Royal Bank of Scotland, Finalist 2012, The Lexington Gray Best for Flexible Working Award

Royal Bank of Scotland is a large global bank, employing over 90,000 people in the UK. Flexible working is seen as a core component in being an employer of choice and also helping the bank deliver improved services to its customers. The development of a flexible working culture across the company is driven by a specific initiative that is introducing the cultural change through projects that deliver flexibility and choice, measure data from all outcomes, and to create a business that is recognised as an employer of choice.

In 2011 a survey into staff attitudes and beliefs about flexibility and flexible working found that employees felt that flexibility would improve their own lives and also help deliver better customer services and products, with 84 percent identifying improved wellbeing as an outcome of improved flexibility.

Royal Bank of Scotland committed, at the most senior levels, to embark on a process of engagement with staff throughout the whole organisation. In tandem with this, a review to ensure that flexibility is viewed positively at all levels of the organisation has been undertaken and additional support and guidance provided to employees. Flexible working policies have been simplified and recommunicated to employees to embed the culture of flexibility and move the organisation to an agile one where anywhere working, and performance led working patterns are the norm.