Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) is looking to have employees back into their offices as early as September of next year. The tech giant was forced to shut down offices and call for remote working in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic making it untenable to have employees in office buildings.
Hybrid Work Model
The company had initially announced that some 200,000 full-time contract employees would work remotely until July 2021. A change of stance appears to have come into play in the aftermath of a number of drug companies reporting highly effective COVID-19 vaccines.
The tech giant is planning to experiment with a hybrid working model, in which some employees will work from home part of the week. In this case, employees will work three days in the office and the rest of the week at home.
The hybrid work model would come into play once conditions are safe for people to return to work amid the pandemic. Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, wants to test the model to see whether it will lead to greater productivity.
For the new model to work, Google will have to ensure that the employees work within commuting distance. In addition, the model would not work with employees that need access to specialized treatment. The flexible working model would also not work with workers who spend too much time with customers or employees at data centers or labs.
Remote Working Extension
Even as Google moves to get employees back to their offices, some companies are contemplating making permanent remote working. Facebook, Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), Square Inc. (NYSE: SQ), and Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) are some of the companies inclined at extending the remote work policies.
It is still unclear as to whether Google will require employees to partake the COVID-19 vaccine before returning to work. The tech giant has only urged employees to try and get the vaccine once their local public health provider says it is available to them.
The search giant has also confirmed it is looking to make the vaccines available to its staff mid to late 2021.
