Sixty two per cent of employers are planning to stagger return to work based on employees’ own health risks related to Covid-19, whilst 49 per cent 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 (46 per cent ), followed by a voluntary return scheme (41 per cent ), changing work hours (35 per cent ), and splitting shifts (35 per cent ).
A third (32 per cent ) of Irish businesses have stated that they will base their return-to-work strategy on local infection rates.
29 per cent of companies have admitted to not yet considering what their return to work strategy may be.
The findings come from a recent survey from leading recruiter Robert Walters, with the global findings published in a whitepaper: Returning to the New World of Work.
Suzanne Feeney, Director at Robert Walters Ireland says that the research highlights is that despite the success of home working, employers are keen to start encouraging their staff back into the workplace and are happy to take necessary steps and put procedures in place to help enable this.
“A return to office brings about many perks, including social inclusion, better workplace collaboration, a separation of homelife, and a reinforcement of company values.
“What employers need to do is merge the perks of office-life with what people have been enjoying about working from home; for example - flexi-hours, a relaxed atmosphere, and avoidance of busy commute times.”
93 per cent of Irish employees would like more opportunities to work from home post-return, with 11 per cent stating that they would like to work from home permanently.
Whilst 79 per cent 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 per cent ), senior leadership preferring traditional ways of working (57 per cent ), and the nature of the business e.g. face-to-face sales (36 per cent ), as the key barriers to achieving this.
Implementing headcount freezes (45 per cent ), utilising government unemployment schemes (30 per cent ) and voluntary annual leave (23 per cent ) were some of the most popular instant measures Irish companies took in response to the virus. It is thought that use of government schemes by employers has grown significantly in two months.
Now as workplaces are able to re-open it seems that cost saving remains at the core of business strategy – with a reduction in office space (50 per cent ), and a reduction in travel budgets by switching to virtual meetings (47 per cent ) being the key tactics considered by companies.
“It is too early to tell whether cost saving tactics will result in a reduction in salaries or bonuses, but any freeze of the sort will likely be compensated by the increase in softer benefits such as flexi-hours, wellbeing perks, and remote working," said Suzanne Feeney.
When it comes to recruitment, firms have already switched up their processes to be more cost and time efficient with 56 per cent looking to continue with virtual interviews, 50 per cent with online assessments, and 61 per cent with remote onboarding.
Three quarters of employers admit that their senior team have not been equipped to manage teams remotely, and will need new training to be able to adapt to new ways of working including being more empathetic to work-life balance (81 per cent ), focussing on outcomes rather than work hours (69 per cent ), improving on virtual communication (61 per cent ), a better understanding of mental health and wellbeing (44 per cent ), and creating a more collaborative environment (33 per cent ).
It seems it is not just business heads who are anticipating changes to the future workplace, with employees expecting more flexibility to work from home (89 per cent ), investment in better technology (47 per cent ), more autonomy (39 per cent ), changes to the office layout (37 per cent ), a revised focus on wellbeing (25 per cent ), changes to work hours (16 per cent ), faster decision making (12 per cent ), and changes to performance measures (15 per cent ).
Suzanne Feeney said it can be daunting for companies who have been going through a difficult period to consider spending money on their physical workspace, technical infrastructure or general operations.
“However, those who have been through previous periods of economic turbulence will know that investment at the early stages is crucial to remaining competitive and retaining good staff. We’d advise all employers to undergo a period of consultation with their staff to ascertain what they believe the future of their workplace and industry is going to be.”
