Standard Chartered (LON:STAN), a UK-based multinational banking and financial services company with over $720 billion in assets, has decided to adopt a hybrid approach to working where it will allow its employees to perform their duties from home and they can also complete tasks from the bank’s offices.
The management at Standard Chartered noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to changes in how and where the company’s employees perform their duties. However, the bank also said that there are “huge benefits” that face-to-face or in-person interactions have for the company’s staff and its customers.
Last month, Standard Chartered had asked for feedback from workers in several different markets on the issue. The bank had also performed reviews of all jobs in order to determine how suitable they might be for flexible working arrangements. The institution claims that most of its jobs can be carried out from home and from its business offices.
The bank’s employees in its nine major markets (UK, US, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE and Global Business Services Centres in Poland, Malaysia, China and India) will have the option to apply for a flexible working arrangement (beginning in 2021). There might be more working arrangement options announced at some point this year.
Standard Chartered employees will be able to choose the time and the location from where they’d like to complete their work. The financial institution will be teaming up with a third-party in order to offer a “near-home” workspace. The bank stated that most of its employees will probably be interested in flexible working arrangements where they complete part of their work from the office while taking care of other tasks from the comfort of their homes.
Tanuj Kapilashrami, group head, human resources at Standard Chartered, remarked:
“We are excited about the future as we step into a new era for the Bank and the positive impact we can make on our productivity, wellbeing and carbon footprint. We also see this as an opportunity to appeal to a wider and more diverse potential future workforce.”