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Fri, Nov 06, 2020-11: 13 am
The bank said that about half of its staff will be able to apply for some type of hybrid work starting in early 2021. Standard Chartered expects the program to apply to about 75,000 workers in 55 markets by 2023.
The London-based company is also in talks with an outside company to provide workspaces “close to home” for staff, according to a memo accessed by Bloomberg News. The plan follows a survey of staff in the UK and Asian centers that asked whether employees preferred to work from the office as usual, switch to work-from-home or close-to-home options, or split their time between different locations.
Standard Chartered has said it is scrutinizing office leases carefully in an environment where lenders are under pressure to control costs, even before the Covid-19 disruption to the global economy. While some bank bosses like Jamie Dimon want their staff to return to the workplace, others lean towards the Standard Chartered approach, where CFO Andy Halford recently said “the word ‘office’ will become a thing of the past. “. . The bank did not disclose the name of the third-party workspace provider.
“While we have been thinking about future workplace related issues for some time, it is inevitable that recent events have provided a catalyst,” Tanuj Kapilashrami, the bank’s director of human resources, said in the memo.
OFFERS ACCEPTED
Standard Chartered said that about 60 percent of the staff surveyed in this first phase have accepted their offer for some form of hybrid work. Early comments show that around two-thirds of Singapore’s staff are in favor of some form of hybrid work; That proportion rises to 76 percent in the United Kingdom and 79 percent in the United States.
“Most employees are expected to follow a hybrid pattern, meaning a few days at the office and a few days working from home,” the bank said.
Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing said in September that the German lender was examining how employees could divide their time between office and home. Other lenders looking for similar moves include Mizuho Financial Group and Fifth Third Bancorp, as banks see an opportunity to ditch costly downtown locations.
Skeptics of this trend include BlackRock’s Larry Fink and the recently deceased head of the UBS Group, Sergio Ermotti. Dimon, who runs JPMorgan Chase & Co, has said that working remotely for too long could reduce productivity.
With more companies re-evaluating their real estate portfolios, the office rental market is already taking a hit. Vacancy rates in the City of London reached 6.5 per cent at the end of September, up from 5.6 per cent a year earlier, while the median rent for space on Square Mile fell 11.9 per cent year-on-year .
BLOOMBERG
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