The 214-year-old Swiss wealth manager isn't known for big changes, but is embracing some 21st-century trends in order to widen its labor pool.
One of the last major moves of Pictet leader Nicolas Pictet, who hands over the senior partner job to Renaud de Planta in two weeks, was to write a surprising letter to staff recently. The Swiss wealth manager said it will begin permitting staff to work part-time, according to a report in Swiss daily «Tribune de Geneve» (in French, behind paywall).
Wait – there's more: Pictet also told staff it would embrace modern workplace comforts like working from home, flexible annualized working hours, and unpaid leave. The move translates to a revolution for the hidebound Genevan private bank, which has maintained a distinctly more Calvinistic work ethic in the first 200 years of its existence.
New Fathers Group
Pictet gets great marks on staff rating platform Kununu, but employees are still hesitant to trust the 214-year-old bank's new methods. Some fear they could be passed over for promotions of salary hikes by the eight-man partnership which runs Pictet, the newspaper reports.
On the other hand, staff acknowledge that Pictet – which has never had a woman as a partner – is obviously keen to acknowledge a more modern generation of staff. A group of fathers with young children meets regularly to exchange views and experiences, for example.
Get Back to Work
To be sure, Pictet won't be able to escape advances in the job market. If new partner Boris Collardi once exhorted colleagues to get back to their offices after a late-afternoon industry event instead of heading home, wealth managers are quietly revisiting their 24/7 attitudes to work.
UBS and Credit Suisse long ago began offering flexible and part-time work opportunities, and both maintain programs to get bankers back into the work force after a break (typically to raise children). Even Pictet's hometown rival Lombard Odier is moving: in 2017, the partner-led institute launched an initiative to improve work-life balance.
