Standard Chartered PLC plans to formalize a hybrid working model for most of its British staff this week as it moves forward with a sweeping overhaul of its working practices in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The lender is rolling out the program to its 85,000 staff globally after 84 percent of the first wave of workers asked to keep the flexible arrangements pioneered during the pandemic, which has forced millions of people worldwide to abandon offices and fit working hours alongside other commitments.
The bank’s new setup, first unveiled in November last year, takes effect from Thursday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Standard Chartered is also exploring ways to help employees stay in touch under the new arrangement, with an internal competition among staff coming up with ideas including a holographic watercooler to help spark virtual conversations.
Tanuj Kapilashrami, group head of human resources, said in an interview that most employees are keen to work from home at least once a week, while others want more say in when they work.
“We really wanted to design the future based on what our employees want,” she said.
Most staff said they want to work at home some of the time, which “was a key part of the insight that shaped our thinking on hybrid,” Kapilashrami said.
The lender is reviewing its office network in light of the reduced need for space.
Speaking to Bloomberg last month, Standard Chartered chief financial officer Andy Halford said the company is estimating annual savings of about US$100 million from cutting the amount of office space it uses and would review all of its major sites, including its London base.
“We’ve got nine floors or 10 floors in a building in London; whether ultimately we could have seven of those, whether actually we could sublet part of that, those are the sorts of things we should look at,” Halford said.
Standard Chartered’s internal “watercooler challenge” has produced a shortlist of potential projects to keep staff in touch outside the office. The holographic meeting idea proposes matching staff using similar technology to dating services.
Other suggestions include an app called SCBilly that would link employees that live close to one another for social events, and a system called Coffee Meet to connect staff who want to talk to someone.
“People can pitch ideas and the ideas will get some seed funding to develop them,” Kapilashrami said. “We are working with the individuals who have given them to flesh them out.”
Taiwanese suppliers to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC, 台積電) are expected to follow the contract chipmaker’s step to invest in the US, but their relocation may be seven to eight years away, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. When asked by opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Niu Hsu-ting (牛煦庭) in the legislature about growing concerns that TSMC’s huge investments in the US will prompt its suppliers to follow suit, Kuo said based on the chipmaker’s current limited production volume, it is unlikely to lead its supply chain to go there for now. “Unless TSMC completes its planned six
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said second-quarter revenue is expected to surpass the first quarter, which rose 30 percent year-on-year to NT$118.92 billion (US$3.71 billion). Revenue this quarter is likely to grow, as US clients have front-loaded orders ahead of US President Donald Trump’s planned tariffs on Taiwanese goods, Delta chairman Ping Cheng (鄭平) said at an earnings conference in Taipei, referring to the 90-day pause in tariff implementation Trump announced on April 9. While situations in the third and fourth quarters remain unclear, “We will not halt our long-term deployments and do not plan to
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
RSS