More than half of employees are still hesitant to head back into the office, and this could mean some work for companies to create environments that will attract workers out of their homes. A new survey, which included responses from business decision-makers, HR and IT, from Smartway2, a workspace scheduling solutions platform, looked into the worker concerns about health, safety and flexibility, and it found that 44% of employees are still concerned about returning to the office. To get employees back into the office, companies will need to focus on health and safety plans, and for the near future, they will have to remain flexible with work schedules and models.
Health risks are the biggest concern for employees. The survey found that 83% of employees are concerned about health risks while another 27% of employees are concerned about employee noncompliance with outlined safety procedures. These fears were particularly prevalent for employees that work in collaborative environments that require routine interaction with coworkers.
Flexibility was another top concern for employees. Remote working models have given employees more flexibility to be with family or develop a better work-life balance. Parents with children on remote work schedules are also in a difficult position to return to a regular work environment.
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Despite the ongoing concerns about in-office working, employees are returning to the office. At present, less than one-third of employees—about 29%—have returned to the office, while 45% expect that they will return to the office in the next six months. Companies are rapidly adopting new health and safety policies to meet employee needs for re-entry into the workspace. Sanitizing, health checks, social distancing and contact tracing are all on the table as part of corporate health and safety strategies. In terms of flexibility, companies are also adopting hybrid office models that allow employees to create a new framework of both remote and in-office work schedules. In fact most companies, 75% according to the survey, are accelerating the adoption of alternative or flexible work environments.
There has been a lot of research on the future of office space and working environments, and most of the sources agree that there will be lasting changes in the office world following the pandemic. A recent report from ULI said just that, relaying that remote work will become a permanent fixture of office. In the survey, 96% of respondents to the survey said that employees would continue to work from home, 72% responded that there would be remote work away from the home and 67% of respondents expect increased use of satellite offices. While remote work will remain, companies are focused on accommodating both remote and in-office employees, as the Smartway2 survey shows.
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Kelsi Maree Borland
