HUMAN CAPITAL PULSE: BANKING · ISSUE 6 · JUNE 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.
June put the everyday deal between banks and their people under the spotlight. Barclays' union members accepted a pay rise weighted to the lowest paid, Lloyds said it will create more than 1,000 AI roles this year, and Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase loosened five-day office rules for World Cup match days. With wellbeing and work-life balance as our theme, this issue asks where bank employees feel the balance is right.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
What happened: Unite members at Barclays voted to accept a pay offer worth 4.6%, with around 20,000 lower-paid employees receiving 5.35%, above RPI inflation of 3%, the union said on 3 June. Unite represents around 35,000 Barclays workers across UK branches, corporate functions and operations.
The Deltabase lens: Pay sentiment at Barclays has softened: its Pay & Rewards NSS was +31.6% in 2025, down 5.0 pts on 2024 (+36.6%). Lloyds Banking Group leads the UK peers on the topic at +55.4%, while NatWest Group sits at −11.1%.
So what: A settlement weighted to the lowest paid targets the cohort most exposed to cost-of-living pressure; tracking Pay & Rewards sentiment through the rest of 2026 will show whether it lands.
What happened: Lloyds Banking Group plans to create more than 1,000 AI-related jobs in 2026 and is hiring for almost 300 now, IBTimes UK reported on 23 June. More than 700 employees already work on AI projects, more than 65,000 staff have completed responsible-AI training, and 233 branches are expected to close across its brands this year.
The Deltabase lens: Deltabase Talent data shows 6.1% of Lloyds' workforce lists AI skills, against 3.8% at Barclays and 2.3% at NatWest Group. Lloyds also stands out on Google Cloud skills (4.8%, against 0.8% at Barclays). Deltabase Workforce data puts 15.6% of Lloyds' people in Tech, compared with 18.0% at Barclays.
So what: Lloyds is building AI capacity from a broader skills base than its UK peers; the wellbeing question is how branch colleagues facing closures are supported into new roles.
What happened: Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are letting staff request remote work on World Cup match days as transit disruption hits New York and New Jersey, Fortune reported on 23 June, citing memos seen by the Financial Times. JPMorgan's five-day office mandate has applied since March 2025.
The Deltabase lens: Work-Life Balance is a weak spot for both. JPMorgan's Work-Life Balance NSS was −9.3% in 2025 and Goldman Sachs' −65.8%, the lowest in our Banking peer set, although Goldman improved 4.5 pts on 2024.
So what: Temporary flexibility is welcome, but scores this low suggest employees judge balance on the everyday pattern of work, not on exceptions.
+61.8%: NatWest Group's Work-Life Balance NSS in 2025, the highest among six Banking peers with Workforce data.
| Company | Work-Life Balance NSS 2025 | Change vs 2024 | HR share of workforce |
|---|---|---|---|
| NatWest Group | +61.8% | +0.6 pts | 2.3% |
| Barclays | +35.0% | +16.9 pts | 1.8% |
| Wells Fargo | +29.9% | +0.9 pts | 1.3% |
| Lloyds Banking Group | +21.6% | +8.6 pts | 2.6% |
| HSBC | +5.7% | −0.1 pts | 1.2% |
| JPMorgan Chase | −9.3% | −0.7 pts | 1.4% |
Source: Deltabase Culture data, Work-Life Balance topic Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2024 and 2025; Deltabase Workforce data, HR function as a share of total workforce. Companies: NatWest Group, Barclays, Wells Fargo, Lloyds Banking Group, HSBC, JPMorgan Chase.
Barclays moved into positive territory in 2025, with overall NSS of +2.2% (up 3.3 pts), while Lloyds held at 0.0%. Barclays leads on Work-Life Balance (+35.0% vs +21.6%) and Supportive Leadership (−18.1% vs −38.1%); Lloyds leads on Pay & Rewards (+55.4% vs +31.6%). Their workforces are shaped differently: Deltabase Workforce data shows 10.0% of Lloyds' people in Customer roles against 4.6% at Barclays, and Deltabase Talent data finds Change Management skills among 10.4% of Lloyds' workforce against 7.0% at Barclays, a useful base as branch closures continue.
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Sources: Unite the Union (3 June 2026); IBTimes UK (23 June 2026); Fortune (23 June 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data.