Lloyds Banking Group has defended its workplace culture after it experienced a sharp drop in its employee engagement index last year, driven by a “tough” stance on staff returning to the office.
The group’s employee engagement index – measuring pride and satisfaction working for Lloyds, as well as recommending it as a place to work – fell by 12 points last year to its lowest level since 2014, coming in at 66 per cent favourable.
Just three years prior, in 2020, Lloyds’ index set a record of 81 per cent. In its annual report in February, the group blamed “some necessary but tough” changes to its flexible working arrangements for the recent decline, as well as “uncertainty created by our transformation”.
Last April, the bank ordered staff working hybrid roles to spend at least two days a week in the office, using “card swipe data” to monitor their return.
The move sparked backlash from some staff and employee union Unite, saying it discriminated against working parents, women and carers. Lloyds made exceptions for workers with disabilities and long-term health conditions.
Speaking at Lloyds’ AGM in Glasgow on Friday, chair Robin Budenberg said the group was “mindful of the drop across some of our employee engagement metrics in 2023, relating to some inevitable internal change as part of our overall transformation”.
“Our leadership team has spent considerable time at line manager, divisional and all-colleague level, building greater understanding of the need to evolve in our ways of working in order to help us to serve our customers better,” he added.
The news comes after Lloyds made sweeping job cuts as part of its long-term transformation strategy.
The group, which has around 60,000 total employees, launched a plan in February 2022 to invest £4bn over the next five years to diversify away from interest-rate-sensitive income streams like mortgages and become a “digital leader”.
As part of its shift towards online services, the lender confirmed in January that it would cut around 1,600 jobs across its branch network and create 830 new roles in a “relationship growth” team.
The move followed a review of 2,500 mainly back office jobs at Lloyds revealed last November.
On Thursday, Budenberg noted continued “strong and positive support” from employees who “say that the group is a safe, inclusive and respectful place to work”.
He cited Lloyds as the first FTSE 100 firm to set “deliberately stretching targets” to increase both gender and ethnic diversity at senior levels, as well as an aim of doubling the representation of senior staff with disabilities.