Senior bankers at Lloyds could be at risk of having their bonuses docked if they fail to follow company orders to be in the office at least two days a week.
Lloyds Banking Group – which owns the Halifax, Lloyds and Bank of Scotland brands – has confirmed it is reviewing office attendance as part of performance-related bonus targets for its most senior employees. That includes hybrid staff who, in 2023, were ordered to be in the office at least 40% of the time, which typically amounts to two days a week for those on full-time contracts.
Ged Nichols, the general secretary of the Accord union that represents Lloyds staff, said bosses needed to ensure they were sensitive to employees’ circumstances when considering the size of this year’s payouts.
“The inclusion of a metric on complying with the requirement for some staff to attend offices for 40% of their working time should not create problems if it is applied fairly, and is sensitive to individuals’ circumstances with mature and reasonable judgments applied,” Nichols said.
Bonuses for the 2024 financial year will be distributed next month, shortly after the chief executive, Charlie Nunn, announces annual results on 20 February.
A range of big employers are rowing back on remote working arrangements that were essential to keeping businesses running during the Covid-19 pandemic. US-headquartered companies including JP Morgan and Amazon have so far issued the strictest mandate, demanding staff attend work in person five days a week.
The supermarket chain Asda has made a three-day office week compulsory for thousands of workers at its Leeds and Leicester sites, while the Spanish-owned lender Santander has been formalising attendance requirements for its 10,000 UK staff.
However, some workers who still enjoy the flexibility of remote working have been pushing back against back-to-office mandates. A group of staff at Starling Bank resigned after the chief executive demanded thousands of workers attend its offices more frequently.
Meanwhile, almost 6,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding the advertising group WPP revoke its order that staff return to the office an average of four days a week from April. WPP said it believed the new rules were “the right policy for the long-term interests of the company as a whole, knowing that it won’t be popular with everyone”. Mark Read, the chief executive, also told staff: “Some roles that have always been fully or largely remote will continue as they are.”
A Lloyds spokesperson said the bank was “proud to offer an industry-leading approach to flexible working which delivers many benefits for our colleagues while ensuring that we are well-placed to deliver on our ambitious strategy to transform our business and continue to deliver for our customers”.
Lloyds has also launched a new bonus scheme that, for the first time, will mean that 33,000 of its lowest-paid staff will be eligible for bigger payouts based on performance.
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It will mean that up to 1,000 of those workers, including its most junior employees and those who work across its 932 branches, could end up receiving a bigger payout if bosses think they “exceeded expectations” or had a “transformative impact” on the business.
That is understood to be on top of a standardised slice of a bonus pool – part of its group performance share plan – that is based on the size of Lloyds’ profit at year end.
Nichols said: “We welcome the introduction of higher awards for some staff to reflect their performance, but on condition that the higher awards are funded separately and are not made possible by reducing the value of the standard awards for everybody else.”
A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group said: “In 2023 we announced a multiyear pay proposal to provide our people with greater certainty in a fast-changing economic environment. The group’s recognised unions approved the proposal which focuses on helping those that need our support most, and we have enhanced the plan further this year to provide an opportunity for colleagues who have made an extraordinary contribution to best support our customers.”
