HUMAN CAPITAL PULSE: BANKING · ISSUE 8 · AUGUST 2026
A monthly Human Capital benchmark for HR and People leaders in Banking: the sector's talking points and how culture, workforce and talent compare across your peers, built on Deltabase data covering 5,500+ companies and 11M employee reviews.
August brought the office back into focus. Bank of America told hybrid staff they can no longer work remotely on consecutive days, Citigroup's headcount fell by around 5% in a year as first-half severance passed $800 million, and unions warned Santander and TSB staff to prepare for cuts. Our flexibility theme asks a simple question: where do bank employees feel trusted to decide how, and with what tools, they work?
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
What happened: From mid-September, eligible hybrid employees at Bank of America can no longer work remotely on two consecutive business days, Allwork.Space reported on 20 August. The three-day office expectation in place since 2022 is unchanged, and client-facing staff already work in the office five days a week.
The Deltabase lens: Bank of America's Work-Life Balance NSS rose 7.8 pts to +16.8% in 2025, even as its overall NSS fell 4.0 pts to +2.2%.
So what: Balance is one of the few topics improving at the bank; rule changes that look minor on paper can erode it quickly, so it is worth tracking through the autumn.
What happened: Citigroup had 219,000 employees at the end of the second quarter, down from 230,000 a year earlier, and booked more than $800 million of severance in the first half, IBTimes UK reported on 10 August, citing the bank's chief financial officer. Notices filed in New York cover a further 268 redundancies at its headquarters.
The Deltabase lens: Citi's overall NSS improved 2.6 pts to −3.2% in 2025, although Agility & Bureaucracy remains at −79.4%. Deltabase Employee Turnover data shows monthly turnover of 0.6% in July 2026, against 0.9% in July 2025.
So what: Lower churn during a restructure can mask disengagement; pair turnover data with sentiment before reading it as stability.
What happened: Unions warned staff at Santander and TSB to prepare for job cuts as management plans to remove duplicate roles across 23,000 combined staff and save £400 million, Scottish Financial News reported on 3 August. Both banks said no operational decisions on jobs had been made.
The Deltabase lens: Integrations bear down on customer-facing roles and change capacity. Deltabase Workforce data shows 10.0% of Lloyds Banking Group's workforce in Customer roles, against 6.9% at NatWest Group and 4.6% at Barclays; Deltabase Talent data finds Change Management skills among 10.4% of Lloyds' people, 7.5% at NatWest and 5.2% at HSBC.
So what: For any bank facing an integration, mapping duplicate functions and change skills early makes for a fairer, faster selection process.
+11.9%: JPMorgan Chase's Tech in Workplace NSS in 2025, the only positive score among six Banking peers for the tools that make flexible work function.
| Company | Empowered NSS 2025 | Tech in Workplace NSS 2025 | Tech share of workforce |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | −49.8% | +11.9% | 16.3% |
| HSBC | −32.8% | −43.7% | 11.5% |
| Barclays | −42.2% | −40.4% | 18.0% |
| NatWest Group | −51.0% | −29.9% | 15.0% |
| Lloyds Banking Group | −62.7% | −52.1% | 15.6% |
| Wells Fargo | −65.4% | −44.9% | 16.1% |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Empowered and Tech in Workplace topic Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2025; Deltabase Workforce data, Tech function as a share of total workforce. Companies: JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Barclays, NatWest Group, Lloyds Banking Group, Wells Fargo.
Both banks slipped in 2025: NatWest's overall NSS fell 6.1 pts to +0.4% and Wells Fargo's 1.8 pts to +3.8%. NatWest leads clearly on Supportive Leadership (−7.5% vs −35.2%), while Wells Fargo is far ahead on Pay & Rewards (+47.5% vs −11.1%). Their workforces look alike on Tech (15.0% vs 16.1%), but Deltabase Talent data shows more Customer Service skills at Wells Fargo (22.1% vs 19.0%) and more Training skills (10.1% vs 6.9%). Deltabase Employee Turnover data puts median tenure at 8.1 years at NatWest against 4.6 at Wells Fargo.
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Sources: Allwork.Space (20 August 2026); IBTimes UK (10 August 2026); Scottish Financial News (3 August 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.