An end to the pandemic is in sight and many retail banks, which have realised the benefits of home working, are moving to a permanent hybrid model where staff will work both at home and in the office. Not everyone thinks it’s a good idea, however, and those that do have plans are still grappling with the details. Jane Cooper reports
Gossip by the watercooler, brainstorming at the whiteboard, the hubbub of meeting rooms – all was lost during the pandemic when office staff were forced into a more mundane routine of Zoom calls at home. The benefits of working at home, however, will outlive the lockdowns as many retail banks are now making it permanent.
The next six months will be a series of experiments for such banks, says Bhushan Sethi, Global Leader, People and Organisation at PwC. “No one has done this at scale before,” he says.
And while many banks are pushing ahead with plans for hybrid model – where staff are typically allowed to work at home for two to three days a week – not all banks think it is a good idea.
Lee Alam, Asia Pacific Head of A&O Consulting at Allen & Overy, comments that people typically divide into two camps on the topic. “There are those who think that we are losing something by remote working – especially if they are in a role that requires collaboration or supervision,” he says. This contrasts to the other camp that believes people work more effectively because they don’t have to spend time travelling to the office.
Trans-Atlantic difference of opinion
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By GlobalDataOn the other side of the pond in Europe, the Société Générale CEO took the opposite view on junior staff and said young talent would be attracted by the option of flexible working. And it’s not just young talent that will be attracted: Sethi says that for banks that are keen to recruit from the technology sector, which has much more of a history with remote and flexible working, have to offer such attractive terms.
In doing this, banks need to have a robust plan, says Sethi. Publicly, the banks have not been forthcoming about the actual details of their plans. Wells Fargo, for example – which has had 200,000 people work from home during the pandemic (and 60,000 in offices) – is now making plans for a return to normal working.
A spokesperson for Wells Fargo said “We’re working now to define what a ‘more normal model’ means when we return to the workplace. We believe most of us benefit by being physically together, but we also appreciate that flexibility is important and we are not taking a one-size-fits-all approach.”
Meanwhile Deutsche Bank’s CEO Christian Sewing said that it would allow employees to work for up to three days a week at home. A spokesperson told RBI, “Deutsche Bank will be implementing a hybrid model across our bank, when eligible employees will be offered the opportunity to voluntarily work remotely for part of the working week. We will develop exactly what this model looks like together with the employee representatives and works councils.” They added that they were unable to provide details on which employees would be eligible.
Sethi comments that employees may be eligible according to their team, role or by their preference. Some banks, for example, are arranging for certain teams to go into the office on certain days. Where workers are not public-facing, and there are no compliance restrictions – such as with traders, for example – Sethi expects that banks will be flexible and allow people to continue working from home. “No one in back office needs to go back,” Sethi gives as an example.
Some roles, such as financial advisors, are perhaps better done in person. “For some roles, customers do want face-to-face interaction,” says Alam at A&O Consulting, giving the example of vulnerable customers or those with certain disabilities.
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Such plans also come in the context of banks considering the future of work. Singapore-based DBS, for example, in describing its “distributed workforce” model says it is part of “implementing a series of transformation initiatives to realise new ways of working in the next normal”. Under this new model all employees will be given the option of working remotely up to 40% of the time. Piyush Gupta, the bank’s CEO said in a statement, “As the way we live, bank and work continues to change dramatically, we must address the magnitude of the disruptions before us. We are prepared to radically transform the way we work by introducing a comprehensive range of measures which include implementing a permanent hybrid work model, flexible work arrangements and deploying more agile squads while creating workspaces that will help to supercharge ideation and collaboration.”
The challenge of effective remote working
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Such issues were highlighted in a report by software company Behavox, which found that employees were experiencing a higher frequency of workplace misconduct because of the pandemic.
This extended to compliance and human resources issues such as cybersecurity breaches, corporate espionage, theft of intellectual property, racism and sexual harassment. Suicidal tendencies were also mentioned in the report, which points to the broader issue of the mental health and wellbeing of staff working at home.
“Not everybody thrives in an environment of remote working,” says Alam. Citi has tried to address this, with a move to Zoom-free Fridays and limiting calls outside of traditional working hours, for example. Jane Fraser, in her March memo wrote, “I know from your feedback and my own experience, the blurring of lines between home and work and the relentlessness of the pandemic workday have taken a toll on our well-being. It’s simply not sustainable.”
This is just one of many issues that need to be addressed as banks move to hybrid working. “Are people learning correctly? Are they being supervised correctly? Is the culture being maintained?,” Alam asks of banks that intend to keep working with remote working in a hybrid model.
“In theory there is some logic for remote working for certain roles. For many roles – such as branch staff or trading roles – there are these issues that have not been resolved. Until they are resolved, people will be expected to go into the office,” says Alam.