Ending the voluntary WFH period, Google employees are asked to return to the office starting April 4 and are expected to be working on-site for three days each week.
Google Employees Will Return to Office This April
Google announced on Wednesday through The Verge that employees, who are working at their Bay Area offices and other U.S. locations, will return to work on April 4.
Starting on the said date, the search engine giant will begin its previously stated hybrid work style, with most employees expected to be in the office three days each week.
Google spokesperson Lora Lee Erickson explained the timeline that the company will use the whole month of March to assist their employees with the transition to the new hybrid work approach.
Erickson further emphasized that some employees may be required to work more than three days per week, depending on their positions. Additionally, an extension can be made by employees who need extra time before returning to work.
Hybrid Work Approach
According to Envoy, the hybrid work approach contains several variations, one of which is that some companies require their employees to work on-site and remotely in a week. While other companies demand their employees either work full-time on-site or full-time at home.
Despite this difference, most companies combined these two variations simultaneously.
To provide further details, the survey conducted by Envoy showed that nearly half of employees would likely look for a new job if their company did not implement a flexible working model. With the mentioned result, it appears that employees value hybrid work.
With regards to the benefits, the hybrid work approach it enables employees to have more freedom to work during their most productive time.
In addition to this, the recent survey from Slack also showed that flexibility is the main reason why employees are attracted to the hybrid work approach. For instance, employees who are in the said work approach will have more time to do personal matters including running errands or taking care of children.
Apple Is Also Doing Hybrid Work Approach
Apart from Google, several companies are also requiring their employees to return to the office as well as to adapt the hybrid work approach.
Some of the said companies are Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, J.P Morgan and more.
To keep track of those companies with employees returning to the office, Hubble created a list of all the firms' back-to-office strategies which are updated weekly. The said list is categorized into three parts: office-first, hybrid model, and remote-first.
Under the hybrid model, the Cupertino-based technology company Apple is also implementing the mentioned approach.
For those unfamiliar, Apple CEO Tim Cook issued an email to employees in June 2021, asking them to come back to work three days a week - Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday - with the chance to work from home on Wednesdays and Fridays.
This was originally planned to take place in September 2021 but was pushed back to October. However, due to the objections, the tech giant postponed its plan until early 2022.
