Salesforce said Monday that it will reopen its San Francisco headquarters in May, but its employees can still work remotely through the end of the year.

The company has already reopened 22 of its offices, according to company president and chief people officer Brent Hyder, who wrote in a blog post that Salesforce would decide how and when to reopen each location based on guidance from health officials and medical experts. “We have an opportunity to create a workspace and an employee experience that makes us even more connected, healthy, innovative and productive,” Hyder wrote.

The company plans a three-phase approach for offices, with the first phase limited to US employees who live in areas where coronavirus risk is flat or declining. Salesforce will require employees to take COVID-19 tests twice a week. The second phase will see offices gradually reopening from 20 to 75 percent capacity depending on local conditions, and the third stage will be a full office reopening.

Salesforce has been redesigning its offices with COVID-19 in mind, adding plexiglass between desks, air purifiers in conference rooms, touch-free handles for doors, and temperature screening stations, as well as providing hand sanitizer.

Salesforce is the biggest employer in San Francisco, and the company’s return to its downtown headquarters could be a bellwether for other companies in the area. Facebook also plans to return to in-person work at its Bay Area offices next month, and Uber reopened its Mission Bay headquarters, at limited capacity, on March 29th.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/4/12/22380435/salesforce-reopen-san-francisco-headquarters-may-coronavirus-silicon-valley