Table tennis tables, 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 given three office days only 2.1 days of attendance.
“When we came out of the lockdown and the corona rules were relaxed, the employees came back to the offices,” says AWA Managing Director Andrew Mason, describing the situation. “But then they only found themselves in video calls.” People got used to the lifestyle and the changed cost structure. Job seekers also favor mobile work. Since the beginning of August, 80 percent of job seekers in the financial industry on the global recruitment portal Flexa have indicated “remote” or “remote-first” as their preference in their search on the platform. That was 33 percent more than in March.
“We see the office more as a hotel.”
To lure colleagues back into corporate offices, financial institutions in New York offer free meals or ping-pong tables in the common rooms. A British trading firm 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.
Bank chief Steven Cooper said the company wants to encourage employees to come into the office, but not revert to pre-pandemic behavior. 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, at Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan 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 almost 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 and network faster. “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. “If the situation worsens at the end of the year, visibility in the office will also become more important.”