Google office entrance
Dylan Fernandez January 21, 2022 A 3 minute read

The UK is becoming an increasingly important market for Google

Google has been established in the UK for almost two decades. The company has more than 6,400 employees and hired almost 700 people last year. Additionally, Google strengthened their commitment to the UK by laying a new subsea cable in 2021, called Grace Hopper, that runs between the US and the UK.

In keeping with its long-term commitment to the UK, the Silicon Valley giant has now purchased the Central Saint Giles development – the place where many Googlers have lived for years. Their investment in this striking Renzo Piano-designed office is a testament to their confidence in the office as a place for in-person collaboration and connection.
The company is committed to the UK’s growth and success, and will employ 10,000 people across its UK sites. This includes the upcoming King’s Cross development, which is currently under construction there.

Building a flexible workplace for the future

Flexibility is the future of work. Many UK employees prefer to work on-site some of the time, but they also want the flexibility of working from home a few days a week. Others may choose to work from home extensively. A future Google UK workplace will accommodate these options.

The company will undergo a multi-million pound refurbishment of their offices in Central Saint Giles over the next few years to ensure that they are prepared to meet the needs of the future workplace.

As part of its overall effort to improve employee wellbeing, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is creating a variety of collaborative spaces for in-person teamwork. Based upon team needs, they are going to introduce team pods, which are flexible and versatile workspace types that can be reconfigured in multiple ways to support focused work, collaboration or both. There will also be covered outdoor areas for working in the fresh air as part of the refurbishment.

The UK’s digital growth is being supported

UK businesses and citizens are more empowered than ever thanks to technology. They achieved their goal of helping one million small British businesses stay open by 2021 by helping them be found online.

Everyone should be able to benefit from the growing innovation in the UK. By doing this, they are able to develop skills to prepare for jobs of the future. Since 2015, Google has provided free digital skills training to more than 700,000 people across the UK through its Digital Garage programme.

As a result of Google’s expanded partnership with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), thousands more UK jobseekers will also be able to upgrade their digital skills by 2022. There are more than 10,000 opportunities for job-seekers to earn a Google Careers Certificate in high-growth, high-demand fields such as IT support, data analysis, project management, and user experience design.

In the UK, they are optimistic about the potential of digital technology to bring about an inclusive and sustainable future. This is a fitting way to begin the new year as they make this investment in January