What It Will Take to Make Employees Feel Safe Returning to the Office
Only one out of 10 working consumers said nothing would making them feel comfortable working in an environment around other people.
Offices can be modified to make people coming back to work after the height of the pandemic feel more at ease, says a new study.
Slightly over half (53%) of workers expect to be back in a physical office full-time within the next six months, according to a survey by Brivo, a producer of cloud access control and related technologies, and WhosOnLocation, a provider of people presence management software.
When asked what modifications of an office and office procedures would give workers the most confidence in returning, temperature scanning to enter led the list at 49%.
In second place was touchless door entry (34%) with mask detection close behind (32%).
Sizeable number of workers also said they would like to see touch-free sign-in and sign-out for contact tracing (30%) and social distancing measures (29%).
The vast majority of employees who continued to come to offices during the pandemic have been satisfied with the practices, protocols, and technologies that their organizations and the managers of the buildings they work in have implemented to protect them against Covid-19, according to the report.
The most common protection was providing masks, hand sanitizer, or other gear (73%); increasing cleaning protocols (59%); enforcing physical distancing (55%); and requiring temperature checks or thermal scanning for on-site access (48%).
In another study, consumers polled by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics this month listed the following at the top five factors that would make them feel comfortable interacting with others in an office, a restaurant, at their doctor, a classroom, a hospital or warehouse:
- I am vaccinated (48%)
- My coworkers are vaccinated (35%)
- Social distancing at work (34%)
- Mandatory mask wearing in the workplace (33%)
- Wide availability of the vaccine to the public (30%)
- Requiring sick employees to stay home (29%)
Only one out of 10 working consumers said nothing would making them feel comfortable working in an environment around other people.
Roughly two-thirds employed consumers said in a non-COVID environment their work typically requires them to regularly interact with people outside of their home
The survey was fielded to 7,971 consumers aged 18+ from May 3 to May 11. It has a margin of error of +/- 1.1%.