NH Fidelity employees returning to Merrimack campus full time

Since COVID 19, New Hampshire workers at Fidelity Investments have transitioned from working remotely to spending at least a week or two per month at the company’s sprawling Merrimack campus. Soon most of them will have to give up comfy pajamas for business casual every day.

The Boston-based financial company announced Wednesday that New Hampshire is one of four Fidelity sites that will transition to a full-time, on-site schedule beginning in September.

The change will affect all New Hampshire employees except those in “customer-facing phone-based roles,” who will work in the office one week on a four-week rotation, the company said. Managers who are at the vice president level or above at all Fidelity sites will also be required to work full-time on-site.

With more than 7,900 workers, Fidelity is one of the state’s largest private employers.

Since the pandemic, the company has taken several steps toward bringing workers back, including offering a daily $10 lunch voucher in 2022 to entice workers to return. Its most recent policy has required most workers to be on campus for two weeks per month.

“Fidelity has taken a thoughtful, gradual approach to returning to the office full time, all while keeping our customers and associates top of mind,” a company spokesperson said. “Fidelity’s belief is that being physically together creates more opportunities for a meaningful associate experience filled with connection, mentorship and learning — elements that are central to our long‑term success.”

To achieve its goals to bring workers back to all the company’s sites, Fidelity said it will need more space and capacity — more than it needed before the pandemic.

Over the past six years, the company has been on a hiring spree, hiring thousands of workers. Back in September 2022, when Fidelity invited a reporter to tour the Merrimack campus, its headcount in New Hampshire was 6,700 — about 1,200 fewer than now.

“Fidelity is continuously evolving its ways of working and physical footprint, including plans to continue hiring and increase capacity across our regions to ensure we provide the best products and services for our customers,” the company spokesperson said.

Fidelity opened the Merrimack campus in 1996 on property purchased from Digital Equipment Corp. The 544-acre site includes two LEED-certified buildings totaling 1.2 million square feet of space. It also has a 12-acre site home to one of the largest solar arrays in the state.

The campus offers the kind of amenities often associated with tech giants in Silicon Valley. The cafeteria resembles the food court at a mall with a coffee shop, salad bar and several other food stations. Walking trails connect the two office buildings and other parts of the campus, which includes a gym and an outdoor sports field.