Lloyds TSB Group is one of the UK’s biggest organisations. It employs over 66,000 people in the UK and in 27 countries worldwide. The business serves around 16 million customers, operating in a range of financial markets. These include personal and private banking, corporate banking, insurance and mortgages.
Lloyds TSB operates on a global scale and competes within rapidly changing markets for the delivery of financial services to personal and business customers. These customers expect a wide range of services to be available 24 hours a day and delivered with first-class customer service. In order to remain ahead in this demanding market, Lloyds TSB has put in place a range of innovative human resource management policies to ensure Lloyds TSB is a great place to work and that its staff are happy, motivated and committed to giving the highest levels of performance to the organisation and its customers.
In 1998, the Group conducted research with employees, which showed that one of their main concerns was being able to balance a demanding job with outside commitments, such as family life, hobbies and leisure activities. This led to the Group designing and introducing a unique flexible working policy, called Work Options, a year later. This allows staff to structure their working arrangements in a way that helps them to achieve a better work-life balance. This policy gives all staff the right to request a different working pattern from the standard 9.00 a. m. to 5.00 p. m. working day.
Lloyds TSB is widely recognised as one of the best employers for providing flexibility for its staff.
By following this flexible approach, Lloyds TSB is able to attract, appoint, motivate and retain the best staff available, which in turn keeps customers happy and keeps the organisation at the top of the financial services field.
A typical worker in early 20th Century industry would ‘clock in’ and ‘clock out’ of work. A mechanical
device recorded the start and finish times for every individual worker. The traditional work pattern was based on a fixed 9.00 a. m. to 5.00 p. m. working day. Traditionally, workers were paid weekly wages based on an hourly rate given for the job. Management and professional roles tended to be paid monthly salaries. However, the common factor in everyone’s working life in the past was an agreed fixed start time and finish time.
More recently, there have been many social and economic changes which make such fixed work arrangements difficult or inappropriate. In the 21st Century, more and more women are working and people, in general, live longer. There is now a basic expectation that all employees are treated equally. These demographic and social trends place enormous pressure on those with family responsibilities, especially women, although recent research has shown that fathers also want to play a more active role in bringing up their children. In 2003, the Flexible Working Regulations came into force in the UK. These regulations give employees looking after young or disabled children the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employer.
In 2007, the government extended this right to request flexible working arrangements to carers of other dependents, such as spouses, partners, relatives, or someone living at the same address as the employee. But from the outset, Lloyds TSB has offered flexible ‘work options’ to all of its staff and put into place its own procedures to allow every member of staff, not just women with young children, the right to request to work flexibly.
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