Google to look at hybrid work-from-home models

Google is looking at a ‘hybrid’ working model as most of its employees said they don’t want to come back to the office full-time.

According to a recent survey done with its workforce on office preferences, 62% of Google employees said they want to return to their offices at some point, but not on a daily basis.

10% of its employees — a drop from 20% in May — said they don’t want to come into the office at all, while 15% said they would only want to come into the office on an “Ad hoc” basis or for certain events.

Employees’ reasons for wanting to return to offices included face time with colleagues, the ability to socialize, and better collaboration opportunities, the survey showed.

This has led the tech giant to rethink its long-term work options for employees, such as rearranging its offices and figuring out more long-term remote work options, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in an interview

“I see the future as being more flexible,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in the interview with Time magazine on September 23.

“We firmly believe that in-person, being together, having a sense of community is super important when you have to solve hard problems and create something new so we don’t see that changing. But we do think we need to create more flexibility and more hybrid models,” he added.

In July this year, Google announced the option for employees to work from home through July 2021.

Fellow tech giants such as Apple, Facebook and Twitter have also made changes to their working models, with Twitter allowing their employees to work from home ‘forever’.