Madrid, 22 (European Press)

From 2022, the Finnish telecoms equipment and network company Nokia will allow all of its employees to work remotely for up to three days a week, in addition to facilitating flexible working hours, and plans to rethink and redesign work centers to adapt its offices to the new reality after COVID-19.

The company explained that this change to a new hybrid business model, as well as the redesign of the offices of multinational companies will be implemented from one country to another, taking into account local needs, legal requirements and the epidemic situation.

In this way, multinational companies estimate that in many places up to 70% of office space will be devoted to teamwork and meetings. Some of the test sites, including Nokia’s offices in Dallas, Singapore and Budapest, have already been reconfigured in 2021, and others are expected to be complete by the end of the year.

By the end of 2021, Nokia plans to launch a smart office solution, which will allow employees to book workplaces and office services, as well as tools and guides aimed at helping managers and teams create better, more flexible and sustainable work models.

“The pandemic has forced organizations to change. Technology has given people tools to innovate. In many cases, the results have been too good to go back to the old way of doing things,” said Pekka Lundmark, President and Counsellor, Representative at Nokia.

“We want to give all of our employees more choice and flexibility in their work, so we are accelerating our transition to becoming a fully blended global workplace. Some people will choose to work more than at home, while others will choose primarily to work in offices. Redesigned to offer more spaces Cooperative, and elsewhere we will ensure adequate facilities where necessary. This will be a country by country process, and we will learn and refine as we go forward.”

Nokia conducted a survey of its employees in late 2020 for post-pandemic planning. 91% of participants indicated that they maintained or increased their productivity during their time working from home, and on average, participants expressed a preference for working remotely two to three days a week, compared to the average of two days before the outbreak of the epidemic, while still 81 % prefer to go to the office at least part of the time during the work week to collaborate and communicate with colleagues.