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Stellantis, which once expected the majority of employees to work remotely as it attempted to cut costs, has called its auto engineers back to the office.
“It’s impossible to engineer vehicles remotely,” Ned Curic, who oversees Stellantis’ engineer and technology departments, told Bloomberg News.“You have to have people together. You have to do design sessions, engineering sessions and the buildups together. It helps us accelerate a number of projects.”
Since January, engineers have been working in Stellantis facilities at least three days each week, Curic said. When a new car is being introduced, like the Jeep Wagoneer S electric SUV, some work as many as six days in the office. Stellantis employs about 15,000 engineers across its global operations.
The European automaker, which operates brands like Chyrsler and Ram, launched a hybrid work initiative in 2021, which sought to have most salaried employees spend a majority of their time outside the office. Later, even as other companies required staff to work in person more often, Stellantis made its remote work policy permanent for non-assembly line employees. Even CEO Carlos Tavares works about a week per month from his home in Portugal, Bloomberg reports.
Stellantis’ requirements for remote work put it more in line with those of rival General Motors. The Detroit carmaker in January began mandating that salaried employees working within 50 miles of an office work in person at least three days a week. GM employs some 43,500 salaried workers in the U.S., most of them in Michigan.
In 2021, Ford Motor permanently gave some 30,000 workers the ability to work remotely, which lets them stay home for “heads-down work.” The company requires workers only come to the office for things like group meetings and team-building activities that are more conducive to being in person.