For more than a decade, Thomas “Tom” Finke led the asset management firm Barings, LLC. During his tenure, Thomas Finke was responsible for the firm’s multinational portfolio containing more than $300 billion in assets and worked closely with the economic think tank the Milken Institute.
In March 2021, the Milken Institute published a report highlighting significant changes to the work environment and employer/employee expectations. For the report, titled “Future of Work, 2021 and Beyond,” researchers surveyed more than 1,000 employees to understand their perspective on remote work and workforce development training. After companies were forced to pivot to remote work due to the 2020 public health crisis, the majority of firms surveyed reported an increase in available candidates, while workers saw an influx of job opportunities.
More than a third of workers moved after transferring to remote work to secure a lower cost of living or move in with a family member. The majority of workers surveyed preferred working from home to other environments such as the office or in cafes. The Milken Institute suggests that the combination of high employee/employer satisfaction and a diversified talent pool will drive many companies towards a distributed model made up of skilled specialists based in different locations.
