Goldman Sachs Staff To Fully Return To HK Offices

HONG KONG – As the Chinese territory eases its COVID restriction amid falling infection rates, global investment bank Goldman Sachs intends to let its employees there to fully return to their workplace starting on 19 April 2022, reported Bloomberg on Wednesday afternoon (30 March, SGT).

According to a memo sent to employees, Goldman Sachs began with a split-team arrangement and outlined a plan for a full return to its offices in Hong Kong later next month.

The investment bank will “welcome” all employees to return “in anticipated alignment with the government’s relaxation of social distancing measures and resumption of in-person school classes,” stated the memo. But if circumstances change, it will revise its return-to-office policy accordingly.

Last week, the city’s government announced plans to relax some travel restrictions and laid out a road map for relaxing pandemic-related curbs, admitting that its zero COVID strategy has negatively impacted Hong Kong’s status as a major global financial hub.

The 5th wave of COVID infections in the city is now abating, with daily confirmed cases falling under 10,000 per day from tens of thousands in early-March.

Meanwhile, HSBC Holdings will permit 30 percent of its staff in Hong Kong to work from the office starting on Friday (1 April 2022), according to an internal memo.

However, its workers must show a negative rapid antigen test (self-test) before entering their workplace on or after 30 March, and they must continue to test twice weekly during their in-office rotation.

Since 21 February 2022, HSBC had only permitted crucial staff on its office buildings.