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HSBC is considering a global mandate to force employees into the office at least three days a week because the bank tries to reconcile a patchwork of guidelines in its extensive operating processes.
According to people who are involved in the consultations, Chief Executive Officer Georges Elhedery discussed a group -wide return to office guidelines, with some managers having frustrated that many employees still work mainly from home.
The discussions have not yet been completed and no decision has yet been made, said a person familiar with the conversations. HSBC refused to comment.
HSBC, which deployed 211,000-equal employees at the end of last year, is an outlier among large global banks, most of whom have already introduced stricter hybrid work requirements in an endeavor to bring employees back to the office.
At HSBCThe guidelines about how often employees are expected to be in the office have so far been determined by the management for each different business series. HSBC UK has already informed employees that they are expected to spend at least 60 percent of their time in the office or with customers or risk the risk of a bonus cut.
If you were adopted, the new rules would match other British lenders such as Barclays, which introduced a minimum requirements for three days a week at the beginning of this year.
However, they would stop the tougher approach for Wall Street banks such as JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, who have asked that all employees go to the office five days a week.
While the senior bank managers endeavored to return to the pre -Pandemic working life and bring employees back to the office, the mandates contributed to a lack of desk that runs for thousands for HSBC.
Hybrid thesis was originally considered positive by HSBC’s former managing director Noel Quinn, who said that a reduced property print would reduce 40 percent from his global central costs.
In 2023, the bank announced that it would leave its headquarters in Canary Wharf and move into a building with about half the room near the St. Paul’s cathedral in the City of London.
HSBC originally planned to bring all employees to their new headquarters in 2027, including around 500 employees in Queen Victoria Street, according to a person who is involved in the plans. It was also planned to reduce his office in Mayfair, in which the private bank is housed by HSBC and is one of its most expensive leases by abandoning several floors.
But HSBC can keep these offices because it tries to find desks for thousands of employees, the person said. The bank is also in the process of further work cuts, which help to reduce the number of desks required, added.
HSBC is also considering renting offices in Canary Wharf in the 40 Bank Street, an option that, after the bank’s announcement, raised the eyebrows internally that it would leave the area.
“After you have cut the umbilical cord, you would like to go somehow,” said a senior employee.
