Vancouver’s Traction Guest released new research today that reveals the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employee safety and security as employees return to the workplace.
In June 2020, Traction Guest surveyed 300 employees, as well as 300 enterprise risk management, physical security and facilities management professionals in the U.S. at organizations with at least 1,000 employees.
Despite intentions of returning to on-site operations in late 2020, many employees remain concerned of their organizations’ plans to ensure their health and safety.
The Traction Guest survey found that 84 percent of employees are somewhat or very concerned about going to their organization’s office, warehouse or physical worksite for the remainder of 2020. A similar number (85 percent) of respondents cited that their physical health and safety in the workplace is a greater consideration now than before the pandemic.
Despite growing concerns amongst employees, 15 percent reportedly do not know if their company has introduced new technology since the onset of the pandemic to help ensure employee health and safety.
Another 39 percent of employees cited that their company has not introduced any new health and safety technology, leaving a large number of employees at risk if and when their workplace requires their return onsite.
To address employee concern about the return to work, some organizations have proactively begun adopting new technology solutions to keep their staff safe. In fact, 45 percent of employees noted their company has already adopted new technology for employee health and safety.
Among the technologies that employees believe would make them feel more comfortable returning to a physical workplace, respondents cited temperature-checking devices (59 percent) and touchless sign-in technology (54 percent), which entails not having to touch a sign-in device, kiosk or security access control system upon entering the facility.
Traction Guest is a leader in cloud-based enterprise visitor management systems (VMS). In response to the COVID-19 pandemic they pivoted in May to a fully contactless solution with touchless sign-in/sign-out technology that allows for the vetting of employees and visitors before access to any facility.
“As people return to the workplace, enterprises must create a safe environment that reassures employees that their health and wellbeing are protected and a top priority,” said Keith Metcalfe, CEO of Traction Guest.
“In light of COVID-19, organizations face challenges in rebuilding employee resilience, trust and communication patterns. This has sparked a massive shift in how businesses think about and act on employees’ physical safety. That’s not just employee to employee, but employee to customer, employee to vendor, and employee to partner. All of those interactions suddenly carry new levels of complexity.”
Check out the complete survey results online here as well as in this handy infographic.