careers Flexible working & parental leave

Discover how flexible working allows us to meet the needs of our employees and customers in an agile way.

Flexible working

Flexible working allows us to meet the needs of our employees and customers in an agile way. It aims to reflect our changing working environment and allows you to have some choice in how, where and when you work to suit your working style and help balance your personal life needs.

There are two types of flexible working available – formal and informal flexible working:

Formal flexible working - involves making a contractual change to reflect a long term Flexible Working Practices arrangement or if you wish to take a sabbatical.
Informal flexible working – these options are more short-term or may change from time-to-time. This is not a contractual change, so you should ensure that you are working the number of hours a week required for your role. This option gives you and your People Leader a little more flexibility in your working pattern.

These flexible working options are available to both current Employees and those being considered for recruitment as an employee. The formal options are not applicable to non-employed workers. There is no minimum length of service required to make a flexible working request.

Formal options

Flexible Working Practices are defined as one, or a combination, of the following ways of working:

(a) Working from Home - which allows you to work from home as part of your normal working pattern, with the agreement of your People Leader.

(b) Flexible Time - where your contracted number of hours remain unchanged but the pattern of hours that you work on any given working day or week can be altered with the agreement of your People Leader; and

(c) Part Time - where you work reduced hours in a day, reduced days in a week or a combination of both, in comparison to the Full Time Equivalent number of hours for the same role. The pattern of hours that you work on any given working day or week can be altered with the agreement of your People Leader.

In all three arrangements described above, the specific details of the work pattern and the number of days working from home, can be discussed with and approved by your People Leader based on the requirements of your role.

Informal options

You may wish to use the flexible time and working from home options above (or a combination) on a more informal basis. Your People Leader can approve requests based on individual and team needs, provided there are neither health and safety risks nor a negative impact to the Group and/or its customers. Approval for such a request would not establish any precedent, if you later make a formal Flexible Working Practices application.

Opportunities for training, development and promotion will not be affected by working flexibly. The Group will not tolerate any harassment or discrimination of colleagues in relation to approved flexible working or applications made.

Colleagues working flexibly are expected to be aware of business needs and should continue to be prepared to work additional hours as required to fulfil their duties, in the same way as colleagues not working flexibly.

Employees working flexibly may, from time to time, be required to attend specific events, client meetings, training, business trips or other events even where such attendance falls outside the employee's normal flexible working pattern. Reasonable notice of such events should be provided where possible.

People Leaders must:

(a) encourage an environment that allows colleagues to request a flexible working arrangement;

(b) be fair and consistent, considering all requests on their merits and the requirements of the role; and

(c) consider all requests in light of the impact (whether beneficial or detrimental) that the flexible working arrangement would have upon colleagues, any customer or other key stakeholder relationships and the team as a whole.

Parental leave

Parental leave is provided to support our colleagues and their families around the time of childbirth or adoption. It includes maternity leave, parental leave for spouses or partners and adoption leave.

We provide globally (at minimum):

Fully paid maternity leave - 20 calendar weeks.
Fully paid parental leave for spouses or partners - two calendar weeks.
Fully paid adoption leave - two calendar weeks.

You do not need to be at the Bank for a specific amount of time to be eligible for parental leave benefits. All parental leave benefits will be paid continuously during your leave period, rather than on your return.

These are our minimum standards. Countries may choose to offer more paid or unpaid leave based on their own local practices.