Ford President Kumar Galhotra told Gary Gastelu of Fox News Autos that the automaker is in a good position to take advantage of Biden’s plan to electrify the fleet of federal vehicles.
It is a question that occupies the minds of millions of employees who worked from home last year: will they still be allowed to work remotely – at least a few days – after the pandemic has passed?
On Wednesday, one of America’s corporate titans, Ford Motor Co., gave his own answer: he told some 30,000 of his employees around the world who worked from home that they can continue to do so indefinitely, with flexible schedules approved by your managers. Their schedules will become a work office “hybrid”: they will travel to work mainly for group meetings and projects more suitable for face-to-face interaction.
Ford’s announcement sent one of the clearest signs yet that the pandemic has accelerated a cultural change in Americans’ working lives, eliminating any stigma surrounding remote work and encouraging the adoption of technology that makes it possible. Broader evidence about the post-pandemic workplace suggests that what has long been called tele-switching will continue to be much more common than it was a year ago.
A report this week from the job site In fact says that job postings that mention “remote work” have more than doubled since the pandemic began. These job offers are still increasing, even as vaccinations are accelerating and the pace of new confirmed cases of COVID is slowing.
“If job offers are a guide, employers are increasingly open to remote work, even if some employees return to the workplace,” said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Even.
The share of Even’s job offers that mention “remote work” or “homework” reached 7% last month, compared to just under 3% a year ago. But in some sectors, the gains were much more dramatic, including those that traditionally did not receive remote work well.
In legal services, for example, remote job vacancies for jobs including paralegals and legal assistants jumped from less than 5% in the second half of 2019 to 16% in the second half of 2020, according to Even data. In the banking and financial sector, for jobs as actuaries and loan underwriters, remote job postings increased from 4% to almost 16%. For mental health therapists, they increased from 1% to almost 7%.
These changes can, in turn, trigger changes in where people live and affect the variable economic health of metropolitan areas. Some highly skilled workers were able to migrate from costly coastal cities, where they came together in the decade after the Great Recession, to more accessible cities or small towns. Offices can shrink and exist primarily for collaborative work. Tax revenue in large cities may fall as fewer workers frequent bars, restaurants and cafes.
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“The pandemic has broken the social and cultural norms of how we work,” said Timothy Golden, professor of management at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. “Remote work has become much more accepted.”
Ford is just the last company to allow more work at home after the pandemic. Salesforce, Facebook, Google and other technology companies have said they will continue to work at home policies indefinitely. Target Corp. will leave its main office in downtown Minneapolis because it is switching to a hybrid model for 3,500 workers. He will keep other offices in the center.
Flexible remote work is hardly an equal opportunity advantage. It is disproportionately concentrated among more skilled and well-paid workers. The jobs of less paid employees generally require work on the spot or personal contact with the public.
More than a third of Asian employees and a quarter of whites worked from home because of the January pandemic, according to a government data analysis by the Conference Board, a business research group. Only 19% of black workers and 14% of Hispanics were able to do so.
Ford discovered last year that employees and supervisors believe that more work can be done remotely, that they can still connect with each other, and that they have the means to do their job, said Kiersten Robinson, chief of staff and director of experiences of employees. So when its hybrid programming starts in July or soon after, Ford will give teams the choice of when to come to the office.
Robinson said a flexible schedule will also help Ford compete for talent.
“I think we are seeing a real change in candidates’ expectations,” she said.
Among the employees happy with the new policy is Kelly Keller, manager of chemistry and materials compliance at Ford. Keller, who has been working on a hybrid scheme since the pandemic began a year ago, would not want to commute to work every day. Now she usually works three days from home and then travels for the next three days, one hour each way, to a laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan.
Sometimes, when she is at home, she takes her daughter to primary school and starts to work a little late before finishing at the end of the day.
“I definitely like the flexibility,” said Keller. “I would be grateful for the opportunity to continue the hybrid arrangement, for sure.”
Of the workers he supervises, seven go to the laboratory every day; four work from home. Domestic workers, Keller said, have been more productive than before the coronavirus attack, because they often work during the time they should be on the move.
“For most,” she said, “I think they spend more days.”
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A study carried out last month by Alexander Bick, an economist at Arizona State University, and two colleagues found that almost 13% of workers surveyed plan to work from home full time after the pandemic – almost double the 7.6% who did so in February 2020. Another 25% expect to do so at least one day a week, compared to 17% before the pandemic.
Company executives overwhelmingly report that remote work was successful during the pandemic, according to a survey by consultancy PwC. About 55% said they intend to allow remote work to continue, according to a survey of 133 executives from large companies. Only 17% said they wanted employees back in the office as soon as possible. Another 26% said they preferred only limited remote work, but acknowledged that it had become popular with employees.
Ford and other companies are redesigning their offices, or considering doing so, to reflect fewer cubicles and personal offices and more conference rooms and other spaces for workers, who may be on site only part of the week, to collaborate.
A more flexible attitude towards workplaces can be a blow to the largest cities in the United States. Many Americans are already capitalizing on remote work to leave New York, Los Angeles, Boston and the San Francisco Bay area in favor of Phoenix; Cover; Austin, Texas; Charlotte, North Carolina; and other less expensive areas, show real estate data.
A telling detail: Although the number of homes for sale dropped nationally last year, the offer of homes for sale in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles has actually increased, according to real estate broker Redfin. And the drop in housing availability was much less than the national average in other major coastal cities, such as Seattle, Boston and Washington.
Many cities can also absorb a financial impact, even if remote workers do not move. An academic study estimates that workers’ spending on downtown businesses will decrease by 5% to 10% after the pandemic.
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Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, said the pandemic has accelerated an earlier trend to the virus: more Americans are looking for cheaper homes in lesser-known cities and suburbs.
Fairweather herself left Seattle last summer after Oregon forest fires made the city skies dark and smoky. Originally, she, her husband and two young children planned to stay for just a month in a small town in Wisconsin, close to their family. Soon, however, they decided to make it permanent, and Fairweather was able to work remotely.
“We liked the pace of life – we liked being close to the family,” she said. “It is so accessible here.”