ZURICH, Switzerland–Another bank is offering another example of how financial institutions are handling return-to-work policies.
Credit Suisse Group AG said it’s planning to introduce a work model that gives the bank employees in Switzerland “maximum flexibility.” As CUToday.info has reported in an ongoing series, the bank is joining global peers in making remote working arrangements more permanent.
The approximately 13,000 employees of the bank will, depending on their role, be able to decide with their teams and line managers how much of their time they want to spend outside the office and which days to be in, according to a statement from the bank cited by Bloomberg.
Credit Suisse said its approach was put in place following a six-month study of how its employees performed under various work models. The study found employees with the most flexible work models were the happiest and most productive and going forward wanted to spend two-thirds of their time from home or another non-office location. The bank is also developing other technology-based tools to promote collaboration in a virtual environment.
“As we prepare for a post-pandemic world, our aim is to become more flexible and agile when it comes to working arrangements,” Credit Suisse Switzerland CEO Andre Helfenstein said in the statement.
Roll-Out Depends on Geography
The bank said the rollout of its new policy to the rest of the roughly 49,000 employees in total across four business divisions and other geographic regions will be determined by guidelines related to the Covid-19 pandemic in each country, Bloomberg reported.
Other big banks, including UBS Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG and Citigroup, are all set to allow employees to work remotely at least part of the week. Unlike peers, however, Credit Suisse has not specified the number of days employees must work in the office, the report added.
Meanwhile, in the U.S. JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been pushing to get their employees back behind their desks in a manner closer to practices before the pandemic.