In honor of Veteran’s Day last month, two of our employee veterans, Andrew Pinheiro and Jack Rouse, tell us about BlackRock’s Veterans & Allies Network and how the group supports veterans, and their families, both inside and outside of BlackRock. — BlackRock has over a dozen different networks for employees that range from gender and ethnic diversity to disability and military status. For example, the Women’s Initiative & Allies Network focuses on fostering the full potential of women at BlackRock and the Ability & Allies Network provides community and advocacy for people with disabilities as well as their family members. For Andrew Pinheiro and Jack Rouse, the Veterans & Allies Network has provided them with a meaningful opportunity to connect with other veterans at the firm and those who are passionate about veteran-related issues. Andrew is a Vice President and research analyst based in New York City in BlackRock’s Fundamental Equities Division, which helps clients accomplish their financial objectives through differentiated equity selection. Prior to joining BlackRock in 2017, Andrew served in the United States Army, where he worked as an Intelligence Officer in the 10th Mountain Infantry Division. Jack is an Associate in BlackRock’s Global Investment Operations Group in Edinburgh, Scotland where he oversees the Exchange Traded Derivatives Clearing teams in Europe, the Middle East & India who manage the operations for BlackRock’s derivatives trading. Before Jack came to BlackRock in 2019, he was an Army Intelligence Officer and served in countries across the Middle East, Africa, Europe and North America. The Veterans & Allies Network, or VET as we call it, includes over 600 employees who are engaged in a broad range of recruitment, mentorship and philanthropic initiatives aimed at supporting veterans and their families. For example, during the height of COVID-19, BlackRock provided a $100,000 donation to the United Service Organizations to further our support for active duty service members. Earlier this year, the VET Network also partnered with BlackRock’s Black Professionals & Allies Network as well as Citi to host a conversation on the topic of racial equity and leadership in the workplace with Lieutenant General (Retired) Vincent Stewart, an accomplished U.S. Marine Corps Officer. The event provided an opportunity for Lt. Gen. Stewart to share about his experience as a Black man in the military while opening up a broader dialogue among veterans in our firm and our industry on the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion. Another way the VET Network delivers on its mission to support activities and programs that assist and honor veterans and their families, is through the VestsForVets initiative which was founded in 2019. This effort encourages employees, and veteran supporters outside of the firm, to purchase vests to wear on November 11 which, in many countries across the globe, is known as Veterans Day, Armistice Day or Remembrance Day. These annual holidays aim to recognize and remember those who’ve served their country. We know that the transition from military to civilian life can be difficult for veterans and their families. Therefore, a portion of the proceeds raised through the VestsForVets initiative go towards American Corporate Partners (ACP), which provides mentorship and training to transitioning service members. Since VestsforVets began, BlackRock employees have raised and donated over $50,000 to ACP, in addition to the firm’s annual corporate financial sponsorship.
One of BlackRock’s guiding principles as a firm is ‘One BlackRock’, the belief that our best solutions result from constant collaboration between diverse teams. Outside of one’s day-to-day responsibilities, our employee networks are a key way that collaboration is cultivated across the firm and around the globe.
Photos courtesy of Andrew Pinheiro (Left) and Jack Rouse (Right).
Photo credit: Jessica Burt (Managing Director, ETF and Index Investments team, New York City) – wearing a vest with her family in honor of her dad who served in the army.
Photo credit: Aaron Taylor (Associate, Global Trading team, New York City) – former helicopter pilot and combat medic with the US Army.
Photo credit: Tara Baquero (Director, BlackRock Platform Innovation, Atlanta) – wearing a vest in honor of her father who served as a Marine.
Photo credit: Gary Shedlin (Senior Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer, New York City) – wearing a vest to show support as executive sponsor of the VET Network at BlackRock.
Photo credit: Judy Lipton (Director, Legal & Compliance team, New York City) – wearing a vest to show support for colleagues and the VET Network.
For Andrew, VestsForVets is an incredibly important initiative because American Corporate Partners was integral to his own transition out of the military and into the firm. Part of ACP’s support for veterans includes a mentorship program which introduces veterans to mentors and advisors in their desired field.
While Andrew was going through this mentorship program himself in 2017, he connected with a senior leader at BlackRock who shared about her experiences at the firm. As is often the case at BlackRock, she was incredibly supportive of his career ambitions and ended up connecting Andrew with a portfolio manager on the team who, a few months later, invited him to interview for a summer internship which later lead to a full-time job offer. Andrew’s story is just one example of how BlackRock’s veteran recruiting initiatives have helped to transform the careers of people who have served their country.
…the transition from military to civilian life isn’t always easy. Many veterans struggle with translating their military experience into a private-sector job.
But as we said before, the transition from military to civilian life isn’t always easy. Many veterans struggle with translating their military experience into a private-sector job. Another hurdle can be aligning one’s departure from the military with the start date for a job. This is something Jack understands firsthand. He initially declined BlackRock’s offer for an internship because the timing didn’t line up with when he was scheduled to leave the army. Fortunately, our team was able work with Jack to navigate the timing and ended up pushing back the start date for his position by a few months until his service in the army was complete. After eight years of leading military operations, Jack was able to successfully make the switch into the corporate sector, and we’re proud that he chose to join us.
Jack’s story is a testament to the fact that we value diverse backgrounds and skillsets, even if this wasn’t perfectly evident to Jack himself at the start. “If I’m honest, when I met the team on day one, I didn’t really have a strong foundation in derivatives and I felt like I might have jumped in over my head, but what I did know well were operations, processes and people. It took me a while to build my knowledge of the financial concepts we work with but I was still able to add value to my team relatively quickly by helping them refocus their efforts and deprioritize activities that weren’t adding value,” Jack shared.
“Coming from the military, I was used to working as a close-knit team, so I approached my role at BlackRock in the same way and helped bring my team closer together.” – Jack Rouse
Another area of professional life that many veterans struggle with is how to build a sense of community – a key aspect of military culture that many service members value – once they’re in the workplace. Jack added, “coming from the military, I was used to working as a close-knit team, so I approached my role at BlackRock in the same way and helped bring my team closer together.” This is another way that Jack was able to leverage his background and experience in the military to add value at BlackRock from day one. Beyond their day jobs, both Andrew and Jack have become active members of the Veterans & Allies Network since joining the firm which has helped them maintain that sense of comradery while expanding their networks across the company.
At BlackRock, we take ownership of our work and are committed to helping our clients create sound financial futures for themselves and their families. We operate our business with purpose and encourage our colleagues to explore how they can use their own passions and strengths to help BlackRock achieve its ambitions of helping more and more people experience financial well-being. Military assignments are also quite “mission-oriented” in that personnel are expected to carry out their duties until the mission is achieved. This creates a culture that’s deeply rooted in honor and commitment – one that aligns well with our culture here at BlackRock.
“I had worries before I joined that I might not have the same sense of purpose as I did in the military but the quality of the people I work with, the high-performance culture and our role as a fiduciary to our clients means there’s clear purpose to the work I do every day,” Jack explained.
While Jack and Andrew’s journeys to BlackRock may have differed, their experiences are united by a clear recognition of the expertise that veterans can bring to our firm and to the fintech industry more broadly. Furthermore, they’ve both found that being a part of the VET Network has allowed them to give back to their fellow veterans and support the causes they’re passionate about.
