21 Companies That Now Allow Their Employees to Work From Home Permanently
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Switching to temporary remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic taught these top companies the perks of allowing their employees to work from home permanently.
Do you want to return to the office or work from home permanently once the COVID-19 clouds lift?
When IBM polled 25,000 workers during coronavirus lockdowns, researchers learned [*]:
- 54% of employees would prefer to work remotely full time.
- 75% would like to work from home at least part-time.
- 40% strongly believe employers should give their staff the choice of working remotely.
If you’ve experienced remote work firsthand, this feedback probably comes as no surprise. Working from home creates happier, more productive employees. And the other perks (i.e., no commute, greater work/life balance, affordable housing, etc.) are too irresistible to ignore.
So in this roundup, you’ll learn which of the world’s top companies are now offering permanent and part-time work-from-home options to their employees.
21 Companies that Now Allow Employees to Work from Home Permanently
CEOs, CFOs, and key decision-makers saw the advantages of downsizing offices and collaborating remotely during 2020. And they also want to keep this train rolling.
A Gartner survey of 317 CFOs and finance leaders revealed that [*]:
- 74% plan to move at least 5% of their previously on-site employees to permanently remote positions post-COVID 19.
- Nearly a quarter want at least 20% of on-site employees to switch to permanent remote work.
- Over 5% say they’d like at least half of their employees to work remotely going forward.
The most well-known companies transitioning to part-time and permanent WFH arrangements include:
#1. Google
While not a forever situation, the search engine behemoth will allow its employees to work from home until September 2021 [*]. After this, CEO Sundar Pichai says the company will experiment with a hybrid model where some employees work three days in the office and the rest of the week from home [*].
#2. Microsoft
The tech giant will be allowing employees to work from home permanently on a case-by-case basis. According to revamped workspace policies, most employees will get to work from home part-time (less than 50% of the time) and choose the hours and days when they work [*].
#3. Twitter
In an off-the-cuff email in 2018, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey actually encouraged employees to work from home after he had a particularly productive remote workday himself [*]. COVID-19 accelerated Dorsey’s long-term gameplan and helped enact policies to allow employees to work from home indefinitely.
#4. Square
In another Jack Dorsey-led work-from-home push, Square employees are also allowed to work from home forever, even after the company’s offices reopen [*].
#5. Facebook
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is working out a plan for as many as half of Facebook’s employees to work remotely permanently. Downside: part of the program may mean adjusting salaries for those living outside of the expensive Silicon Valley real estate bubble [*].
#6. Dropbox
In October 2020, the San Francisco-based company announced they will make remote work the standard practice and have since then revamped a bunch of their features that are geared towards distributed teams.
#7. Slack
Slack use ramped up and facilitated remote communication for many companies during the pandemic. So now Slack is giving employees the choice to work from home permanently. Bonus: Slack’s looking to hire even more permanent remote workers.
#8. REI
CEO and President Eric Artz said the outdoor/adventure retailer will "lean into remote working as an engrained, supported, and normalized model" for its corporate employees [*]. REI even plans to sell its newly completed, totally unused 8-acre corporate campus in Bellevue, WA.
#9. Zillow
CEO Rich Barton says nearly 90% of Zillow employees will have “the flexibility to work from home as an ongoing option… allowing them the ability to work where they are most productive, whether that is in the office, their home, or a combination of both.”
Since first closing the Zillow offices in March 2020, the dream-home-finders hired approximately 500 new, entirely remote employees [*].
#10. Gartner
The IT research and advisory company company recently mentioned that up to 41% of employees will continue to work remotely even after the Covid pandemic.
#11. Hitachi
The Japanese electronics brand first allowed employees to work from home during the pandemic. After seeing great success with the initiative, Hitachi now aims to have 70% of its employees (~23,000) work remotely two or three days a week [*].
#12. Shopify
The cloud-based eCommerce platform will let all 5,000 of its employees work from home indefinitely. According to a tweet from Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, “Office centricity is over.”
#13. Coinbase
The cryptocurrency exchange company from the San Francisco Bay area wants to make working from home the norm for its employees. Transitioning to a “remote-first” company, Coinbase will move most roles to the remote realm permanently. It will also offer office space for those who wish to return to HQ for some or all of their workday post-COVID-19 [*].
#14. Siemens
A leader in global industrial electrical engineering and electronics, Siemens says 140,000 of its employees will be able to work from home permanently two to three days per week.
#15. Nationwide Insurance
The privately-held insurance brand made one of the fastest transitions to remote work at the height of the coronavirus crisis. More than 98% of its 27,000 employees began working from home in just five business days.
The pandemic experiment worked so well that Nationwide announced its plans to downsize its 20 physical offices to just four post-pandemic. The majority of employees will be clocking in from home indefinitely [*].
#16. Nielsen
The research company is encouraging its employees to work from home well into the future. It hopes to convert its New York City offices into team meeting spaces for employees who wish to work part of their work hours in-house post-pandemic.
#17. Infosys
The information technology experts at Infosys plan to allow up to 50% of its employees to work from home permanently.
#18. Mastercard
The credit card company boasting the fastest global payment processing network told its employees they can work from home until they feel comfortable returning to the office, which could mean indefinitely.
#19. Fujitsu
The technology firm plans to halve its Japan-based offices and roll out a “work life shift” that will give its 80,000 employees flexible work hours and standardized work-from-home arrangements.
In a press statement, Fujitsu said this “new way of working... promises a more empowering, productive, and creative experience for employees that will boost innovation and deliver new value to its customers and society [*].”
#20. VMware
This Palo Alto software firm is no stranger to remote work. CEO Pat Gelsinger said 20% of its 31,000 employees worked from home before the COVID-19 crisis. Now, the company plans to double (or even triple!) their ranks of remote employees, so this figure may “end up in the 50% to 60% [range] over time [*].”
#21. Atlassian
Atlassian started experimenting with remote work after its $425 million acquisition of Trello, a cloud-based project management service, in 2017. Most of Trello’s employees worked remotely, which helped transition the rest of the Atlassian family during quarantine.
Atlassian added more than 300 new remote employees (nearly 8% of its workforce) since March 2020. Each new employee receives a laptop, monitor, and $1,000 budget to set up a remote home office when they first start [*].
Are You Ready to Join the Revolution and Work from Home Permanently?
Don’t get stuck in a stuffy office if you’d rather have the freedom and flexibility remote work brings. Make 2021 your year to land a remote job at one of the companies on this ever-growing list allowing employees to work from home permanently or part-time.
Use these guides to make your dream a reality:
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