My name is Ethan O’Neill and I’m a student at Teesside University in the UK. I’m currently studying a PhD entitled…
‘Stick or Twist: Exploring the prevalence of post-COVID flexible working arrangements and their impact on talent retention and organisational culture in the UK’s Banking and Financial Services sector’.
I’m looking for people who work or operate in the UK’s banking and financial services sector and through some extensive web searching I’ve identified that this forum could have some potential research partcipants that fit the bill for my study. This research, in my opinion, is a vital one, it’s one of the first of its nature to look at remote/hybrid working in our sector and tests these differing working arrangements against constructs like retention, culture and engagement. By completing this survey, you would be contributing to new academic/scientific knowledge and while no direct incentives are involved, I feel strongly that making a contribution to knowledge very important. Only drawback is it takes around 10 minutes to complete (on average).
If you know anyone in your organisation who works in either remote or hybrid working arrangements, they would be an ideal candidate for my research. The research itself is fully confidential, protected by the Data Protection Act 2018 and personal data will be anonymized in the analysis phase. This research has also been approved by Teesside University’s ethics committee. This research looks at the UK’s banking and financial services sector as a whole and so far, many banks or financial services firms, both big and small have participated. As stated above, no risks are posed to your people or organisation when participating in this study as data is anonymised. The first few pages of this survey provide more detail regarding the overall study. If you meet the above criteria, please consider taking this survey as your contribution would be essential.
(Please leave the ‘organisation’ question blank if you do not wish to reveal this, it’s no problem as it’s a sector-wide study)
Here is the link…
Please feel free to share with those who you think would meet the criteria. You can also contact me for more information if you have any questions or concerns.
I don’t work in this sector, but good luck with your study. Sounds interesting - I think flexible working arrangements are a hot topic in a number of industries currently. It seems to be senior management vs the workforce when it comes to working from home!
Thank you so much Dan. Yes totally agree with you here, there’s certainly power shifts happening at the moment and Hybrid working intiatives seem to be the way to claw back power in favour of the employer.
I think people and especially the media are underestimating how well received remote working actually is. Especially to those workers with young families, why waste time preparing for a commute when you can roll out of bed and log on??
Hah - I could talk about this for hours but thank you for replying and taking an interest… It means a lot to me.
Because it requires a change in paradigm imo, the employer can’t measure your contribution in hours so they’d need to set productivity based goals instead
But actually, I am a supporter of everyone back to the office. The luxury of the middle to upper class is having space at home to work from. I definitely don’t
That’s a false dichotomy. And it’s largely a myth that employers can actually measure your contributions in hours in the workplace either.
There are much better arguments against it than this. But if this is what it boils to, it’s certainly a power dynamics thing and more to do with control and subjugation than anything else.
Your point about not having space is valid though, which is why I really like the hybrid choice approach, and the power of the decision firmly in the hands of the individual it impacts, not the supervisor/manager/boss/etc.
Until last March we did exactly that. An office space existed for those who wanted to use it, when they wanted to use it, but there was no obligation. We closed it because no one used it at all anymore, and given how dispersed the team is now, and focus has shifted away from the U.K. and onto Europe and the US (and increasingly Japan) post-brexit, it was just a waste to have a physical presence. We offer on demand office space closer to employees homes should they ever need it now.
I’m a big believer in the hybrid choice-based WFH approach combined with a 4 day work week balance. We’ve been doing both long before either were popularised or trendy, and have found great success with that approach.
Eh, even if half were using it as their main office I feel like it would cost more unless there’s a significant saving on subpar locations because your employees live in less desirable areas maybe
I’d have to run the numbers to know where that line is. But at this moment, from a financial perspective, this isn’t costing more. It’s cheaper.
I should say though, the cost perspective isn’t the only one, and there are other pros and cons to weigh up. Convenience, practicality, freedom, and choice (including access to a much much wider talent pool).