Employees at US banks like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are aware that their bosses want them back in the office. However, a large number of their coworkers at European companies work half of the time from home (WFH).
Banking giant HSBC has confirmed that hybrid working is the thing the whole bank will embrace, with hot desking and open-plan floors.
The banks’ big bosses claim that connection and flexibility are the key differentiators.
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Banks in Europe that stick to working remotely
Bloomberg’s poll of 12 leading European banks revealed that one of them still permits staff to work remotely one day each week.
According to a source, UBS Group AG even views its use of hybrid working as a potential to hire brilliant personnel from US rivals.
According to a spokeswoman for the Swiss bank, which is devoted to giving employees the choice of hybrid working, roughly 75% of employees have jobs that allow for the necessary flexibility.
Similar to Societe Generale (SocGen) SA in France, Banco Santander SA in Spain, and ING Groep NV in the Netherlands, all of these companies acknowledged workplace flexibility as a factor in their success in luring and keeping top people.
Hot desking helps cut off costs
Banking giant HSBC also confirmed that top managers in its Canary Wharf HQ have lost their offices and will have to hot-desk on an open-plan floor, BBC reported.
HSBC Boss Noel Quinn said the whole bank was embracing “hybrid working” and he would no longer come in five days a week. “My leadership team and I have moved to a fully open-plan floor with no designated desks.”
Being in a prominent city’s top location is quite expensive and hurts income. The banks would see much more free cash flow if the cost of office space could be drastically reduced.
The acceptance that many people desire to work remotely part- or full-time for a variety of reasons is the other motivator. The previous year served as a test case that demonstrated it is feasible to run a corporation with a sizable portion of the personnel working remotely.
The one also going toward a hybrid strategy is Lloyds Bank.
Over the following two years, office space will be reduced by 20% as a result. About 77% of Lloyds’ 68,000 workers expressed a desire to work three or more days each week from home, prompting the company to make the decision.
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Flexibility depends on the role
After this month’s US Labor Day holiday, the company and rival Morgan Stanley started withdrawing some of their remaining Covid-19 mitigation efforts. Goldman executives made it clear earlier this year that they wanted employees who complied with the COVID regimen to work from the office.
The company, led by CEO David Solomon, has taken the initiative to persuade its highly compensated workers to return to full-time office work.
Attaining the objective of getting employees back to the office “is not contradictory with the desire to provide our staff with the flexibility they need,” Solomon said on an earnings call last year.
The degree of flexibility varies between professions and roles in Europe, with merchants being more office-bound than information technology professionals.
However, the policy of Deutsche Bank AG, which permits staff to work remotely up to 40% of the time, appears to be the standard.
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