(Bloomberg) -- It’s time to stock up on the sunscreen at Apollo Global Management Inc.
Come August, the private equity giant plans to allow staff in its buyout unit to work anywhere they would like for the month, said Matt Nord, one of the executives behind the decision.
“We have seen over the last two years that we can give people more flexibility -- in how they manage, how they work -- and it doesn’t impact performance,” Nord, Apollo’s co-head of private equity, said in an interview.
Private equity chiefs, like their peers across Wall Street, have taken an array of steps to provide employees flexibility as the pandemic persists. At Apollo, the August plan was also motivated by the desire to attract and retain talent in a cut-throat job market. That factor was in part what led companies including American Express Co. to offer hybrid work plans in recent months.
“Anyone who wants to go back to 2019 is going to lose the war for talent,” said Nord, who plans to spend August in the tony beach haven of East Hampton, New York.
If investment firms have struggled to devise humane work arrangements during the pandemic, it may be because it’s not in their DNA.
“I don’t think financial services is a very innovative industry,” said Nord. “Financial services tend to be behind the curve. There were probably better ways of working pre-Covid, but the inertia meant people didn’t focus on it.”
Yet, for Apollo staffers dreaming of working poolside with a cocktail in hand all year long, Nord offers a note of caution.
“You can’t have a choose-your-own-adventure model,” he said. “There has to be some structure.”
EXPLAINER: How ‘Work From Home’ Became ‘Work From Anywhere’: QuickTake
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