British finance workers prepare for return to office of the future

* Banks could see up to 10% of staff return

* Any move awaits 'green light' from government

* Travel, childcare main constraints in London

By Lawrence White, Carolyn Cohn and Pamela Barbaglia

LONDON, May 21 (Reuters) - Limits on elevators, thermal
imaging and temperature checks will greet a first wave of
traders and bankers in Britain preparing to return to offices
under new norms to tackle the coronavirus.

Britain's financial sector is working to bring staff back to
city-centre workplaces, which were hastily evacuated as the
government imposed a lockdown, leaving the normally humming
Canary Wharf and City of London financial districts deserted.

Now firms are having to make rapid decisions on how they
want to deploy their staff in an era which is being defined by
the coronavirus pandemic and the overnight revolution in work
practices and technology which it has necessitated.

Most financial firms have kept small teams in offices
through the pandemic, and are now preparing for up to 10% of
their staff to return over the next few months, pending
government approval, sources familiar with the plans said.

Around 400 staff at NatWest, whose jobs cannot be
done from home for operational reasons, will be asked next month
to return to work in offices and call centres, a memo seen by
Reuters on Thursday showed.

Hot desking has been banned and screens have been put up
where social distancing is not possible, while there will be
limits of two people per lift, thermal imaging and temperature
checks at building entrances, and one-way corridors.

Firms will be restricted on how many of their staff can
return in the initial wave as strict lockdown rules cut the
capacity of Britain's transport networks to 10%.

Some traders in the markets division will be first to return
to Barclays, two sources told Reuters, provided they
can get to the office without using public transport as well as
being able to make suitable childcare arrangements.

Such considerations are at the forefront of plans to get
people back to their desks, said Charlie Netherton at broker
Marsh who is advising firms on returning to their workplaces.

One client has committed to funding taxis for commutes at a
potential cost of a million pounds a month, said Netherton.

The challenge is more acute in London than in some other
global capitals because of its size and how far away many
workers live due to high city centre property prices.

Among others readying their workforces for a return is
French bank BNP Paribas which is preparing around 10%
of its 5,900 staff in London for a return, another source said.

And while the 330-year-old Lloyds of London insurance market
does not plan to reopen its underwriting floor before August,
40-50 'pathfinders' may start returning from June, its Chief
Executive John Neal said.

NEW ERA

While some make tentative preparations to return, many more
staff in the financial sector are contemplating a new lifestyle
as firms look to the benefits of working from home.

At JPMorgan around 80% of its sales and trading team
are working from home, while the remaining 20% are working from
its Canary Wharf and Victoria Embankment offices in London and
its back-up trading site in Basingstoke.

JPMorgan will, for the time being, keep using this site 50
miles south-west of London, with some staff staying in
apartments and hotels, a source familiar with the plans said.

Meanwhile banks including Barclays, NatWest, and Standard
Chartered are likely to retain flexible working
arrangements for many staff permanently.

"We are thinking about what types of work can be done on a
location agnostic basis, both to accommodate people's
preferences and obviously look to reduce costs where we can,"
StanChart's Chief Financial Officer Andy Halford said.

The pandemic has accelerated planning schedules as firms
scramble to decide which elements of home working, video calls
and multiple trading sites they should keep.

"Before the crisis we were doing research around the future
workplace and in a matter of weeks we have jumped years in terms
of where we thought we would be," Pauline Hawkes-Bunyan,
Director of Business: Risk, Culture and Resilience at the
Investment Association, said.

"Individual views of agile working have changed as it has
been demonstrated that it has worked."
(Reporting by Lawrence White, Pamela Barbaglia and Carolyn
Cohn; Additional reporting by Clara Denina, Huw Jones, Abhinav
Ramnarayan and Iain Withers; Editing by Alexander Smith)