As companies look at ways to bring their employees back to offices, new research reveals that employees have concerns regarding return to office.

An overarching worry uncovered in the study was that of health and safety considering the open plan layout design in many offices.

The main concerns of employees about returning to office as per the study are 90% contracting Covid-19 in office, 86% will have to compromise on current lifestyle, 84% dreading for a poorer work-life balance, 81% citing long commutes and 71% unable to provide care to parents and children.

However, despite all these concerns, the study also indicates that 68% employees are comfortable and look forward to returning to office.

These are the findings of an exclusive study, Home, Office and Beyond, by Godrej Interio, the furniture solutions brand of Godrej & Boyce, a Godrej Group company. 

A total of 350 office-going employees participated in the research in the age group 21–56-years, most of them working for MNCs and Indian corporates.

To understand the employee expectations in a post-pandemic world, the Workspace & Ergonomics Research Cell at Godrej Interio conducted a nation-wide study and uncovers different aspects such as employees’ return to work concerns, changing the traditional use of office spaces, and views on working from home and from office. 

According to the research study, wellbeing became the focus area for both employers and employees over the past two years with 31% workforce saying employers should be interested in employee wellbeing.  Similarly, employees noticed a difference in, both, their own and their teams’ wellbeing over the same period with 62% observing an improvement in personal wellbeing and 50% in their team’s wellbeing.

In the partial unlock phase, the study reveals that 26% employees are still in their hometowns and away from the cities where their offices are located whereas 18% returned to cities where their offices are located.

Twenty per cent of the employees are in favour of full-time remote work while 23 % are in favour of full-time office and 6% are location agnostic, it adds. 

“As corporations gear up to welcome all employees back to office, employee perceptions about a good work-life balance have changed significantly. Despite seeing benefits from work from home policies, the concept of a formal workplace has not disappeared completely. However, the pandemic has opened discussions of how office spaces can be used more effectively. At Godrej Interio, we are seeing demand for more collaborative furniture in the office space and are looking to grow the segment by 25% in this financial year,” said Sameer Joshi, associate vice president, Marketing (B2B), Godrej Interio.