Google delays offices return forces employees vaccination - due to the advance of the Delta variant and asks its employees to be vaccinated if they want to return to work in person.

The CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai, has sent an email to all employees announcing that give you until October 18th to the workers who are currently teletrabajando back to their offices in the united States, but complying with a requirement: that all are vaccinated.

"Anyone who comes to work on our campuses should be vaccinated," the executive head of the company explained.

Pichai points out that the initial idea of Google was that its employees rejoin this September to the face-to-face model, interrupted in March 2020, although the advance of the Delta variant has ruined its plans and has forced it to postpone the return to the headquarters of the technology giant.

The executive notes that U.S. employees should be vaccinated in the coming weeks, a policy that will be expanded to other regions "in the coming months," depending on local conditions and laws.

Google delays offices return forces employees vaccination

For example, the measure will not be applied in some places until vaccines are widely available. Nor will it apply to "those who cannot be vaccinated for medical reasons" or other justified reasons.

The second of the measures, the extension of the term of voluntary telework until mid-October, has been taken, according to Pichai, to give time for vaccination to mitigate the risk of contagion caused by the new strain, while "flexibility will be provided to those who need it".

In this regard, it addresses the " many Google employees who are seeing spikes (of contagion) in their communities caused by the Delta variant and are worried about returning to the office."

The email sent by the head of Google to its employees also points out that those with "special circumstances" will be informed shortly about the "extended temporary work options, which will allow them to apply to work from home until the end of 2021".

Google opened some of its offices weeks ago, where part of its staff regularly goes. The company's CEO notes that"it's encouraging to see very high vaccination rates in the Google community, in areas where vaccines are very widely available."

Google delays offices return forces employees vaccination

"It has been great to see Google employees exchange ideas around whiteboards and enjoy meals and cafes in offices that have already reopened around the world," says Pichai.

The director of the American giant has sent this email the day the company has presented its results for the second quarter. The technology has billed in this period more than 55,000 million dollars(46,575 million euros).

Google delays offices return forces employees vaccination

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Klarna will allow to pay in 3 installments without interest in all stores after the summer: the next blow of effect of the 'fintech' to gain ground in Spain

A year ago, the Swedish deferred payment fintech Klarna, one of the largest in the world by valuation, landed in Spain. "We have grown a lot, we have more than 860,000 users," says Daniel Espejo, director of Klarna in Spain, in an interview in which he advances that, after the summer, they will launch a new service in Spain to be able to pay in any store with the deferred payment of Klarna without interest.

At the moment, the services they are offering in Spain are based on their payment system that integrates their payment solution within the websites of the brands themselves and allows to delay the payment of the purchase 3 times without interest. In this system it is the commerce that pays a commission for this service in exchange for getting, as Espejo explains, an increase in the average ticket and a greater recurrence of purchase. In addition, the fintech also offers a pay-by-transfer service.

After the summer, a novelty will come to the domestic market. "We are going to launch the possibility of buying with Klarna in any store in the world that accepts a card, that is, even if you are going to buy from a store with which we do not have a commercial agreement. Imagine that you have an e-commerce that sells sneakers and you have never heard of Klarna, nor have you worked with her on anything. As long as you accept card payments in your business, a user will be able to go to the Klarna application to look for it and pay through the application in 3 times without interest on your website", says Espejo.

For example, if you are going to buy some books on Amazon, a business with which the fintech has no agreement either in Spain or abroad, you can use this service when it is operational. Instead of accessing its website from the browser you use, you must do so from the Klarna app, which pays the merchant with a virtual card that has been issued to you. Then, you will pay the fintech in 3 installments.

The doubt arises when one considers how this type of services benefits the company, which does not receive money for this service and advances the total price of the purchase.

"We are not 100% focused on monetizing it, but there are different ways to do it as affiliates or, as we are card issuers, we monetize a little for each transaction, just as it happens in the case of banks," he says. "For us, the important thing is to increase our user base."

The penetration of deferred payment in Spain is progressing at a good pace although, in global figures, it is far from other countries more accustomed to card payment. In the case of Sweden, where Klarna was born, 50% of transactions go through fintech.

"In Germany, for example, we have more than 49 million users. In the United States, 19 million users and we're adding one million a month. In Spain, we have not yet reached those levels of penetration, but I think we are quite close, " says the manager when comparing with other markets where they have been longer than in our country.

The formula to achieve this is to use an interest-free deferral solution and continue expanding the businesses with which they already have agreements outside Spain to launch the Klarna service also in the domestic market.

"In the end, what helps us is that we have this global network of 250,000 stores that worldwide already know what it is to work with Klarna and it works very well for them. They are businesses with which we are working to launch the service in Spain as soon as possible and they will be the ones who help us to make our company known to Spanish consumers," he points out.

As for whether they are afraid of late payments from their clients, the answer is that, for the moment, it is low in Spain and it is not a concern. The average ticket of purchases made by customers in Spain moves in a fairly wide range, ranging between 35 and 1,000 euros.

Espejo points out that the default rate is "quite low". He adds that " the Spanish user values the flexibility and convenience of their service and wants to use it in the long term. That implies that I have to make all the repayments. It's not something that's worrying us at all."

Klarna has an acceptance process, which although it is instantaneous, takes into account many variables in account to decide if the person to whom they allow this payment in 3 times without interest will be able to return the payment. Among the data they use is the email, if they have already made purchases with the app or if the data is in the file of defaulters of ASNEF.

Espejo highlights that they are working to bring the rest of products that Klarna has in other markets such as deferred payment in 14 or 30 days, but at the moment they are not in favor of launching those services that have a cost for the end customer.

"APR financing payment methods are not something we're planning to launch here; we want users who shop with Klarna to have a very consistent experience," he says.