HUMAN CAPITAL PULSE: BANKING · ISSUE 9 · SEPTEMBER 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.
Editor's note
September was about who banks hire and how they keep them. HSBC promised 1,000 UK entry-level roles, Morgan McKinley forecast a 9% rise in UK banking vacancies concentrated in London, and Unite pushed back on Barclays' move to three office days. For our talent theme, Deltabase Workforce data shows recent joiners at the big banks skew heavily towards technology, which changes what onboarding, culture and career paths need to offer.
Leroy Hall, Deltabase
The month in three
1. Barclays staff push back on three office days
What happened: Barclays is raising its office requirement for UK staff from two days a week to three from 5 October, with four for managing directors, Banking Dive reported on 21 September. Unite, which says thousands of staff have signed its open letter, is seeking exemptions for long commutes, a one-day limit for carers and a one-off payment by March 2027.
The Deltabase lens: Barclays' Agility & Bureaucracy NSS was −79.0% in 2025. Deltabase Employee Turnover data shows monthly turnover of 0.8% in August 2026, against 1.4% in August 2025, while senior hires reached 326 in January to August, up from 120 a year earlier.
So what: Lower churn gives Barclays room to absorb the change, but mandates introduced without a clear rationale tend to show up first in sentiment, then in leavers.
2. HSBC to create 1,000 UK entry-level roles
What happened: HSBC will create 1,000 entry-level roles in the UK across apprenticeships, graduate programmes and internships in 2026 and 2027, PA reported on 24 September. Around a third of its UK hires this year were aged 18 to 24, and most opportunities will be outside London.
The Deltabase lens: Deltabase Workforce data shows HSBC's under-one-year cohort is weighted towards Investment Services (14.3%, against 8.8% of the whole workforce) and Tech (20.0% against 11.5%). Deltabase Employee Turnover data records 17,336 hires in January to August 2026, down 17.2% on the same period of 2025.
So what: Fewer, more targeted hires raise the stakes on early-career programmes, which are how a bank refills its pipeline at lower cost.
3. London to take over half of UK banking vacancies
What happened: UK banking vacancies are forecast to rise 9% in 2026, with London up 18% and taking 53% of roles, Morgan McKinley said on 24 September. Citi (+45%), Barclays (+24%) and JPMorgan Chase (+13%) are growing vacancies, while Lloyds Banking Group's are down 16%.
The Deltabase lens: Deltabase Talent data shows Software Engineering skills among 12.7% of JPMorgan's workforce, 7.1% at Lloyds, 6.6% at Barclays and 5.6% at Citigroup.
So what: The banks hiring fastest are competing for the same engineering talent in the same city; employer brand and career progression will decide who wins it.
Stat of the month
33.3%: share of Lloyds Banking Group's staff with under a year's tenure who work in Tech, more than double the 15.6% across its whole workforce.
| Company | Tech share, all staff | Tech share, under 1 year | Career Progression NSS 2025 |
|---|
| Lloyds Banking Group | 15.6% | 33.3% | −47.2% |
| Barclays | 18.0% | 24.1% | −49.6% |
| JPMorgan Chase | 16.3% | 23.0% | −25.7% |
| HSBC | 11.5% | 20.0% | −59.8% |
| Wells Fargo | 16.1% | 18.8% | −42.5% |
Source: Deltabase Workforce data, Tech function as a share of all staff and of staff with less than one year's tenure; Deltabase Culture data, Career Progression topic Employee Net Sentiment Score (−100% to +100%), 2025. Companies: Lloyds Banking Group, Barclays, JPMorgan Chase, HSBC, Wells Fargo.
Spotlight: JPMorgan Chase vs Bank of America
JPMorgan's NSS held at +4.8% in 2025 while Bank of America's fell 4.0 pts to +2.2%. JPMorgan leads on Learning & Development (+61.1% vs +35.5%) and Career Progression (−25.7% vs −44.6%). Deltabase Talent data shows more cloud depth at JPMorgan (AWS skills 6.9% vs 3.0%) and more Training skills at Bank of America (10.1% vs 7.6%). Deltabase Employee Turnover data records 41,445 hires at JPMorgan and 21,065 at Bank of America in January to August 2026, with median tenure of 4.4 years against 6.9.
For your People team
- Build onboarding for the joiners you actually hire: if a third of them are in Tech, design it for engineers.
- Track Career Progression sentiment for staff in their first two years; it is often where early leavers make up their minds.
- Give office-attendance changes a clear rationale and published exemptions before launch.
See how your Human Capital compares with your Banking peers. Book a 30-minute benchmark walkthrough across culture, workforce and talent. Book a walkthrough →
Sources: Banking Dive (21 September 2026); PA via The Irish News (24 September 2026); Morgan McKinley (24 September 2026); Deltabase Culture data; Deltabase Workforce data; Deltabase Talent data; Deltabase Employee Turnover data.