Microsoft resumes headquarters on March 29 with hybrid workplace focus

Microsoft plans to begin reopening its Redmond and Seattle, Washington headquarters later this month. The software giant originally started encouraging employees to work from home more than a year ago, the way the coronovirus epidemic began, and the company’s main US offices have been closed for months. It will begin to change on March 29, with the reopening of Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond and Seattle.

“Currently, Microsoft workplaces in 21 countries are able to accommodate additional workers in our facilities – representing approximately 20% of our global employee population” Says kurt delbin, Head of corporate strategy Microsoft. “On March 29, Microsoft will begin this change at our Redmond, Washington, headquarters and surrounding campuses as well.”

Microsoft says that this gradual approach conforms to local authority restrictions and the company has determined that it can now safely accommodate more workers by sticking to Washington state capacity limits. “As we look to progress against the virus in the region and continue to evaluate our guidance, employees who work at Redmond work sites or nearby campuses have a return to those facilities or remotely There is an option to continue working with, and the flexibility to do so is a mixture of both.

Picture: Microsoft

This is the beginning of the reopening of Microsoft’s offices, last year as part of a six-phase move by the company. This is stage four, or what is called a soft opening to allow more employees to return. Stage five steps into the open with restrictions, before stage six is ​​fully open without restrictions.

With this reopening, Microsoft is also focusing on a hybrid workplace as it anticipates the continued demand for remote working and flexibility among its own employees and elsewhere. Microsoft is releasing a 2021 edition of its work trend indexA report containing data and research on how employees and businesses are responding to the epidemic.

Microsoft has found that 73 percent of workers polled want to continue with flexible remote work. Microsoft now considers working as a standard part-time home for employees, and the company is looking at new ways to use technology to bridge the gap between remote work and traditional offices.

“We have pulled together a group of Microsoft researchers, engineers and real estate and facilities experts to prototype the hybrid meeting space at our Redmond, Washington and UK campuses,” Delbeney explains. “The group is investigating different meeting configurations and techniques, like multiple screens, cameras, and mixed reality scenarios, to understand the most effective, inclusive set-up for hybrid work.”

The work is still preliminary, but Microsoft is building prototypes to improve Microsoft teams to tweak existing technology and even bridge the gap to help with meetings and remote tasks. This may well involve turning all the screens in your home into teams-enabled devices, so that house staff can see employees on larger screens. Microsoft hinted at this type of concept during its Ignite event earlier this month.

“Although we do not know how far a new normal is, we are adopting a new way of working with an expanded understanding of flexibility,” Delbene says. “We know that there are thousands of ways to work – in the past year our employees have shown what is possible – and we believe that flexibility is necessary to maintain work-life balance.”