Organizations know remote work works, but the pandemic-style working is not sustainable for the long-term. Just days after Google’s Sundar Pichai shared his vision for hybrid work model, Redmond software giant Microsoft has issued guidance for post-pandemic work in which some employees will be on-site, while others work remotely. The company publicly announced that it would allow most of its global workforce to work remotely less than 50% of the time.
Almost seven months after testing large-scale remote work experiment, Redmond tech giant Microsoft has issued guidance to allow at least some staff to work from home even after the pandemic abates. The tech behemoth summed up its vision for the future of work in a blog postOpens a new window by Kathleen Hogan, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, Microsoft.Â
“Moving forward, it is our goal to offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs and ensuring we live our culture. For most roles, we view working from home part of the time (less than 50%) as now standard – assuming manager and team alignment,†Hogan saysOpens a new window .Â
The COVID-19 crisis redefined what work really means and accelerated the shift from place to purpose, signaling how workforces can operate out of centralized hubs. Big Tech giants like Twitter, Facebook, Google and Microsoft took the lead on shedding the old-school approach to work and made flexibility a core tenet to support individual workstyles.Â
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However, delivering exceptional remote work experiences is challenging and organizations need to implement a few considerations for smoothing the path to permanent work from anywhere (WFA). Tech leaders believe though work from anywhere has arrived, it is definitely not 100% remote. Speaking at the recently concluded Microsoft Ignite event, CEO Satya Nadella made a case for hybrid work culture and said tech intensity is key to business resilience and digital transformation. Nadella added there is an urgent need to empower employees and foster a new culture of hybrid work. Â
Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai shared a similar outlook in a recent interview with TIME magazineOpens a new window . “We don’t see that [having a sense of community] changing, so we don’t think the future is 100% remote or something, we definitely see, uh, we value our offices, we value the culture, but we do think we need to create more flexibility and some more hybrid models,†he said.Â
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 Post Pandemic Work GuidelinesÂ
Microsoft, which has a 155,000-strong workforce, has issued guidance to help employees make informed decisions about changes to their work site, work location, and work hours once offices open without any COVID-19 restrictions.Â
The guidance offers the necessary steps to facilitate part-time remote work. Some of the key points include:
- Remote/hybrid work from different cities or countries (in case any employee seeks relocation)
- Flexibility in shift timings
However, not all roles are suited for WFH models as some employees are required to be on-site. For instance, employees working in Microsoft’s hardware labs, data centers, or those undergoing in-person training, and any other such roles will need to be in office. “While we’ve shared that we will challenge long-held assumptions and seek to be on the forefront of what is possible leveraging technology, we have also communicated that we are not committing to having every employee work from anywhere, as we believe there is value in employees being together in the workplace,†Hogan said, in closing. Â
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