LinkedIn reverses course by allowing employees to work entirely from home

As offices gradually reopen, professional networking platform LinkedIn has decided to allow most of its employees to opt for full-time remote work, according to Chief People Officer Teuila Hanson.

LinkedIn’s new policy is a reversal of the company’s initial announcement in October that employees would be expected to work from an office 50% of the time once the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions were lifted.

LinkedIn’s global workforce of over 16,000 employees will be affected by this new policy, which requires employees to work remotely full-time or part-time in an office.

“We expect to see a lot more remote employees than we did before the pandemic,” Hanson said in an interview before the announcement, adding that some jobs will require in-office work.

In contrast to other tech companies such as Facebook and Google, which have responded to an increase in US COVID-19 cases by requiring shots, Hanson added that LinkedIn does not require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 before returning to work.

According to Greg Snapper, director of corporate communications, LinkedIn employees who relocated will have their pay adjusted to reflect the local market in which they work.

When COVID-19 arrived in the United States last year, the tech industry was among the first to allow employees to work from home. However, the extent to which tech companies are adopting permanent remote work is beginning to diverge.

In contrast to some Silicon Valley tech giants’ comparatively hard-line stances on returning to the office, LinkedIn is open to remote work. Beginning in October, Apple will require most employees to work three days per week from the office, while Alphabet’s Google expects 60% of its global workforce to return to work at least part-time.

According to COVID-19 infection rates in each location, LinkedIn is reopening its global offices.