Linkedin to assist job seekers who never want to go back to office

Microsoft Corp.’s Linkedin professional-networking site will make it easier for job seekers to find remote and hybrid roles, adapting to pandemic realities that have forced its own parent company to delay its return-to-office plans.

New options will let users filter out roles in traditional offices or find workplaces that offer a mix, the company said in a blog post Thursday. And Linkedin plans to make it easier to find out about companies’ vaccination requirements.

Microsoft also said it will indefinitely postpone a plan to fully open its headquarters by Oct. 4.

“Given the uncertainty of COVID-19, we’ve decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening of our U.S. work sites in favor of opening U.S. work sites as soon as we’re able to do so safely based on public health guidance,” according to the blog post. “From there, we’ll communicate a 30-day transition period that provides time for employees to prepare while allowing us to continue to be agile and flexible as we look to the data and make choices to protect employee health, safety and well-being.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has led employees to rethink how, where and why they want to work — a shift Linkedin is calling “the great reshuffle.” Jobs listed on Linkedin’s site as “remote” continue to increase, with such postings jumping more than 8.5 times since the start of the pandemic to 16 per cent of the total in August.

But in-person work isn’t going away, the company said. Microsoft’s own rankand-file workforce plans to return to the office more frequently than managers expected, according to an internal survey. Eight per cent of non-managerial employees said they plan to be in the office every day, compared with manager expectations for only 1 per cent.

Nearly half of Microsoft employees plan to come in to the office three to four times a week, the survey found. That’s well above the 28 per cent that managers expected. Still, the results showed that bosses generally plan to log more time in-person than their employees do.

In a twist, employees who would prefer staying home and staffers who want to go back to the office both gave the same reason: They felt it was easier to focus on work.