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At BlackRock, People Managers play a critical role in bringing our culture to life and driving performance, engagement and belonging among employees. As we transitioned to a new, virtual environment with over 16,000 employees working remotely, it was imperative that our managers felt capable to lead in this moment. Here, three members of our Human Capital Committee share advice on how to successfully manage teams in a remote setting.
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At BlackRock, we believe that our culture has always been critical to our success. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as we realized we were about to embark on an extended period of instability and physical dispersion, we outlined a series of steps to not only protect, but also enrich our culture. One of these steps was to ensure two-way dialogue and team cohesion, with a particular emphasis on making sure our people managers were informed and empowered to lead, so their team members could feel connected and productive while working from home.
To turn this from an aspiration into a reality, we enlisted the help of our Human Capital Committee (HCC) – our top “culture carriers,” as we like to call them. Comprised of nearly 40 senior leaders from around the globe, the HCC partners closely with our Human Resources team to help shape and drive our talent, diversity and culture priorities across the firm.
Starting in March, we kicked off a series of People Manager Enablement sessions, led by HCC members and external experts. This series was designed to help managers become better leaders by sharing tips and resources for managing virtually.
In this article, a few of our HCC members – Joe DeVico, Karina Saade and Martin Syms – share six strategies for how to successfully manage teams in a prolonged virtual environment based on their experience leading teams at BlackRock.
Joe DeVico is a Managing Director and Head of the National Wealth Manager Business for the US Wealth Advisory Group. He is based in Princeton, New Jersey.
Karina Saade is a Managing Director and the Chief Operating Officer for Latin America. She is based in São Paulo, Brazil.
Martin Syms is a Managing Director and Head Aladdin Product Group Alternatives and Cash Engineering. He is based in London, England.
1. One on one conversations are #1
According to our 2019 Employee Opinion Survey, employees who have weekly 1:1 meetings with their managers are 17% more engaged, 23% more enabled in their role, 25% more satisfied working at BlackRock and two times more likely to report that they receive timely and actionable feedback.
While we typically pride ourselves on having a casual workplace culture, we can all agree that the increased virtual work environment is less conducive to impromptu check-ins and spontaneous collaboration. Given this, we’ve continued to focus on encouraging our managers to have frequent, consistent and high quality 1:1s with their direct reports.
“I’ve been having more 1:1s,” says Joe. Given this is a new environment for all of us, “people need more feedback. Especially given that we don’t have the [in person] body language to work off of, it’s also important to remain present during these conversations and not multitask,” Joe added.
While 1:1s help employees make progress on their work, they’re also an important way for managers to demonstrate that they care about their team members as human beings, not just as employees. “With each team member, I separate my work check-ins and personal check-ins throughout the week,” says Karina.
Martin agrees, adding, “think about the timing and the context. Try to break up your conversations into different topics like current workload, career growth conversations and more informal ‘coffee catch-ups’ to discuss life outside of work.” Instead of one 30-minute check-in each week, this might mean two 15-minute check-ins or three 10-minute check-ins every week – preserving the total amount of time managers and direct reports are meeting, but spreading out the interactions into shorter, more targeted conversations. “I’ve found that more frequent feedback also lowers stress levels,” adds Karina.
Karina participating in a virtual meeting along with her two children
2. Rethink performance objectives
No one could have predicted the way that 2020 has panned out. For many of us, the priorities and objectives we outlined at the start of the year have been completely turned on their heads given the environment in which we’re operating. Acknowledging this, it’s important for managers to revisit, reset and realign on performance objectives and expectations with their teams, and have constructive, honest conversations about priorities, workload and work/life balance.
“The world has changed since we each outlined our objectives,” remarks Joe. “I’d encourage managers to double down on performance reviews and consider spending more time than usual preparing for these conversations.” He suggests assessing team and individual objectives into the following categories:
• What can we still get done?
• What can we still do but might require us to change the path we take in order to do it?
• What can we no longer do, and what no longer makes sense to do in this environment?
“It’s important to have reasonable expectations,” Karina emphasizes. As managers work with their teams to restructure priorities and projects, it’s important to make sure they’re keeping an eye out for red flags that might signal employees are feeling disconnected or disengaged. “Managing performance issues is always hard, and it’s even more difficult in these times,” says Joe. He also advises that, “managers need to distinguish between performance issues and engagement issues.”
Performance should be handled as “normal course of business” – have a conversation to reset the expectations and shared agreements on what success looks like and the paths to get there. But when it comes to engagement, managers should handle this with great care and empathy to make sure their direct reports have the resources and support they need to succeed both personally and professionally. That said, it’s also important to remember that not everything is binary. Engagement and performance often go hand in hand.
3. Mix up your meetings
Just as managers should help team members revisit and realign on their objectives, they should also reconsider the cadence and structure of other standing meetings with their teams to ensure they’re still relevant and effective in the current environment.
Martin says, “in the Aladdin Product Group, we upped the frequency of team meetings but shortened them.” This way the team gets more bite-sized opportunities to connect and engage with their colleagues. “We also shifted our Town Hall meetings to be structured in a more rapid-fire style – more speakers, 5 minutes or less of content for each – and this led to higher engagement,” Martin added.
Also, be mindful of the different “phases” of remote working; what got people through the first few weeks and months is likely different from what people need today. If you implemented daily team check-ins in the spring but have seen a dip in attendance or engagement, consider adjusting the frequency or surveying your team to get a sense of what they’d find most helpful today.
Martin working from home with his dog
4. One size doesn’t fit all
While the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted each of us in some way, how it’s impacted each person varies considerably. Joe shared, “this is super personal for most people, and everyone’s having a very different experience inside and outside of work right now. As people managers, we need to recognize one size doesn’t fit all and tailor our response for employees.”
Many of us grew up learning the adage “treat others how you want to be treated” as a lesson about being kind and compassionate. While that sounds like a reasonable rule of thumb, when you break it down it’s actually not the optimal approach. We should strive to treat others as they want to be treated, also known as the “Platinum Rule,” which is more inclusive and takes into account that what works for one person (or what works for you) might not work for everyone.
Martin echoes that sentiment, adding, “listening is as important, if not more important than sharing advice. Let employees do the talking, set the context and ask questions.” That might sound pretty simple, but don’t be fooled – active listening is a skill that takes practice and effort to develop.
5. Ramp up recognition
Recognition can be a key source of motivation for many employees but unfortunately, notes Martin, “recognition has become a bit lost.” In the current remote environment, given the increased volume of emails, IMs and the like, it’s easy for praise to start to fall to the wayside.
However, finding meaningful ways to acknowledge your team’s work and celebrating learning, progress and key milestones is part of your responsibility of being a good people manager. When thinking about how to recognize your team, it’s important to remember that the way in which each person enjoys being recognized can differ. For example, one person might appreciate a public gesture of gratitude like a shout-out in a department-wide meeting or an opportunity to present their work in a large forum, whereas another member of your team might prefer a personal note or phone call from a senior leader. This is another example of a situation where the Platinum Rule comes into play – know your people and know how they want to be treated and recognized.
