Citi is asking its managers to discuss the bank’s office-attendance policy with employees who regularly fail to comply with it, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing a person with knowledge of the matter.
The move comes ahead of midyear performance conversations, and managers will consider compliance with company rules when designing pay packages, the wire service’s source said.
Most of the bank’s 240,000 employees are eligible for a hybrid model that includes at least three days of in-office work per week and up to two days remote.
The bank has also been tracking U.S. employees’ office-entry swipes, and is considering the same for U.K.-based workers, Bloomberg reported.
Swipe monitoring is hardly new but has raised the hackles of employees at some of Citi’s competitors.
JPMorgan Chase, by April 2022, was feeding employee badge-swipe data into “reports” and dashboards managers could use to see how departments and employees are meeting company policy.
A month earlier, a handful of Goldman Sachs employees flagged that bank’s attendance monitoring on Blind, a corporate message board.
“In our team meeting, [my] manager showed us the Excel where the [managing directors] are tracking which department has not met in-office commitments,” one Goldman employee wrote, according to The New York Post.
In its memo to U.K. employees, Citi said it would capture "one swipe per person, per day, per location.”
“The number of hours spent in the office will not be captured in these reports,” the bank said, according to Bloomberg. “The focus of the reporting will be on employees with consistent office absence. Reports may then be shared with managers as appropriate to prompt further discussion.”
The data Citi has collected in the U.S. has been shared with only the most senior bank executives, Bloomberg’s source said. But the firm is considering creating a dashboard that would allow line managers to have easier access to the data, according to the person.
“We are committed to our hybrid work model and proud of the flexibility it provides our colleagues to work at least three days per week in the office and up to two days remotely,” Citi said in a statement seen by Bloomberg. “We have firm expectations for office attendance and know that the majority of our employees are compliant with their requirements. As necessary, we hold colleagues accountable for adhering to their in-office days.”
