Capitec is adjusting to new global workplace trends, including hybrid and remote work options – and a permanent shift away from the eight-to-five workday.
Speaking at a media round table in the bank’s Stellenbosch head office, Graham Lee, the group executive for the retail banking sector at Capitec, said that the bank has adopted an employee-centric approach.
With regard to the hours an employee will work, Capitec has become more specific to the person, said Lee.
Benchmarks for working hours are shifting from what is expected of a skillset to more about what an employee themselves wants. Lee said that as Capitec moves in this direction, it expects a lot of its competitors in the banking sector to do the same.
Full remote work is, however, not an option at the bank’s head office. Lee said that the company strongly believes in human connection – meaning that some of the time, employees must meet each other face to face. He stressed that working hours have permanently shifted away from the typical eight to five.
“We have adopted a hybrid model where we want the flexibility of working from home sometimes as well as the cost-benefit of not travelling into work the whole time,” said Lee.
Capitec believes in employees coming into the office as a team, said Lee. For example, a group of marketing team members could convene together on one day and a technical team on another.
Through autonomous teams working on the cloud, there is limited red tape when it comes to working, said Andrew Baker, the chief technology officer at Capitec.
Baker added that the banking group has also put in place security measures to maintain all work files are safe when employees are working from home.
To ensure that productivity is maintained in a hybrid model of work, Wim de Bruyn, the chief information officer for Capitec, said that the bank has also partnered with companies to offer discounts on Uninterrupted Power Supplies (UPS) for employees to mitigate the effects of load shedding.
Benefits in the banking sector
Capitec is not alone in changing the way they do business; Nedbank has also adopted flexible work practices.
Mike Brown, the Nedbank chief executive officer, said: “We have implemented a hybrid work model where a portion of our workforce will continue to work on-site while others will alternate between working on-site and remotely. Although a large part of our workforce is digitally enabled to work remotely, employees are encouraged to return to the office to collaborate and engage.”
Brown said that during the initial half of this year, 51% of the bank’s employees – excluding branch employees – worked from home.
Nedbank reported that this shift has had major cost-saving benefits on demand for real estate and facilitated worker productivity.
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