Ford Motor told employees they can continue to work from home, allowing more than 30,000 to use the office only when they need to, even after the pandemic is over.
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Kiersten Robinson, Ford’s human resources chief, announced the move in a global town-hall meeting with employees. It’ll apply first in North America.
Like many employers, large and small, Ford is grappling with the reality that workers have grown to appreciate not commuting every day and
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“People, to the extent they can, want to work where they want and when they want,” John Bremen, a managing director at Willis Towers Watson, said in an interview. “Companies are seeing that and saying, ‘If we can accommodate that, we will.’”
In a survey last summer, 95% of Ford’s global nonproduction staff said they wanted to maintain a mix of home and office work after the pandemic. The Dearborn, Michigan-based company finished 2020 with about 186,000 employees.
“No more cubicle farms,” Jackie Shuk, global director of Ford’s real estate unit, said in an interview. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible to be a Ford employee.”
Ford will have to carefully manage perceptions since it’s
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Making employees happy has become a key recruitment tool for Ford, which now vies for tech talent with California’s
“When you start looking at that key talent, and how prime it is right now, we have to become that employer of choice and compete against those tech companies,” Shuk said.
Technology firms have long given employees the option to work remotely. Now, companies in other corners of corporate America are loosening the reins after seeing workers were just as productive — if not more so — while working from home.
“Companies have found the more flexibility you give to employees, the more productive they will be,” Bremen said. “Our data show people work more when they’re working from home.”