Despite the increase in the number of COVID-19 patients across the world, the daily number of confirmed cases in Russia is slowly decreasing.
However, many Russian banks are still not ready to return to full-fledged operation from offices. Some of them have already announced that they plan to postpone the return of their staff from home offices until September 1 while others announced that they are willing to completely review their approach to employees’ work arrangement.
Home Credit announced its intention to shift to a flexible workplace for its employees starting June 30. This decision will mostly affect back office workers in Moscow and the provinces and call operators who will be able to switch between working from the office and from home.
“More than three months of telecommuting have shown that our bank can operate equally efficiently from the offices and remotely. Therefore, we decided to be more flexible about this situation and arrange work depending on our employees’ duties and personal preferences,” commented Home Credit Board Chairman Yury Andresov.
Tinkoff Bank earlier announced its plans to implement flexible workplace after the lockdown. CEO Oliver Hughes said that some of the bank’s employees will work from home and some from the office. The long-term policy of office operations is currently being revisited.
In mid-June, another major subsidiary of a foreign bank, RaiffeisenBank, announced its intention to prolong telecommuting until September 1.
“We have successfully switched to remote work without undermining our productivity or business processes; therefore, we decided to maintain this format until the end of summer,” said RaiffeisenBank HR Director Vladimir Khimanych.
Alfa Bank employees will be able to stay home longer than anybody. They were offered to work remotely until the end of 2020. The majority of Russian companies switched to telework in March and April 2020.