Engaging and Retaining Our Employees

Providing a rewarding experience for our employees – both personally and professionally – helps CIBC attract and retain great people. We actively reach out to employees and solicit their feedback on a number of issues in order to strengthen and improve our overall performance and enhance the employee experience.

Our leaders use a number of vehicles to communicate with employees across the bank on a regular basis, including:

Town hall meetings;
Global leadership conferences;
Webcasts;
One-on-one discussions to review performance and career development opportunities; and
Updates on CIBC initiatives, business results and employee programs, which are distributed electronically or posted on CIBC Today, our corporate intranet.

Our annual employee survey
Our annual survey is an opportunity for our employees to share what they are experiencing and how they view CIBC at the corporate and business levels, and within their own teams.

Three main indices are used to measure employee engagement year-over-year: the Employee Commitment Index (ECI), the Manager of People Index (MPI) and the Learning and Development Index (LDI).

Our ECI helps us gauge employee commitment and engagement with the organization. The ECI has increased steadily from a score of 75 in 2007 to a score of 84 in 2012.

Our MPI, which measures the effectiveness of people managers from the perspective of their employees, increased again in 2012.

Our LDI, which measures employees’ experience around learning and development in the context of their current role, continued an upward trend in 2012.

CIBC employee survey results: Employee Commitment Index

In addition to the main indices, all survey categories either improved or remained consistent with the previous year’s results. The largest gain this year was seen in employees’ likelihood of recommending CIBC as a place to work.

Employee turnover
We also recognize the importance of retaining great employees. In the past year, our permanent global workforce has grown by 399 and was 40,505 at the end of 2012. Employee retention continues to be an area of focus.

Employee turnover (%)(1)

	2012	2011	2010
Total turnover(1)	12.1	12.2	11.7
Total voluntary turnover of high-performing employees(2)	2.9	2.8	3.8

(1) Turnover as a percentage of permanent global workforce, excluding temporary employees, employees on unpaid leave and retirees.
(2) Those who have received the highest performance rating.

Employee retention
Our recruitment efforts are focused on ensuring top quality hires. Retention has improved significantly amongst newly hired employees. Specific initiatives focused on increasing retention have included Fit to Role and Realistic Job Previews.

The Fit to Role initiative is focused on high-incumbency positions, such as Customer Service Representatives, Financial Services Representatives and Call Centre roles. It involves developing job postings that are simpler and more accurately reflect the role, while providing managers with additional tools to assess candidates.

Our Realistic Job Previews feature online videos that provide potential candidates with a practical preview of a role before they apply. This initiative increases the likelihood of a better match.

We also conduct exit surveys with employees who depart voluntarily. These employees have an opportunity to provide information and feedback, on areas that need improvement.

Our Talent Scout Employee Referral Program encourages employees to refer qualified candidates for job opportunities and pays employees up to $1,000 for a successful referral.

Employee transition
Should an employee’s position be impacted by staffing reductions, restructuring or organizational changes, we try to redeploy the individual to a comparable role within the organization and/or offer support to help them transition to their next assignment. In circumstances where redeployment is not possible, eligible employees receive severance arrangements that either meet or exceed regulatory requirements and industry best practices.