Although recent news headlines say that Apple wants to force its employees to return to Apple Park in September, if we read in depth, Tim Cook has communicated to his employees who currently telecommute that from September they will be doing a hybrid of three days at the office and two at home a week.
And he wants to do the same with the workers of the Apple Store. At the moment it is going to do a pilot test for a few months, to see the results, and that the Genius combine working days in stores with other days working from home in online service.
A few weeks ago, Tim cook sent a circular to all its employees with the new company guidelines. And the most controversial has been that workers who are currently telecommuting from home due to the pandemic, return to the office three days a week in September.
And Cook wants to test the same hybrid system of combining telecommuting at home with face-to-face work at Apple Store workers. It would be a flexible calendar, according to the needs of each store.
A pilot test called “Retail Flex”
Apple is developing and considering this combined remote and face-to-face work system. With the pandemic, many customers have become used to ordering online. Given this, the company will start a pilot program called «Retail Flex»With some of its Genius that serve customers in the Apple Store.
It will be a flexible hybrid calendar. Employees will work in the store for a few weeks while others will work remotely. From their homes, workers will primarily manage online sales, customer service and technical support. This system also intends that employees can receive the order to work remotely or in person depending on the demand of the stores, for example, at the time of launching a new product, on a bridge, or at Christmas.
The pilot test will last, from the outset, six months And it will begin between September and December, just in a season of more work for the Apple Stores with the launch of the iPhone 13 or possibly the MacBook Pros of 14 and 16 inches. We will see.
Apple will cover the costs of the Internet connection and a bonus of 100 Euros for office equipment, while maintaining the same salary regardless of where the employee is working. During the pandemic Apple already asked its retail employees to work from home and provided a Mac to each for it.
