Building society temporarily shuts half of Northampton admin centre as hundreds of employees continue to work from home

A building society that has a huge administration centre in Northampton is temporarily closing half of the building.

Nationwide runs a number of its administrative services from a Moulton Park office, which is large enough to accommodate 3,000 employees.

Since the beginning of lockdown, the number of people working in the building has reduced significantly as the company has rolled out more than 7,000 laptops to enable employees to work from home.

However, for a number of reasons, including data protection, personal choice and technology being ready yet, around 400 people are still working from the office across both the north and south wings.

These employees have reported feeling ‘like they are rattling around’ in the building, so the company has now announced that it will close the south wing in the coming weeks and move employees to the north wing.

Although bosses have made it clear that the move is temporary and that they have no plans to move out of the town, nor is the move at all related to job losses.

Richard Newland, director of branch and workplace development at Nationwide Building Society said: “Since the start of the pandemic we have seen an 80 per cent reduction in colleagues using our admin centres as around 13,000 people across our organisation continue to work from home.

“Our people who are still in the office want a better sense of community and a better place to work.

“We have been working with their teams over the last few weeks to see what they need and how the move can work.

“We have a very vocal workplace committee and it’s all about what they want to make them feel comfortable.

“We have to make sure it is right and that it feels right for our colleagues.”

As well providing a stronger workplace community for those employees still working from home, the company is also making sure the move is Covid-safe.

As additional benefits, the move is expected to save money as well as have a positive environmental impact.

Richard added: “The safety and well-being of our colleagues has been, and continues to be, a top priority.

“We can safely accommodate the employees in the north centre and practice social distancing.

“By temporarily closing the south section of the Northampton Admin Centre and moving those colleagues to the north building we can keep colleagues safe, create a more vibrant work environment, use our space more efficiently and reduce our impact on the environment.

“Turning the power off will save money as well as greenhouse gas gases.”

Although the company has made it clear that the closure is only a temporary one and that they do plan to reopen the south wing, they are unsure when this will be.

They are, however, adamant that the move will not change the company’s commitment to the local area and to job security for local people.

“We do not expect things to return to normal until at least the end of the calendar year,” Richard continued.

“Nobody can predict how long this will last, so we want to give our people as much choice as possible with working from home or safely in the office.

“We have made it very clear that we have no plans to leave Northampton or close the building.

“We also remain committed to our job guarantee until the end of the year.

“The move is not about job losses, it’s about using space efficiently.”

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