Do Employees Feel Safe in a Workplace?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many workers to leave offices and employer facilities and instead work from home.

Around the world many employees have returned to the workplace, which will become even more common as people receive vaccines and it is safe for colleagues to work side-by-side once more.

But a majority of the global workforce - 68% - does not feel completely safe working in their employer’s buildings, according to a Wakefield Research survey. The poll of 2,000 employees in buildings of 500+ workers in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany and the Middle East in late 2020.

Here’s what it found:

75% of remote workers said they are especially skeptical about the safety of work sites

In fact, nearly one in four (23%) remote workers would look for a new job rather than return to a site that did not implement necessary safety measures.

56% of workers are more concerned about transmission through the air than through contact with a surface

More than 2 in 5 (41%) of those surveyed believe that buildings with outdated ventilation systems are more dangerous than co-workers not following safety guidelines.

31% say updates to the air quality systems are critical to feel safer at work

Only 25% have seen such updates happen since the pandemic began. Meanwhile, other top health and safety measures that surveyed workers want include protocols such as social distancing or mandatory masks (49%), followed by health screening protocols such as temperature checks (41%), enhanced cleaning procedures (40%), touchless door entries (31%) and technology for contact tracing (20%).