Communication and Recognition

A critical part of engaging and retaining talented employees is communicating with them and recognizing their contribution. In a world of instant networking, social media and 24/7 news reporting and blogging, we use a variety of communication vehicles to stay connected with our employees and ensure they are informed on a timely basis about our business and results, and are engaged on key initiatives. In fact, 90% of employees agree that CIBC does an effective job of communicating business results and performance.

Our communication tools include: webcasts; e-mails; our corporate intranet site, CIBC Today, which includes employee comments; online collaboration sites; an ethics hotline; continuous improvement programs that solicit and reward employee suggestions; as well as town hall meetings.

2012 Diversity Award Recipients.

Performance management
Managers and employees work together to establish performance expectations that support the business priorities for the year. They meet regularly to review progress and at mid-year and year-end to formally assess performance. Known as our Performance Management and Measurement (PMM) process, these conversations reinforce the importance of CIBC’s vision, mission and values and the need to adhere to CIBC’s various risk management, governance, control and policy requirements. Pay-for-performance is the foundation of CIBC’s compensation philosophy. Annual variable compensation awards for employees are based on CIBC’s overall performance, line of business results and the employee’s results against their individual performance goals as identified in their PMM. They are also linked to compliance to policies, guidelines, frameworks and controls, including those related to risk.

Our employee survey results show that support for the PMM process continues to be strong; 92% of employees report having a written PMM scorecard in place for 2012, have an understanding of how the goals on their scorecard support the goals for their line of business, and how their day-to-day activities support the goals on their PMM.

Percentage of employees who reported having a written PMM scorecard

Workplace issue resolution

In addition to conversations around performance, we also promote open and honest discussion when employees have concerns by encouraging them to communicate directly with their manager. If an issue is not resolved to an employee’s satisfaction, the Workplace Issue Resolution Process provides a structured approach to guide employees and managers in resolving workplace issues and is the recommended method to resolve concerns.

The CIBC Employee Ombudsman’s Office (EOO) helps facilitate resolution of workplace issues, but only after the employee has actively sought to resolve issue(s) with their manager(s) and/or through other established channels. Importantly, CIBC policies clearly prohibit any form of retaliation against any employee who in good faith escalates a workplace issue.

The EOO has a secondary objective of identifying and reporting concerns and trends based on employee workplace complaints and recommends solutions or areas requiring policy review that would improve the employee experience.


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