“In the team setting, you need to be thoughtful and deliberate about giving those shout-outs. It’s one of the few ways you can guarantee that recognition is going to come through and get noticed,” Martin says. Joe agreed, adding, “people want to feel valued in normal times, and a lot more in these abnormal times.” He also recommends that managers help their team members connect their individual objectives with the firm’s mission and purpose to help reinforce the value and impact of each person’s work. In 2019, BlackRock introduced something called a “purpose tool,” to help employees do just that – identify their strengths and passions, both inside and outside of work, and connect them to their roles at BlackRock, with the overall goal of helping employees enhance their experience at work.
Joe working from home with his two children
6. Lead with empathy
Empathy is key – always. And because no two people are experiencing the pandemic in the exact same way, managers should do their best to understand what their individual team members are dealing with and how they’re feeling. “Listen more than you talk,” reiterates Martin. However, you can’t force it. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable speaking with you (their manager) about a particular topic, that’s okay too. In that case, he notes, “share relevant resources that you think could help if an employee is struggling and in need of support.” For instance, at BlackRock we have an Employee Assistance Program which offers our employees and their family members free, confidential counseling as well as emotional well-being resources for all types of situations.
Additionally, consider the various communication channels that are available to set the tone from the top of the organization in a way that intentionally demonstrates empathy. For example, Manish Mehta, BlackRock’s Global Head of Human Resources, has periodically sent out function-wide emails to thank people for their work, acknowledging the stress the current environment has created for everyone and reminding employees to be there for each other and look out for their own well-being. No matter the medium, taking the time to show compassion is always important.
Creating designated time during team check-ins for people to share how they’re doing or to reflect on an ice-breaker question helps people stay connected while continuing to build trust and relationships virtually. In doing this, both managers and their teams can get a better understanding of what different colleagues are experiencing and, in turn, make people feel heard and seen at work.
To close things out, there’s no playbook for how to manage virtual teams during a global pandemic, and no crystal ball to predict what the coming months will look like. However, as with all things in life I’ve tried to approach the current environment with a glass half-full attitude. The pandemic has reinforced so many things I’m grateful for (never again will I take for granted time spent in person with my team!) and challenged me to think about how we sustain our culture, maintain connectivity and keep people motivated in an unprecedented, virtual environment. But at the end of the day, whether working from the office or your kitchen table, what it all comes down to are the basics: know your team, check in often, express gratitude, and show compassion.
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Marko Brkic, as Analyst on the Employer Brand team based in Belgrade, Serbia, shares his experience at BlackRock after joining the company through the firm’s acquisition of eFront in 2019.
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Tell us a bit about your role on the Employer Brand team and what you were doing at eFront before it was acquired by BlackRock.
My journey to BlackRock started almost three years ago when I joined eFront while I was studying Human Resources at the University of Novi Sad. At the time, one of my main responsibilities was to build the “cultural aspect” of our company’s brand – better known as the Employer Brand – from the ground up. In addition to that, I was a member of eFront’s Talent Acquisition team, recruiting for technology, client support and financial roles.
In case you haven’t heard of eFront, it’s the leading software solution for managing alternative investments, with over 20 years of experience powering the investment lifecycle for alternative investors. With the continued success of our company and the consistent focus on our people, eFront quickly became a very attractive place for people to work. In 2019, eFront was noticed and eventually acquired by BlackRock. Since then, eFront’s products have been integrated with Aladdin which enabled a whole portfolio approach and accelerated BlackRock’s vision to make alternatives less alternative.
After the acquisition was finalized, I became a part of BlackRock’s Employer Brand team. My current role is quite similar to the role I had at eFront, but on a much bigger scale.
What’s it like to work at the BlackRock office in Belgrade?
Working in the city center, on the main Knez Mihailova street in Belgrade, definitely has its perks. Kalemegdan fortress is a 5-minute walk from our office so your options during lunch breaks are endless. However, what makes our office special is not only the location, it’s our people.
You might be surprised to hear that we have more than 500 employees in our Belgrade office working across many departments. For example, we have experts from Technology, Client Support, Accounting and Risk Management but also teams of people who work in Investments, Legal, Finance, Marketing, Sales, HR and more.
What I like the most about having that many different teams in one location is that it allows us to easily create cross-functional project teams. Having a diverse and knowledgeable group of colleagues in our office helps drive innovation and leads to remarkable results for our business. It’s also been a great learning experience for me to be able to spend time getting to know what other teams at the company are focused on.
In addition to that, our culture is very inclusive, friendly and easy-going. Oftentimes, my colleagues and I go off for lunch together, buy birthday or Christmas presents for each other, or hang out outside of work. Simply said, we like to get to know the people we’re working with, which in my opinion, makes working together fun.
What comes to mind when you think about the working environment at BlackRock overall? What makes it unique?
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about the working environment at BlackRock is how much you can learn. On a daily basis, I’m working with colleagues in different time zones and different parts of the world which reminds me how global BlackRock really is. Being in an international work setting surrounds you with an astonishing number of perspectives and ideas. I’ve also had a chance to take advantage of a number of online learning opportunities that BlackRock offers. For example, the BlackRock Academies which help employees build new skills to grow and develop in their careers. The Academies offer courses focused on client relationships, technology, investments, leadership and more.
Some of the training opportunities that are offered through the BlackRock Academies
One of the best things about learning and development at BlackRock is that beyond the responsibilities of your day job, what you learn is really up to you! You can choose if you would like to attend a workshop to build your virtual communications skills or join a training on effective time management. It’s up to you if you’d prefer to take an intro to Python course or learn the fundamentals of cloud computing. Whatever you’re interested in, BlackRock provides you with endless ways to learn and grow as an individual and as a professional.
What do you enjoy or appreciate most about BlackRock’s culture?
I really appreciate that working at BlackRock allows me to get involved in my community and make a positive, long-term impact on people’s lives. The dedication BlackRock has to sustainability and to giving back to society is almost unheard of in this region. Being a part of two employee networks at the firm has helped me see how things work first-hand.
As a member of the Belgrade Social Impact team, I can tell you that the aim of this team is to put a smile on as many children’s faces in Serbia as possible. We collaborate with non-profit organizations that are mainly focused on helping children without parental care and children in need. Through philanthropic and volunteer events, we’re able to give children across the country an opportunity to live a better, safer and more prosperous life.
Members of the Belgrade Social Impact team participating in an office-wide clothing drive in 2019 to collect and donate used clothing to children in need.
The other employee network I’m a part of is the Belgrade Green Team Network which focuses on a variety of different projects that help to protect and preserve our planet. Since joining the Green Team, I’ve helped organize tree planting events and recycling initiatives. We also spend time educating and encouraging our colleagues in the Belgrade office to act more sustainably in their own lives by doing things like reducing their energy usage or cutting down on their use of plastic which when you add it up, can make a difference!
For each volunteering event, if there are 10 or more employees volunteering, BlackRock will donate $30 (USD) per person, per hour to the non-profit organization that we are partnering with which is a great way to increase our impact in the community.
Tree planting event in 2019 at Zvončica a kindergarten school in Belgrade, Serbia.
These are just two of the many employee-led networks and initiatives that exist at BlackRock and showcase how our employees have an opportunity to make an impact when it comes to helping the environment and people in our communities.
What’s something you were worried about when moving from a smaller company to a larger, global organization?
My concern when transitioning to BlackRock after eFront was acquired was if I would be able to make an impact within a much larger company. Going from a place with 900 employees to one with over 16,000, made me wonder if my own voice and opinions, and those of my colleagues in Belgrade, would be valued in the same way that they were before. However, our office was (and continues to be) seen as a place filled with extraordinarily talented individuals. Throughout the acquisition and integration process, our thoughts, suggestions and concerns have been heard. BlackRock was also open to adapting its own work style to implement aspects of eFront’s culture that benefitted both organizations.
