EXPERT FORECAST : BANKING AND FINANCE

A flexible office environment can better align employee needs and business goals , but the financial and banking sector seems to be reverting to old habits and rallying for in-office presence . Ekta Puthran , MEA Lead – Collaboration , Barco , takes a look at how the financial sector is adapting to a hybrid work approach .

Bolstered by the COVID-19 pandemic and a tight labour market , worker demands for more flexibility have only increased in recent months – even with the world reopening again . Standard Chartered showed foresight and committed to continue to offer permanent flexible work for its staff from as early as January 2021 . The initiative started with nine of its primary markets , including the UAE .

The bank also collaborated with IWG – a flexible workspace services provider – so employees worldwide can work from any of IWG ’ s 3,500 locations internationally . HSBC has also formally certified hybrid working with the ambition of reducing office space by 40 %. On the flip side , Barclays has announced that it was looking to ramp up employees ’ return to its London and New York offices .

Clearly , only a handful of organisations within the financial sector are realising the risks of a ‘ one-size-fits-all ’ work approach , as many workers want to retain the flexibility they had during the pandemic . Nevertheless , while the workforce may have changed , the office is still equipped for the old way of working . Recent changes are shaping a new paradigm and businesses across the financial sector must keep up to meet employee expectations .

Office revamp : a much-needed initiative

Anyone who has entered an office since the pandemic would likely have experienced the eerie silence of the rows of empty desks and cubicles . Memories of battling colleagues for coveted meeting spaces and groups huddling around a single laptop are probably still fresh .

From the advent of remote working , many of us have experienced significant increases in productivity . However , the quality of our interactions has dramatically fallen . As a result , work meetings have regularly failed to meet expectations . A recent study by Barco showed a 25-point decline between 2020 and 2021 on its meeting barometer . The findings further indicated that 57 % of white-collar workers considered meeting rooms as the most useful spaces in a post-pandemic world . Hence , employees no longer view the office as simply a place to work . Rather , they think of it as an encouraging space for more collaboration .

Financial sector employees have embraced the laptop as the main device to work , collaborate and host meetings . www . intelligentfin . tech

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