BackGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai shares formula on how to 'balance' work from office and home
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google parent Alphabet Inc., said that the tech giant is looking to accommodate nearly 20% of its workforce to be fully remote over time
PremiumSundar Pichai, Google's chief executive officer, has said that working three days a week in the office and two days remotely gives employees a good "balance" between time at home and time with their colleagues.
"Even in places like New York and San Francisco our employees dealt with long commutes and that was a real issue. And so I do think people get a better balance in a three/two model," Pichai said while speaking to The Wall Street Journal's editor-in-chief.
The Google CEO said the tech giant was "roughly planning on a three/two model," with employees given flexibility to work where they want for two days a week. The Alphabet-owned company first unveiled this "flexible work week" in December last year.
The three days in person is going to be important for collaboration and community, Pichai said, adding, "it's about getting the balance".
Pichai said that Google is looking to accommodate nearly 20% of its workforce to be fully remote over time. "So it's something we've been thinking about. We are giving people a lot more freedom to relocate to a different base. So trying to embrace and build in flexibility," he said.
The firm would "probably" invest in real estate to make it easy for teams to get together, Pichai said.
Google recently agreed a $2.1 billion deal to expand it's so-called "Google Hudson Square" complex in New York, and Pichai said that the company was "reimagining" its spaces to make them more collaborative and "fun."
Alphabet has delayed its full office return until January next year, and Pichai said that beyond then, the firm would tell each local office to make their own decisions about returning to work.
Between 20% and 30% of employees had voluntarily returned to the office already, Pichai said - that rose to 50% in New York.
On cyber hacking attacks, Pichai said, "the world of cyber doesn't have norms and conventions we have established in the real world. You don't have the Geneva Convention equivalent on the cyber world. So over time I think we need to internalize that and governments in a multilateral basis, the G20s et cetera, need to put it up higher on the agenda."
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