Halting on-site interviews, Google is now conducting job interviews online via Hangouts or Bluejeans to reduce physical interactions in the wake of Covid-19 outbreak.
Google said in a statement: “In light of the coronavirus (Covid-19) and to protect our candidates’ and interviewers’ health and wellbeing, we will be conducting all Google interviews globally virtually via Google Hangout (or BlueJeans for applicable countries) for the foreseeable future,” reported HT.
Not only Google, but Amazon and Facebook have halted on-site job interviews while Twitter and Microsoft have asked their employees to work from home.
According to reports in Geekwire.com, Google asked all employees to work remotely and urged staff not to bring external visitors into the company’s offices in Washington, though they remain open to employees who choose not to work remotely.
Headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, Google has more than 4,500 employees in Seattle where 27 confirmed cases and nine deaths due to the Covid-19 virus in Washington state were reported Wednesday.
While in India, Paytm shut its Gurgaon offices after one its employees tested positive for the virus. Tech Mahindra, Indian multinational of Mahindra group, imposed restrictions on domestic and international travel and encouraging employees to work from home.
“Restrictions have been imposed on domestic and international travel with immediate effect. We have postponed all internal events which required large gatherings and everyone has been advised to adequately leverage technologies like – Tele Presence and Video Conferencing,” said Harshvendra Soin, Chief People Officer, Tech Mahindra.
According to the latest numbers, there are currently over 97,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19, with more than 3,300 deaths.