Ford Motor Co. pushed back the return date for salaried employees to next year as cases of COVID-19 increased.
The automaker also told employees on Wednesday that it was introducing short-term remote work options for some salaried employees whose jobs don’t depend on being on-site.
This new remote option will allow the employee to work from anywhere they want up to 30 days a year with supervisor approval. The reason is to give employees flexibility in where they want to work and when, said Dan Barbossa, a Ford spokesman.
Ford told its global salaried workforce that it would push back on starting hybrid work arrangements to “no earlier” than January 2022 rather than starting in October, Barbossa said.
Meanwhile, as many employees continue to work remotely, Ford said it would monitor the virus and “we will look for opportunities for team members to return to the site and experience the hybrid model,” Ford said in a statement.
On Monday, the Michigan health department reported 3,920 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths over the past three days, an average of 1,306.7 cases a day.
Ford announced a hybrid working arrangement in March. This arrangement will combine remote and on-site work to give employees the freedom to choose how, when, and where tasks are completed. The nature of the work will determine the on-site work, which is usually for collaboration. For example, a team may decide to come into the office twice a week for a project that requires face-to-face collaboration, while working remotely another day, or there may be periods when employees are needed onsite for a full week, then work from home all month. .
“Over the past 18 months, we have focused on the employee experience, from protecting the health and safety of our teams through our protocols, to increasing flexibility and resources to guide our team members as we work in new ways,” said Ford Chief People Officer Kiersten. Robinson said in a statement, “Ensuring we can support our employees with the tools to prepare and plan for a successful hybrid work model is critical to their well-being, business continuity and serving our customers.”
When Ford announced the hybrid plans, it also said it would redesign workspaces to have more community and team areas replacing individual desks and offices. In Dearborn, Ford said it would have a collaboration center available for reservation when certain projects would benefit from face-to-face interaction.
Ford employs about 182,000 people worldwide. An estimated 18,000 Ford-paid employees in North America work offsite, according to Ford. About 100,000 Ford employees with site-specific jobs, such as factory employees or engineers, have returned to work.
The changes announced Wednesday will not affect hourly employees or location-dependent employees.
In April, General Motors introduced what it calls Work Appropriately to its global workforce of 155,000 employees. Working Right gives many salaried workers more flexibility to work remotely or come to the office when necessary to do their job well.
GM’s salaried workers in southeastern Michigan are starting to return to the office this summer, but Work Appropriately has figured out how that’s happened to each of them.
In May, Stellantis said its white-collar workers were expected to continue working remotely once they officially returned to the office. Stellantis was formed from the January merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot maker PSA Group. It said they envision splitting 70% of remote work into 30% on-site. Most employees will likely return next year, but some will return later this year. It employs 400,000 people worldwide.
Again:GM, Ford’s battle over BlueCruise trademark could cost millions
Again:Ford is doubling production of the F-150 Lightning to meet customer demand, according to reports
Parts of this story were edited after publication.
Staff writers Phoebe Wall Howard and Eric D. Lawrence contributed to this story. Call Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more about General machine and register for us automotive newsletter. Become a customer.