Over half (53%) of workers want to see their workplace introduce the property technology that has the ability to record proof of COVID-19 vaccination. This response is according to the second Return to Work report from MRI Software, a leading international provider of real estate and workplace management solutions, and Brivo, a global leader in cloud-based access control and smart building technologies.
The report, which includes responses from over 1,000 people in the United States, follows an earlier study from May 2021 and offers insight across more than a dozen sectors. It explores people’s health and safety concerns related to their return to the office and preferred working arrangements as the world continues to emerge from the pandemic.
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Support for employers to track vaccinations reflected broader concerns about health and safety in offices. More than half of respondents (52%) said they had safety and health concerns about returning to the workplace, but that figure was down from 62% in the May report. There was a clear difference, however, between the type of industries and the level of concern about working onsite. People in professional services were the most apprehensive, with 61% reporting concerns about returning full time. In comparison, just 41% of respondents in the service industry had concerns about returning to the workplace full time.
“The research indicates that health and safety concerns remain a significant barrier to returning to the workplace,” commented Brian Zrimsek, Industry Principal at MRI Software. “There is clearly still a sense of unease among many in the wider workforce. Businesses encouraging a return to offices and other workspaces need the right technologies in place to implement and communicate health and safety measures, ensuring employees can work together in person in a safe environment.”
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“Employers are preparing for a permanent hybrid approach by adapting their offices and workplace tech stacks,” said Steve Van Till, Brivo Founder and CEO. “We’ve seen that access management is foundational to enabling co-working and flexible usage models for commercial real estate. Our integration of secure access with workplace and tenant experience applications gives HR and facility managers a simple and automated mobile solution for transitioning to this new normal.”
Other key findings reveal workers’ attitudes to remote working:
- 78% of respondents prefer working from home at least some of the time, which is consistent with the initial survey;
- Of the workers who are not back at the workplace full time, 45% expect to be back full-time within six months, down from 53% in the previous survey;
- A third (33%) of all respondents don’t expect to return to full-time onsite work again;
- 36% of male respondents indicated they would continue working from home indefinitely, compared to 28% of female respondents;
- 77% of respondents with C-suite titles indicated they would never return to full-time onsite work;
- Only 22% of respondents didn’t want to work from home, with nearly a third of these people working in the social services or service industry.
The survey also revealed that people in creative or professional services are the most likely to continue working from home indefinitely, while people in the service industry are the least likely.
“Despite many employees working remotely over the past 18 months, there’s still a clear appetite to return to the workplace for the in-person interactions that cannot be replicated in a virtual environment,” concludes Zrimsek. “However, it’s undeniable that working from home is here to stay. PropTech tools are expected to be essential for managing safe hybrid working environments, giving employees the ability to book desks and meeting spaces and enabling businesses to plan how much office space is required for their workforce and develop real estate strategies for the future.”
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