The pandemic forced the financial industry to rethink what was possible in terms of their workers and the office. With many financial institutions expecting to adopt a mix of remote and office working as part of their longer-term real estate strategies, we explore the trend
With its irregular working patterns, seasonal spikes in workload throughout the financial calendar, and a growing need to be available across different time zones, flexible working was already being talked about in the financial services sector prior to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, with concrete evidence of its benefits, flexible working and its hybrid variations are increasingly being recognised by the industry as essential for maintaining work-life balance and staying productive.
The pandemic has accelerated the flexwork trend, confirming that work in city centre office blocks simply isn't a prerequisite for productivity. Indeed, a report by KPMG and the Financial Services Skills Commission found that financial service workers adapted quickly to the pandemic, with 78% able to work remotely.
London's financial institutions were among the first to get staff to work from home when the crisis hit. In a recent survey, the proportion of investment banks preparing to allow staff to work remotely for at least some of the time after the pandemic rose to 75% in September 2020. That compares with 42% per cent in June, according to a survey of 250 financial services organisations in London by Worldpay owner FIS.
“Flexibility is more than just allowing people to work from home on the occasional Friday – what the future workforce wants is personal choice,” says Mel Newton, Head of Financial Services People Consulting at KPMG UK. “Following the pandemic, employers can’t offer blanket solutions when it comes to how their employees work. They will make the best of their talent if they employ them more thoughtfully.”
Creating new habits
But flexible working doesn't just mean working from home when lockdowns are enforced. In fact, 67% of businesses do not intend to use increased home-working as a permanent business model in the post-pandemic future, according to the UK's Office For National Statistics.
However, employers are listening to the workforce and are exploring flexible and hybrid combinations to balance the need for in-person collaboration with the practical necessities of operating within shared office spaces intermittently, as dictated by the nature of the work activity.
Tangible evidence that employers are taking this onboard can be illustrated by an initiative at Danske Bank where, following its experience of sending more than 19,000 employees from the office to work from home, it found indications of increased customer satisfaction, employee engagement and productivity. The initiative is in line with the Nordic bank’s mission to foster “growth in society”.
"As society is slowly returning to a kind of normal, we should bring along some of our new habits and the flexibility that comes with working from home, just as we should naturally prioritise virtual meetings and collaboration over travels,” says Frans Woelders, COO at Danske Bank, which is looking into changing corporate facilities to focus on more team-spaces and work hubs for physical meetings and brainstorms – and less on solo work stations, as more employees would work remotely some of the time.
In a separate initiative, employees at global insurance company Beazley have been granted the flexibility to choose to return to their office or continue working from home after lockdown – or opt for a hybrid of spending time across different locations. Employees are expected to consider how best to engage with brokers, clients and colleagues when deciding on their most suitable location. The company has even dispensed with core hours to provide flexibility around how employees divide their time throughout their working day.
This represents an acceleration of Beazley’s move, started two years ago, towards an activity-based working approach. The initiative was tested in lockdown, during which time productivity has been maintained or improved, and employee surveys have shown that greater flexibility is a welcome bi-product of an otherwise testing time.
“Feedback from external partners on our transition to remote working during lockdown was overwhelmingly positive and we’re confident we can continue delivering great service and innovative solutions under our new model," says Pippa Vowles, Global Head of Talent Management at Beazley
A continued need for agility
Looking to the medium to long term, uptake of flexspace will continue to be an important feature, reports JLL. In a paper it published on the implications of Covid-19 on global real estate, it notes that many corporates "will be anxious not to commit to big capex projects or make any firm employee headcount forecasts, which will strengthen demand for preconfigured space on flexible terms." Furthermore, it emphasises that the "forced mass experiment in homeworking will reinforce the need for corporates to adopt agile portfolios and adapt the physical office to deliver collaboration."
In the UK, Brexit is another catalyst for flexibility in the financial sector. In November 2020, According to EY reports, US lender JPMorgan Chase & Co. is expected not only to shift around £180 million in assets to Germany, but also to move 200 staff members out of London to other European cities including Paris, Milan, Madrid and Frankfurt.
No doubt accelerated by the impact of Covid-19, in October 2020, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said up to 30% of the bank’s employees could work from home permanently, rotating between the office and home.
Swiss investment company UBS has also signalled previously that up to a third of its staff stay working remotely, while Deutsche Bank chief executive Christian Sewing also told a conference on 24 September that it is considering a “hybrid model” for its workforce that would allow its employees to work remotely permanently for a number of days each week.
The role of flexspace
And in times of great uncertainty, flexspace can act as a safety net. That's the viewpoint of US Insurance services specialist Chubb, which says: "Businesses that already have the capacity to continue operating with employees in multiple locations are more likely to weather the storm of a crisis with minimal disruption," adding that "flexible working arrangements are a ‘dry run’ for more serious situations where working remotely isn’t an innovative benefit, but a necessity."
IWG has more than 30 years’ experience working with businesses looking to inject flexibility and cost effectiveness into their workplace strategy. A partnership with IWG enables organisations to take advantage of a dedicated team set up to ensure successful delivery, as well as performance measurement against specific business goals.
Standard Chartered is one such organisation. It recently signed a deal with IWG to enable its staff to work away from central offices, in one of the biggest steps towards permanent flexible working at a major financial firm.
The deal will see the London-based bank's 95,000 employees access to 3,500 offices around the world for a trial period of 12 months. This will give them the option to work in more convenient locations closer to home while benefiting from office facilities.
Standard Chartered’s CFO, Andy Halford, also recently said he believed that soon “the word 'office' will become a bit of a thing of the past”.
Mark Dixon, IWG CEO said firms have been taking “a gradual step towards hybrid working” but Standard Chartered were moving to a more “radically employee centric approach”. He added: “One of the biggest pain points identified by workers globally is the commute and Standard Chartered – by acknowledging the importance of helping employees achieve a better work-life balance as well as significantly reducing their carbon footprint – is demonstrating a modern, forward-thinking outlook, that shows they are in touch with their people's needs.”
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