14 Oct When Silicon Valley Companies Are Returning to the Office
Many of the largest tech firms in the San Francisco Bay Area have decided to have their employees work from home indefinitely due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Microsoft implemented a standard where most employees, whose roles don’t require them to be onsite, are working half of their time at home. Back in May, Twitter announced its plans on making its remote workforce permanent.
Additionally, earlier in April, Google sent its employees an email informing them that it should expect to return to the office by June. But in May, Google’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, decided to tell workers to postpone these plans until the end of the year 2020. By July, according to a CNN Business article, Google decided to allow employees to work remotely at least up until July 2021.
A close neighbor, however, Netflix’s CEO, Reed Hastings, has a different view on where companies are headed. He foresees companies having their employees report in offices 4 days a week, with the 5th day designated for remote work, according to Business Insider. He further shares his negative sentiments on remote working in contrast to the previously mentioned tech companies.
Despite having different views on remote work, it seems that the future of big-tech companies in Silicon Valley lies in the hands of a more dispersed workforce. Does this mean offices will die out soon?
Gary Dillabough and Jeff Arrillaga, a pair of real estate investors, beg to differ. They even have this idea of making neighboring San Jose into a more urbanized and denser area. Moreover, they predict companies in the Bay Area to eventually bring their now-remote staff to offices in a quieter city in the region.
With Google’s Downtown West Mixed-Use Plan Project and new transit lines to connect the city to other regional hubs expected to be underway, the idea of a more vibrant and citified San Jose isn’t too far fetched.
Stay in the Bay
Fox News reported that a Facebook representative said that for years, they have been adopting a “market-based” approach to compensation. In other words, it pays employees based on common market practice where employees are operating. Likewise, Twitter will need to adjust pay for employees who decide to relocate.
With a surge in relocations, many business leaders, albeit experienced in pay adjustments based on a location’s cost-of-living, aren’t as well-equipped as global mobility managers to make calculated decisions concerning talent and mobility.
Global mobility experts are veterans in managing remote workforces. They also understand the implications of fluctuations in relocations within a company. And this certainly applies to many companies in the Bay Area.
This surge in relocations caused the San Francisco housing and rental market to soften after the onset of the pandemic. Opportunistic global mobility managers could use this to their advantage.
With many tech workers in the Bay Area going to other cities to work, rental prices have gone down. This doesn’t mean that the entire workforce population is opting to move out though. Many job positions still usher employees to report in offices due to the nature of their work.
Issi Romem, a California housing economist, believes that this “Silicon Valley Exodus” is short-term, and things will go back to normal soon. So global mobility managers can see the value of conducting short-term assignments in the Bay Area, if opportunities present themselves.
Fortunately, California Corporate Housing still caters to companies considering moving its employees to San Francisco. It understands that some companies still demand good quality housing and services for some of its relocators in the area, and offers corporate housing rentals at competitive prices without compromising living quality.