HUMAN CAPITAL PULSE: BANKING · ISSUE 1 · JANUARY 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.
Banking starts 2026 with fewer people and higher expectations of those who stay. Wall Street's largest banks ended 2025 with their deepest headcount cut since 2016, Lloyds put every colleague on an AI course and Santander announced another round of branch closures. For HR teams, 2026 is about redesigning work, not just reducing it, as new UK employment rights raise the bar on handling change.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
What happened: Bloomberg reported in mid-January that the six largest US banks ended 2025 with about 1.09 million employees, down roughly 10,600 on a year earlier and the biggest annual reduction since 2016. Wells Fargo cut more than 12,000 roles, while Goldman Sachs grew headcount by 2%. Bank of America's Brian Moynihan said the bank can "let the headcount drift down" through attrition.
The Deltabase lens: Workforce: Deltabase Employee Turnover data shows how differently the majors churn: Goldman Sachs averaged 2.00% monthly turnover in 2025 with a median tenure of 3.4 years, against 0.69% and 6.9 years at Bank of America. Culture: At Wells Fargo, Career Progression NSS fell from −25.4% to −42.5% in 2025 (3,167 reviews).
So what: Attrition-led reductions only work if you know where people are leaving from; track turnover and career sentiment by function, not just in total.
What happened: Lloyds Banking Group launched an AI Academy in January, with all 67,000 colleagues expected to complete a first module on working with AI responsibly. The group's stated ambition is for 100% of staff to be AI literate by the end of 2026, according to The Independent.
The Deltabase lens: Talent: Lloyds starts from a relatively strong base: 6.1% of its workforce lists AI skills, against 3.8% at Barclays and 2.3% at NatWest Group. Culture: Its Learning & Development NSS rose from +33.8% in 2024 to +49.1% in 2025 (1,004 reviews).
So what: Universal AI literacy is a sensible floor; the harder task is moving the small share with deep AI skills into the roles that need them.
What happened: Santander UK said on 29 January it will close 44 branches, with 291 jobs at risk, citing 96% of transactions now completed digitally. It follows 95 closures announced last March.
The Deltabase lens: Workforce: Branch-heavy models still shape UK workforces: Customer functions make up 10.0% of Lloyds' workforce, against 6.9% at NatWest Group and 4.6% at Barclays. Culture: Across ten Top 100 banks, median Career Progression NSS fell from −37.9% to −47.2% in 2025, with only two improving.
So what: Every closure round tests whether people believe there is a future for them; pair consultation with visible redeployment routes.
+0.2%: median overall NSS across ten Top 100 banks in 2025, up from −0.7% in 2024, with six of the ten improving.
| Company | Culture: NSS, 2024 | Culture: NSS, 2025 | Workforce: HR share of workforce |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPMorgan Chase | +4.9% | +4.8% | 1.4% |
| Wells Fargo | +5.6% | +3.8% | 1.3% |
| Barclays | −1.1% | +2.2% | 1.8% |
| NatWest Group | +6.5% | +0.4% | 2.3% |
| Lloyds Banking Group | −0.2% | 0.0% | 2.6% |
| HSBC | −3.6% | −2.6% | 1.2% |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024 and 2025; sector median of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest Group and Standard Chartered. Deltabase Workforce data, share of workforce in the HR function.
Two UK retail giants level on overall Culture: Lloyds at 0.0% in 2025 (1,004 reviews) and NatWest at +0.4% (1,051), though NatWest fell from +6.5%. Underneath, they differ. NatWest's Work-Life Balance NSS is +61.8% against +21.6% at Lloyds, while Lloyds' Empowered score fell from −49.4% to −62.7%. On Workforce, both have about 15% in Tech (15.6% and 15.0%), but Lloyds' Talent profile leans further into cloud, with 7.2% listing cloud skills against 4.2%. NatWest people also stay longer: median tenure is 8.1 years against 7.6, and average monthly turnover in 2025 was 0.66% against 0.87%.
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Sources: Bloomberg via ThinkAdvisor (15 January 2026); The Independent via Newswav (20 January 2026); The Independent via Newswav (29 January 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.