Ford Motor Co. is pushing back its return-to-work date for salaried employees to next year as COVID-19 cases escalate.
The automaker also told its employees Wednesday that it is introducing a short-term remote work option for some salaried employees whose jobs are not dependent on being on-site.
This new remote option will allow those employees to work from anywhere they want for up to 30 days a year with supervisor approval. The reason is to give employees the flexibility on where they want to work and when, said Dan Barbossa, Ford spokesman.
Ford told its global salaried workforce that it will push back starting the hybrid work arrangement to “no earlier” than January 2022 rather than start it in October, Barbossa said.
In the interim, as many salaried employees continue to work remotely,Ford said it will monitor the virus and “we’ll explore opportunities for team members to return on-site and experience the hybrid model,” Ford said in a statement.
As of Monday, the Michigan health department reported 3,920 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths over the past three days, averaging 1,306.7 cases a day.
Ford announced its hybrid work arrangement in March. The arrangement will blend remote and on-site work to give employees freedom to choose how, when and where tasks get done. The nature of the work will dictate on-site work, which will typically be for collaboration. For example, a team may decide to come into the office two times per week for a project that needs face-to-face collaboration, while working remotely the other days, or there may be a period when employees are needed on-site for a full week, then work from home the rest of the month.
“Over the past 18 months, we’ve been laser focused on the employee experience, from protecting the health and safety of our team through our protocols, to increased flexibility and resources to guide our team members as we work in new ways,” said Ford Chief People Officer Kiersten Robinson in a statement. “Ensuring we can support our employees with the tools to prepare and plan for a successful hybrid work model is critical for their well-being, business continuity and serving our customers.”
When Ford announced the hybrid plan, it also said it would redesign workspaces to have more community and team areas replacing individual desks and offices. In Dearborn, Ford said it will have collaboration centers available for reservations when a specific project would benefit from in-person interaction.
Ford employs about 182,000 people worldwide. An estimated 18,000 Ford salaried employees in North America are working off-site, 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 impact hourly employees or site-dependent employees.
In April, General Motors introduced what it calls Work Appropriately to its global workforce of 155,000 employees. Work Appropriately gives many salaried workers more flexibility to work remotely or come into the office if necessary to best perform their jobs.
GM’s salaried workers in southeast Michigan started to return to the office this summer, but Work Appropriately has factored into how that happens for each of them.
In May, Stellantis said its white-collar workers are expected to continue working remotely much of the time once they formally come back to the office. Stellantis was formed from the January merger of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Peugeot maker PSA Group. It said it envisions a split of 70% remote work to 30% on-site. Most employees are likely to return next year, but some will be back later this year. It employs 400,000 people globally.
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Parts of this story were edited after publishing.
Staff writers Phoebe Wall Howard and Eric D. Lawrence contributed to this story. Contact Jamie L. LaReau at 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.