread, it will foster the next generation of leaders and drive SoftBank's sustainable growth.

We maximize the use of internal resources to secure talent in growth areas. For example, in the development of our homegrown LLM “Sarashina”, we first formed the core team through internal transfers, including job postings within the Company. We then expanded the team through external recruitment. This “inside-out” approach to securing talent is now established Company-wide, not just in the AI domain.
We are also diversifying our recruitment channels, utilizing methods that allow us to directly approach highly skilled talent, such as referrals (employee introductions) and direct sourcing (a method where companies directly approach candidates). This enables flexible and agile talent acquisition, moving away from traditional mass recruitment and over-reliance on agencies.

We have regular discussions with management on topics such as “developing next-generation executive talent,” “how to use generative AI to improve productivity,” and “how to shift people to new departments.” Based on these dialogues, we design our placement measures and training programs for optimizing our HR portfolio.
One example is our “reskilling-based job posting.” When we transferred personnel to our domestic cloud business through an internal recruitment system, not all of the required skills and experience were available within the Company. To address this, we introduced the “reskilling-based job posting,” under which employees who were transferred through this system receive two to three months of training after their transfer to help them acquire the necessary skills.
These mechanisms are the result of a shared understanding with management: “In addition to external recruitment, we must make the most of our internal human capital.” Going forward, we will continue to evolve our organization by optimizing our human resource placement from a medium- to long-term perspective, not just focusing on short-term replenishment.

For the human resources department, our most important customers are the “employees.” Therefore, we are focusing on creating a foundation where employees can work with peace of mind over the long term and perform at their best, with DE&I and well-being at the core.
First, we are reviewing our compensation system to balance the financial stability of our employees with their motivation to take on challenges. To address inflation, we implemented base salary increases for three consecutive years from FY2023, thereby supporting stability in employees' livelihoods. Concurrently, we are firmly securing rewards for performance by placing a greater emphasis on performance-linked bonuses. This has helped boost employee engagement, especially among younger employees.
In promoting DE&I, we are addressing the promotion of women in the workforce as a critical management issue. Previously, although there were no gender gaps in performance evaluations, there was a nearly two-fold disparity between men and women in the promotion rates to director and manager positions. This revealed that despite advocating “meritocracy,” we were not fully placing the right people in the right roles. While various factors such as unconscious bias and differences in self-esteem may have contributed to these gaps, we reported this situation to management and reaffirmed the understanding that “an organization that embraces diversity is essential for sustainable global growth.”
We view these DE&I initiatives as contributing factors to corporate value enhancement by serving as a crucial foundation for sustainable growth, even if their direct contribution to short-term profits is not always apparent.

SoftBank's culture is rooted in our history of achieving “step-change growth.” One of the hallmarks of SoftBank is our ability to constantly change, combining diverse ways of thinking, adaptability to various businesses, flexibility, and a forward-looking mindset.
At the core of this culture are our “Values.” Specifically, the five values—“No. 1,” “Challenge,” “Reverse Planning,” “Speed,” and “Tenacity”—are shared by all employees and serve as the central principles for our daily decision-making and actions. These values are the foundation of our history of repeatedly taking on challenges in new technologies and businesses.
The values of “No. 1” and “Challenge” are particularly important. The mindset of striving for higher goals, instead of settling for “good enough,” drives the evolution of our organization. We view difficulties not as hardships but as challenges, seeking the new perspectives and self-growth that lie beyond. Thus, we aim to create a group that takes action on its own volition, rather than being forced to act. Additionally, the values of “Reverse Planning,” “Speed,” and “Tenacity” are critical in enabling us to deliver results even in uncertain environments, and they form an essential part of the Company's foundation. We recognize that maintaining a culture that embraces diverse values and flexibility, and that enables us to engage in a wide range of businesses, is our strength.
The origin of this culture lies in our corporate philosophy: “Information Revolution—Happiness for Everyone.” SoftBank aims to be a group where people who are serious about making the world a better place come together to achieve this vision. By sharing the value of taking on challenges with our colleagues, we will pass on this essential corporate culture to the next generation.