Financial services favour home working
More than one in five Scottish financial services firms favour fully remote working, new research suggests.
A survey of nearly 200 Scotland-based financial services employees across banking, capital markets and insurance found that 21 per cent of workerswouldprefertoworkentirely from home once a full return to office is possible amid the relaxing of restrictions.
Thevastmajority(70percent) said that they would prefer to work just two days a week or less in the office. Just 5 per cent would favour a return to five daysaweekintheoffice,according to the study by Accenture.
A flexible working schedule, in relation to hours and days worked, was the number one initiativeworkerswantedfrom their employers, with 69 per centsayingthatthiswouldhelp them adjust to working life living with the virus.
A higher proportion of employees in Scotland (66 per cent) than the rest of the UK (59 per cent) do not know if such initiatives will be offered in their workplace and only 31 per cent are aware of whether their employer will begin offering flexible working.
Overall,theresearchpointsto a positive employer/employee relationship within Scotland’s financial services industry, which supports about 160,000 jobsinfinancialandrelatedprofessional services areas.
The overwhelming majority (88 per cent) feel that they have the support they need to balance work and other commitments. About one in four (24 per cent) say that support has increased since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
In a positive sign of how the healthcrisishasimpactedwork culture, 60 per cent said their employers had become more considerate of employee mental health.
Nevertheless, the desire for a moreflexibleapproachtowork
movingforwardwasclearfrom the survey results. Employees in Scotland are more likely (64 per cent) than their peers Ukwide (57 per cent) to agree that their workplace and role could not return to pre-covid “normal” and more than a third (39 per cent) would forgo compensation if they could work fully remotely.
More than half of respondents (56 per cent) said they had been more productive working at home and 69 per cent agreed thatditchingthedailycommute
had given them more free time.
Stuart Chalmers, head of financial services for Accenture Scotland, said: “As Scotland’sfinancialservicescompanies develop their future working-from-home policies, this researchsuggeststhatamajorityofemployeesatalllevelsdon’t want simply to go back to prepandemic routines.
“This presents both challenges and opportunities for firms in Scotland thinking not just about where employees are doing their work but how they
areworkingtoo.whileworking from home has opened up new possibilities for talented people to locate north of the Border, how they are enabled to be productive is crucial.
“Thesectorhasabigopportunity to reinvent physical workspaces, complemented by digital environments, to drive collaboration with colleagues throughout the UK and shape positive workplace cultures post-pandemic.”