Yorkshire Building Society thanks staff by giving them Christmas Eve as an extra day off

A building society with a branch in Lynn is giving all its colleagues an extra day off over Christmas as a thank you for their commitment during the course of a difficult year.

Yorkshire Building Society, which has a branch in New Conduit Street, has announced all staff will be given Christmas Eve off.

As Christmas Eve falls on a Thursday, it means that colleagues will receive a five-day break over the festive season, and they will return to work on Tuesday, December 29.

It also means customers will need to plan ahead if they need to contact the Society around this time as the Lynn branch and its call centres will be closed during these dates.

The Society says it is recognising the immense challenges of 2020 where its staff have gone above and beyond in their roles. As key workers they have kept the vast majority of branches open throughout the pandemic and call centres have remained open to provide essential financial services to customers. Around 1,400 staff also switched from office to home-working.

Mike Regnier, chief executive of Yorkshire Building Society, said: “We wanted to do something that recognised the extraordinary year that all our colleagues have been through. I hope that by giving our colleagues in Lynn and across the UK Christmas Eve off this year and providing an extended break to relax and spend time with family at home shows in part my immense gratitude to them.

“From the beginning, our response to Covid-19 has been to focus on the key priorities of keeping members in their homes, making sure their savings are secure and accessible, and looking after our colleagues’ safety and wellbeing. Without the massive efforts of our colleagues none of this would have been possible.

“We have kept as many branches open as we could throughout the pandemic and helped more customers to access our online services so they could manage their money safely from home. I hope customers understand why we have made this decision to recognise our colleagues in this way after this unprecedented year.”

The mutual has not furloughed any staff this year and has also offered colleagues unlimited dependents' and carers' leave at full pay and anyone who is shielding, unwell or needs to self-isolate and cannot work from home qualifies for paid sick leave at their full salary.

Customers that are registered for online account management will be unaffected.