Jessica Hartogs, an editor at LinkedIn News posted an interesting list of various companies and how they plan to reopen. The examples confirm many of the recent findings of the surveys that CoreNet Global has been conducting since the pandemic crisis began.
· Thirty-eight percent of survey respondents indicated that it will be more than a year before their company will have employees in the office at the same levels experienced prior to the coronavirus-induced shutdowns. Some 31 percent say it will be between six and 12 months before those levels are reached. About 15 percent say those levels will be reached within six months, while 16 percent say they will never have that many employees in the office again.
· Fifty-nine percent of survey respondents plan to provide assistance, or increase assistance, to employees with expenses related to equipping a home office (e.g., furniture, internet service, cameras, microphones, etc.) as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. Forty-one percent do not plan to provide such assistance.
· Ninety-four percent say that they will bring employees back in waves, as opposed to all at once.
And here is how it is all playing out in real examples, according to LinkedIn:
· McDonalds: Plans to hire 260,000 workers in the U.S. this summer as it reopens locations.
· Blue Shield of California: Implemented a Covid-19 task force at the onset of the pandemic to help support employees. The insurer has also developed a playbook of best practices to bring people back to the workplace.
· ServiceNow: The tech company, which counts 11,000 employees, is giving the choice to work from home for the rest of 2020.
· Twilio: Employees are allowed to work from another city or state domestically through the end of the year, pending on manager approval.
· Google: Expects most of its employees to continue to WFH this year and is giving each employee $1,000 to spend on home workspace equipment. Lunch will be served in individual lunch boxes, and those coming into the office will be given arrival slots.
· Salesforce: Plans to introduce temperatures checks, shift schedules and eliminate perks such as snack jars at its San Francisco HQ.
· Apple: Going against the trend of most tech companies, Apple is having some employees return to some offices in phases, where they’ll be offered optional coronavirus tests. Its Silicon Valley headquarters will reopen to a “very limited” number of employees starting June 15, reports Bloomberg.
· Mercer: Released a nine-step “Return to a new normal” plan.
· JPMorgan Chase: Expects to keep its offices half full at most for the near future..
· American Express: Majority of employees can continue working remotely for the rest of the year.
· Walmart: Employees must wear masks, practice social distancing “whenever possible,” and wash hands regularly.