Square Enix to offer permanent work-from-home program to employees starting December
Following positive benefits of employees working from home, Square Enix will be extending current work-from-home policies into a permanent program.
Back at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Square Enix was among the many companies to begin allowing employees to work from home. What it apparently found was that the change created a beneficial experience for many of its workers and executives in both productivity and employee wellness. With that in mind, Square Enix has officially announced a program that will allow employees to work from home permanently starting in December.
Square Enix announced its new permanent work-from-home program via a press release on the Japanese corporate site on November 25, 2020. Beginning on December 1, 2020, Square Enix will extend current pandemic-based work-from-home emergency policies into a permanent program available to employees and executives. As the pandemic has gone on and Square Enix has worked around it, including pulling out of PAX East for the safety of employees and fans earlier this year, it found that newly enacted work-from-home policies were beneficial to both operation and employee health. In fact, it reported that “80% of employees had a positive view of work from home.”
With the new permanent work-from-home policy, Square Enix hopes to continue the positive results it has incidentally observed from attempting to remain safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also been exploring options for workplace flexibility already when the pandemic forced a unique opportunity.
“The company had for some time been exploring options for enabling greater flexibility in working styles when the COVID-19 outbreak occurred,” The statement reads. “In response, the company implemented a series of measures starting in February 2020 that included enabling work from home, staggered working hours, and online conferencing,”
Following a survey of employees apparently conducted in June 2020, Square Enix then came to an official decision to create the permanent work-from-home program.
“In so doing, the Company hopes not only to create a flexible and diverse working environment, but also to further bolster productivity and help employees achieve the optimal work-life balance.”
It’s interesting to say the least. COVID-19 has, for the most part, deadlocked much of the gaming industry in 2020 with a year of canceled gaming events and pivots to online and safe forms of conferencing, previews, and demonstrations. It was hard to imagine going back to normal anytime soon, but at the very least, groups like Square Enix have apparently found ways to create positive benefits from an otherwise dreary year.
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replyTJ Denzer posted a new article, Square Enix to offer permanent work-from-home program to employees starting December
