A new survey by KPMG reveals that most companies are letting employees come back when they feel safe, and that will likely remain the case until there's a COVID-19 vaccine in wide public use.
According to the firm's Return to the Workplace survey, only 27 percent of employers plan on returning to office-based employees at physical locations anytime soon, with most saying they're not planning to reopen until later on in 2021. The survey included senior executives at 100 US companies, representing approximately 5 million employees in total.
The vast majority of companies surveyed (82 percent) told KPMG that they are letting employees decide when they are comfortable to return to the office. Just 18 percent are mandating employees return by a certain date, as of now.
"While it seems that employees are successfully working outside their traditional offices, employers have new questions about how to measure productivity in a virtual world," said Atif Zaim, KPMG Advisory principal and Restarting America leader. "Organizations are working on new measures to avoid exposing employees to undue health risks through widespread return-to-office initiatives ahead of available vaccines."
As far as measures companies are taking to mitigate employee risk on their return, social distancing was the most common answer given (52 percent) followed by contact tracing (48 percent) and daily symptom checks (44 percent). Zaim noted that "mask wearing, social distancing, and enhanced cleaning protocols can help lower the risk of infection, until the use of a vaccine can help accelerate the return-to-office timeframe."
Employee health is becoming a more front-and-center issue among the companies surveyed, with 99 percent saying they're investing in technologies to facilitate employee wellness. (45 percent), readiness (43 percent) and workforce health tracking (41 percent).
"In many ways COVID-19 has been a wake-up call for employers and has demonstrated that increased investment in programs that support employee health, safety, and wellness are critical to maintaining continuity of operations as well as attracting top talent," said Paul Hencoski, KPMG Advisory principal and Health and Government Solutions leader. "Technology can play a critical role in enabling more sophisticated approaches to employee wellness and disease risk management."
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