Senior bankers at Lloyds Banking Group risk having their bonuses cut if they fail to meet new office requirements, which require them to be in office at least two days a week.
The move, revealed ahead of next month’s 2024 financial year bonus allocation, comes as major employers scale back remote work programs in a bid to encourage more face-to-face collaboration.
Lloyds – which owns Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland – has confirmed it will re-assess office attendance as part of performance-based bonus schemes for senior staff, including those in mixed-use locations who were ordered last year to be in the office for 40% of their working time. That equates to at least two days a week for most full-time workers.
Ged Nichols, general secretary of the Accord union which represents Lloyds workers, stressed the need to apply the office’s bonus-related policy with sensitivity. “The inclusion of the metric in compliance with the requirement that some employees go to the office 40% of their working time should not cause problems if it is used correctly, and it is sensitive to people’s situations when mature and rational decisions are used.”
A variety of businesses, especially those headquartered in the US such as JP Morgan and Amazon, have recently implemented a strong mandate to return to the office. Supermarket chain Asda has introduced a mandatory three-day office week for thousands of workers in Leeds and Leicester, while Santander is finalizing attendance requirements for its 10,000 UK employees.
Other workers retreated. A number of Starling Bank staff have resigned after being told to come into the office regularly, and almost 6,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling on advertising giant WPP to withdraw its four-day rule. WPP says it believes its policy is “in the best long-term interests of the company”, admitting it may not be universally recognized.
A Lloyds spokesman noted that the bank is “proud to offer an industry-leading approach to flexible operations”, but stressed the importance of ensuring it can still meet its strategic objectives and customer commitments. Lloyds also announced a new bonus scheme for its 33,000 low-wage workers, which could bring big paychecks to the top performers among them.
Up to 1,000 low-wage workers – including junior staff at all 932 branches – can receive additional bonuses on top of the standard quota for the rest of the group, if management deems they have “exceeded expectations” or made a “transformational impact” on the business. .
Nichols welcomed the extension of performance-based bonuses for low-wage workers but insisted that any higher awards “were made possible by reducing the amount of regular awards for everyone”.
The bonuses for the 2024 financial year will be issued shortly after chief executive Charlie Nunn presents annual results on 20 February. It is widely expected that this new office attendance metric will have a significant impact on the pay of some employees, underscoring the ongoing tension between flexible working and business-led demands for more in-person interaction.
