It’s been well over a year since the mass onset of COVID-19 across the globe and with it an abrupt disruption of the status quo, both personal and professional.

At Autodesk, we’ve stayed vigilant, weathered an ever-evolving storm, and shown resilience as our employees, customers, and extended communities were forced to adapt to an entirely new normal.

Reflecting on this time, I’m proud of the steps Autodesk has taken to ensure its employees, partners, customers, and their respective industries are as supported as possible throughout these challenges. We’ve gone digital, provided flexible customer solutions, enabled distanced learning experiences, and made an impact where it was needed most. We’ve even introduced COVID-conscious workspaces to help keep our employees healthy, safe, and inspired moving forward.

We know our global community is far from ending the COVID-19 pandemic completely and our hearts remain with the many parts of the world continuing to experience its impact. In tandem, we’re also encouraged by the widespread vaccination efforts and what they mean for collective healing ahead. As our society continues to recover, it’s clear that many aspects of the post-COVID world will be very different and it’s up to us to help shape what that future will look like—including the future of our workplace.

This was Autodesk’s mindset when developing our new workplace model for employees, simply called Flexible Workplace:

Autodesk’s Flexible Workplace

As we look to the future, we believe that flexibility in where and how work gets done will better enable our people to thrive—and by extension, help our customers achieve better outcomes. We have recognized and welcomed the opportunity to develop an approach that embodies this belief, aligns with our culture, expands on the past flexibility provided to our distributed workforce, and—above all—continues to prioritize the health and safety of our global team.

Under Autodesk’s new Flexible Workplace model, our people will belong to one of three groups, each offering a specific work experience that balances employee flexibility with the needs of our dynamic and growing business:

• Office-Based employees will work primarily from an Autodesk office with a dedicated workspace and can work remotely up to 20% of the time. This category also includes a limited number of roles that are office-based by design—receptionists, security team members, and others that may need to be in the office every day.
• Hybrid employees will split their time between their homes and local, commutable Autodesk offices. We expect most of our global team to fall within this category, all of whom will not have dedicated desks in-office but can book day-use workspaces as needed.
• Home-Based employees generally do not live within a commutable distance to any Autodesk location and will work primarily from their home offices.

We plan to roll out the new program globally on an office-by-office basis, following the latest national and local government restrictions, COVID-19 metric trends, and local vaccination rates. While many of our offices in the Asia Pacific region have already re-opened, those based in the U.S. and other parts of the world will follow this summer as appropriate. No matter where or when an office re-opens, the approach will be phased to help provide a gradual, organized, and safe transition for those returning.

Program details aside, our promise to our people in introducing this flexible work model is multifaceted: to foster an inclusive distributed experience for all, to use our existing company culture as a beacon for future digital and in-person collaboration, and—most importantly—to continue prioritizing the health and wellbeing of our global community.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s the importance of working together and adapting—and while we can’t predict the future, we’re confident that this people-centered approach will allow all to flex, thrive, and find balance while continuing to help our customers achieve the new possible.