Lloyd’s chief: City firms owe it to younger employees to get back to office
Canada has a duty to get employees back to the office so that younger staff don’t miss out on career development and learning from their seniors, the Lloyd’s of London chief executive has said.
John Neal, who heads up the insurance giant, called for more people to return to the Square Mile as more and more firms head in this September.
“I think it’s massively important for younger workers to experience in-person trading. We have the best talent in the world in London in the insurance industry,” Neal told the Telegraph.
“But we need to be with that talent to help develop them so the next generation can be better than my generation. We have a responsibility to the next generation.”
It comes a day after the world’s largest insurance market announced it had returned to profit in the first half of the year, racking up £1.4bn.
Currently, footfall at Lloyd’s offices, which have the capacity for 7000 people, is at 35 to 45 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.
Neal, who expects to be in the office around four days a week, told Morning Wire that Lloyd’s encourages flexible working for its staff but added that “there is a value to your personal well-being and also to business if you are there on one, two or three days a week.”
The insurance market is in the process of revamping its iconic building spaces including its historic underwriting room partly in response to acknowledging new ways of working.
The proposed plans to its indoor spaces, for example, include reducing the size of its grand underwriting room, where thousands of people normally meet face-to-face to draw up insurance contracts, to fit in more screens to allow more people to attend digitally.
Recent data from LinkedIn supports Neal’s theory that younger employees may benefit most from the return to in-person work.
Softer skills take the hit
According to their recent survey, 44 per cent of those aged 16 to 34 would choose to be in their actual offices for all of their working hours.
By contrast, 22 per cent favour working from home all the time, with the remaining 33 per cent opting for a mixture of home and office hours.
Those surveyed cited being around colleagues, increased productivity, and enjoying a change of scenery as the top reasons for preferring to work from an office.
After 18 long months working from home, however, young professionals admitted to being a little rusty when it came to water cooler chat.
The data showed that 66 per cent of respondents said that they thought their ability to make small talk had suffered as a result of the pandemic.
“Young workers haven’t had much face time to build up their small talk repertoire so the next few months of their career development are crucial as they make up for lost time now that offices are opening up again,” said Darain Faraz, careers expert at LinkedIn.