![]() ![]() "I think any kind of job or industry where people can work independently and don't require a lot of intensive collaboration" could roll the dice and follow in Yelp's footsteps, says Schloetzer, and that the doubling-down strategy could become reasonably common among certain sectors, like tech. But this is new territory, so it's unclear how widespread this could become, and how many companies are willing to take the risk. We could see more companies follow suit, say some experts, including Jason Schloetzer, associate professor at McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, US, who says full remote "is the direction some companies seem to be going”. But for companies with the flexibility to take such a dramatic decision, the option is becoming increasingly appealing. Of course, this move isn't possible for all industries: customer-facing sectors that have been resistant to remote (or even hybrid) work, like finance, or other sectors like hospitality or healthcare, either won't or can't close workplaces the way other companies have. Stoppelman said Yelp had seen “a strong surge in candidate applications” as it moved towards its remote-first future. ![]() ![]() Workers are no longer limited to searching specific metropolitan areas with proximity to an office, and recruiters can go after talent from around the country – if not the globe. “I would think that it's non-reversible workers won't want to go back into the office.”Ī shift to remote work also vastly expands talent pools. Because while closing offices might seem like a point of no return, "I don't think this move is non-reversible – they could just go back into the cities and buy real estate,” she says. Milliken argues this is a primary reason some companies are shifting approaches – and why fully remote set-ups may stick. Companies that double down are simply following the numbers, making sure their employees won’t leave for other remote-first jobs. After all, data shows a clear worker desire for remote work in Yelp's case, 86% of respondents to an internal survey wanted to work remotely all or most of the time only 1% are currently going into the office daily. He says it's been a pain not only for companies trying to organise the hybrid schemes, but also for workers, who are experiencing whiplash after two years of working from home, when they had more autonomy than ever before.Ī large portion of workers don’t want to lose this autonomy, companies know, so doubling down on remote work may be a tactic to fight attrition and boost worker engagement. Hybrid has been "a little bit of a mess", agrees Erik Gonzalez-Mulé, associate professor of organisational behaviour and human resources at Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, US. “There's a lot of scheduling complexity with hybrid work."Īs some workers have returned to offices, the downsides of in-and-out hybrid schedules have started to become clearer, from awkward Zoom calls in conference rooms to emotional exhaustion for workers and logistical headaches ensuring team members are in the office at the same time. “Hybrid work is really hard to manage,” says Frances Milliken, professor of management at Stern School of Business, New York University. The complexities of hybrid work are a key factor pushing companies into fully remote set-ups. But experts also say that banking on remote work in this way carries risk – especially since no-one is entirely sure if it will work, or what will happen next. There can be huge upsides to moving in this direction, including meeting the desires of workers who want to stay at home permanently as well as saving costs. Some firms, like Yelp, have also closed office space: in May, worker-for-hire app TaskRabbit completely closed all its offices, including its headquarters in San Francisco in April, PayPal shuttered its San Francisco presence. Airbnb, 3M, Spotify and Lyft have all enshrined permanent home-working set-ups. Other companies are similarly doubling down on remote work. “Over time we came to realise that the future of work at Yelp is remote,” he wrote in a blog post. Yelp is only keeping its San Francisco headquarters and Phoenix, Arizona outpost, transitioning to a 'hotelling' model where desks can be rented for the day. Stoppelman, who described hybrid work as the “worst of both worlds” and even dubbed it “hell”, said physical offices in major cities in the US, including New York City, Chicago and Washington, DC, would close. ![]() In late June, Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman announced a big decision for the 4,400-person company: by 29 July, Yelp will do away with hybrid set-ups altogether, and go fully remote. ![]()
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