For the past two months, companies across the country have had to close their office doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of these companies hope that, one day, things will return back to the way they were in 2019, and normal office life will resume. But for Facebook, this “new normal” that has come with the coronavirus has opened the company’s eyes to an alternative company culture.
On Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg went on Facebook Live to discuss his company-wide vision for the future. As he puts it, he wants Facebook to be “the most forward-leaning company on remote work” of its scale. This involves several policies to achieve his goal of making Facebook a company with a 50 percent remote workforce in the next five to 10 years.
Over 95 percent of Facebook’s employees are currently working remotely, which has given the company the chance to see the merits of remote work.
Facebook’s headquarters is in Menlo Park, and it has offices in New York, Seattle, Austin and other major cites around the world. As a result, the bulk of Facebook’s tens of thousands of employees live in places with high costs of living. People in rural areas or smaller cities don’t have access to Facebook’s high-paying jobs. The social media giant also sees this urban concentration as an issue that limits diversity, as well as the company’s access to more talent.
Facebook says that it will begin to ramp up hiring for remote positions starting July 1. Zuckerberg said Thursday the company is always looking for more software engineers and that it plans to hire “as many experienced engineers as [it] can find.” Zuckerberg also added that engineers can be effective at their jobs despite being remote.
Part of Facebook’s remote hiring spree will involve setting up new company hubs. While these hubs won’t necessarily have a dedicated office, they will have a significant number of Facebook employees working in the same area. The idea is that Facebook can allow these employees to connect when possible, as well as use their network to discover more talent. Zuckerberg named Atlanta, Dallas and Denver as potential locations for these new hubs.
Facebook also says that it’ll pay employees based on where they live, so employees living in places with a higher cost of living will be compensated more. Generally, the company tends to pay its employees at or above market rate.
Zuckerberg acknowledged that working remotely has some challenges, but he said the benefits are worth offering it to employees as an opt-in option. Although Facebook is known for its fun and amenity-rich offices, Zuckerberg believes that you don’t have to work in a Facebook office to have a job at Facebook.
