FINTECH FOCUS: REMOTE WORKING
WTF should we do about WFH? It’s a hybrid paradox that all leaders are facing: can you, and is it advisable, to force staff into working from home full-time. Or is it bad for them and bad for business? Hannah Duncan considers the options with Anjali Raina, Krista Griggs and Joanna Molik As a freelance writer, the concept of working from home (WFH), far away from office life, doesn’t seem contentious to me. I love sleeping in for a delicious extra hour, saving money on stressful London commutes and wearing clothes that don’t feel like they have the wire hanger still attached. But not everyone feels that way. Over 2021, 81 per cent of Gen-Zers and Millennials suffered from isolation when working from home, according to Kadence, a hybrid working software supplier. The 16- to 34-year-olds felt distant from co-workers and anxious about how the lack of face-to-face time was impacting their careers. Another 63 per cent revealed that if WFH continued, they would likely find it harder to focus, and 59 per cent believed they wouldn’t enjoy their job as much. Banks and fintechs have demonstrated they have the digital tools – and now the experience – to go fully remote. But should they? So far, the only conclusive answer is to avoid conclusive answers. Goldman Sachs recently tried to re-impose office life pre-COVID style, and it was not well received. The fallout was fast and furious, as employees went to the press to voice their disappointment. Meanwhile, progressive UK challenger Atom Bank introduced a voluntary four-day week for its 400-plus employees without cutting pay. Experts have good vibes about this, as studies in Iceland found giving employees an extra weekend day to be a remarkable stimulus for business success. American Express is among several creating a flexi model, offering hybrid working
88
TheFintechMagazine | Issue 22
models for employees. Indeed, everywhere you look, banks are offering a new way of working, designed to keep employees (and shareholders) happy. But is there a right and wrong way to do it? Are there missed opportunities that could arise from this new way of clocking in? We asked three industry experts for their views: Anjali Raina, who heads the Harvard Business School India Research Centre, which studies trends shaping business models there; Joanna Molik, executive director at Microsoft whose Teams software made big inroads into the unified communications as-a-service market during 2020; and Krista Griggs, head of financial services and insurance at Fujitsu, whose research found 89 per cent of business leaders and 77 per cent of employees in financial services believe hybrid working will make their organisation more resilient. THE FINTECH MAGAZINE: Do you see financial services organisation moving to a hybrid workplace permanently? KRISTA GRIGGS: Absolutely. We’re already seeing that in banks like HSBC and NatWest, which have declared that it’s a permanent change they are making. And, equally, we saw [the repercussions if they don’t] when Goldman Sachs said it wanted everyone to come back to the office – there was a real backlash to that. ANJALI RAINA: I spent almost 26 years with different banks, Citigroup being one of them, and I’ve surveyed my past colleagues on this. The reaction was very similar to what Krista is saying, that some organisations are totally focussed on bringing everybody back to work and, in
fact, have already done it, and some are saying that it’s going to be hybrid. But some of my more thoughtful ex-colleagues pointed out that it depends on the job. For example, in investment banking, a research analyst can do a hybrid job, or maybe a completely remote job. But a person who is in sales and trading, or who’s trading in very large amounts, where milliseconds and approvals matter, perhaps they need to be on site. Maybe all that we can say is that, coming out of this pandemic, the experiment has been fantastic in showing that remote working can be done and it can be productive. But how far people accept that, and how we take that forward – this is going to be something that we have to still work out. TFM: How can banks and fintechs create a hybrid environment that supports the wellbeing of employees? JOANNA MOLIK: The first step is to know your employees and know their needs. Provide them with the flexible hybrid solutions that are fit for different kinds of work, and the different kinds of jobs they are doing. There’s no one-size-fits all approach. We know some employees prefer to work from home and are more productive from home. While others cannot wait to come back into the office! That’s where the hybrid paradox comes into play. It’s about giving everyone the same experience, no matter where they are. For example, with the rise of in-person meetings, make sure that everyone is included, whether they’re joining digitally or are physically present… It’s the number www.fintechf.com
