Free burgers, ice cream, and unusual social events are just some of the ways the City’s biggest asset managers are luring employees back to the office after almost 18 months of home working.
Asset managers are widely expecting more staff to venture back to the office from 6 September, as summer holidays come to an end and hybrid models developed during the Covid pandemic are put into action.
Jupiter, the FTSE 250-listed asset manager, is encouraging staff back to its Victoria office for three days a week from Monday.
From then on, it will introduce a 2-2-1 policy, meaning staff can work two days in the office, two days at home and choose which location to work from the remaining day.
To welcome staff back, Jupiter has a programme of events lined-up, including a speed chess tournament and table tennis challenge.
An art committee comprised of Jupiter staff has also organized a talk and lunch on an exhibition of Japanese woodblock printing currently on display in its office. A drinks reception has also been scheduled for the end of the week.
A free breakfast will be offered for all staff coming back to the office for the first two weeks.
“We are encouraging our employees to take the time to settle into our new hybrid working arrangement and to focus on reconnecting with colleagues old and new,” said a spokesperson.
“To help employees and managers acclimatise to the new working environment, our HR team has organised a number of webinars to provide practical tips and strategies to maximise productivity, improve collaboration and maintain a healthy work/life balance.”
Fidelity International, which has offices close to St Paul’s, said it has seen an “increasing number of staff returning to the office”.
The $787bn asset manager, which has 800 staff in London, had been offering employees free weekly barbeques over the summer as restrictions lifted.
It has implemented so-called “dynamic working” across 25 of its offices worldwide, including London, meaning that the majority of staff can choose their own working pattern.
“This new way of working aims to give employees as much flexibility as possible. Our offices around the world will remain important centres of community, collaboration, creativity and learning,” a spokesperson for Fidelity said.
Meanwhile Allianz Global Investors, based on Bishopsgate, has been handing out free ice cream on Fridays to returning staff. It also plans to implement a hybrid working model.
“We will harness the positive experiences from our extended period of remote working by allowing more flexibility compared to pre-Covid,” a spokesperson for the firm said.
“Alongside our offices resuming their role as the default place of work across AllianzGI, we will build on, and look to make pragmatic use of, existing flexible working arrangements.”
Janus Henderson, which is also based on Bishopsgate, has asked that its staff come into the office for two days a week as “general guidance”, although some individuals have been in the office more depending on their role.
“Currently, we can’t say what our exact future working model will be; but we want to retain the best of both office-based and remote working,” a spokesperson said, adding the firm expects more of its 850 staff across London and Edinburgh to return this month after the summer holiday season.
It will offer free canteen service for staff based in London with hot and cold meals, sandwiches and drinks available on request from its catering team.
Liontrust is taking a different approach. It wants all 160 of its staff to return to the office on 6 September before implementing flexible working arrangements.
The asset manager’s office has remained open throughout the pandemic, but it has grown headcount by around a third following the acquisition of Architas’s UK investment business in October 2020.
Asking all staff to return at the same time will ensure the firm can “fully integrate new employees into the Liontrust culture”, a spokesperson said.
Liontrust plans to give workers a free lunch in the office once a month to “promote collaboration”.
“This return to the pre-pandemic working arrangements, including the flexible working arrangements in place before Covid-19, will be reviewed, and further flexibility considered, once we have all been back working together and collaborating in the office for a reasonable length of time,” said a spokesperson for the firm.
Axa Investment Managers, whose new building at 22 Bishopsgate opened earlier this year, has implemented a hybrid model for its 511 staff in the UK. Capacity at the London office will be roughly 60%.
“Collaboration is at the heart of this approach and the office is about sharing and working together in different spaces. In order to encourage collaboration, every team will have a dedicated zone, making it easier for colleagues to sit and work together,” a spokesperson said.
Abrdn, the £532bn listed asset manager with 800 staff in London, is on the look out for a new office.
Estates Gazette reported on 1 September that Abrdn is in advanced negotiations to rent space in the refurbished Royal Bank of Scotland office on Bishopsgate. A move from its existing office in Bow Bells House near St Paul’s would mean Abrdn’s office footprint shrinking significantly as it moves to a hybrid working model.
A spokesperson declined to comment on the move, but said the firm expected most employees would be back in the office for two days a week from early September.
“We started with a phased approach to returning to the office which allowed for around a third of colleagues in our offices at any one time,” the spokesperson said.
“We are now evolving to the next stage of our plan which is to moving to a blended working model where colleagues will work from both home and the office and will come to the office to collaborate, connect and coach.”
