Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

CoronavirusFinancial servicesLatest NewsFlexible workingWorking from home

Barclays chief executive: Flexible working will become the norm

by Jo Faragher 29 Apr 2020
by Jo Faragher 29 Apr 2020 One of Barclays' offices in Canary Wharf, London
Shutterstock
One of Barclays' offices in Canary Wharf, London
Shutterstock

Barclays chief executive Jes Staley has claimed that office blocks housing thousands of workers could become a thing of the past – and that flexible working will become the norm.

Staley said in a press conference on Monday that “the notion of putting 7,000 people in a building” could be consigned to history and that, as employers adjust to the aftermath of the coronavirus pandemic, there will be more remote and dispersed working.

Flexible working and coronavirus

Working from home: do staff have suitable equipment?

Leading a flexible working team

‘Household, we have a problem’: Learning to work at home

The lasting effects of coronavirus on HR and business

He added that the fact that around 70,000 Barclays staff were now working remotely showed that it was possible to keep even a complex organisation such as a bank running smoothly, despite not being in the same office.

The company has not had to furlough any staff, saying that all employees were needed “on hand” to support customers during the crisis.

The bank’s branch network could be used as ‘mini-offices’ for any employees from call centre workers to investment bankers, he suggested.

Barclays will soon begin to re-open offices in Asia, which was first hit by the pandemic – but not all staff will return at once. “This is going to happen over a pretty long period of time,” Staley added. “This is not going to be a light switch.”

In re-opening its Canary Wharf offices in London there could be practical limitations in returning to work once lockdown has eased. “How many people can work in this building if you limit the number of people in an elevator to two at a time? It’s that sort of thing,” he said.

Mark Read, chief executive of marketing and advertising giant WPP, has echoed Staley’s predictions.

He said employees returning to work would be at “substantially lower capacity with enhanced safety measures”. The company employs 106,000 staff.

In WPP’s China office, he added, around 10% of staff who previously came into the office are now working from home now that the lockdown has been lifted.

“The number one question I get in the town hall sessions I have is will there be more flexible working after [coronavirus],” he said.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

“The safety of our staff is our number one priority. There is the issue of safety in getting to work, crowding on public transport, as well as working from home. At WPP we are fortunate that we can work from home, it has been seamless really.”

Earlier this month, a survey by Visier found that many workers are not so confident that they will continue to be able to work from home once the pandemic has passed. Almost half of respondents said they expected a return to limited flexible working policies once the coronavirus lockdown ends.

Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. Jo is also the author of 'Good Work, Great Technology', published in 2022 by Clink Street Publishing, charting the relationship between effective workplace technology and productive and happy employees. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Reduced hours for furloughed staff would aid recovery
next post
British Airways to make 12,000 staff redundant

You may also like

Level 7 apprenticeship funding cuts to cost employers...

23 Jun 2025

Skills receive £1.2bn boost in new industrial strategy

23 Jun 2025

Low-paid could receive ‘Britannia’ dividend under Reform’s non-dom...

23 Jun 2025

Man who used company credit card for himself...

23 Jun 2025

Personnel Today Awards 2025: Final deadline today

23 Jun 2025

UK engineering and manufacturing firms face hiring struggles

23 Jun 2025

Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer...

23 Jun 2025

How smarter collaboration can eliminate the workplace productivity...

23 Jun 2025

Aldi to hire for 1,000 new supermarket roles

23 Jun 2025

Seven ways to prepare now for the Employment...

20 Jun 2025

  • Empowering working parents and productivity during the summer holidays SPONSORED | Businesses play a...Read more
  • AI is here. Your workforce should be ready. SPONSORED | From content creation...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+