'Kicked out' | Is HSBC's executive office restructure a glimpse of the future?

This week, HSBC Chief Executive Noel Quinn confirmed that in line with a progressive new stance on office space, leaders within the company will now have to relinquish their personal offices, instead having to resort to hot-desking.

In early February this year, HSBC initiated an overhaul of its working structures. Along with confirming that employees would now be allowed to work either remotely, or in line with a hybrid model, the company confirmed that it would completely reassess its own physical working paces.

In line with this, the multinational bank said that its UK-based properties would be altered to create a far less structured office environment, and that it would be slashing its office space by a total of 40%.

The drastic change was confirmed in a presentation outlining HSBC’s full-year results by Quinn. "We are focused on those offices with support functions and head office activities when we talk about the 40 per cent reduction," Mr Quinn said. "We believe we'll achieve it via a very different style of working post-COVID with a more hybrid model," he added.