Microsoft will be allowing most of its employees to work from home part of the time even after its offices reopen, according to its Chief People Officer Kathleen Hogan. In a blog post last Friday, Hogan announced that the tech giant will be moving towards increased work flexibility, and has issued guidelines on what this constitutes.

"Moving forward, it is our goal to offer as much flexibility as possible to support individual workstyles, while balancing business needs and ensuring we live our culture," she wrote.

According to Hogan's summary of the guidelines, employees whose roles do not absolutely require them to be onsite will be allowed to work from home for less than 50 percent of their working week, and schedule flexibility is now standard for most roles—assuming manager and team alignment, she wrote.

Other reports on the guidelines also indicate that employees may opt to give up their assigned office space and work remotely on a permanent basis, retaining the option to use flexi-working areas at the Microsoft offices when needed. Furthermore, the company will cover home office expenses for these workers. This also means that employees will be able to relocate domestically or even internationally if they wish, provided that their roles do not require them to be on site.

"We recognize there is no one-size-fits-all solution given the variety of roles, work requirements and business needs we have at Microsoft," Hogan wrote of the guidelines, which also cover how to resolve considerations such as office space, salary and benefits, local law, personal taxes, or expenses. "Our guidance is to help employees plan ahead for the future."

The implementation of this hybrid working plan follows on Microsoft's July announcement that its US offices will not reopen until January 2021 at the earliest, and may also address the potential delay of the reopening should the COVID-19 situation in the US deteriorate.