As a part of the company’s strategy of a post-pandemic shift to flexible working patterns, the oil and energy major British Petroleum has told about 25,000 of its office based employees that they should get prepared to work from home for at least two days a week.

This new hybrid model of working was introduced to the employees of the global oil company last month. The company expects that there will be a 60-40 split between office and home working which could be implemented starting this summer with the easing of Cvoid-19 restrictions.

The value of in-person collaboration and remote work is recognized by it, the company said, and added that it hopes that a more “flexible, engaging and dynamic” way of working could be offered to individuals and teams by the mix.

This flexible working schedule at the company will be implemented across the global network of the company for its offices and the company expects that about 6,000 employees will be affected by the company in the United Kingdom which will include more then 2,000 staff in central London itself.

This change in working schedule at the company is a part of the a major modernisation strategy for the 111-year old oil company under the leadership of Bernard Looney who was appointed to the post of chief executive in February last year. The company has set a target of becoming a “net zero carbon” company by 2050.

There were reports last summer about the company planning to significantly reducing its working spaces by adopting remote working and flexible workplace layouts because of the emergence of the pandemic and the significantly large job losses.

As of the end of 2019, there were 70,000 employees of BP in 79 countries. The company  last year unveiled plans for cutting down its workforce by 15 per cent which amounts to about 10,000 job roles mostly from the office based workforce.

The company’s teams, individuals and managers would “together work out where and how they will best work, and when they come together in the office”, said a spokesman for BP.

The spokesman added that the company will be “changing and reconfiguring” its offices over time to lend support to collaboration and create more flexible environments for holding meetings and sharing of ideas.

“Some roles will require people to be in the office or their prime location every day, and some roles will require greater travel or connecting digitally with colleagues, with less time in the office. There may also be some colleagues who prefer working in the office more,” he said.

The sale of BP’s London headquarters at St James’s Square is included in the downsizing plan of the company. The £250m sale to the Hong Kong investment fund Lifestyle international was confirmed by BP last year.

BP will lease the building back for up to two years before moving out.

(Adapted from TheGuardian.com)