The tech giant is currently looking into offering remote work to their employees, impacting pay increase and decrease. With over 150 locations worldwide, the tech titan may have to encourage a percentage of Google employees to work from home. This is primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic that had struck most office-based industries globally.
Of the 69 Google locations in North America, only 60 percent are allowed to come to work at the Google premises a few days weekly. In May, Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced that 20 percent of its employees are allowed to work in the office. Meanwhile, the other 20 percent could work from home.
While this sounds appealing to some, other employees working in expensive areas such as San Francisco or New York might compromise their pay. Google announced they might have to decrease the pay when employees from expensive cities opt to work from home.
Local region rates
Compensations for Google employees will have to depend on the local region rates. Google introduced a tool called: Work Location Tool. It’s to assess if employees changing work locations might get a pay increase or decrease.
A Google representative confirmed that the tech giant would pay its employees the optimum amount of the local market. However, the spokesperson didn’t answer any further concerns about the pay cuts when working remotely or how bonuses are affected when moving work locations.
Tech giants follow suit
Google is one of the first few companies that encouraged its employees to work from home during the start of the pandemic. As expected, more tech companies followed suit.
In a live stream meeting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook is also showing employees how remote work is all the rage. Such is the case with the coronavirus still wreaking havoc on everyone’s health.
Zuckerberg said they are currently looking into more remote hiring systems. On top of that, Facebook is also establishing a measured process for current employees to work remotely. Zuckerberg estimates remote working for his employees over five to 10 years.
Moreover, Square and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also extends working from home as a means to combat the coronavirus disease. The CEO is offering its employees remote work permanently during and even after the pandemic. However, Dorsey clarifies that security workers or employees who handle in-office operations are still mandated to come to the office.
Efficiency through a hybrid approach work
In an email to Google employees, the tech company expresses their vision of establishing a more seamless workflow. That is regardless of where you are in the world. Anyone from various Google physical or virtual locations will still collaborate efficiently through this hybrid work approach.
For more than 20 years, Google’s employees have innovated, collaborated, and delivered stellar services and systems to users. Most of the work happens inside the Google premises.
And while most employees certainly enjoy working on Google campuses, some prefer working from home. Some others want to experience a different city while working. During the last year, a REWS team has been helping Google turn all these into possibilities. The team is constantly engineering state of the art video technology, creating private workspaces, and testing multi-purpose offices to allow virtual teams to collaborate.
CEO Pichai thinks positive
Google CEO Sundar Pichai is optimistic about being able to offer more remote roles, while maintaining quality work. He finds that many of his employees enjoy working on Google campuses. But this shouldn’t hinder productivity for others who like to go “virtual.”
Pichai wrote, “Before the pandemic, we had thousands of people working in locations separate from their core teams. I fully expect those numbers to increase in the coming months as we develop more remote roles, including fully all-remote sub teams.”
As more and more companies aim for employees working remotely, establishing a core system for flawless collaboration and increased productivity should still be the primary priority.
Whether Google’s massive workforce finds this news advantageous or not, the tech giant claims they won’t allow employees, in any capacity, to return to campuses until September 2021.
