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BlackRock is ordering senior managers to return to the office five days a week in the latest sign that large financial services groups are tightening their flexible working policies.
The world’s largest asset manager is to tell staff as early as Thursday that its roughly 1,000 managing directors globally will be expected to work from the office full time, according to two people familiar with the plans. BlackRock declined to comment.
New York-based BlackRock tightened its rules on office attendance in 2023, requiring staff to attend at least four days a week. But the latest move is likely to cause upset among some senior staff who have become accustomed to working from home one day a week, one of the people said.
The decision reflected the company’s desire to bolster collaboration and to ensure that managing directors are leading teams in person to best serve clients, said the second person familiar with the plan. More junior staff will be allowed to continue working from home one day a week.
BlackRock’s chief executive Larry Fink has previously expressed concerns that working from home can erode corporate culture, echoing rival Wall Street bosses who are keen to see their teams back on the trading floors and in their offices with clients.
The asset manager joins other large US financial services groups such as JPMorgan in curtailing flexible working policies, with the US bank having already told its managing directors to return to the office five days a week. A number of big banks, including Goldman Sachs, have also told staff to be in the office during the week.
Many companies have retained some flexible working arrangements since the end of the pandemic but some of the world’s largest, including Amazon, have ordered staff to return to the office five days a week.
BlackRock has about 22,000 employees across more than 30 countries and $11.6tn in assets under management.