Report shows fintech workers ignore office return mandates • The Register

Workers are now simply ignoring management mandates to return to the office, according to a recent report that suggested employers should focus on “reducing sickness” rather than “improving well-being” among employees.

The study comes as Snap employees are reportedly being told by CEO Evan Spiegel that they are expected to be at the social media company’s offices in person 80 percent of the time starting in February.

Like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, who said in June that back-to-office mandates would “never work”, the report’s author, Dr Grace Lordan of the London School of Economics (LSE), argued: “Companies that require their employees are in office for no reason will lose out on various talent pools.”

She added: “These demands are also ego-driven rather than having the best interests of the business in mind.”

The workers interviewed for the “qualitative research” included 100 employees across financial services, including fintechs and brands such as Bank of America, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, NatWest, Schroders and UBS.

According to the LSE survey, while C-suite managers in many large companies request that workers come into the office a certain number of days a week, “in practice they are ignored, with managers often favoring an external approach that meets local operational needs.”

The report [PDF]which was co-authored with Women in Banking and Finance (WIBF) and interviewed 30 men and 70 women, said: “What should be avoided… is simply bringing people into the office and having them on Zoom or Teams all day, ” with one participant noting:

With companies including Cisco and Salesforce (which goes some way toward explaining Benioff’s support for WFH) cutting back and consolidating their investments in the real estate that houses their office workers, it’s not like there’s nothing in it for the executives.

Attendees at last month’s Canalys EMEA Channel Forum in Barcelona, ​​meanwhile, were told by Lenovo CEO Kirk Skaugen that if companies don’t rethink the metrics they use to determine how productive employees are in the hybrid workplace, they’re at risk. employees are moving to a corporate culture that is more flexible and trusting.

Autonomy – we’ve heard about it

Almost all – 95 percent – ​​of the participants in the study suggested some version of hybrid work, the report said. Around 30 participants emphasized trust (seven out of 30 mid-level, 20 out of 43 senior) as “necessary” for hybrid work to work effectively.

Speaking of how much additional autonomy workers should be given, the report stated that if a manager is unsure where to start with regards to experimentation, they should consult their team members, rather than go with their “gut” (*cough* Elon Musk *cough*).

The report’s authors said: “Putting trust in team members will induce the Pygmalion effect, a psychological phenomenon in which high expectations lead to improved performance.”

Of the approaches, only 28 thought the model should be “fully autonomous work” – with the older interviewees swinging in the other direction: 10 of 27 early career participants, nine of 30 mid-level and nine of 43 seniors. level managers believed that a worker should choose when they are in the office as opposed to being at home without fixed days. 31 percent of respondents wanted hybrid work with fixed days in the office, which reflects a survey with a Reg reader survey last year where you said you would only be in the office two days a week.

Another participant noted, “We get a lot more from our people when they feel trusted, to be able to make their own decisions…”

A total of 51 respondents (14 of 27 early career and 26 of 43 seniors) reported stabilized or increased productivity from adopting increased autonomy via a hybrid model.

Participants also emphasized the need to focus on output rather than presenteeism, the authors said.

In the case of the Metaverse, meanwhile, the benefits of virtual campuses were viewed with skepticism. One attendee said, “I know there’s a lot of banging around with the Metaverse now, I think we’re still pretty far away from it really being something doable.”

The report comes as the 4-Day Work Week campaign claimed 100 companies in the UK had signed up to the accreditation scheme since it launched in early 2021.

In a six-month period from June to December this year, 3,000 workers across 60 companies worked four days instead of five without loss of pay, including workers from Canon’s UK arm.

Not all 100 companies participated in the first 4-day workweek trial, campaign director Joe Ryle told us. “Some tried it first, but others just took it permanently.”

Ryle added that the companies all sign an employer license agreement when they accredit, with the aim of ensuring that the hours worked are actually reduced – rather than pushed into overtime during the four working days, for example.

Other work time experiments condense five workday hours into four days using the so-called “4×10 schedule,” (four 10-hour shifts) tested by Atlassian, among others. ®