Swiss banks are slowly moving staff back to trading floors, branches, and big office spaces. finews.com looks at who is on the front line – and who can expect to have their temperature measured at the door.
«Don’t hurry back.» – that’s the general sense from major financial employers in Zurich, following the outbreak of the coronavirus early in March which sent thousands of bankers and staff into work-from-home. They aren’t going as far as tech giant Facebook, which is planning to offer permanent work-from-home arrangements, or RBS, which told staff to stay away until September.
The picture emerging is that the eight-week lockdown – which saw Swiss bankers juggle home-schooling and work from their dining room table – was much easier to master than the gradual return to office space. Credit Suisse’s plan to redeploy staff back to bank offices is more aggressive than UBS' – but also includes free tests to detect the coronavirus antibody. Credit Suisse told employees the results would remain unknown to the bank.
Quietly Forming Teams
UBS and Credit Suisse are quietly assembling teams to evaluate how to start moving staff back into big office buildings. Credit Suisse’s Uetlihof, six «honeycomb» structures ensconced at the foot of a hillside on Zurich’s outskirts, houses more than 5,000, while UBS maintains considerable office space including a major trading hub in Opfikon, a suburb between the city and airport.
Credit Suisse is working in teams made up of human resources, operations, technology, and legal and compliance staff ahead of staff returning part-time, in alternating weeks, beginning June 8. The presence of not more than half of staff is meant to ensure distancing measures are upheld and potential spread from «hot desking» minimized.
One-Way Through Honeycomb
Bankers can expect plastic screens where social distancing isn’t possible – Julius Baer already installed them in client meeting rooms – limits of how many people are allowed in elevators, and one-way circuits in hallways, as is the case with their City counterparts.
Swiss Re is planning staggered returns to work for some 3,000 people who normally work at its newly-refurbished Mythenquai offices. Every second workspace is deactivated (for distancing) and the active workspaces are disinfected daily and certified as «clean».
Sped Up Amid Crisis
The reinsurer was more receptive to agile or home-work arrangements than banks before the virus broke out, and is allowing employees to pick when they will be physically present at Mythenquai. The pandemic caused roughly half of employees in Switzerland to work from home, from roughly ten percent before, according to consulting firm Robert Half.
Both big Swiss banks had little choice in sending roughly 80 percent of staff home during the crisis peak. UBS stepped up the last leg of a remote working program for most employees just as the lock-down began, operating chief Sabine Keller-Busse told «Neue Zuercher Zeitung» (behind paywall, in German) recently.
Privacy Restrictions
But working-from-home isn’t ideal for «front»-facing staff: bankers are still restricted, for example, in what client data they can view, or print out due to data privacy laws. At UBS, systemically relevant staff like information technology teams under Mike Dargan will be the first to return, a person familiar with the matter said.
The bank is outlining scenarios for a broader return, without a specific date in mind. «We’re in the comfortable position of being able to adapt our operations bit by bit, not hastily or with unnecessary risks, while continuing to monitor the situation,» a spokeswoman for UBS said.
