IBM CEO Arvind Krishna revealed that he anticipates 80% of IBM’s workforce will choose a hybrid model in the future, allowing them to spend two or three days in the office each week.
The other 10% to 20% of IBM’s 350,000 staffers will work completely remote and never come back to the office.
However, Krishna added that plans should not be concrete for another two or three months as returning to work will look different across the world.
“As we have seen, if you’re a global company, the rate of the pandemic, when you look at certain countries in South America and certain countries in Asia, it shows that this thing is going to come back and back,” said Krishna. “You’ve got to be aware of the context, as the pandemic is sort of rolling its way across the globe, which unfortunately, I think is going to be with us for another year.”
IBM is one of many other big companies that have committed to hybrid working, including Citigroup, Ford, Google, Microsoft and Slack.
Along with this transition, Krishna said the firm will be reducing its office space by “tens of millions” of square feet.
Employees will be offered flexibility about where they work, but Krishan believes 30% to 40% of staff members will choose to return to the office five days a week.