Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, a major regional lender, is now stepping away from its push to bring staff back to the office most of the week and is instead letting teams decide how and where they work. This change builds on arrangements first adopted during the pandemic, when lockdowns made commuting impractical and remote work quickly became the default. Since then, the bank has tried to balance its identity as a relationship-focused institution with employees’ expectations for flexibility that formed over several years of hybrid and home-based work.
In recent years, the bank gradually tightened its stance, first setting expectations that senior leaders would spend most of their week in the office and limiting other staff to three work from home days out of five. By mid 2024, employees were formally required to spend most of their time on site, and even a worker seeking full time remote work to care for a school aged child had that request rejected and upheld by the national workplace tribunal, which accepted the bank’s view that physical presence supported mentoring, deeper discussions and spontaneous collaboration. The bank is now reversing course and says flexible work will remain, with teams encouraged rather than ordered to use the office most of the time and to find a pattern that suits both employees and managers.
This shift appears to signal a growing divide between Bendigo Bank and the larger city based lenders that still maintain formal attendance rules. Some competitors expect staff to be in the office at least half the time while others set minimum in office days or even tie variable pay to how often employees badge in, cutting bonuses for those who fall below 40% attendance. Bendigo’s softer, trust based approach seems to rely on flexibility to support retention, morale and work life balance, but it also raises questions about how far banks can relax office rules without weakening culture, training or long term productivity in a sector that still sees value in face to face interaction.
