The battle for more work-life balance in banking

Banking and work-life balance (WLB) have traditionally been anathema to each other – after all, this is a sector famous for the 80-hour week. But a shift in attitudes may be slowly taking place in Hong Kong, driven mainly by a desire to motivate employees and reduce attrition.

In the current era of lower compensation and leaner teams, some people are questioning whether staying in banking is still worth the effort. To counter this threat and because bonuses are becoming a less potent retention tool, some HR teams are trying to push WLB further up the corporate agenda.

Their efforts are welcome and timely because the balance between life and work has swung too far towards the latter since the onset of the financial crisis. Redundancies in Hong Kong this year have left those who remain with heavy workloads. As mobile devices have become ubiquitous, so too has the 24/7 employee – willing to work at any time.

But aren’t banking professionals already hardened to all this, especially in a fast-paced financial hub like Hong Kong? Well, there are signs of discontent. In a recent survey by my company, 79 per cent of active job seekers in Hong Kong rated flexible working (a component of WLB) as a critical non-monetary benefit. It was equally as important as healthcare and more so than other factors like childcare. Yet only half the respondents said they already enjoyed it.

This gulf between what they have and what they want supports anecdotal evidence from recruiters and HR professionals that people are leaving their employers (and sometimes leaving banking altogether) partly to gain a better lifestyle elsewhere. Boutique and buy-side financial institutions are benefiting, as are corporate-sector employers, who often seem more stable and less vulnerable to retrenchments. We may have now reached a turning-point whereby banks are forced to take WLB more seriously.

How to be balanced
It’s not possible to cover the whole gamut of WLB initiatives in this column, but we can identify some general ones. Many are time based, such as flexible hours, home-working and days off in lieu. But some firms promote WLB in a broader sense, offering benefits such as stress management programmes, in-house gyms, and “bring your kids to work” days. These policies are inclusive as they cover employees who can’t work from home (eg the majority of traders) and those whose jobs involve regular late nights. Your average M&A analyst is a 2am finisher, not a flexible worker.

It is also important to set guidelines to manage the extent to which employees have to work during their private time. Rules for answering emails, for example, can help ensure staff are not always tied to their mobile devices at night.

There are, however, challenges to implementing WLB in Hong Kong, which lacks an established Western-style culture of part-time working. Mid-level professionals may secretly desire more flexibility, but they are sometimes reluctant to ask for it because they want to be seen slaving away at their desks. By contrast, while Gen Y employees are often vocal in their demands, they may be the very people who benefit the most from the routine and guidance of a regular workplace and set hours.

HR departments are partly responsible for overcoming such challenges and for promoting the current fledgling culture of WLB in banking. But they need buy-in from senior management and line managers if their policies are to work in practice. Empowerment can be effective.

At a recent roundtable discussion held by my company in Hong Kong, one HR delegate said his firm allowed the line to approve reasonable flexible-working requests without the need for HR approval. Taking a “one size fits all” approach wasn’t the way to go in a sector with as many different roles as banking, he said.

Personalising WLB strategies to the needs of individuals, while respecting the business realities of the team, can help engage and motivate employees. They will feel better looked after by the company, less disgruntled with their workloads, and most importantly, more loyal and productive.

While WLB is not a retention cure-all, maintaining a content workforce may well be a source of competitive advantage, especially when markets pick up and hiring increases again in Hong Kong.