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Springer Nature staff will work a minimum of two days a week from home, with the option to increase that to three or four days, when the company returns to the office later this year.
The academic publisher is the latest to reveal its plans following several recent announcements by trade companies, including Hachette UK where employees will work in the office three days a week and Bloomsbury, which has opted for two days.
Springer Nature's move is part of a package of “new normal” working practices it has put together following consultation with staff, planning to roll them out once restrictions fully lift.
Steven Inchcoombe, chief publishing and solutions officer, explained: “All staff will have the option to work from home for a minimum of two days a week, with additional flexibility — dependent on role — to extend to three or, in a few cases, up to a maximum of four days. We think this is the best mix to help us maintain and balance company culture, creativity, personal connectivity and the wellbeing of our staff.”
The way it conducts internal meetings will also change, with the expectation that staff will dial in as they have during the past year rather than being present in the office.
“We will take a ‘virtual-first’ approach to all meetings, which we have found to be beneficial given the international nature of many of our teams, and we expect business travel to reduce compared with before the pandemic,” Inchcoombe said. “As a result, we have considered how these factors change both the purpose and the layout of our offices and have now adapted our London offices to reflect this.”
The company is operating a four-step "traffic lights" system to determine whether its offices are open. During the lockdown, offices were in a “red” state and completely closed. Currently, Springer Nature's London office is at “orange”, meaning it is open for people who cannot work from home but employees are still encouraged to work remotely.
The new flexible working pattern will kick in when the offices move to “yellow” and “green” stages, as part of a phased approach. A date for when these changes will happen has not yet been confirmed.