How banks are desperately trying to lure employees out of the home office

by time news

TTennis courts, retreat rooms and a laundry service – financial institutions are creating more and more incentives to get their employees back into the office. Although the banks have introduced rules for hybrid working, the presence of offices worldwide falls short of expectations, as studies and discussions with industry experts show. Rising fuel and food prices are keeping many workers from returning to their offices.

A global survey of almost 80,000 employees by Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) found that employees are not really following the rules of hybrid working. If employers stipulate two days of attendance, employees would only be in the office for 1.1 days. With the required two to three days of attendance, it is 1.6 days, with a specified three office days only 2.1 days of attendance.

“When we came out of the lockdowns and the corona rules were relaxed, the employees came back to the offices,” AWA Managing Director Andrew Mason describes the situation. “But then they only found themselves in video calls.” People had gotten used to the lifestyle and the changed cost structure. Job seekers also favored mobile work. Since the beginning of August, 80 percent of job seekers in the financial industry on the global recruitment portal Flexa have given preference as “remote” or “remote-first” when searching on the platform. That was 33 percent more than in March.

A laundry service

To lure colleagues back into corporate headquarters, financial institutions in New York offer free meals or ping-pong tables in the common areas. A British trading company started providing showers, retreats and laundry rooms for employees who work late on their deals, says Leeson Medhurst, chief strategy officer at Peldon Rose, an office design firm. “Our client said we see the office more as a hotel.”

The focus is on the needs of the employees, not the company’s finances. The British bank Aldermore is considering offering a concierge service that can do laundry, for example – a task that employees working from home can handle more flexibly. The company wants to encourage employees to come into the office, but not to revert to pre-pandemic behavior, says bank chief Steven Cooper.

Wall Street’s largest financial institutions were among the first employers to insist on the return of the workforce. Since June 2021, employees at Goldman Sachs have had to work full-time in the office again, and at Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan the majority are back. Citi agreed with the employees on a hybrid model. “Employers are trying to make the office more attractive and more functional,” says Kathryn Wylde, head of the Partnership for New York City, which brings together nearly 300 companies. But above all those who live further out and have to walk a long way to the office only come reluctantly. Investment bank Jefferies said it would like employees to come into the office and not stay in “lonely silos at home.”

Young professionals in particular like to come to the office because they can learn the connections faster and network. “Young people know that their careers depend on relationships in the office,” says New York lobbyist Wylde. In the UK, rising energy prices and an increasingly gloomy economy could also bring other workers back faster than free snacks or other incentives, believes Chris Gardner, co-head of mortgage lender Atelier from London. “As the situation worsens at the end of the year, visibility in the office becomes more important.”

You may also like

Leave a Comment