On a personal note, I’ve grown immensely over the last year. Joining BlackRock’s Employer Brand team and working alongside experts in my field has been a dream come true. My team pushes me to dig deeper and find solutions by using critical thinking and a strategic approach. From the moment I joined the team, I was given an opportunity to lead projects and my ideas and suggestions have been valued as if I’ve been a part of the team for ages.
Meet my colleagues! Here’s a snapshot from our Employer Brand team’s weekly meeting with the Diversity Recruiting team.
What’s the best benefit or perk you have as an employee at BlackRock?
Different companies offer different benefits. Some offer health insurance and retirement savings plans, others provide gym discounts for employees. And while we have all those benefits here at BlackRock in Belgrade, what shocked me the most was the fact that we have an unlimited number of paid days off each year. Yes, unlimited.
It’s called Flexible Time Off or FTO, and while all employees in Belgrade have 25 paid days off according to Serbian law (regardless of their seniority), we also have access to FTO which allows you to take as many days off as you need to relax and recharge while still getting paid your full salary. Of course, you must have approval from your manager and do your part to deliver on projects and timelines, but still, I don’t know many companies that provide this type of flexibility to their employees.
How has COVID-19 impacted your experience? Has it changed the way you work?
Since March, more than 90% of employees have been working remotely from home. This has definitely changed the way we work together since everything has been taking place virtually, but I still feel connected to my team in New York and colleagues here in Belgrade.
Throughout the pandemic, there have been additional communications from senior leaders so our employees would stay up to date on important health information and feel supported during this challenging time.
Starting in April, all employees were given a free subscription to the Calm app which provides resources to help manage stress and anxiety which seems to be more important than ever with the pandemic. This summer, BlackRock also hosted its 2nd annual Virgin Plus Global Challenge as a way to motivate employees to stay healthy and active even while quarantining. The challenge includes an app where you can track your daily steps and workouts and see how your team is doing in comparison to other teams around the globe which, in my opinion, adds to the competitive spirit and makes it more fun!
Even though the situation with the pandemic has been changing throughout the year, BlackRock’s approach to continuing to ensure that all of us stay safe and healthy has stayed the same. Most of us will likely continue to work from home either part-time or full-time into 2021, and I believe that BlackRock will continue to evolve and find new ways to support its people as the pandemic and work environment changes as well.
What’s one thing you want people to know if they are considering a job at BlackRock in Belgrade?
As this roller-coaster of a year is slowly coming to an end, we can all agree that it has been proof of how uncertain life can be. It has allowed us to focus more on caring for our families, our friends and ourselves than we did before. It has been a year where, for many, job security and career paths have come into question. It has also been a year where companies have had a chance to show how invested in their people they are.
I’m grateful of the fact that my company has had my back through it all. Over this past year at BlackRock, I have always felt safe, supported and heard. I have been encouraged to focus on myself and my family when I needed to. I’ve been given opportunities to learn, grow and build my skills, all while working virtually, and I’m proud that BlackRock continues to look beyond its own walls and help those in need.
In my view, BlackRock coming to my country has been nothing but positive. And while it’s had a vast impact on me personally, I think it will have an even bigger one on my surrounding community in Serbia.
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Continuous change and improvement are the norm at BlackRock, and COVID-19 has amplified our culture of innovation tenfold. It has forced us to rethink how we engage with our candidates and with each other. But we haven’t stopped there. Below are insights from six women who are rethinking the future of work at our organization and beyond.
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In the future, we will lead with empathy
The shift to remote work has come with a blending of our professional and personal lives. It has forced us to bring a greater spectrum of ourselves to work and to let our colleagues into areas of our lives that we historically may not have. In a recent town hall meeting with the entire company, Rachel Lord, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at BlackRock, talked about her challenges parenting two teenage daughters, managing chores around the house, taking care of her dogs and navigating her job. This is just one example of how our leaders have role modeled what it means to be open and vulnerable as this merging of work and life reaches new levels.
Photo credit: Toretha McGuire (Managing Director, Talent Acquisition, New York)
While sharing more about our lives outside of work was driven out of necessity, it is having a profound effect. We have been getting to know our colleagues and our candidates on a more personal level which has helped many of us develop greater compassion for each other. “This situation has actually helped humanize us and relate to each other better,” shared Kelsey Rogut, Associate, Talent Management in BlackRock’s Atlanta office. She added, “while the pandemic has been completely devastating, I think all of us will have been forever changed in some way. Personally, I now feel more connected to the people I work with even though we haven’t been physically located in the same place for months. My hope is that we all continue leading with empathy and kindness.”
By establishing these more intimate connections the prioritization of home life has become less taboo. And ultimately, it has put a spotlight on some important leadership qualities that are not always highlighted in the business world by illustrating that empathy, transparency and compassion are qualities that not only generate trust but also drive performance.
“Up until now, we always thought we were not prepared to work in a fully virtual environment. We thought working remotely would have an impact on connectivity or productivity but look how well we’re doing,” said Neerja Nath, Vice President, Lateral Recruiting in our Gurgaon office. Of course, technology and infrastructure play a role, but a big piece of what’s worked well is the way our leaders have reached out to employees and candidates to keep communication going. She added, “there has been a lot of trust in how our leaders are managing the firm during this unprecedented time.”
As we continue to connect with candidates, we are doing so with empathy. Rachael Galaszewski, Vice President, Talent Acquisition Operations in BlackRock’s Wilmington office, described that, “this new virtual environment has led to more authenticity in our conversations with candidates. The first thing people do when they connect is ask ‘How are you? Are you safe? How’s your family?’ I know my team has appreciated this more human element. It’s uplifting, especially for those who have been self-isolating during this time.” By asking how candidates and colleagues are feeling, we’ve been able to demonstrate aspects of BlackRock’s culture like compassion and curiosity even though in-person touchpoints have come to a pause.
Photo credit: Brooke Coby (Director, Talent Acquisition, New York City)
As a firm, we’ve had a real re-focus on making the experience feel more human and personalized for our candidates. The recruiting function, not just at BlackRock but everywhere, has become more operationally focused. Brooke Coby, Director, Talent Acquisition in BlackRock’s New York City office shared, “the advances in artificial intelligence and other tech solutions are incredibly exciting for those of us doing the hiring but we know that what candidates want, is to hear from the actual people at the companies they’re interested in working for…and, at BlackRock, we often say that ‘without our people, technology is irrelevant.’”
This belief applies to all our business areas. Good recruiters impact candidates’ experiences, the process affects their perceptions of the firm and how they’re treated matters.
We will put people first
Concerns for the health and safety of our employees and candidates are leading us to make decisions that put people’s well-being first. This has become a filter for all our processes, programs and decisions during the coronavirus pandemic. It started by enabling more than 95% of our workforce to work from home and shifting interviews from in-person to virtual. It led us to decide not to make any COVID-19 related layoffs this year and to honor our commitment to summer interns and full-time graduate analysts to whom we had extended offers. It spurred us to re-think the onboarding experience for employees who are joining the firm in an entirely remote setting. And it pushed us to survey our colleagues more frequently so we can learn how they’re doing, what they need, and then act on their feedback.
