Japan Tobacco International is offering its worldwide staff the option to spend more time away from the workplace, the latest multinational to adopt a more flexible approach in the wake of the pandemic.
The Geneva-based company¡¯s employees will be able to work as much as half of their time remotely each month, the maker of Camel and Winston cigarettes said in a statement Thursday. Other measures include being able to work as many as 10 days from abroad.
¡°As far as JTI is concerned, work is an activity, not a place or time,¡± said Christiane Bisanzio, the company¡¯s vice president of diversity and inclusion.
JTI joins the growing ranks of companies rethinking work arrangements after many employees successfully spent more than a year doing their jobs from home ¡ª and as some resist returning to the office full time. A number of banks like Credit Suisse Group AG are allowing remote work at least part of the week, while Nokia Oyj is redesigning offices to adapt to a new flexible job culture.
JTI rolled out its new policy last week. The company, which has 40,000 employees, will also experiment with giving staff the option of working a four-day week in some locations in the first quarter of next year. That means choosing between working an eight-hour day five days a week or 10 daily hours spread over four days, according to a spokesman.
The tobacco company, which is owned by Japan¡¯s JT Group, is also looking at possible solutions for flexible work for factory workers and sales teams in markets where it has a large footprint from 2022. Among its brands, JTI sells Camel cigarettes outside the U.S.
¡°Performance and outcomes are what matter here, not hours spent in the office,¡± said Howard Parks, senior vice president of people and culture.
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