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(Bloomberg) – Thousands of bankers have returned to their offices in some of Asia’s largest financial centers, cautiously stepping into a new normal of face masks, desk protectors, and closed dining rooms.
In Hong Kong, Citigroup Inc. plans to install plastic partitions on some workstations, as it increases the office staff. At the Bank of China operations center in Beijing, the staff kitchen is closed, forcing employees to take turns obtaining boxed lunches for their colleagues. Morgan Stanley has recalibrated the elevator in its Hong Kong skyscraper for faster travel and fewer passengers.
The office changes are a potential harbinger of what’s to come in London and New York, where many companies are waiting for infection rates to drop further before opening their office towers to nonessential staff. Some bankers in Asia have expressed relief at returning to the office after weeks at home, even if going back to work hardly means getting back to normal.
“Returning to the office yesterday, there were a lot more personal interactions, at a respectful distance,” said Anthony Davies, who runs the Hong Kong branch for Barclays Bank Plc, which increased its office staff to 60% this week. “Reactivate a positive environment for us to work.”
China, as the original epicenter of the virus and the first to close, has increased the staffing of the office for several weeks, with little sign that security precautions will be removed any time soon. The Bank of Communications Co., which employs some 87,000 people, ordered most staff to return to the office in March, while other banks in Beijing have had the majority of employees since last month.
In Hong Kong, some of the world’s largest banks slowly greet employees after the city eased many restrictions. That contrasts with Singapore, the Southeast Asian financial center that continues to report hundreds of cases a day, keeping most bankers at home.
HSBC Holdings Plc said 30% of its Hong Kong staff can return starting Monday, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg News and confirmed by a bank spokeswoman. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now has a third of its employees, or nearly 600 people, in the office, a spokesperson said.
By contrast, Morgan Stanley plans to allow New York employees to start returning to work next month, while JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it does not yet have a timeline for returning to the U.S. financial center.
“Banks in Hong Kong and China are very well prepared for their staff to return to work, given that Covid-19 appears to be largely under control relative to the West,” said Benjamin Quinlan, CEO of Quinlan & Associates, a Consulting strategy in Hong Kong.
As more bankers return to their desks in Asia, here are some of the changes they are noticing:
Get used to this. Most office buildings are checking the temperature when employees arrive. Staff at the Shanghai Bank of Communications wear masks all day and pass through an infrared temperature display to enter the office. In China, staff are generally required to display a health code on their phones, which tracks where they’ve been, says a Beijing banker from CSC Financial Co. For many, traveling to Hubei, where the virus started in Wuhan City , is off limits, said the banker.
Say goodbye to those crowded meetings, with all the seats occupied and many people standing. Barclays limits meetings to approximately half the room’s seating capacity. In a JPMorgan meeting room in Hong Kong, three of the five seats were labeled “not available.” Video conferencing remains the norm in most banks, even for those in the office. Face-to-face meetings with outside guests should be minimized, says Barclays, who plans to increase his Hong Kong staff to 80% by the end of May, depending on the situation.
Space is key. The staff is separated to guarantee social distancing. Citigroup workers cannot move to different desks and are told to avoid venturing to other floors. According to a Citigroup spokesperson, in areas like bargaining tables where staff are clustered, plastic partitions are likely to be installed.
Hand sanitizers, wipes, and masks are ubiquitous. Citigroup is considering adding a robotic floor cleaner to its Kwun Tong Hong Kong office as more staff returns. In Beijing and Shanghai, office towers do not yet use central air conditioning, concerned about air quality. It was 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Space is key. The staff is separated to guarantee social distancing. Citigroup workers cannot move to different desks and are told to avoid venturing to other floors. According to a Citigroup spokesperson, in areas like bargaining tables where staff are clustered, plastic partitions are likely to be installed.
Hand sanitizers, wipes, and masks are ubiquitous. Citigroup is considering adding a robotic floor cleaner to its Kwun Tong Hong Kong office as more staff returns. In Beijing and Shanghai, office towers do not yet use central air conditioning, concerned about air quality. It was 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in Shanghai on Tuesday.
Long lunches with colleagues, if they ever happened, are discouraged now. Many kitchens are closed and staff are asked to eat alone or with no more than a few people. There is no outside catering for visitors, multiple banks say.
Morgan Stanley’s cafeteria on the 47th floor in Hong Kong is gradually returning to normal, operating at approximately a third of its capacity. More tables are being added to create space and fresh food has been available since mid-April. More than 50% of the staff is back in the office.
At HSBC, which employs 22,000 in Hong Kong, excluding a local subsidiary, staff are asked to vary their start and lunch times to reduce the number of people using the building entrances while temperature detection is performed, according to a bank memorandum. Staff are encouraged to avoid moving to different bank locations.
Watch out for the numbers. As in many offices across the region, the Bank of China in Beijing limits the number of people in elevators to five, about half the capacity, to ensure safe distance.
Morgan Stanley has worked with his landlord at the Hong Kong International Trade Center to fine-tune the algorithm for the six elevators used exclusively by the New York-based bank. That ensures fewer people with each lift and shorter travel times, as it reduces the number of stops.
© 2020 Bloomberg L.P.
