Sterling Bank unveils ‘flexi-work’ rules for staffers

Sterling Bank Plc has unveiled its new employee relation’s rule, tagged Flexi-time and Flexi-place, as employees’ welfare in the banking industry becomes topical in the midst of policy and economic challenges.

The rules, which the bank said will promote work-life and balance among its staffers, is also described as global best practices in the field of human relations, according to a statement from the lender.

Already, the new initiative is currently being piloted at the bank’s corporate head office and is aimed at introducing flexibility in work arrangements.
The Flexi-time arrangement, it noted, allows members of staff the opportunity to determine their own working hours by choosing a convenient time to come to work within the options provided by the bank.

Similarly, the Flexi-place gives staff the opportunity to choose a convenient location from which they can carry out their job functions and in the pilot phase, which is ongoing at the head office, staffers are encouraged to select locations closer to their place of residence.

The Bank’s Executive Director, Strategy and Finance, Abubakar Suleiman, who described the pilot stage as highly successful, expressed his optimism that the initiative will enhance productivity of staff, promote bonding among family members, reduce the stress of waking very early and spend long hours in traffic to get to the office early, improve the well-being of staff and ultimately promote work life and balance among the workforce.

“Employees in the cities are faced with the onerous, yet elusive goal of maintaining work-life balance as they are confronted with the challenges of waking up very early to beat the traffic going to the office and also pass through same stress going home in the evening.”
 
“We recognize that the fast-paced nature of cities is likely to continue to deprive workers from spending quality time with their families as they spend a lot of time commuting to and from work.  With the staggered resumption time offered by these initiatives, staff will be able to determine preferred and more convenient work hours.

“We believe with this initiative, they would be in a better position to spend quality time with their family, commute at more convenient traffic times and spend less on Medical care thus become more productive at work,” he said.

To ensure the effectiveness of the workplace solutions, Abubakar noted that appropriate structures and resources have been put in place, adding that each team during the pilot phase, has a succession plan with back-ups knowledgeable on other duties and available at crucial periods.He assured that Sterling Bank would continue to come up with initiatives to enrich the lives of all stakeholders.as “we have demonstrated this across all in various areas such as education, sports, entrepreneurship, environment and the introduction of various products and services to meet the banking needs of our customers.

This time, we want to focus on the people who work tirelessly to implement these initiatives- our staff. Our desire is to continue to explore ways to improve the work environment, elevate the culture of the organization and enable self-actualisation. The flexible work regime we have introduced is one step in the right direction to achieving this desire.”