Google will reopen its offices on July 6 for employees keen to return to the workplace, the company’s chief executive Sundar Pichai said, as tech companies eye staggered back-to-work strategies.
Depending on the “external conditions”, the Alphabet-owned firm is aiming for a gradual return of employees – starting with about 10 per cent office capacity before ramping it up to 30 per cent by September.
“Beginning July 6, assuming external conditions allow, we will start to open more buildings in more cities … this will give Googlers, who need to come back to the office, the opportunity to return on a limited, rotating basis,” Mr Pichai told employees in an internal email.
In all scenarios I expect us to need physical spaces to get people together, absolutely.
The company will approach the return to office mode with a “gradual, phased approach, taking both team and individual needs and preferences into account”, said Mr Pichai.
Google has a limited number of staff whose roles are needed back in the office this calendar year, he said, adding that returning to the workplace will be voluntary until the end of 2020 and the company still encourages its employees to continue to work from home if they can.
Google began shutting its offices in the first week of March to stem the spread of coronavirus. America has seen more than 30 million US jobs affected at least temporarily amid shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, as US Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warns that a full economic recovery in the country may take until the end of 2021 and require the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
Google’s return to work strategy comes at a time when other tech giants are weighing various options to manage their physical offices during the coronavirus crisis. Facebook and Twitter have already told employees to work from home permanently, if they want to. Cupertino-based Apple, however, is bringing its staff back to stores in different phases after it shut down its retail operations amid the outbreak.
Google said it is open to employees working remotely that want to relocate, but Mr Pichai advised them to consult their managers and review guidelines around personal factors, such as tax filings and health coverage.
This trend could potentially affect the costly housing markets in California and New York, where most of the Google’s full-time employees in the US are based.
For those wanting to continue working from home, Mr Pichai said the company will be giving each employee an allowance of $1,000 (Dh3,670) to purchase necessary equipment and office furniture, such as standing desks and ergonomic chairs.
“We are also investing more in your work-from-home set-up to make sure you have what you need to be productive and comfortable," he said in the internal memo.
Google is currently investing heavily in its physical space expansions at various sites including San Jose, New York and at the company’s sprawling headquarters in Mountain View.
“Our campuses are designed to enable collaboration and community … in fact, some of our greatest innovations were the result of chance encounters in the office and it’s clear this is something many of us don’t want to lose,” Mr Pichai said.
He said the new emphasis on remote working will not impact those ongoing projects.
"In all scenarios I expect us to need physical spaces to get people together, absolutely," Mr Pichai told Wired, an American magazine, last week.
“We have a lot of growth planned ahead. So even if there is some course correction I don’t think our existing footprint is going to be the issue. I am positive we will put it to good use and I am anxious to see some of those projects get done.”
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Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
