ING and ABN Amro calling employees back to the office from work-from-home
After years of promoting and recruiting with work-from-home options, the large Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro are calling workers back to the office. ING is working on a guideline to have workers in-office at least twice a week. And several ABN Amro departments have implemented similar measures, the Financieele Dagblad reported.
Staff at both banks said they were unpleasantly surprised by the move and complained about a lack of parking spaces, full meeting rooms, and a shortage of quiet workplaces. For ABN Amro, at least, the measure also goes against the collective bargaining agreement, the trade unions told FD.
ING submitted a guideline to the works council this week saying that all workers must be in-office at least two days a week, one of which must be on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. A spokesperson for the bank told FD that the starting point of hybrid work was always that staff would be in the office at least half of the time. The guideline follows because not everyone kept to that agreement.
According to ING, in-office work improves mutual cooperation, strengthens the bond with the company, stimulates creativity, and helps new employees feel at home more quickly.
ABN Amro has recruited new employees with the option of flexible working for years. However, various departments have recently instructed team members to come in at least twice a week.
According to various trade unions, that’s against the bank’s collective bargaining agreement. The paragraph on flexible work is very clear: ABN Amro employees can largely decide for themselves where and when they work.
An ABN Amro spokesperson told FD that the bank isn’t trying to change the collective agreement, and employees are only advised to come to the office at least once a week. According to him, some teams have chosen for that to be more often because this would improve “the speed and quality of the work.”
Rabobank, the Netherlands’ third large bank, is trying a different approach - incentive. The bank is offering free lunch on Fridays in the two large offices in Rotterdam and Utrecht. The test has only been running for a month, so the bank can’t say whether it is effective yet.
