Almost half of UK employers are planning to stagger return to work based on employees’ own health risks related to COVID-19, whilst 46% will be staggering employees return depending on how critical their role is to the business.
The next most popular strategy is the creation of smaller workgroups (40%), followed by changing working hours (34%), a voluntary return scheme (33%), and splitting shifts (28%).
Over a quarter (28%) of businesses have stated that they will base their return to work strategy on local infection rates.
87% of employees would like more opportunities to work from home post-return, with 21% stating that they would like to work from home permanently.
Whilst 83% of firms have stated that the experience of COVID-19 will encourage business heads to have employees to work from home more often, they also cite concerns over employee productivity (64%), senior leadership preferring traditional ways of working (57%), and the nature of the business e.g. face-to-face sales (36%), as the key barriers to achieving this.
A third of companies have admitted to not yet considering what their return to work strategy may be. The findings come from a recent survey from recruiter Robert Walters, with the global findings published in a whitepaper: Returning to the New World of Work.
