Salesforce will let its employees work from home until August 2021, with six extra weeks of time off for parents

• Salesforce is giving all employees the option to work from home until at least July 31, 2021, extending its previous guideline allowing remote work until the end of 2020.
• Salesforce is slowly reopening its 160 offices around the world based on local government guidelines and the advice of medical experts and local leaders, but this option is meant to allow employees to plan ahead.
• It is also expanding benefits for employees: Offering $250 more to purchase office supplies to work from home and giving parents six additional weeks of paid time off.

Salesforce is extending the option for its employees to work from home until at least July 31, 2021, the company announced Wednesday. Previously, all 49,000 employees were allowed to work remotely until the end of 2020.

While Salesforce is slowly reopening its 160 offices around the world based on local government guidelines and the advice of medical experts, extending the work from home option to next summer gives employees the ability to plan ahead, the company said.

Salesforce is the latest of its peers to extend the option to work from home until next year, with Facebook, Google, Slack, and Uber among those that have given employees that option as well. Some companies, like Twitter, Facebook, Slack, and Atlassian, told they can work remotely even after offices reopen.

Salesforce is also expanding remote work benefits for its employees, giving each person $250 to purchase office supplies to work from home, which adds to the $250 it gave employees earlier this year. Parents also have the option to take six additional weeks of paid time off. Salesforce also said that parents and guardians can work from home even past August 2021 if they are in areas where schools are closed and students are doing remote learning.

"We understand that moving our offices to our homes is not always easy or comfortable — especially for those with families at home or for those who are feeling isolated — and we're working hard to address the unique needs of our employees during this time," Brent Hyder, chief people officer, said in the blog post.

Salesforce has previously described the process of reopening its offices as a "light dimmer, not a light switch" where reopening each location will be a unique process that will take place in phases. That process includes weighing factors like government guidance and COVID-19 case levels, redesigning offices to ensure social distancing, and communicating with employees in order to determine which offices to open next.

In order to help customers take the same steps, Salesforce in May released a set of products to guide organizations in their reopening efforts, including tools to track the employee health data and shift management software.

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