Google approved 85% of the roughly 10,000 requests it received for remote work or relocation

Google has approved 85% of the roughly 10,000 requests that it received by July 2 from staff asking to relocate or work remotely once offices reopen.

• Google approved most submissions in its first round of staff's remote work and relocation requests.
• The company approved 85% of the roughly 10,000 requests that were submitted by July 2.
• Google recently pushed back its return-to-office date from September to mid-October.
• See more stories on Insider's business page.

Google has approved the vast majority of relocation and remote work requests that it received from employees in an initial round of review.

The company gave the green light on 85% of the roughly 10,000 such requests that came in by July 2, Google told Insider. Bloomberg was first to report the news.

The company sent out its first round of responses to the applications on Tuesday. Workers whose requests were approved may not be in the clear yet, though.

"For some of these, we need more information to make sure we can legally and administratively support each role in the preferred location," Google told Insider. "It's possible that some may be declined if we're unable to do so."

Google added that each application went through several reviews, which included "fairness checks at three stages of the process."

In this round of requests, 55% came from workers asking to transfer office locations, and the remaining 45% were from employees wanting to work fully remotely.

Google denied requests from employees whose work requires access to specialized equipment from certain locations. The company also turned down requests where organizations "made a commitment to invest in key growth sites and are working to build their teams and critical mass in those particular hubs," Google told Insider.

Other applications were declined over immigration restrictions, right-to-work status, and limits on the activities Google can perform in certain office locations or countries.

"Employees can continue exploring their work flexibility options with their managers and submit a new request for fully remote work or office transfer at any time as their needs and teams' work requirements evolve," the company told Insider.

Google had introduced a new tool in June to help staffers request transfers or fully remote work.

The company recently pushed back its planned return-to-office date in light of rising coronavirus case numbers from the Delta variant, moving the date from September to October 18. Google also said it will require employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to return to its campuses.

Read more: Employers are waging a war over work from home. WFH is winning.

Google has reportedly drawn internal backlash over its remote work policies in recent months. Last month, Google's senior vice president for technical infrastructure, Urs Hölzle, told staff he was moving to New Zealand to work remotely for a year, although he reportedly opposed remote work for lower-level employees, according to CNET.

Like Google, other companies have also implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates for workers. Facebook recently announced it will require its US workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine before they can come back to the office. Uber and Lyft will require the shot for corporate employees.