BlackRock (BLK) has joined a growing list of financial institutions summoning staff back to the office as in-person work mandates ramp up on Wall Street.
The world’s largest asset manager has ordered all employees to be on-site at least three days per week, according to an internal memo obtained by Yahoo Finance.
“Time together is how we deliver for clients,” BlackRock's COO, Rob Goldstein, and head of human resources, Manish Mehta, wrote in an email sent to staff on Tuesday and seen by Yahoo Finance. “All employees must work from the office at least three days per week, with up to two days per week working from home.”
“Exceptions to the 3+2 model will be rare and require formal approval,” the note said, adding workers with “extenuating circumstances” that prevent them from adhering to hybrid expectations must submit a formal exception request.
A spokesperson for BlackRock told Yahoo Finance the company has been running a "Future of Work" pilot since early in the pandemic which called for the same 3 days in-office, 2 days at-home split.
Tuesday's email to BlackRock staff comes the same day Chairman and CEO Larry Fink said in an interview with Fox Business that the proliferation of remote working is among contributors to inflation, and attributed a drop in productivity to post-pandemic remote work policies.
Blackrock is "going to ask our employees to be much more mindful about their responsibilities in the office,” Fink said. “We're going to be taking a harder line as to how we bring our employees back, and we believe this is going to be a key element in bringing down inflation: rising productivity."
He added that rallying staff back to the office "could be a great offset, and that could make the Federal Reserve's job to be a little less difficult, and it then may lead to a less aggressive Fed.”
An increasing number of firms across the industry have amplified their calls for employees to return to in-person work after Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley last week lifted COVID protocols at their offices in an effort to remove any remaining hurdles that might stop team members from on-site attendance.
Some Wall Street leaders, such as Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon, have been vocal critics of remote work and called for stricter RTO policies for several months.
Wall Street's premier investment bank has pushed for a full-scale office return since last year, according to sources within the company, but some teams have established their own rules around work-from-home policies. “This is not ideal for us and it’s not a new normal,” Solomon said at a Credit Suisse forum in February 2021. “It’s an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible.”
Last Thursday, investment bank Jefferies requested everyone be back on-site on a “consistent basis.”
“We are not going to look at individual names on the turnstiles,” Chief Executive Officer Rich Handler and President Brian Friedman said in a memo to staff, though adding that staff’s regular presence is necessary to “truly maximize our fourth and final quarter and the future that is ahead.”
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Alexandra Semenova is a reporter for Yahoo Finance. Follow her on Twitter @alexandraandnyc
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