The topic of “mobile working” is on everyone’s lips. And not just since the federal government recently passed new rules on working from home. In times of Corona and ever new mutations, the following applies: Employers should, where possible, offer their employees appropriate home working solutions. How is the German banking industry dealing with this? How many employees of the financial institutions currently work from home? Is the switch to the home office a success?
The effects of the measures and restrictions associated with the Corona pandemic are also very much affecting the banking and financial sector in Germany. And there is no end in sight for the time being: The lockdown has been extended until mid-February, after which it is uncertain what will happen next. Despite the vaccine and the vaccination campaigns that have been launched, Corona will be with us for many months to come – at least that is certain.
In addition to the highly contagious viral disease, some of the key regulations and rules for containment could also be with us for longer. This also includes the home office “obligation” (or recommendation, depending on the interpretation and interpretation of the resolution). How do the German banks handle this regulation? Do they sufficiently enable their employees to transition smoothly to mobile working?
Mobile working: Pioneer banks
What is certain is that the banks were to a certain extent pioneers and leaders in this respect throughout Germany as early as last year, when the first lockdown began. Banks and insurance companies made particularly heavy use of the home office option between April and June 2020 (i.e. in the second quarter of the year): 80% of all banks and insurance companies allowed their employees to work from home during this period.
And what is the situation today, over half a year and another lockdown later?
A survey of credit institutions by the daily publication “Börsen-Zeitung”, which focuses on the financial sector, revealed that the banks are currently completely relaxed about the Home Office Occupational Health and Safety Ordinance. Actually no wonder they proved their leadership in offering decentralized working as mentioned already in the first shutdown.
Even a lockdown extended by many more weeks or until further notice, which would continue to require working from home desks, would be viewed calmly by the banks – another result of this survey. With regard to the
- technical infrastructure
- Communication channels
- Structures and workflows
- Organization
financial institutions see themselves as well positioned in terms of mobile working. Almost all typical banking activities and services, according to the banks surveyed, “proceed without any major frictions”.
Home office rates: Front-runner among banks
Germany’s largest credit institution, Deutsche Bank, thinks nothing of strict regulations in these (pandemic) times and is thus openly paving the way to the home office. In terms of the home office ratio, Deutsche Bank currently occupies a leading position among the large corporations in Germany.
Even during and after the first lockdown, an average of about 70 percent of Deutsche Bank employees worldwide (60,000 of the approximately 87,000 employees) worked in a home office. That remains unchanged to this day. In terms of Germany, the figure is even higher: Deutsche Bank’s home office ratio there is currently around 80 to 85 percent (as of mid-January 2021). Regionally, the figure was as high as 95 percent.
The branches are only staffed with a few employees at the counters to keep the personal (on-site) consultations with the customers going. Many of those employed in the investment banking sector are also still working in their usual jobs. Everyone else has moved their office into their own four walls. As early as last November, it was reported that Deutsche Bank was planning to let its employees work from home two days a week on a permanent basis – that is, even after the lockdown and after the pandemic was largely over.
“Back in November, it was reported that Deutsche Bank was planning to let its employees work from home two days a week permanently – that is, even after the lockdown.”
Commerzbank, Sparkasse & Co.
DZ Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Germany, is also far ahead. In the first shutdown almost a year ago, as well as in the current phase of the second lockdown, 90 percent of the workforce works from home offices. And at Hypo-Vereinsbank, the current figure of 85 percent is also very high (in the first lockdown, it was 70 percent).
At Commerzbank , about 50 percent of the total of about 48,500 employees worked from home. The differences in the figures show: The proportion of employees working from home varies and is, of course, always also dependent on
- the respective tasks of banking operations
- the job profiles of the employees
- the complexity of the IT systems and- configuration and
- the general focus of business activity
Even in the finance and banking sector, not all activities can be transferred to the home office without difficulty. In addition, there are tasks and areas, especially in customer management, which for data protection reasons cannot – or must not – be carried out at home, i.e. in a highly private and secluded space.
Then, however, there are areas in which a changeover as well as a switch to mobile work seems to be particularly easy. For example, at Sparkassen Finanz Informatik, the IT service provider of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe. Since March 2020, 90 percent of the more than 4,000 financial information technology employees have moved to the home office.
. The Sparkasse never tires of emphasising that it has had an open (and contemporary) attitude towards the home office, and not just since the advent of the pandemic. The ever-advancing digitalization and increasing mechanization of work processes make this possible without any problems, as one can read on the Sparkasse’s website on the topic of “mobile working”.
And the Sparkasse also implements this on a regional level. At Kreissparkasse Köln, for example, the proportion of home office employees has now risen to 30 per cent, and at Sparkasse Gießen one third work from home.
Conclusion:
All these figures show: Many German banks are adapting and, in the wake of the only slowly improving Corona situation, are proving to be accommodating employers who seem to have far more trust in their employees than many other industries and employers.
Experts now believe that the trend (or rather, the obligation) for banks to work from home will not lead to a return to the usual, “normal” level of on-site presence in branches and business locations after the crisis. It is therefore quite possible that home offices will become the norm in the German banking industry in the future.