Most of the UK’s financial sector bosses say they would like workers to spend more time in the office over the next year with almost half looking to use swipe systems to track staff, according to a survey of 150 industry leaders by KPMG UK.
Three-quarters of leaders want office attendance to increase and one-third expect employees to be in the office at least four days a week, with just under a third saying they would install digital cameras to monitor attendance.
The use of swipe systems found approval from 45% of the leaders who responded to the survey, exclusively shared with Reuters.
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KPMG’s annual outlook survey in 2023 saw business leaders predict that workers would return to offices for five days a week within the next three years. Those results, coupled with this more recent survey, suggest progress towards that goal is slow.
Despite often cited fears over collaboration between workers, particularly with junior staff, most leaders (58%) conceded that flexible working could help their company be more competitive. Against this, some bosses said they were worried about the regulatory and risk pressures posed by hybrid working.
“There is no one-size fits all approach to this and businesses are still trying to find the hybrid working sweet spot more than two years on from the pandemic,” Karim Haji, global and UK head of financial services at KPMG, said.
“Leaders see the commercial value of hybrid working models, particularly when it comes to attracting and retaining talent, but they are still expecting greater office attendance in the coming months to retain collaboration with colleagues and clients.”
The findings illustrate a gap in perspectives between business leaders and many employees, who may be happy to be in the office two to three days a week but not five. In September, Amazon announced that it would be ending its hybrid work policy, making it the latest in a stream of high-profile businesses, including Boots, Disney and Nationwide, that have mandated people return to the office full-time.
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