Commonwealth Bank today announced a new skills program to prepare its workforce for the changing nature of work, supported by approximately $90 million investment over three years.
Over the past year, approximately 5,000 of our existing employees started in a new role inside the bank, and we rolled out a comprehensive suite of AI tools and have provided AI-focused training to more than 30,000 of our people. This program builds on these foundations.
The Future Workforce Program represents a structural redesign of how skills are developed and how careers will evolve within the Commonwealth Bank.
Technology, including AI, will continue to reshape how work is done across the economy. While the impact on roles will be uneven and the pace of change remains highly uncertain, CBA is moving early so its people are well-equipped for the future.
CBA is reshaping how capability is built across the organisation by mapping roles into core tasks, identifying the skills required for those tasks, and linking them to clear development pathways.
Through the new Grow Your Career platform employees will be able to see how technology can support aspects of their work, the transferable skills they are developing, and how to build new in-demand skills. The Program will also integrate enhanced career transition support for people impacted by workforce change.
CBA Chief Executive Officer Matt Comyn said:
“In a rapidly changing world we are determined to help our people develop the right capabilities and provide them with clarity and opportunity. That means helping our people understand how their roles are evolving and how they can build new skills and capability aligned to future demand.
“As one of Australia’s largest employers, we believe investing in skills and transparent career pathways is part of our responsibility.
“We are investing over multiple years because we believe by strengthening skills transparency and mobility, we are positioning our workforce - and the Bank - to succeed as work continues to change.”
“Our priority is to transition people into higher-impact roles which require greater expertise, judgement, critical thinking, and empathy,” he said.
CBA will be launching Grow Your Career in the coming weeks to all staff and we are now offering enhanced career transition support to any staff impacted by ongoing workforce change.
Grow Your Career
Connects employees’ skills, experience and career interests with practical next steps. It shows the core tasks within a role, how technology, including AI, may support those tasks, and the transferable skills built through day-to-day work. It then links those skills to roles in demand across the Bank, helping people plan their development aligned to emerging opportunities.
Stronger capability in priority areas
Expanded structured learning programs in priority areas including financial crime, digital risk, data and full cycle engineering, with a focus on reskilling existing employees into these growing areas of demand, where possible.
Enhanced transition support
For employees whose roles are impacted by change, there will be practical support. This includes a voluntary four-week Career Transition Placement program, offering hands-on experience in suitable vacant roles. A dedicated Career Transition Hub will also bring together coaching, skills assessment and access to internal vacancies to provide clear guidance during periods of change.