This behavior of putting people first is not shortsighted, it’s being absorbed into the culture of our organization. For example, Kelsey, who creates professional development content for BlackRock noted, “I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how understanding and engaged managers have been with their teams during this time. Many leaders have come to our team for help because they’re worried that they won’t do right by their employees.” Specifically, we’ve noticed an increase in requests for learning & development content from managers so they can make sure the people on their teams are supported in the ways they need most, and we’ve observed hiring managers get more involved in the onboarding process since they haven’t been able to greet their new hires and welcome them in person.
We’ve seen that technology can enable flexible work environments and help people feel supported in a remote workplace. One way this has presented itself is in the amount of control we have over our day, whether that means taking a call while walking outside, prioritizing childcare at a certain time of the day or making time to buy groceries for ourselves or our neighbors, we have more freedom to manage our time. Brooke confirmed this in her own experience sharing, “I have felt that people are more understanding. Do what you need to do for yourself. Manage your own calendar. Tell people what’s going on. Don’t hide your personal life.”
As leaders, managers and organizations, we will need to continue to demonstrate the ability to prioritize both personal and professional lives. And it gives all of us a moment to reflect on the role we want work to play in our lives, to be clear about our needs and to ask our employer (or future employer) to support us.
We will seek out more voices and minds
As a global company, we’ve always collaborated across teams and time zones by building virtual relationships with colleagues in different offices but when conversations with our local colleagues became remote, it meant there was less of a distinction between relationships with colleagues we typically see in person and colleagues in other geographies. “Last year, I spent 3 months on the road and I truly believe the in-person presence is something that can’t be replaced. But what I’ve learned, is that by keeping a steady connection point with the people I work with across the world, I’m able to achieve just as strong of a partnership,” shared Noreen McEnaney, Director, Talent Acquisition in BlackRock’s New York City office.
Photo credit: Victoria Didilica (Associate, Campus Recruiting, London)
New challenges are amplifying our natural inclination to collaborate across teams, to crowdsource ideas and to share tips. “With the need to shift our campus recruiting events and programs to be delivered virtually, we were suddenly in a situation where there were a lot of new activities going on,” noted Victoria Didilica, Associate, Campus Recruiting in our London office. “But we weren’t afraid to ask for help—help from lateral recruiting, from the wider HR team, from the tech team and others. And at BlackRock, everyone is always willing to help,” she said. As we grow as a firm, we will continue to build input sessions into our projects and processes so we can benefit from the collective brainpower of our peers.
With more of our interactions moving into virtual formats we will also find new opportunities to engage potential employees with varying perspectives spanning academic majors, socio-economic backgrounds, gender, ethnicity, ability, veteran status, and other seen and unseen diversities. Candidates can also take advantage of this inclusive mindset by reaching out to people at organizations they’re interested in and having conversations with companies they might not have considered in the past.
Conclusion
The future of work will be one where leaders drive performance through empathy, where people stay at the forefront of our minds and where collaboration across diverse teams is key to our work.
For people looking for a new opportunity, this presents a chance to think about potential employers through a wider lens. Do your research on how committed each company’s leadership is to flexibility, benefits and learning & development. Dig into each company’s culture, learn how they’ve reacted to challenges in the past and ensure their values align with your own. And explore the long-term sustainability of the organizations you’re considering to ensure they are set up for future success.
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How BlackRock used a hackathon to deepen its connection to its client-first culture of innovation.
The annual hackathon at BlackRock, better known as “HACK:BLK”, is a global, firm-wide innovation challenge focused on developing new ideas to solve some of the world’s most complex financial challenges with the smartest technology. It’s a favorite event for engineers, their non-coding colleagues and business partners from around the firm. The Hackathon increases team cohesion by fostering collaboration. It’s also a great way for employees to focus on their passions and furthers BlackRock’s goal of using innovation to better serve clients by generating some truly remarkable ideas.
In other words, we hacked our own Hackathon and strengthened our purpose as a result.
Aladdin Wealth is one such concept that came out of a previous Hackathon and is now a fully operational solution for wealth managers. And while we’ve had great success with our previous Hackathons, we’re always looking for ways to innovate. So, when the Covid-19 pandemic forced us to go remote, we saw the disruption as an opportunity to rethink our approach altogether. This year, we made our core values a guiding framework for the event. In doing so, we achieved greater cohesion across teams and created innovative work on sustainability and alternatives — work which will ultimately benefit clients. In other words, we hacked our own Hackathon and strengthened our purpose as a result.
This year, I was one of the Hackathon leads helping direct the planning, strategy and execution of the firm-wide event. In my main role at BlackRock, I manage the Data Strategy & Solutions Team within the Portfolio Management Group which is a centralized function for data strategy, data discovery and bespoke research solutions. It’s a one-stop shop for discovering differentiated data sources and integrating innovative solutions into the investment process via vendor data acquisition, web-scraping and data analysis.
Over my ten-year career at BlackRock, I’ve also worked in roles across Technology, Operations, Aladdin and Investments, and it was great to leverage my network and knowledge to help connect Hackathon ideas across different teams and also set up speakers and programming for the 2020 event.
This year, for the first time, we had two winners! The judging took place in two ways: A Global Operating Committee made up of senior leaders voted and the whole firm voted as well. The two winners were clearly connected to our future technology goals:
- Themantic: The winner of the firm-wide vote, harnessed state-of-the-art artificial intelligence to process corporate disclosures, enabling BlackRock to create thematic portfolios aligned with investors’ values and beliefs, in a systematic and scalable way. Themes included sustainability, growth, robotics, education and more.
- Aladdin Eye: The Global Operating Committee favorite was a flexible, scalable platform for performing search tasks and visualizing results in a way that is intuitive and relevant for financial analysts. It can also be applied to the wealth of documents in the Private Markets space to extract insights that were never before available for investing and due diligence.
Having two winners was not the only first for this year’s Hackathon. We also encouraged employees to keep our purpose — to help more and more people experience financial well-being — top of mind. To achieve that purpose, we constantly look for opportunities for BlackRock employees to work together across teams, regions and businesses. This comes to life every day here through our principle of “One BlackRock” which quickly became a prominent feature of this year’s Hackathon as well.
In years past, teams were primarily made up of people who worked on the same teams or out of the same office locations. But this year, shared interests were the main draw and proximity took a back seat. 85% of teams had members from outside of their direct team, 50% included members from multiple offices and 30% of the teams spanned their geographic regions. Not only that, but because judging couldn’t take place in conference rooms at the office, hackers connected over WebEx with senior leaders who were brought in early on in the process to view presentations. With remote work and democratized virtual judging sessions, senior leadership was more involved, shepherding local winners through the final round of competition and providing mentorship along the way. This shift helped give team members who were earlier in their careers more exposure to leadership and gave management a closer look at up-and-coming talent.
Our firm-wide vision for technology, known internally as “tech2025” was another area emphasized in this year’s Hackathon. The tech2025 goals include using data and technology to make it easier for all types of clients to build better investment portfolios, unlocking scale in Aladdin and opening up our Aladdin platform. Another key theme at BlackRock is the conviction that climate risk is investment risk, and that sustainability is important to investing. As we planned our Hackathon to be remote, we asked everyone involved to keep these focus areas in mind as they approached new solutions.
