LinkedIn will allow employees to opt for full-time remote work or a hybrid option as offices gradually reopen, Chief People Officer Teuila Hanson told Reuters. The new policy is a transition from the first signs of October last year that Microsoft’s professional social networking sites expect employees to work in the office for 50% of the time the COVID-19 pandemic limit lifts.
This update policy provides the flexibility to work remotely full-time or work at an office part-time and will apply to LinkedIn’s global workforce of more than 16,000 employees.
“We anticipate that we’ll definitely see more remote employees than what we saw prior to the pandemic,” Hanson said in a Wednesday interview ahead of the announcement, adding that some jobs would require in-office work. Hanson said LinkedIn is not currently requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to return to the office, in contrast to tech companies such as Facebook and Google that have responded to a rise in US COVID-19 cases by requiring shots. Twitter is closing its recently reopened offices due to the surge in cases.
Last year when Covid-19 hit the United States, the tech industry was one of the first companies to allow employees to work from home. However, the extent to which technology companies are adopting permanent remote work is now diversifying.
Alphabet’s Google estimates that 60% of its employees will return to the office at least part-time. Apple requires most employees to work in the office three days a week from October, but Zillow Group and Reddit allow most employees to work remotely.
