Nokia will allow employees to work from home up to three days a week

Photo: REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

a Nokia It said its employees will be able to choose to work remotely for up to three days a week with increased support for flexible working hours starting in January, after the current work-at-home policy expires in December.

A Finnish telecoms equipment maker surveyed its employees late last year, and most said they wanted to work remotely two to three days a week, compared to an average of two days before the coronavirus pandemic.

CEO Pekka Lundmark said, “The pandemic has forced organizations to change. Technology has given people tools to innovate. In many cases, the results have been too good to go back to the old way of doing things.”

The company, which had about 92,000 employees in 130 countries at the end of 2020, said in March that it plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs in two years to cut costs and increase investment in research resources.

Nokia plans to redesign offices to allocate up to 70% of the space in some units for group work and meetings, with less space allocated for workspaces.

Offices in Dallas, Singapore and Budapest have already been reconfigured, and more locations are expected to be completed by the end of the year.