Diversity, Equity and Inclusion EMEA

It is Nomura's mission to deliver a better tomorrow by becoming a truly inclusive financial services business, reflecting our wide range of internal and external stakeholders, driven by diversity of thought across all aspects of our business.

We think a more diverse workplace is a better workplace.

Nomura is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to providing equal opportunities throughout employment including in the recruitment, training and development of employees, and to eliminating bias and discrimination in the workplace whether on grounds of age, disability, gender identity and gender expression, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

Our objective is to attract job applications and applications for development from the best possible candidates and to retain the best people. We are committed to having a diverse range of gender, age, skills, values, knowledge, experience and geographical, abilities and neurodivergence, educational and professional backgrounds amongst our employees. Our commitment to equality of opportunity is underpinned by our EMEA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Strategy.

Our employee-driven networks encourage connectivity, knowledge sharing and raise awareness of key diversity initiatives and opportunities for greater inclusivity. Our networks are at the heart of key events, such as International Women's Day, LGBT Pride Month, Mental Health Week and cultural festivals, such as Diwali.

WIN - Gender Balance Network

Promotes a gender-inclusive culture and diverse workforce to support the firm's strategic growth. In 2017 the network changed its name, vision and mission statement to recognise that both men and women play an important role in helping achieve gender balance in the workplace.

Employee Life and Family

Provides engagement, education and support for employees on family, health and wellbeing, stress life management matters.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Allies (LGBTA)

Supports lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender professionals to perform to their utmost potential and helps create a strong network of allies to understand LGBT+ issues.

  • We Embrace Flexibility at Work In EMEA, we are committed to helping employees achieve a positive work-life balance. We offer flexible options, such as home working, part-time working and job sharing, where the role makes it possible.
  • Our Approach to Learning Our commitment to diversity is reflected in our approach to learning, with unconscious bias and inclusive leadership training for all levels and programmes to improve gender balance for every career stage.

Attracting Diverse Talent

As part of our target to achieve a 50/50 gender split in our intern and graduate classes, we actively partner with women's groups at schools and universities to highlight the career opportunities available at Nomura. Throughout the graduate recruitment process, women have a range of opportunities to explore immersive internships including a two-week paid program for first year female university students. For LGBT+ students, we partner with external industry-wide initiatives that promote career opportunities in investment banking. See all the graduate opportunities here.

Additional Support and Memberships

Parental Transitions Programme

As part of Nomura's commitment to promoting an inclusive working environment and supporting employees through key life events, Nomura has developed an innovative Parental Transitions Programme for new parents. The programme offers support to employees in the lead up to, and following a period of extended parental leave and includes workshops to support career transitions, one-to-one coaching and health and wellbeing initiatives.

Antenatal and Postnatal Services

Our policies and extensive onsite medical facilities enables Nomura to offer parents expecting a baby: support to attend antenatal appointments and medical examinations; consultations with the Occupational Health team; complimentary gym membership following maternity leave; and onsite feeding facilities.

Nomura Emergency Back-Up and
Long-Term Dependant Care

Balancing home and work responsibilities can be difficult at times, particularly in an emergency. Our partnership with Bright Horizons Care Advantage provides access to a high quality network of nurseries and in-home care at short notice.

Employee Assistance Programme

To support mental wellbeing, we offer a confidential impartial information service for our employees and their family, available 24hrs a day, seven days a week, with advice on home, work, health, financial or other concerns.

Our Partnerships and Memberships

Our range of partnerships reflects our aim to build a diverse and inclusive workplace. Working alongside these organisations provides us with access to best practice, support and guidance for all our employees.

  • Stonewall DIVERSITY CHAMPION
  • WOMEN ON BOARDS
  • Inclusive Employers
  • CITYparents
  • Business Disability Forum

Women in Finance Charter -
Annual Update 2023

At Nomura we are committed to improving our gender diversity. Through signing the Women in Finance Charter in 2018, we set ourselves tangible goals and agreed to share progress on these publically each year.

We have set our goals to make sure that they are both realistic and achievable. Despite ongoing challenging market conditions and overall firm performance we managed to make some good progress:

  • 1. We aim to increase our overall female representation to 33% by March 2026. So far we have increased from 29% to 31%
  • 2. At a senior management level, we have achieved our previous goal in 2023. We are now targeting 30% representation of women in our senior management. We have redefined our senior management team as UK-based employees who are either one or two levels below the NEHS Executive team, including employees within divisional management committees.
  • 3. For our early career opportunities, including our graduate hires, we aim to have 50% female representation We are delighted that we improved representation from 33% to 51% female and achieved our goal. We now want to maintain this gender balance

Throughout 2023, Nomura has continued to introduce direct measures to address gender balance and inequity across Global Markets, Investment Banking and Corporate, and has given senior management individual accountability for achieving these targets. Some of these direct measures to embed and drive change include:

  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion objectives and gender diversity targets for senior representation for all senior management as part of their balances scorecards
  • Introducing a Global Diversity Working Group to develop and implement recommendations to support underrepresented groups and improve gender balance at all levels
  • Introducing a menopause policy; menopause training to support colleagues and educate line managers; and a menopause pathway to be able to access treatment, this includes having a GP onsite, who is a trained menopause specialist
  • Increasing our paid paternity leave for secondary care givers to 16 weeks from 2 weeks
  • Launching our Managing Directors Women's Advisory Group to advise our EMEA Executive team
  • We have seen in FY 2023 a 38% increase in women being hired into senior roles over FY 2020. This is partly due to:
    • 'Market mapping' open senior roles to ensure our female talent pool is fully reflected in candidate lists.
    • Engaging specialist search firms to source female candidates to include on shortlists
  • Increasing our commitment to women's development, including doubling the number of places in the Vice President mentoring programme through the 30% Club
  • Courageous conversations sessions to create a safe space for all colleagues to understand issues around gender in the workplace
  • Continued investment in our parental transitions support and coaching, including mandatory training for line managers

We recognise that we still have some way to go to improve Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, but these measures demonstrate our commitment to improving the representation of women across our organisation. We want to make Nomura an increasingly inclusive and balanced organisation, where everyone is proud to work.

Retaining and Developing High-Performing Women

Women's Development Programmes

Our programmes hone participants' skills for success and, increase connectivity across the firm and beyond. We offer four Women's Development Programmes for women at various stages of their career, some in partnership with external organisations such as the 30% Club:

WIN - Gender Balance Network

The WIN - Gender Balance Network is committed to engaging all employees, regardless of gender, with our gender balance goals. The network provide all employees with access to regular events, including Learning from Leaders and Career Pathways, as well as a programme of events for International Women's Day and high profile external speakers. The Network supports senior leadership and our Diversity, Equity and Inclusion team on programmes to promote cultural change throughout the firm.

Women in Technology Programme

Our Women in Technology Programme was established in 2014 to provide career progression and development through active sponsorship, recruitment and personal development, including:

TECH WOMEN 50

Nomura was recently recognised as runner-up in the "Female Tech Employer of the Year" and one of our Technology analysts was placed in the TechWomen50 Awards in 2017. Christine Chambers, Executive Director and EMEA Head of Cyber Security says: "Nomura is an exciting place to work in terms of the work offered and opportunities available for female technologists."

Gender Pay Gap

In the UK we disclose what the government refers to as a company's "gender pay gap". All organisations in the UK with 250 or more employees must report their gender pay data. View our results.

In France, all organisations with 50 or more employees must disclose their “Gender Equality Index” on a yearly basis. This index has been set up by French government to measure pay gap and highlight discrepancies between gender based on 4 indicators. View our results.