'There will be an impact to their variable remuneration outcome and performance ranking'
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is linking bonuses to office attendance in a move to enforce compliance on the company's office-return policy, according to reports.
CBA employees have been mandated since July last year to come to the office at least 50% of their monthly working time.
To enforce this order, CBA told employees last week in a memo that those who consistently fail to comply with the 50% rule will face consequences in their bonuses and performance rankings, news.com.au reported.
According to the report, the first offence will see an employee receive an email from HR outlining the company's expectations and resources on the office-return policy. The second offence will see a formal letter of direction from HR instructing the employee to meet the company's expectations on onsite work.
The third offence will lead to an email letting a team member know that "there will be an impact to their variable remuneration… outcome and performance ranking."
"If the team member does not change their behaviour following the above, the Workplace Relations team will work with their people leader and the team member will receive a final formal written warning," the email read as quoted by news.com.au.
The latest order seeks to ensure compliance among a "small number of people" who struggle to follow the company's office-return policy.
"For the small number of people who for different reasons have difficulty complying with this expectation, we seek to understand their individual situation and to balance their needs with those of the organisation and our customer priorities," a CBA spokesperson told news.com.au.
CBA's office-return policy
CBA last year mandated employees to return to the office at least 50% of their monthly working time, with the organisation attributing it to fostering stronger connections.
"We've learnt that on average, we actively connect with 11 more colleagues each day when we are together in the office and spend 20 to 30 minutes more time collaborating," Sian Lewis, CBA group executive of human resources, previously told the Australian Financial Review.
"Our people also spend 40% or more time connecting with their leader and peers when in the office. We have seen that innovation is an outcome of our people physically working together."
