More than three years from the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, Wall Street is still working on cajoling staffers back to the office.

In recent mid-year evaluations, Citigroup Inc. managers were reminding staffers with persistent absences of the firm’s expectations for in-office work. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has also started reiterating the message that it expects employees to be in the office five days a week. Later this month, BlackRock Inc. will tighten its in-office requirements from three days a week to four.

And employees of HSBC Holdings Plc’s UK bank have been told they should be at their desks in an office or with clients three days a week from October, a spokesperson confirmed this week. 

“Employers are going to be more rigid,” said Kathryn Wylde, chief executive officer of the nonprofit Partnership for New York City, which has many Wall Street leaders on its executive committee. “It’s sending the message that people are paying attention and the bosses are paying attention and will judge your performance at least based in part on your office attendance.”

Where the financial services industry goes with remote work, so does the rest of the economy. While top banking executives were among the first to decry persistent remote work, these days, even technology giants that once promised long-term flexibility have become stricter with their policies — though few have returned to full five-day office schedules.

Bank Return-to-office policy

Bank of America
The majority of workers have to be in three days a week. There are some roles that require an in-office presence but have flexibility to work at home for a limited number of days per month. Workers in some divisions, like traders or branch staffers, are expected to be in the office five days a week, though even those employees are offered limited flexibility.

Barclays
Across the corporate and investment bank, all employees are expected to be in the office at least three days a week. Investment bankers and traders are largely expected to be in the office four days a week, though certain employees in the markets division must be in the office five days a week.

BNP Paribas
More than 130,000 staffers spread across 22 countries in Europe can do their jobs from home for up to half the week. US employees have the same hybrid model as those in Europe.

Citigroup
The majority of workers have to be in three days a week. Workers in some divisions, like traders or branch staffers, are expected to be in the office five days a week.

Deutsche Bank 
Most back-office employees can work remotely two or three days a week. Staffers in the front office, like traders or branch workers, are required to spend more time in the office.

Goldman Sachs
Encourages employees to be in the office five days a week and recently started reiterating that message.

HSBC
There’s no global requirement for staffers to be in the office a set number of days. Instead, executives have crafted individual policies for each team based on business needs.

JPMorgan 
The majority of workers have to be in three days a week, though all managing directors are now required to be in the office every weekday. Workers in some divisions, like traders or branch staffers, are expected to be in the office five days a week.

Morgan Stanley 
CEO James Gorman has said he wants to see employees in the office at least three or four days a week. In wealth management, brokers are limited to 90 days of remote work a year unless they have an alternate work location agreement.

Nomura
Staffers in corporate functions are expected to be in the office between 40% and 50% of the time. The majority of workers in client-facing roles are in the office full-time, though even staffers in those jobs are offered limited flexibility.

UBS
Globally around two-thirds of employees have roles that allow them to work from home at least part of the time. Workers in some divisions, like traders or branch staffers, are expected to be in the office five days a week. Some employees in the US are able to work remotely full-time.

“I completely understand why someone doesn’t want to commute an hour and a half every day, totally got it,” JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon told The Economist in an interview published in July. “Doesn’t mean they have to have a job here either.”

Still, even financial firms’ efforts to bring workers back have come in fits and starts and, at times, have been undone by resurgences in new coronavirus variants. In fact, the first push to invite more bankers back to their desks started after the US Labor Day holiday in 2020, while the pandemic still raged.

These days, less than half of all office workers are back at their desks, according to Kastle Systems, which measures badge swipes at office buildings around the country. In New York, where 1 in 11 jobs have ties to the financial securities industry, that figure slipped to 43% in August, the data show.

Bankers Want More Flexible Work Arrangements | A quarter of financial-services employees would prefer to work in the office one to two days a week
Bank bosses looking to crack down on those flouting in-office policies are navigating a delicate balance. Among financial services workers who still work remotely at least part-time, two thirds said they would quit if they were required to return to the office five days a week, according to a Deloitte survey published in August.

“Employers are pushing more aggressively for a return to the office,” said Neda Shemluck, a managing director at Deloitte who also serves as the diversity, equity and inclusion leader for the firm’s US financial services practice. “There is this urgency now for employers to have policies in place to mandate people back into the office. And, the reality is, that’s going to come with very significant consequences in terms of retention.”

--With assistance from Dara Doyle.

This article was provided by Bloomberg News.