The results of better, broader collaboration and a closer integration of purpose produced some of the strongest ideas we’ve seen at a Hackathon yet! Out of 1,200 registered participants, 500 ideas were submitted and 192 of the ideas came from teams that spanned regions — another first.
Throughout our history and my time at BlackRock, one thing that has differentiated our culture, is that we challenge ourselves to see every problem as an opportunity to perform better for our clients.
Throughout our history and my time at BlackRock, one thing that has differentiated our culture, is that we challenge ourselves to see every challenge as an opportunity to perform better for our clients. It’s our commitment as a fiduciary, but it’s also at the core of who we are. By turning the disruption brought on by Covid-19 into a chance to rethink our Hackathon, we gave a broader platform to talent across the globe, connected more deeply with our purpose as a firm and continued to innovate on solutions that could benefit clients — with better insights into sustainable strategies and alternatives.
A version of this article was originally published on the BlackRock Engineering Blog on August 5, 2020. You can learn more about BlackRock’s work and career opportunities in Technology on our careers website.
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BlackRock employees volunteered virtually through our annual Global Mapathon project to help healthcare professionals deliver critical care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, BlackRock colleagues from around the globe joined together to volunteer virtually in this year’s Global Mapathon project in partnership with Missing Maps and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Together, they identified homes, villages and roads in the Central African Republic using satellite images which helps Doctors without Borders and other NGOs better prepare for and respond to natural disasters and pandemics in some of the most vulnerable parts of the world. Efforts from this year’s event will give humanitarian and healthcare workers on the ground a better chance to respond to affected individuals in the region of Mbomou where critical roads and infrastructure are not fully documented. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s Mapathon took place virtually and participants were asked to dedicate at least 2 hours towards volunteering from home on this project. In total over 55,000 buildings and 320 miles of roads were identified as part of this year’s Mapathon effort. In addition, the event engaged 425 BlackRock employees across 30 offices around the world – including our colleagues from the BlackRock Belgrade office who participated for the first time and identified over 7,600 buildings, the single biggest office contribution! One of those volunteers was Alex Jahier, an Analyst on the Social Impact team in our New York City office who studied environmental science in college and is passionate about sustainability. This was his first time getting involved in the Mapathon project since he joined BlackRock in the fall of 2019. Alex’s personal mission is to leave the planet in a better place than when we found it so even though he spends his day job working on employee engagement and community giving programs, he’s always looking for ways to personally get involved in the work his team is leading at the firm. Alex believes giving back to our community is an important part of our culture at BlackRock, and said, “we’re always being encouraged to get outside of our comfort zones – and the ‘office’ (even now in this virtual setting) – to work together with other colleagues to make a difference.” In looking at the ‘before and after’ photos below, the need and impact of volunteer efforts like the Global Mapathon are apparently clear. “Right now, due to the pandemic, it isn’t safe for a lot of us to volunteer in person, but we can still make a significant impact from our homes,” said Alex. But Alex did more than volunteer, he was actually responsible for organizing this year’s Global Mapathon! As the project lead, he managed the relationships with our nonprofit partners, Doctors Without Borders and Missing Maps, recruited over 25 “Office Champions” to help drive participation in our offices around the globe, and partnered with teams across BlackRock like our Corporate Communications team, to spread the word leading up to the event through our internal communications channels. Anna Verhaegen was one of those Office Champions Alex recruited this year, and after volunteering for last year’s Mapathon, she jumped at the chance to help encourage colleagues in her office to join this time around. Anna is based out of our Princeton office and joined BlackRock in 2017 through the Analyst Program. Anna is currently an Investment Management Associate in US Wealth Advisory (USWA) where she’s responsible for driving sales and client service for BlackRock mutual funds, iShares ETFs and separately managed accounts for retail clients on the East Coast. Anna shared, “I’ve always enjoyed getting involved in philanthropic efforts and wanted to find more ways to give back, but I didn’t really know how to get started until I began working at BlackRock. Here it’s not only apparent how integral volunteering is to our company culture but it’s amazing how everyone is encouraged to take time away from their desk or normal duties to volunteer towards causes they care about. I’m proud that at BlackRock we are a group of people who want to do good for our communities and for the world. Volunteer events like this, give employees a chance to take on local leadership roles and give back all while showing them just how easy and fun volunteering can be!” Participants were encouraged to take selfies of their Mapathon efforts, below are some of our amazing employee volunteers from around the globe.
Photo credit: Alex Jaheir (Analyst, Social Impact, New York City)
Source: Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team, 2020.
Photo credit: Anna Verhaegen (Associate, US Wealth Advisory, Princeton)
Photo credit: Michael Karcz (Director, Aladdin Product Group, New York City)
Photo credit: Monica Bueno (Vice President, Latin America ETF Sales, Mexico City)
Photo credit: Deia Housen (Analyst, Strategic Partner Program, London)
The timing of these efforts could not have been more critical. The Central African Republic’s health system is not fully equipped to handle the sizeable outbreak of COVID-19 that has appeared and the country is lacking testing kits, ventilators and treatment centers while still fighting existing diseases like TB and malaria. 70% of the country depends on humanitarian support from organizations like MSF for health services and lacks access to running water which is necessary for proper sanitary practices.
This impact of this project will hopefully go beyond COVID-19 relief as well. The buildings and roads identified by BlackRock employees as part of this year’s project will provide crucial data for humanitarian workers as they continue to respond to health emergencies in the country.
Thank you to all our employees around the globe who participated in this timely volunteer effort. Since everyone joined from home this year, some employees were even able to involve their families in the project but hopefully next year, we’ll be able to safely map together in person again.
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Feeling rudderless these days? You’re not alone. As we adjust to this prolonged period of uncertainty, many of us are feeling stuck – but want to get to a place where we feel like we’re thriving, not simply surviving. Here are some steps you can take today to build resilience while working from home.
I’m not normally one to take life advice that sounds like it should be crocheted on a pillow. But these are far from normal times. And, perhaps for that reason, when this quote popped up in my LinkedIn feed, it gave me pause:
“There are three things you cannot recover in life: the moment after it’s missed, the word after it’s said and the time after it’s wasted.”
Even under the best of circumstances – even if we are privileged enough to remain physically healthy, financially solvent and unencumbered by the daily trauma of systemic racism – when it comes to our careers, we still worry that we’re not “doing it right” or “doing enough.” That we’re not adequately “carpe-ing the diem.”
This gnawing anxiety has prompted lots of talk about resilience in the workplace – how to build it, how to sustain it and how to support others as we all grow and advance in our careers.
Ironically, many of these conversations gloss over the part about what resilience actually means. Just as we might incorrectly associate courage with the absence of fear, it’s tempting to equate resilience with the absence of vulnerability. But resilience is not an exercise in rigidity or perfection; it’s the art of flexibility and forgiveness. It is a measure of our capacity to recover quickly, to learn from missteps or moments of crisis.
Luckily, resilience is not an exclusively innate quality. It’s a skill that can be developed over time. So, in the spirit of resume-boosting self-improvement, here are some actions you can take to build greater resilience today that will pay dividends in the future.
