UBS Will Allow Permanent Hybrid Work Model for Most Employees
By Celia Young June 29, 2021 12:03 pm
reprints
In a departure from other major banks, UBS plans to let two-thirds of its employees work remotely for part of the week on a permanent basis.
The Swiss bank announced that most employees would be allowed to work from home and the office, according to a memo sent to employees last week, CNBC reported. The bank examined its 72,000 global employees and found that two-thirds were in roles that would allow them to combine remote and office work, according to CNBC.
The remaining workers, which have roles that require them to be in the office, like those in supervisory or trading roles, will have less flexibility, CNBC reported.
“We are committed to offering our employees the flexibility for hybrid working where role, tasks, and location allow,” the memo reads, according to the New York Post. “It is our aspiration to meet the requirements of our employees for a flexible and future-oriented working environment.”
UBS is hedging that such flexibility will prove more attractive to bankers and it plans to open hybrid work options on a country-by-country basis, based on the pandemic’s impact.
UBS welcoming a hybrid model is more in line with tech companies like Twitter than other banks, some of which have already called their workers back. JPMorgan Chase (JPM) called its U.S. employees back to the office in May and mandated that all workers return on a rotational schedule as soon as July. Goldman Sachs asked its workers to come back this month.
Morgan Stanley struck the strictest tone of all the banks, with CEO Jame Gorman recently saying at a conference that he would be “very disappointed” if U.S. workers didn’t head back to the office in September.
“If you can go into a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office,” Gorman said at the conference, according to the BBC.
American Express also announced a similar policy to UBS, allowing staff to work remotely two days a week on a permanent basis.
