The future is hybrid: the asset management workplace ahead
"If you had told me three years ago that we could manage $3 trillion from home, I wouldn't have believed you," said Richard Lacaille, the London-based global chief investment officer and executive vice president of State Street Global Advisors, recently.
His comment shows clearly that within the asset and wealth management sector, post-pandemic, the workplace is no longer business as usual.
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The result is that a return to ‘normal’ working in the industry (as in many others) will now mean building upon the productivity gains of a new hybrid remote and in-office approach to working.
More autonomy, greater flexibility, high efficiency
Remote technology has proven to be no hindrance to asset managers’ daily meetings.
Be it one with their economists on what’s happening in the global economy; or with their strategists providing an overview on all the major asset classes; or the trading team sharing what they’re seeing in terms of liquidity and execution; or the portfolio managers chipping in with fund update … working from home has proved to be no barrier.
Many financial services employees have been working from home since Covid-19 disrupted normal operations.
They have enjoyed having the autonomy to fit work around the rest of their lives, rather than structuring other parts of a weekday around hours logged in the office.
With the type of work investment professionals having become more technology-driven in the last decade, they have quickly proved the feasibility of remote working.
Even roles that were thought to be largely incompatible with remote work, such as chief investment officers, chief financial officers, and traders, have proven to be adaptable.
Yes, we can WFA (work from anywhere)
Thanks to heavy reliance on video and other technology, investment firms have discovered that their homebound employees can (mostly) WFA (work from anywhere).
They can trade (that might mean sending trades to the implementation team), invest, research, engage with clients and remain in close communication (including continuing the essential cross-pollination of ideas across portfolios in the team) with work colleagues with few hitches.
Most would welcome the end of five days of commuting, fixed desks and cubicles and feel that hybrid offers the best of both worlds: structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.
“Having calls instead of face-to-face meetings means we lose the fluidity of a natural conversation as we can’t just pop by someone’s desk and bounce ideas around,” says Justin Onuekwusi, Head of Retail Multi-Asset Funds at LGIM. “So I have occasionally gone into the office to work through important ideas, but end up spending most of the time in meetings and calls.”
Four out of five asset managers in favour of hybrid working
A recent survey from the CFA Institute reports that 81% of finance employees “want to work from home, at least part of the time”.
53% of respondents in CFA’s survey said remote working has had a “very positive” or “positive effect” on their efficiency while 29% were “neutral”.
The survey authors said: “Those who manage others were less confident about the efficiency of those they manage, however — only a third of managers said the efficiency of their employees had increased.”
This divide underscores the importance of setting clear expectations and transparent communications in any new hybrid environment, as well as the need for trust and empathy in manager–employee relationships.
Client-facing roles in asset management have probably required the biggest adaptation. The best deals used to get done in person over lunch or around a conference table; the best relationship happened over client dinners or during site visits.
But while video conferencing may have been rarely used pre-COVID in client communications, all the indications are that it is not a short-term substitute but a structural change in how the industry will operate. (CFA’s survey finding that respondents’ expectations are that business travel will be permanently reduced by 25 – 50% only underlines this).
Hybrid working has been shown to fulfil all of these needs:
• Access to technology: the need for asset managers to be in the office, part of the time, to access the right tech.
• Social interaction: humans are social and some key aspects of work — innovation, camaraderie and development, for example — are often far more effective face-to-face.
• Physical presence and visibility: some meeting time with leaders, colleagues and teams in person is key to developing long-term relationships and career progression.
• Company culture: There are many aspects to building and maintaining a strong company culture but when employees have the opportunity to see leaders ‘walking the walk’ in person, it is imprinted more strongly.
“Asset management has always been an in-the-office-focused industry and that will change,” Kevin P. Quirk, a principal of Casey Quirk, a practice of Deloitte Consulting LLP, told the magazine Pensions & Investments recently.
“The industry will not go back to being office-bound. Work deployment will look different, probably implementing a hybrid structure with most employees working remotely, connected with each other and clients by technology.”
So for the asset management industry, the consequences of the pandemic-forced experiment of remote work, it seems, are here – in hybrid format at least – to stay.