This 2020’s pandemic changed everyone’s lives, routines, work, and plans. Of course, Tech Giants weren’t exempt from this. Brilliant minds had to work together in order to develop new strategies to maintain productivity, use technology to optimize remote work, and protect their employees.
Business owners around the globe are rethinking their business models and transforming their organizational systems. And there are many lessons to learn from the chess moves of the tech giants.
In this article, we quickly analyze the main changes and decisions taken by the most relevant tech companies during this Covid-19 crisis. Here’s how tech giants are applying new remote work strategies:
Work from home until 2021 or forever
Facebook and Google were among the first large tech companies to decide to maintain remote work until next year. Google announced first that remote work will prevail until June 2020 and then extended this period until July 2021.
Not long after, Facebook also announced that a few offices will open but that their employees could work remotely until July 2021 as well. Both companies, Facebook and Google, also gave workers $1,000 for their home office spaces.
Twitter, on the other side, decided to go limitless: The company recently stated that their employees can work from home “forever” if they preferred this modality and found it suitable, even after opening all office spaces.
Postponing the return to the offices for such long periods—even “forever”— shows how these companies rely on technology, trust their workers and have developed strong internal communication strategies.
Big bets on AI
Tech companies have been forced to speed up their machine learning studies and experiments in orders to use this technology to optimize their work and services. Facebook and Google had to rely on AI sooner than expected and are now using it to moderate content.
Also, during the pandemic, Amazon has been working on new partnerships and strategies to train workers in AI and machine learning. It is no coincidence that Microsoft recently published a study showing that companies that apply AI technology are getting the most tech value. Tech giants know that this technology is gathering momentum.
Google’s Remote Work Recommendations
Google published a playbook based on internal and external research to guide their workers through the distributed work experience. The company assures that remote work can be as effective as office work and suggested their employees to focus on three main categories:
1. The space: Google explains that virtual and physical space are both important. Workers should create comfortable home office spaces and also consider virtual spaces —use proper communication tools and set a friendly environment with the remote team.
2. The people: The company insists in prioritizing team communication and not just for work matters. The playbook mentions that it is important to also have friendly conversations with teammates and even encourages sending funny photos or interesting articles.
3. The practices: Having a coherent structure and clear rules is crucial. In the guide it is explained that everyone should have a good understanding of the expectations of the work and the communication system. The rules include setting working hours and warns employees to make sure to separate work from home life and take care of their well-being.
Google understands that switching large teams to remote work without proper training isn’t easy, but counts on good communication, technology and developing good behaviors. This 2020 is offering everyone major lessons and the best strategies and techniques are still in development.
