HSBC, Goldman Sachs and PwC have postponed plans to bring staff back to their offices in England after the government’s U-turn on its back-to-work drive.
A memo sent to staff at HSBC informed them that the investment bank, based in London’s Canary Wharf financial district, was pausing its planned return of “phase one” teams to the office.
The bank said its staff working in branches and those supporting customers in call centres would continue to go into work, although the majority of office-based staff would work from home.
Goldman Sachs, which brought about a third of its 6,000 UK workers back into its London building from mid-June, also postponed plans to expand its back-to-work operation, which involved bringing back staff on a rotating basis.
Richard Gnodde, the chief executive of Goldman Sachs’ international operations, informed staff in a memo that its offices would remain open for employees “who need to be in the office”.
Gnodde added that the firm would “continue to take steps to sustain a safe, Covid-compliant working environment, in accordance with our own precautionary measures and UK government guidance”.
The bank told staff their health and wellbeing remained its “top priority” and reminded workers who did attend the office that they were required to wear masks at all times, except when at their desk, and must respect physical distancing.
The Goldman Sachs rotation plan was focused on staff in highly regulated roles or who struggled to work from home.
PwC, the accountancy and consulting firm, had previously aimed to have more than 50% of its workforce back in its offices by the end of September. But the company reversed those plans on Wednesday and expects the majority of staff to work from home “unless there is a clear personal or business need to be in the office”.
The property group British Land, which had begun to welcome staff back to their desks over the summer, said it would keep its offices open, but would only allow staff to attend if they had requested permission in advance.
A spokesperson for the firm, which has about 300 employees based at its London headquarters, said it would follow the government guidance, while offering staff flexibility, and added that the building had been adapted to make it Covid-secure, including temperature checks on arrival, a one-way system inside the building, and social distancing between staff.
On Tuesday Boris Johnson announced new restrictions designed to contain the spread of coronavirus and urged office workers in England to work from home if possible. Barclays bank announced hours later that about 1,000 of its staff, who returned to the office in recent weeks after the government’s previous drive to “get Britain back to the office”, would revert to home-working.
The guidance to work from home where possible had been kept in place since the spring by the governments of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The change in government guidance for England comes less than a month after Downing Street said it was planning an advertising campaign to tempt workers back to their desks, partly as a way to revive struggling city centres.
Footfall in city centres across the country has remained persistently low since lockdown restrictions were eased, hurting the coffee and sandwich shops and other service businesses that rely on office workers, tourists and visitors for their trade.
