The Commonwealth Bank is committed to eliminating the gender pay gap as part of its holistic approach to diversity and inclusion. There is much discussion across the industry about the best course of action to achieve this objective, however success is not reliant on any single initiative. Instead it requires multi-faceted, sustained effort and action from every level of the organisation, backed by data analysis across the employee lifecycle to highlight areas in which pay gaps can occur and ensure they are not continued. This is essential, as once differences in pay for like roles occur, they typically continue throughout an employee’s working life into retirement.
In brief
- The Commonwealth Bank has a range of existing programs to raise awareness and understanding about gender equity issues such as its 35 per cent target (for women in senior leadership positions), manager awareness training and tools and applying a gender lens across people reviews, performance and pay outcomes.
- During 2015 the Commonwealth Bank undertook a comprehensive gender pay equity review, guided by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA) Pay Equity Toolkit. As a result, the organisation implemented several targeted solutions aimed at key ‘hot spots’ in an employee’s lifecycle when pay gaps are more likely to occur.
- An analytics-driven approach is important to identify gaps, however organisations must also work to understand and address the underlying causes of these disparities to be truly effective.
- Equipping recruitment leadership and teams with the relevant data and metrics helps them objectively determine pay offers.