Yahoo Japan is telling its 8,000 employees they can work anywhere in the country — and even go to work when work requires it — bucking the trend of companies looking to bring workers back to the office in the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
See also: Apple closes stores in New York due to COVID-19
The program goes into effect April 1 and allows employees to travel by plane to the office, which was not previously an option, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. While Yahoo is best known for its online portal in Japan, it is a unit of SoftBank Group Corp.'s Z Holdings Corp., which also owns messaging app Line and mobile payments service PayPay.
See also: Cyberattack on Brazil's Ministry of Health – Covid-19 data disappeared
Ninety percent of the company's employees are now working remotely, according to President Kentaro Kawabe, who tweeted that the vast majority of employees said their productivity has remained stable or improved at home. "So we're allowing Yahoo employees to live anywhere in Japan. That doesn't mean we're denying the benefits of the office — you'll even be able to fly in when needed," he added.
Yahoo Japan is setting a travel budget of 150,000 yen ($1,300) per month per employee and removing the previous daily cap. In-person communication will continue to be encouraged as the initiative also aims to boost morale and well-being, with social gatherings subsidized by 5,000 yen per employee per month.
See also: COVID-19: Facebook suppresses conspiracy theory from China
The company had had an “office anywhere” remote work system since 2014, but had limited the number of days worked from home before the COVID-19.
Japanese companies have responded to the pandemic by adopting flexible work arrangements, which were rare before 2020 in a culture that once prided itself on instant office interaction and long working hours. Panasonic Corp. last week unveiled plans for a four-day workweek, an initiative that Mizuho Financial Group Inc. has already launched.
Information source: bloomberg.com
