Remote/Hybrid Work Policies at Fortune 500 Companies

Nearly every company on the Fortune Global 500 has remote positions available. While some remote positions are only available for specific jobs, the number of full-time remote jobs at Fortune 500 companies seems to grow bigger every day.

Remote work is the future and here to stay.

Certain sectors are more impacted than others by the move to remote and hybrid work. A study by management consulting firm Advanced Workplace Associations surveyed nearly 10,000 people working in finance, energy, and technology. They found only 3% of knowledge workers are interested in returning to full-time work in the office.

Attracting and retaining an elite workforce for most companies today means looking beyond local geographic limitations and offering flexible options on a global scale.

Fortune 500 Companies’ Remote Work Policies

Here are some of the ways the top companies are approaching remote work policies and building remote company cultures.

Moving Permanently to Remote or Hybrid Work

While saying they will get teams together for important moments, Adobe is allowing employees to work remotely. Several other companies have enacted policies of “remote first” when filling jobs. The list includes:

• Fujitsu
• Nationwide
• Pratt & Whitney
• Cisco
• PwC

Siemens is allowing more than 140,000 employees in 43 countries to work where they feel most productive. They are letting employees work from wherever they want for two to three days each week. “These changes will also be associated with a different leadership style, one that focuses on outcomes rather than on time spent at the office,” Roland Busch, President & CEO at Siemens told Reuters.

Flexible Scheduling

Alphabet, the parent company of Google, says it’s open to all options for its workforce. While the majority of its workforce will be coming into the office three days a week, others will work completely remotely.

“We believe that most of our teams collaborating together in the office for part of the week, and having the flexibility to work from home for the rest, is what’s best for our products, customers, people and culture,” John Casey, VP of Global Benefits at Google, told Forbes.

SAP has launched the “Pledge to Flex,” allowing employees to work remotely, in-office, or a combination of both with no questions asked. “We continue to believe in a workplace based on trust and empowerment because employees are at the heart of what we do,” said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP in a release. “Our pledge to flex is designed to ensure employees have what they need to be productive, creative and inspired while running the business responsibly and meeting business requirements.”

Letting Teams Decide

“We don’t call it hybrid. We don’t call it flexible,” said Nickle LaMoreaux, Sr. VP and Chief Human Resources Officer at IBM told Fortune. “We call it intentionally flexible.” It’s about people coming together as a team and intentionally deciding what works for them, she said. The focus will be on letting teams develop their own schedules to work around life commitments while still finding time for collaboration and crossover.

Amazon is taking a similar approach. While announcing last year that they had expected workers to spend three days a week in the office and two days working from home, the online retailers changed gears and said they’ll let individual teams decide how often employees need to be in the office.

“We’re intentionally not prescribing how many days or which days—this is for Directors to determine with their senior leaders and teams,” said Amazon CEO Andy Jassy in a message to employees. “The decisions should be guided by what will be most effective for our customers; and not surprisingly, we will all continue to be evaluated by how we deliver for customers, regardless of where the work is performed.

Letting Workers Decide

Social media company Twitter let their employees know they were leaving the decision of where to work up to them.

 “Decisions about where you work, whether you feel safe traveling for business, and what events you attend, should be yours,” Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter announced. “Wherever you feel most productive and creative is where you will work and that includes working from home full-time forever. Office every day? That works too. Some days in office, some days from home? Of course.”

Hiring Remote Workers

The demand for remote workers continues to grow. This creates more opportunities for job seekers and a broader talent pool for employers.

At Crossover, we match the world’s top 1% of professionals with 100% remote careers. Join the remote work revolution - find out more by visiting our website at crossover.com, or view the current job openings.

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