Managing directors must from now on work in the office full time, JPMorgan Chase has told senior staff.
The US-based multinational bank has warned employees that they could face consequences if they do not meet “in-office attendance expectations”.
According to a memo sent by JPMorgan Chase’s operating committee and seen by media organisations, the bank’s bosses have been told they need to “lead by example” and “have to be visible on the floor, they must meet with clients, they need to teach and advise, and they should always be accessible for immediate feedback and impromptu meetings”.
“Our leaders play a critical role in reinforcing our culture and running our businesses,” the memo said.
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The bank also advised that employees on hybrid working schedules were failing to reach the agreed level of being in the office at least three days a week. “There are a number of employees who aren’t meeting their in-office attendance expectations, and that must change,” the bank wrote. Managers were likely to take “corrective action” if requirements were not being met, it stated, adding that was aiming to automate attendance tracking.
The memo said that “everyone should be able to work five days a week in the office”, adding: “Being together improves the speed of decision making, while also providing valuable opportunities for spontaneous learning and creativity, as well as allowing our professionals to learn.”
JPMorgan Chase employs about 19,000 in the UK.
The bank’s chief executive, Jamie Dimon, has said remote working “doesn’t work” for younger staff or “spontaneity or management”. Meanwhile, Larry Fink, chief executive of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that he had serious doubts over whether remote and hybrid working was effective.
According to new research by global analyst Gartner, connectivity and productivity challenges are not the result of hybrid work but a failure to optimise hybrid work, with businesses failing to realise its full benefits.
A significant number have concerns about culture, creativity and engagement in the hybrid workplace and believe that more on-site working will solve it” – Caitlin Duffy, Gartner
However, Gartner conceded that its data showed that most business leaders (69%) had concerns about collaboration, culture, creativity and engagement and just over half of HR leaders thought their employees were less connected to their organisations than they were before the pandemic.
But contradicting these findings Gartner also found that employees were nearly twice as likely to perform better when their teams were dispersed in different locations and timezones, while most employees with “radical flexibility” reported a high degree of connectedness.
Caitlin Duffy, director in the Gartner HR practice, said that organisations planning to implement inflexible return to office policies were responding to increasing economic pressures and felt the need to regain a sense of control over the workplace. “A significant number have concerns about culture, creativity and engagement in the hybrid workplace and believe that more on-site working will solve it,” she added.
Duffy said: “The problem leaders are experiencing is not the result of hybrid working, but a failure to fully optimise it. For example, a weakened workplace culture is not the result of having fewer employees on-site, but a failure to intentionally build culture connectedness into the hybrid workplace.”
She warned that organisations that rejected hybrid working were “setting themselves up for long-term reputation and attrition risks and hindering their long-term competitiveness in what will inevitably be a more virtual society in future.”
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