Leeds Building Society
A healthy work-life balance is promoted by Leeds Building Society. It is committed to providing inclusive working and family-friendly arrangements that suit colleagues during the different stages of their careers.
The mutual, which is Britain's fifth-largest building society, was set up in 1875. In its first year, 450 accounts were opened and £16,000 was lent in mortgages. Today, the Society has more than 771,000 members and, in 2021, had assets of £21.1bn. It employs more than 1,400 colleagues across its head offices in Leeds and Newcastle, and 50 branches across the country.
Leeds Building Society has four behaviours that are communicated to colleagues: “I am curious”, encourages colleagues to search both inside and outside the business for different perspectives and inspiration; “I focus on what matters”, means doing the things that will make the biggest difference and always doing what is right for members and society; “I push forward”, is taking action and creating solutions to blockers and barriers; “I have the right conversation”, is facing difficult conversations and celebrating great work.
Hybrid working has been adopted and has proved to be a productive way of operating. The Society's new head office has the technical infrastructure to allow colleagues to work seamlessly at home or in the office. Colleagues have been mostly working four days at home and one in the office, but this will move to two in the office and three at home from March 2022, with investment in collaboration tools to support this approach.