While banks, like Morgan Stanley, are largely anti-remote working, they have started to accept that they need to support employees who are working from home with incentives.
How can benefits also help retain staff in the ongoing 'Great Resignation'?
Share
The investment banking sector has taken longer to get on board with the future of work being flexible and hybrid.
Back in March, Goldman Sachs’ CEO David Solomon made headlines by declaring working from home as an “aberration”, while JP Morgan’s CEO Jamie Dillon suggested workers were less productive from home and that long-term remote working was not in the bank’s future.
Morgan Stanley’s CEO also made waves when he declared “if you can go to a restaurant in New York City, you can come into the office” back in June.
However, as the pandemic has continued to rage on and the ‘Great Resignation’ became a crisis, banks, like companies in other sectors, got on board by allowing workers to continue to work from home and offering new benefits to keep workers happy.
While law firms have offered huge bonuses to retain staff and retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target have upped their education benefits, in the US, Morgan Stanley has extended two of its pandemic benefits until the end of December.
The benefits in question are $75 per day for private car transportation to and from the office and $35 credit for meals ordered when working nights or weekends from home, according to Business Insider.
Talking about the extension, Morgan Stanley wrote in an internal memo: “As we continue to welcome employees back to our corporate office, we do so with a sustained focus on health and safety.
“To further support the needs of employees at this time, continuing through December 31, employees who return to the office will be eligible for a subsidy of $75 a day, to help pay for your commuting costs.”
COVID-19, the ‘Great Resignation’ and benefits
Gartner’s chief of HR research Brian Kropp told UNLEASH that that companies who rely only on massive increases in compensation will fail to retain talent, particularly in the long run.
“The cascading effect of these compensation increases are putting companies in a place where retaining talent is not financially sustainable and creates a whole other set of long-term problems around equity and fairness”, added Kropp.
Instead, focusing on employee experience with the help of benefits and flexible working options are a particularly effective way to keep employees happy and valued in the pandemic and the ‘Great Resignation’.
This doesn’t just have to be food, transport or education benefits. Employers can get creative, for instance, with offering equity to create more employee loyalty and encourage them to stay at the company.
Research by Morgan Stanley itself found that 93% of HR executives and 75% of employees believe that equity compensation and stock ownership is the best and most effective way to motivate staff.
It is important that employers get serious about stopped the ‘Great Resignation’ in it tracks because, as things stand currently, it is showing no signs of letting up in the new year.
Sign up to the UNLEASH Newsletter
Get the Editor’s picks of the week delivered straight to your inbox!