- Keep your friends closeRelationships are often cited as a key predictor of how someone will cope with adversity. In a professional setting, we also know that engaging our network – especially sponsors – is critical to success. But with social distancing at play, how should we adapt?The good news is, “coffee chat” culture isn’t dead – it’s just gone virtual. We’re all craving greater variety in our days, so a 30-minute catch-up can be a welcome reprieve. That said, one-on-one video calls bring added pressure (we all cringe at awkward pauses), so you might consider teaming up with a peer who can add to conversation.Think of them as a “visibility buddy.” Over time, you can tap into each other’s networks, make new connections and even reconnect with former contacts. Just remember that, while visibility is important, relevance is too. If someone is giving you their time, you should have an objective for the conversation in mind, do your homework and always follow-up afterwards, even if it’s just a quick thank you.
- Make time to daydreamIt’s easy to feel stuck right now. This prolonged period of uncertainty feels like an interminable present, making the future difficult to imagine. But a little more imagination may be exactly what’s needed.Neuroscience has long held that the wandering mind (and body) can be beneficial for creative problem-solving and goal-formation. In fact, studies suggest that envisioning yourself in a future state makes you more likely to achieve it.But daydreaming is also a useful means of escapism. Reminiscing on happier times has been linked to improved mental well-being. And there’s no denying that there’s a certain comfort to be had by giving in to nostalgia.
So, if your quarantine routine too closely resembles Groundhog Day, your surest way out may be to look inward. Journaling, meditation and yoga are a few other ways you might start to build a habitual practice for introspection.
- LOL (but actually)Classically called “the best medicine,” laughter has been linked to tremendous psychological and physical benefits. Consider the mechanics: We take in a sudden burst of oxygen-rich air, which releases endorphins, boosts circulation and prompts muscle relaxation. The result? A feel-good moment that melts away stress.In groups, laughter has a multiplying effect. Incorporating humor into meetings is known to inspire engagement, creativity and collaboration. In fact, one study found that watching a comedy clip before getting to work boosted employees’ productivity by 10%.Alongside empathy, authenticity and respect, we should add having a sense of humor to the list of prerequisites for good corporate citizenship. Now more than ever, we could all use some comic relief. So the next time someone cracks a good-natured joke, join in the laughter – it’s good for your health!
Resilience may be a buzzword of the moment, but it will always be part of the human experience. The question is not if we will encounter adversity, but rather how we will respond. In short, can we derive meaning from hardship?
I’m reminded of Viktor Frankl’s invocation of Nietzsche: “He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.” If our aim is not only to survive but, rather, to thrive, then perhaps the best thing we can do is to focus our energy on the aspects of work and life that we find meaningful – practicing self-compassion and empathy for others along the way.
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BlackRock is committed to doing its part, consistent with our purpose, to help build a better, fairer society. This commitment to make change is core to who BlackRock is and the difference we can make in the world. Below is a memo to BlackRock employees with an update on our plans to promote racial equity and inclusion.
Dear Colleagues,
We wrote to you three weeks ago about the need to take meaningful action to accelerate BlackRock’s commitment to racial equity. Since then, colleagues across the firm have been engaging in a powerful dialogue about what we can and should be doing as individuals, a firm and an industry to help drive real change. This commitment to make change is core to our purpose, to who BlackRock is and the difference we can make in the world. It is also something our clients are looking for us to do. BlackRock should reflect the rich diversity of our clients. So, change must start here at BlackRock, and we know we have a great deal of work to do. Progress will require a long-term effort with sustained focus and persistence. We don’t have all the answers today, but we are moving forward with a strong sense of purpose and resolve, and we will continue to learn and adapt.
Today, we want to provide an update on the firm’s action plan in three key areas:
- BlackRock Talent and Culture
- Our Role as a Fiduciary on Behalf of our Clients
- Policy and Social Impact in the Communities Where We Operate
Our commitment to racial equity and inclusion extends to every market in which we operate. Diversity manifests itself differently in different parts of the world, but we will pursue it across the globe. For example, in the UK today, we announced that we were signing the “Race at Work Charter” led by The Prince’s Responsible Business Network, committing to measure, disclose and advance ethnic and racial diversity and equality in our UK workforce. So while some of the immediate actions outlined in this memo are focused on the US, we plan to execute against each of our three major pillars globally.
1. BlackRock Talent and Culture
Although our planned incoming summer and graduate analyst classes are the most diverse in BlackRock’s history (with 38% of summer analysts and 30% of our program analysts in the US identifying as Black and Latinx), we are not where we want to be. We need to continue to enhance all aspects of diversity at BlackRock. Many of the actions here are specifically focused on Black professionals, but they will promote improved recruiting and management of all diverse talent and enhance the inclusivity of our culture so that everyone has the chance to fulfill their potential.
By 2024, our goal is to double representation of our Black senior leaders and increase overall representation by 30%. Today, only 3% of our senior leaders (directors and above) and 5% of our workforce in the US are black. We need to do better, and we will achieve an increase through five key actions:
- Actively guiding and developing the careers of our Black Professionals through senior leadership’s commitment to grow our emerging Black leaders; tailored leadership development and sponsorship programs, including a new Black Leadership Forum; targeted rotational programs for early-career Black professionals; and deliberate consideration of senior Black leaders in succession planning.
- Focusing on people manager development and rewarding proactive inclusion and improved diversity outcomes that increase Black Professional career progression and retention rates, and that increase the proportion of managers who identify as Black.
- Increasing our commitment to recruiting and onboarding Black Professionals by requiring racially and ethnically diverse candidate slates for open roles at BlackRock, applying sourcing and selection strategies used in campus recruiting to all analyst and associate hiring, appointing a Diversity Sourcing Lead for experienced hires, and designing a more structured onboarding process across all experience levels.
- Raising awareness of racial equity issues and resetting behavioral expectations by extending our new speaker series on racial inclusion and equity and requiring a new mandatory “racial equity” course for all BlackRock employees via the BlackRock Academies.
- Embedding accountability and improving tracking and measurement of diversity metrics and holding leaders and managers accountable for continued progress, including in the Quarterly Business Reviews and year-end processes.
To ensure we all stay focused on these goals over time, we have appointed a subset of the Global Executive Committee to oversee progress.
2. Our Role as a Fiduciary on Behalf of our Clients
We have long believed that in serving our clients we can have a positive impact on society. That is fundamental to BlackRock’s purpose. Research shows that companies with strong sustainability ratings, which includes diverse workforces, deliver better returns, and we are seeing more and more clients focused on these social issues in their investments. In addition, we believe that diversifying the companies we partner with to serve our clients helps us to deliver better outcomes. Through our emerging brokers program, for example, last year we traded $110 billion through Black and Latinx owned firms and helped to enhance market liquidity.
To better serve our clients, we will focus on racial equity and social justice in our investment and stewardship activities. While we are still refining our efforts and goals, our focus is on three key areas:
- Increasing our partnerships with minority business enterprises that support our client investment activities, including minority brokers for trading, external managers in our solutions and fund of funds businesses, and third-party vendors across the rest of the firm.
- Developing and launching products focused on racial equity and social justice across our active platform, private markets and iShares and index businesses.
- Promoting workforce and leadership diversity by engaging with and seeking reporting by the companies in which we invest. In January, we asked companies to publish disclosure aligned with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), which includes disclosing the racial and ethnic characteristics of their US workforce. This fall, as we assess the impact of companies’ response to COVID-19 and associated issues of racial equality, our stewardship team will be refreshing our expectations for human capital management and how companies pursue sustainable social practices more broadly. We also will continue to emphasize the importance of diversity in the board room, considering personal characteristics like gender, as well as race and ethnicity, in addition to professional experience.
