The future of work is family friendly says CBA CFO

Speaking at the launch of UNICEF Australia and Parents At Work’s new work + family standards and certification framework, Mr Docherty, who is the bank’s co-group executive sponsor of workplace inclusion and diversity, and CBA’s ambassador for family friendly workplaces, said this support produces tangible business benefits alongside personal ones for people employed at the bank.

An Australian first, of which CBA is a founding partner, the new standards and certification framework is designed to help employers take deliberate and measurable steps to create family inclusive workplaces. Along with over 20 other Australian employers including Deloitte, QBE, and Novartis, CBA is also amongst the first to be certified as a Family Friendly Workplace.

Over the past year, the nexus between work life and home has become blurred with the rise of hybrid working. Despite positive shifts in employers’ understanding of work-life situations and improved flexible working arrangements, recent research by Parents At Work shows that work and family demands contribute to stress and tension amongst partners and colleagues and can even affect people’s relationships with their children.

With over 46,000 employees and almost half of our workforce with caring responsibilities, CBA recognises the social and economic value of family friendly practices and the flow-on benefits to our people, the organisation, and the broader economy, said Mr Docherty.

“When people with diverse family needs feel supported in their workplace, not only do they benefit but their families and the broader community benefits too,” he said at the Family Friendly Workplaces launch event at CBA’s The Foundry at South Eveleigh, Sydney.

“As one of Australia’s largest employers, we have an important role to play fostering a culture of care, equality and respect so that our people can be at their best at work and at home.”

He added: “Family means different things for all of us. Whether a family is single parent or working parents, same-sex, or a First Nation family, it’s important that everyone is able to perform their work in a manner that works for them, their team and their customers.”

Mr Docherty was speaking on a panel hosted by media commentator Annabel Crabb, along with UNICEF Australia Chair and former banker Ann Sherry, Steven Worrall, CEO of Microsoft Australia, Clare Harding, Chief Strategy Officer of Deloitte Australia and Emma Walsh, CEO of Parents at Work.

The support CBA provides reflects the diversity of family units and caring responsibilities of its workforce across different life stages. For new parents, the bank provides paid parental leave that is inclusive of all genders, adoption, surrogacy, foster care, stillbirth and infant loss, as well as financial wellbeing guides for new and single parents. Additionally, the bank provides unlimited paid leave for people experiencing domestic and family violence.