While Wall Street is pressing employees to get vaccinated and back to the office, the Swiss financial sector is handling things differently even after the latest easing of restrictions.
For once the investment banks aren’t luring employees in with bonuses but with burgers. At the start of the week food trucks drew up in front of Goldman Sachs’ New York headquarters and a band played to mark the bankers’ return after many months in their home offices.
However at competitor Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman set a different tone. During an online conference he said that anyone not back in the office by Labor Day on September 6 would face a pay cut.
Entry Only for Vaccinated
Gorman is relying on 90 percent of the staff being vaccinated by then, which he can because he has also decreed compulsory vaccination. «The Financial Times» (behind paywall) said unvaccinated employees and clients will not be able to enter the bank’s New York building.
The Swiss banking sector is light years away from making such threats even if some managers would secretly like to see a return to the office and are giving incentives to do so. In Switzerland vaccination is voluntary and a private matter for employees and clients.
Restrictions Eased
In Switzerland, the whole area has turned into a new kind of banking secrecy, a survey by finews.com showed, even after the government announced an easing of the coronavirus rules on Wednesday.
The obligation to work from home was changed to a recommendation and the obligation for employees to wear masks and be regularly tested at work was also scrapped. Places of work have to remain accessible to those without vaccination certificates.
WFH at UBS
The government guidelines are being followed by the big banks even if top managers such as the head of UBS Europe, Christine Novakovic, fear negative effects from long-term remote working. «Our corporate culture, the pride in our brand are threatened by forced working from home,» she recently told finews.com.
However, at UBS headquarters working from home will continue to be strongly recommended, the bank told finews.com. This is despite the bank allowing a return to the office according to function. In that case «split working» applies, meaning half the team works from home. The bank will not ask about employees’ vaccination status.
This is also the case at Credit Suisse. «We are not planning compulsory vaccination, including proof of vaccination,» the bank said.
Hoping for Herd Immunity
Official figures show that 2.6 million people, or just over 30 percent of the population, have been fully vaccinated in Switzerland and Liechtenstein. In the age groups working in the financial sector the figures are 12.2 percent of 20-29 year-olds 15.2 percent of 30-39 year-olds, 22.3 percent of 40-49 year-olds. The proportion of the fully vaccinated is highest among 50-59 year-olds at 41.4 percent.
To achieve herd immunity a vaccination quota of 70 percent is generally assumed, but is disputed because of the virus mutating.
Vaccination Pilot Project
Helping raise the number of those vaccinated through incentives is being widely discussed in the sector. Consultancy Deloitte recommends all employees get vaccinated at the earliest opportunity but stresses that neither this nor declaring their vaccination status is compulsory.
Switzerland’s largest insurer, Zurich, is going further, saying: «We encourage our staff to get vaccinated are actively supporting the vaccination campaign within the framework of our vaccination pilot project», the company said. The company has been carrying out the project in collaboration with Canton Zurich. There is no obligation to be vaccinated when returning to the office as a matter of principle, Zurich added.
Private Bankers back at Their Desks
The latter is also the case and the private banks Julius Bär, Vontobel and Lombard Odier, they said. However, the number of those returning to the office had increased sharply in people-oriented private banking.
At Lombard Odier 55 percent of the staff are back in the office. At Julius Baer from June up to 50 percent of the members of various teams were able to return while sticking to the precautionary measures. Vontobel said it was discussing a return selectively and within the teams.
Booking App at Swiss Re
Things are more restrictive at Swiss Re, which told finews.com: «We strongly recommend our employees continue to work from home» Those who would like to work in the office have to book their desks using an app. This is to ensure that a maximum occupancy rate of 25 percent is adhered to.
Swiss Re pointed out that there had been no obligation to be in the office after the company launched its «Own The Way You Work» initiative. This allows employees, subject to agreement with their supervisors and taking into account client needs, to choose where and when they want to work.
Credit Suisse Working on New Model
Credit Suisse has long had various forms of flexible working but now wants to create a new model of working based on the experiences of the pandemic. The bank added it would soon be announcing what that would look like.
Private bank Lombard Odier plans to integrate the lessons learned from enforced home working into the construction of its new headquarters on the banks of Lake Geneva. It will open in 2024 and be planned «to promote collaboration in a fresh way».