3. Policy and Social Impact in the Communities Where We Operate
Public Policy – Thanks to the leadership of Claude Wade, Head of our new Atlanta office, we were proud to be one of the first companies to endorse the Georgia Hate Crimes Legislation earlier this month, which more than 300 companies have now signed on to support. We will strive to continue using our voice to advocate for public policy changes that promote social justice by:
- Continuing to drive and contribute to public policy and legislative outcomes, joining with other organizations that share our values to promote public policy that can make positive change.
- Continuing to lead the industry with transparency on diversity disclosures. Disclosure on the diversity of BlackRock’s workforce can be found here and on our Board here. Our SASB disclosure can be found here.
Social Impact – In February, we established the BlackRock Foundation to augment our efforts to promote a more inclusive and sustainable economy. Through our focus on financial security for vulnerable communities, we aim to bring visibility and increased resources to support the upward mobility of Black and Latinx communities. Our $10 million action plan includes:
- Deploying $5 million to organizations supporting racial equity. In the coming weeks, we will announce contributions of $2 million to national organizations focused on securing equal justice for Black and Latinx communities; and $3 million to local grassroots organizations in major US cities where we operate including New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco, selected in partnership with employee-led task forces in those cities.
- Launching a $5 million fund to help elevate Black and Latinx social entrepreneurs to advance economic mobility in communities where we operate. In parallel, we will increase the transparency and reporting of our grant funding along with the criteria used to evaluate our potential partners.
- Doubling support for employee giving. The firm and our people donated $1.9 million over the past three weeks through our 2:1 employee match program to organizations fighting racial inequality. To extend the impact of our people’s giving, earlier this month we doubled the annual cap on the amount the firm matches in philanthropic giving per employee from $5,000 to $10,000.
The process of building a more just and equitable society will not be easy or quick. Driving real change requires long-term commitment and that all of us push beyond comfortable boundaries. We must begin the journey examining our own culture and talent practices, but we cannot be content to stop there. We must use our voice and work with others to advocate for change within our industry and across society more broadly.
BlackRock is committed to doing its part, consistent with our purpose, to help build that better, fairer society. We want to thank you all for the resolve and willingness you have demonstrated over the past few weeks to be part of that change. It is up to us to hold ourselves accountable to ensure we continue to make measurable progress. We ask that all of you commit to continue pushing forward with us in that effort.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on June 22, 2020. You can learn more about BlackRock’s commitment to Inclusion and Diversity on our careers website.
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I am appalled – as is anyone who cares about diversity, fairness and justice – by the events of the last few weeks involving racial injustice in the U.S. Below is an email I shared earlier today with my colleagues at BlackRock.
Dear Colleagues,
The past few weeks have been deeply painful for the black community. I am appalled – as is anyone who cares about diversity, fairness and justice – by the events of the last few weeks involving racial injustice in the U.S. The murders of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, and the incident in Central Park, show how much work we have to do to build a stronger, more equal, and safer society.
Many of us are struggling with these events. For our employees suffering pain from these tragedies, I want you to know that that the firm’s leadership stands with you, and we are listening. We will do everything we can to support you and give you the space to express your feelings and concerns.
In recent days, BlackRock’s Black Professionals Network has led a series of powerful sharing sessions where employees have discussed these incidents. Now we must broaden the discussion. I ask that all of us across the firm reflect on and engage in dialogue on these issues.
We have watched for months as the tragedy of COVID-19 has disproportionately hurt communities of color, as they have suffered more COVID cases and endured a greater share of the economic hardship than the rest of the population. Now, that pain has been compounded by these new incidents of racial injustice.
No organization is immune from the challenges posed by racial bias. As a firm committed to racial equality, we must also consider where racial disparity exists in our own organizations and not tolerate our shortcomings. We can only heal these wounds – building a more diverse and inclusive firm and contributing to a more just society – if we talk to each other and cultivate honest, open relationships and friendships. Going forward, we will continue to develop resources to help you engage in productive conversation and to take meaningful action, and you’ll be hearing more this coming week. I recognize this process isn’t easy – I know it’s not easy for me. But it’s essential.
Importantly, we have to make this a sustained effort. I am writing to you today because recent events have forced us to reflect on the severity of these issues, but these events are symptoms of a deep and longstanding problem in our society and must be addressed on both a personal and systemic level. This situation also underscores the critical importance of diversity and inclusion within BlackRock and society at large. We will continue to push forward in our efforts as a leadership team to build a more inclusive and diverse firm.
I often talk about taking emotional ownership – taking responsibility for the success of BlackRock and its clients. It also means that we are responsible for each other. Now is the time to embrace that responsibility. Please take an active role in that effort. We all must work together to build a more fair and just society – that is part of BlackRock’s purpose.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on May 30, 2020. You can learn more about BlackRock’s commitment to Inclusion and Diversity on our careers website.
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As the coronavirus continues to harm economic well-being around the world, particularly for the owners and employees of small or informal businesses, it’s important for corporations to continue to serve their full set of stakeholders – including their employees and the communities where they operate.
I want to say how proud I am of what BlackRock’s employees have accomplished over the past four weeks. While helping our clients – from pension funds and governments to insurance companies and individuals saving for retirement – navigate some of the most volatile markets in our lifetime, our people have also rebuilt BlackRock beyond the walls of BlackRock. Today, more than 90% of our employees are working remotely and they are staying as connected to one another and to our clients as they ever have.
We are committed to making sure our people have the support they need during this time. All our employees have the flexibility to take off as much time as they need to care for themselves, their family or a loved one. We’ve also told our people that we aren’t going to make any layoffs this year as a result of COVID-19. Moreover, the BlackRock community includes the individuals who play essential roles supporting our facilities, like cafeteria workers and maintenance staff. We’ve told them that even if they can’t come to work, we will continue to support them with full-time pay during this time. Lastly, we look forward to welcoming to BlackRock the summer interns and full-time graduate analysts to whom we’ve already extended offers. We will continue to manage our business and shift resources around to best serve our clients as we always do, but no one at BlackRock should be worrying right now about losing their job as a result of COVID-19.
In addition to our employees and our clients, we want to make sure we are doing what we can to support the communities where we operate. We have committed $50 million in charitable funds to the immediate relief of those who are most affected right now. We are directing this to front-line healthcare workers – the true heroes of today – and also to help address the financial hardship and social dislocation that this pandemic brings in its wake, as families grapple with job disruptions, school closures, unexpected childcare and medical costs. In addition to the $18 million we announced last month, we have since contributed an additional $6 million for food banks and community organizations in America, Europe and Asia.
Many of our own people are also stepping up to support emergency relief in their own communities. To amplify these important efforts, we have doubled BlackRock’s match for employee contributions to their local organizations addressing the crisis in their communities.
The virus is a global threat that requires a response from every segment of society. We’re committed to doing everything we can to serve all our stakeholders in the face of this unprecedented challenge. It has become clear over the last few weeks that no one will be safe from the effects of this illness, until everyone is safe from it.
This article was originally published on LinkedIn on April 8, 2020. To learn more about our response to COVID-19, please visit BlackRock’s corporate website.
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Source: BlackRock. Based on $6.52 trillion in AUM as of 03/31/19