Major businesses that permitted employees to work from home to slow the spread of the coronavirus are now embracing more permanent telecommuting programs as they look at shrinking their rented office spaces because they are no longer needed.
“Businesses, particularly businesses who were able to transition to telework, are indicating that they’re making a change to a more modified telework [policy],” said Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Insurance giant Nationwide has had success with employees working from home during the pandemic and now plans for many of them to work from home permanently by closing five of its campus offices by November, according to company CEO Kirt Walker.
“Our associates and our technology team have proven to us that we can serve our members and partners with extraordinary care with a large portion of our team working from home,” he said when announcing the shift to working remotely.
Tech giants are also freeing up office space by allowing employees to work from home.
Facebook recently announced a 10-year plan to shift half of its 45,000 employees to work-at-home positions. The coronavirus shutdown did not interrupt operations, which gave the company’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the confidence to move the company toward employees working remotely, he told the Wall Street Journal. He also thinks it will be an attractive feature for recruiting.
“This is about how we do better work and attract the people we need to do the best work we can,” he said.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently informed employees that they could work from home permanently. Jennifer Christie, Twitter’s human resources director, told BuzzFeed that her company would likely never be the same as managers discover that they can oversee their employees remotely.
“People who were reticent to work remotely will find that they really thrive that way,” she said. “Managers who didn’t think they could manage teams that were remote will have a different perspective. I do think we won’t go back.”
Dorsey also allowed employees at his mobile payment company, Square, to work from home permanently. The new policy does not apply to workers who must come to the office to do their jobs, like security personnel, according to the Verge.
Google also extended its work-from-home policy for most of its employees until the end of the year and is looking at how to incorporate a work-from-home policy for the future, according to a May 26 note to workers from CEO Sundar Pichai.
“Moving ahead, we are looking to develop more overall flexibility in how we work. … We continue to study all the data and feedback you’re sharing on your current experience. I believe that ultimately these insights will lead to more flexibility and choice for employees as they consider how to work in the future,” he wrote.
Nontech companies like snack food maker Mondelez have also announced that they are giving up global office space as employees work from home.
“We can work in different ways,” the company’s CEO, Dirk van de Put, recently said.
While there appears to be momentum for companies shifting to work-from-home platforms, experts are divided on whether this trend will continue after the pandemic has been conquered.
Gary London, senior principal at the analytical real estate research firm London Moeder Advisors, thinks the development of a vaccine will prompt employees to go back into offices.
“Until a vaccine is applied, certainly liberal work-at-home options will be all the rage. Post vaccine, I expect that much of the workforce will return to their office,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
London does see a greater prevalence in flex hours and sharing of workspaces in a post-pandemic world, but he does not expect many companies to abandon their office space because that is where collaboration occurs and new ideas are hatched.
On the other hand, Alan Gin, an associate professor of economics at the University of San Diego, thinks the trend of employees working from home will continue since companies are receiving the same level of production without having to provide employees a workspace.
“Many companies are finding out that they can be successful even with their employees working at home. Allowing employees to work from home reduces the need for costly office space and will be beneficial to workers who want the flexibility that working from home allows,” he told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
