Commonwealth Bank: An Overview, Performance, and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the Commonwealth Bank, an Australian financial institution with operations in several countries. It discusses the bank's services, including retail, commercial, and investment banking, and highlights its strong financial performance, employee benefits, and commitment to service excellence. The report analyzes factors contributing to the bank's success, such as its strong financial position, employee share plans, and health insurance. It also offers recommendations for attracting and retaining employees, including regular career conversations, continuous upskilling opportunities, and a more flexible workforce. The report concludes by emphasizing the bank's integrated financial service model and the importance of employee satisfaction for sustained success. This report is a valuable resource for understanding the Commonwealth Bank's operations and management strategies.

RUNNING HEAD: Introduction to management 0
Commonwealth bank
Introduction to management

Introduction to management 1
Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Commonwealth Bank.......................................................................................................2
Performance..........................................................................................................................................2
Recommendations.................................................................................................................................4
Conclusion.............................................................................................................................................4
References.............................................................................................................................................5

Introduction to management 2
Introduction
The commonwealth bank is an Australian bank. The bank conducts it’s operations in US,
UK, New Zealand, Fiji and Asia. It is one of the leading renowned brands in Australia. The
headquarter of bank is situated in Sydney, Australia. The commonwealth bank was awarded
as ‘Bahamas 2015 award’ (Commonwealth Bank, 2018). This report consist of the overview
of Commonwealth bank which includes it’s general description and services. Further the
performance of company has been discussed. The performance reveals the factors which
makes it a popular place of employment. Finally the recommendations are given to attract
and retain employees.
Overview of Commonwealth Bank
Commonwealth bank is a leader of financial services and was established in 1911. The bank
offers financial services such as insurance, trade, premium and institutional banking,
investment, funds management, share broking funds, superannuation and retail banking.
Commonwealth bank provides retail banking services such as credit cards, home loans,
personal loans, transaction accounts and demand and term deposits. The commercial products
provided by bank are business loans, equipment and trade finance, rural and agribusiness
products to the corporations and other organisations. The bank also tackles investment
portfolio. In addition, it also offers a variety of life insurance, retirement and general
insurance products (Schlagwein, Thorogood & Willcocks, 2014). The bank serves it’s
customers through various channels such as branch, online and mobile.
Performance
The Commonwealth bank is focused on helping people. The bank delivers seamless
experience in the innovative ways. It is the one of the leading registered company on the
Australian Securities Exchange. The bank has 51,000 employees, more than 4,000 managers
and 8, 00,000 shareholders. The company has increased performance appraisal completion
rates from 50% to 98% (Cornerstone, 2018). The bank provides various types of employment
like full employment, part time employment, casual employment and temporary employment.
The full time employee’s works in standard hours under clause 12 of agreement. The part
time employee is engaged in less than standard hours. The casual employees are employed on
casual basis. The temporary employees are engaged for a specific period of time until the task

Introduction to management 3
or project completes. The bank is focused on improving performance by providing a range of
financial performance. The bank is expanding in retail and SME by offering customised
financial solutions to serve need of customers (Willcocks, Lacity & Sauer, 2017). The
financial performance of Commonwealth bank can be evaluated from the net income after tax
at year completed 30 June, 2017 that is improved 8%. The following factors contribute to the
performance of company:
Service excellence: The Commonwealth bank in terms of quality is the only bank to achieve
a four consecutive year in the top banks in Indonesia. The bank has vision to protect and
improve financial security of people (Cummings & Durrani, 2016).
Strong and confident: The bank maintained Fitch rating that is AAA with a stable outlook in
2015. It depicts the stable financial position of bank. This rating has helped company to issue
local debt instruments to generate future growth.
The bank have created a range of financial benefits for the employees such as
Modest pay: The employees are pleased with modest salaries and superannuation choices.
Various positions are offered performance incentives.
Employee share plan: The employee share achievement plan recognises and rewards the role
played in success of Commonwealth bank. Under this plan an employee can obtain up to
$1,000 in shares very year (McIlroy, 2017).
Health insurance plan: the health insurance plan of bank protects employees and family
members so that employees can better focus on work.
Salary sacrifice super: If a person is authorized then he can take part of basic salary and
bonus payment as contributions than cash income.
Salary sacrifice childcare fees: The eligible employees can detriment childcare costs acquired
at the childcare centres, located at Sydney CBD and Olympic park.
Banking benefits: The bank offers great class employee banking, investment and insurance
services. The bank also provides competitive and special discounts and paybacks that are
deliberated for employees only (Barnes & Newton, 2016).
Staff deals: The bank also provides discounted prices for various products and services. It is
because of the relationship of bank with customers and suppliers.

Introduction to management 4
Child care centres: It also provides access to day-care places for the children between 0-5
ages. The bank has five centres.
Recommendations
Regular career conversations: The bank can focus on the staff by giving near term objectives
and by implementing plans to achieve them. The managers should encourage weekly
meetings so that individuals can talk about their priorities, challenges and goals. The industry
news and developments can also be discussed in the meetings. It is vital to make them feel
that they are part of the success of organisation. It also allows employees to contribute ideas
towards growth of organisation (Turner & Nugent, 2015).
Continuous opportunities to up skill: The bank should be sure enough that the training and
development programmes provided are enough to enable staff to up skill. The individuals
should be encouraged to learn from the opportunities provided by bank. The industry certified
courses are also helpful in enhancing personal development.
More flexible workforce: The bank should ensure that the plans are flexible and scaled up to
meet future talent needs. It can enable bank to bring updated skills and knowledge between
different people at different departments. It includes workforce like permanent, short term
contractors and outsourcing. To improve performance and stay ahead in the market, the
organisation needs to give employees career security.
Conclusion
From the above report it is clear that Commonwealth bank is an integrated financial service
provider. Over 14.5 million customers are using a wide variety of company systems every
day. The bank supports small and medium size businesses across Australia. There are various
factors which makes it a popular place of employment. The performance has great role in
retaining employees. It provides various employment opportunities as discussed above
competitive pay, employee share plan, staff deals, insurance plan and more. Finally the
recommendations are given such as career conversations, continuous opportunities and
flexible workforce to attract and retain employees in the organisation.

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References
Barnes, V. and Newton, L., 2016. Virtuous banking: The role of community in monitoring
English joint-stock banks and their managements in the nineteenth century (pp. 62-74).
Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
Commonwealth Bank, 2018. Message From The Executive Chairman. [Online] Available at
http://www.combankltd.com/web/bank.nsf/vContent/Home [Accessed on 11 May, 2018].
Cornerstone, 2018. Commonwealth Bank. [Online] Available at
https://www.cornerstoneondemand.com/clients/commonwealth-bank [Accessed on 11 May,
2018].
Cummings, J.R. and Durrani, K.J., 2016. Effect of the Basel Accord capital requirements on
the loan-loss provisioning practices of Australian banks. Journal of Banking & Finance, 67,
pp.23-36.
McIlroy, J., 2017. Re-nationalise the commonwealth bank. Green Left Weekly, (1149), p.11.
Turner, G. and Nugent, J., 2015. International linkages of the Australian banking system:
Implications for financial stability. JASSA, (3), p.34.
Schlagwein, D., Thorogood, A. and Willcocks, L.P., 2014. How Commonwealth Bank of
Australia Gained Benefits Using a Standards-Based, Multi-Provider Cloud Model. MIS
Quarterly Executive, 13(4).
Willcocks, L.P., Lacity, M.C. and Sauer, C., 2017. Introduction. In Outsourcing and
Offshoring Business Services (pp. 1-22). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.