File hosting organisation Dropbox is introducing a permanent remote working policy for its 2,323 employees, due to its success during the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic.
The new policy sees the organisation becoming a 'Virtual First' organisation with employees predominately working from home after taking on board the results of its In Search of Lost Focus: The engine of distributed work study published in The Economist in August 2020, and its internal survey that found that 90% of employees felt they were more productive working from home.
With Dropbox’s new Virtual First policy, employees can relocate to anywhere in the world and to align with this, the organisation will be recruiting new employees regardless of their location. The organisation will also be introducing core collaboration hours to ensure there is an overlap between different time zones for employees to work together, as well as encouraging employees to create their own work schedules.
The organisation will continue to offer a form of in-person collaboration through changing their existing offices to flexible offices, specifically for collaboration and community-building. However, to ensure the safety of its employees during the pandemic, Dropbox will not be opening any of its collaborative offices until June 2021.
A spokesperson at Dropbox said: "We are laser-focused on designing products to transform how remote work happens. We think we will better understand our customers’ needs and be well-positioned to evolve our product accordingly.
"We also hope this Virtual First approach will give us the best of remote and in-person work, balancing flexibility with human connection, and creating a more level playing field for everyone.
"Importantly, going Virtual First is an opportunity for us to build an even stronger, more diverse workforce as we hire from increasingly different backgrounds and perspectives. And it will set us up to make the right investments in people to grow our business for the future."