By
Bena Ilyas
April 19th, 2024
According to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, the company may never again have 100% office attendance. Fink thinks that the company will support 60-70% of its employees on a rotational basis.
As the world market slowly recovers from the coronavirus crisis, some of the practices adopted during the pandemic like remote working and home offices may continue being the new norm. The world’s largest investment management corporation based in New York City, BlackRock Inc (NYSE: BLK) through its leadership board has confirmed this fact and commented its office policy.
BlackRock Future Office Operation
According to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, the company may never again have 100% office attendance. In his comments, Fink thinks the company at any one time will support 60-70% of its employees on a rotational basis.
“I don’t believe BlackRock will be ever 100% back in office,” Fink said on Thursday at the Morningstar Investment Conference. “I actually believe maybe 60% or 70%, and maybe that’s a rotation of people. But I don’t believe we’ll ever have a full, you know, cadre of people in office,” he explained.
His sentiments can be certified by the fact that leading office furniture seller company, Herman Miller Inc (NASDAQ: MLHR) has reported an increase in sales of home office furniture in the past quarter.
Remote working and home offices seemingly is a great idea to combat coronavirus spread, hence capable of facilitating quicker market recovery.
“It’s going to be a new workforce. It’s going to be a new paradigm, but I do believe it will be a better paradigm for the firm,” Fink said.
On the Flipside
The idea of remote working and home offices is being supported by most governments as it will help reduce the job loss that has escalated the unemployment rate globally.
However, there are disadvantages associated with this type of working culture as noted by Fink in his statement. “Cultures were not meant to be done in a remote fashion, and culture is what binds and unifies us as an organization,” he said. “I’m still not sure how well we’re doing on a cultural basis. Operationally, we’ve done fantastic.”
Technology, especially cloud-based companies will play a vital role in ensuring a smooth transition from the old to the ‘new norm’.
“Through technology we’ve been operating really well, really efficiently. But I really am worried about this whole idea of culture. How long can you keep that culture together?” he said.
BlackRock is a well-renowned company that manages over $7.4 trillion as of the fourth quarter 2019. With years of experience, the company manages retail and institutional customers globally.
BlackRock shares closed yesterday trading at $548.41, approximately 2.37% down from Thursday’s opening value. However, they were 1.02% up during Friday’s pre-market.
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