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The Financial sector has been more vocal than most when it comes to the remote working requirements of the past 18 months. Beginning this week over the pond on Wall Street, Goldman Sachs is requiring nearly all of its New York employees back in the office- plans were set to be similar here in London until the delaying of stage 4.

In contrast the likes of Citigroup have told most of its workers that they can adopt a so-called hybrid schedule between home and the office longer term. When you dig a little deeper, the financial sector is full of these divergences, creating bubbles of hope around the prospect of long term flexibility and increased anxiety about a full time return. Parents are now faced with the return of childcare woes and the prospect that younger, single colleagues will rush back and reap the benefits of face to face time with clients and executives.

For such a high pressure sector, the approach to digital hybrid work seems disjointed and without an ‘across the board’ blueprint. There seems to be a huge amount of talk from the big guns but the reality being faced is reluctant staff and office space capped at 50% for the foreseeable. It seems, embracing a hybrid, cloud environment would be well advised.

Even if there is the suggestion that finance will make its big return, we’re bound to see a ‘new normal,’ with plans to move to a hybrid model of work popular amongst the likes of Nat West who will keep a third of their 59,300 staff working remotely- 55% dividing time between work and the office. Some banks are also planning on shifting office space to other cities with a lower cost of living. If this past year has taught us one thing it’s that a better work life balance is possible and tech talent seems to prefer residing in areas outside of the city centre where you can have the best of both worlds.

According to the general manager of global banking and financial markets at IBM corp ‘“A successful trader now needs to be somebody who’s very adept at taking advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning,” Wagle said. “Those types of individuals are not available in London, New York or Frankfurt. They have strong views on work lifestyle balance, and a lot of them have indicated they’re not willing to move.”