Fujitsu announces permanent work-from-home plan and to launch satellite offices
Japan’s Technology firm, Fujitsu Ltd said on Monday it would halve its office space in three years as it rewrites the way employees work under a “new normal” amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The company said its roughly 80,000 group employees in Japan would work flexible hours, and work-from-home would be standard wherever possible.
“We will overhaul our current work, allowance and welfare framework that is based on the assumption that employees commute to designated offices every day,” Hiroki Hiramatsu, Head- Human Resources of Fujitsu told in a news briefing.
While reducing office space, the company plans to launch satellite offices in areas where many employees reside and sign up with more shared workspace providers, Hiramatsu said.
Fujitsu has sold or ditched money-losing hardware businesses such as laptops and smartphones in recent years to focus on software services, a business that is relatively easy to conduct remotely.
Under the plan employees will “begin to primarily work on a remote-basis to achieve a working style that allows them to flexibly use their time according to the contents of their work, business roles, and lifestyle”.
The company also said that the programme will allow staff to choose where they work, whether that is from home, a major corporate hub or a satellite office.
Fujitsu believes that the increased autonomy offered to its workers will help to improve the performance of teams and increase productivity.
In the month of May 2020, Twitter told staff that they can work from home “forever” if they wish as the company looks towards the future after the coronavirus pandemic. and earlier that month Google and Facebook had also said that their staff can work from home until the end of the year.
Similarly, Google first said it would keep its work from home policy until 1 June, but further extended it for seven more months.
Fujitsu, the fourth-largest IT vendor in the world and the third largest for global IT services, is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Fujitsu Technology Solutions, part of the global Fujitsu Group, is the leading European IT infrastructure provider with a presence in all key markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, plus India, serving large, medium and small-sized companies.
