EXCLUSIVE: Standard Chartered Bank has introduced a range of flexible working opportunities for staff in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the UK and the US.
The roll-out of the new benefits have taken place over the last six months across ten of the bank’s 70 markets to make its offering globally consistent.
The bank has launched a sabbatical option for employees that allows them to apply for leave through an online facility. Subject to commercial reasons, staff can take time off work for anything from needing a break to undertaking charitable work.
It has also launched three strands of flexible working, which allows employees to work from home, work part-time or work flexible hours.
Neil Cuthbertson, group head of reward at Standard Chartered Bank, said: “Flexible working is now fairly common in the UK, but for markets such as Asia it is still an innovative offering where flexible working is not typically part of the employee proposition.”
He added that the bank intends to bring as much consistency as possible to its benefits offering across the different markets it operates in.
“A consistent global basis for benefits is typically hard to do because of local regulations and statutory provisions, but we see the merit in trying to offer core benefits on this basis. For one reason, much of our workforce moves across different geographies during the course of their employment.”