Okta, which provides employee registration software to nearly 9,000 organizations, including JetBlue, Nordstrom and Slack, said as many as 85% of its workforce is expected to work remotely under the new policy, up from 30% before the coronavirus crisis. The company has roughly 2,600 employees.
This spring, Octa employees told them they could choose not to return to the office until a vaccine or effective treatment for Covid-19 has been developed. The announcement reflected partial steps toward a plan for remote work that Okta began discussing the year before, said Todd McKinnon, CEO of Okta, in an interview. But the lasting effects of the pandemic, coupled with recent U.S. immigration restrictions announced by President Donald Trump, have accelerated these plans.
“We are very pleased that the very premise of our product is ‘borderless work environments,'” McKinnon said.
Another group of foreign-born employees asked to work full-time remotely because they feared for the uncertainty created by the administration’s policies, according to McKinnon, who described himself as “frustrated” by the rules.
“Directly because of what the U.S. administration is doing, it has caused them not to have to deal with the problem and we have relocated them to other countries, like Canada,” McKinnon said. “Maybe their visa will come in a year, if they worry about the green card process, that they’re moving to another country. But it’s a shame for the US.”
Other factors that encouraged Okta to switch to permanent remote work include the growing comfort of workers with technology and economic trends such as the high cost of living in New York and San Francisco, according to an internal presentation reviewed by CNN.
Okta’s internal surveys showed strong demand for more work-from-anywhere flexibility. Roughly eight in 10 employees said they would feel more or less productive working remotely than in the office, according to data the company collected in 2019. Just 17% said they would rather work five days a week in a office want to work.
That process will take into account local living costs, how long an employee has worked at the company and the comparable benefits and salaries of an area.
Still, McKinnon said, as more companies shift to permanent remote work, the less local geography will play a role in compensation and the more wages will be redefined by a worker’s qualifications.
“You’ll be seeing consistent salaries around the world,” McKinnon said. “Facebook will hire an engineer in Raleigh, just as we will. The determinant will not be what the cost of living in Raleigh is, but what Facebook or Okta will pay.”
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