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THE HIGH STREET BANK'SUK DIVISION HAS REPORTEDLY HARDENED ITS HYBRID WORKING POLICY WITH A REQUIREMENT TO SPEND AT LEAST 60 PER CENT OF TIME IN THE OFFICE. 08:17, 22 May 2025 HSBC high
street bank staff face bonus cuts over remote working, it has emerged. The high street bank's UK division has reportedly hardened its hybrid working policy with a requirement to spend
at least 60 per cent of time in the office. HSBC UK, which has branches in Birmingham, has warned staff and workers it may cut their bonuses if they do not work in the office frequently
enough. Anyone who does not spend at least 60% of their time in the office could end up being paid less, according to a report by Bloomberg. It introduced its requirement for staff to spend
60% of their time, about three days on average, in the office in 2023. It employs about 23,000 staff in its offices and branches. READ MORE UK FACES 27C HEATWAVE NEXT WEEK WITH 33 COUNTIES
IN ENGLAND SET TO SIZZLE The lender told staff that line managers would monitor attendance more closely and adherence to the policy would form part of an employee’s annual performance
review, the Financial Times reported. Article continues below It comes after a study found the post-pandemic shift to greater home working among highly skilled professionals has failed to
level up Britain’s economy and help struggling regions as many had predicted it would. “There has been no mass relocation of highly skilled workers to cheaper places as we might have hoped
at the start of the pandemic,” said Dr David McCollum, one of the report’s co-authors and a senior geography lecturer at St Andrews. “People are still opting to live in places that offer the
best wages and the best opportunities for their profession. If they are relocating, they are not moving that far away as they still have to go to their place of work on a weekly basis,
usually a few days a week.” Article continues below “If high earners relocate, that can push up house prices, which can exacerbate inequalities at a local scale,” McCollum said. Nicholas
Bloom, a Stanford economics professor who has studied home working for two decades, said: “If you think of somebody that is working 45 or 50 hours a week in an office, they’ve got a
45-minute additional commute. If they get to work from home two, three days a week, they’re saving about 8% of their total time. "I would say hybrid helps retention and recruitment and,
if it’s well organised, is about net zero on productivity."