Facebook To Expand Remote Working, Looking For Talent In New Locations

Facebook Inc. FB will scout for remote workers this summer, expand its hiring activities in areas surrounding its main engineering sites, and search for talent in new cities.

What Happened

Miranda Kalinowski, vice president of global recruiting, revealed the company would start active recruitment of remote talent by early July.

Facebook said it will recruit senior engineering staff in two phases but did not reveal how many positions would be open this summer.

On Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg live-streamed an employee townhall where he revealed that 95% of the company’s employees are working remotely, and that half of all employees would continue working remotely for the next five to 10 years.

Kalinowski told CNBC that the first phase of hiring would be focussed on existing engineering sites such as the Bay Area, Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, Boston and Washington, D.C and their neighboring areas. 

In the second phase, the company would hire from Atlanta, Dallas and Denver. Facebook hopes to scoop staff from top computer science programs.

Why It Matters

Zuckerberg said that while the company would allow certain workers to work remotely full time, they would have to notify Facebook if they want to move to a different location by Jan 1, 2021.

“We’ll adjust salary to your location at that point,” Zuckerberg said, while warning, “There’ll be severe ramifications for people who are not honest about this.”

The CEO called the present set-up that limits job opportunities to people in a small number of big cities “unfortunate and unsustainable.”

Facebook Price Action

Facebook shares traded 1.80% higher at $233.19 in the after-hours session on Thursday. The shares had closed the regular session 0.62% higher at $231.39.