45% of U.S. Offices Don’t Have a Return to the Office Date Established

Posted by: Karen Booher on June 16th, 2020

Things are slowly beginning to open up again. Cities are re-opening restaurants and malls and people begin to venture out again. But, what about offices?

A SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) study released on Jun. 9, 2020 found that 52% of U.S. workplaces plan to reopen by Jul. 15, 2020, while 3% aren’t planning on returning until after Aug. 1, 2020. The remaining 45% have yet to set a return date.

This isn’t surprising, as each city and state are opening up on their own timeline. However, caution and hesitancy are still in the air, so the now familiar concept of working-from-home will most likely continue through the summer, at least to some extent.

Key Findings from the SHRM Survey

In the SHRM study, 1087 HR Professionals responded, representing organizations of all sizes from 2 – 25,000+ employees across the U.S. in a wide variety of industries. The following findings show the willingness of employers to follow recommended guidelines and ensure the safety of their workplace and employees.

• 68% of organizations report they probably or definitely will adopt broader or more flexible work from home policies for all employees.
• 29% of organizations probably or definitely will allow their employees to work from home full-time through the rest of 2020.
• 86% of organizations are implementing or considering the required use of PPE (face masks, gloves, etc.). Of those, 80% will be providing and paying for PPE.
• 73% of organizations are implementing or considering on-site medical/temperature screenings.
• 79% of organizations will be spacing workstations further apart to maintain social distancing guidelines.

For companies with a set return to work date, they’re planning on returning to the office in the following ways:

• 39% will implement a phased return strategy.
• 19% will implement an alternating return strategy.
• 11% will return all employees working from home to full-time, in-office work immediately.
• 11% will return some employees to the office while others will work from home indefinitely.
• 10% will allow employees to choose whether they want to work from home or in the office, or will determine case-by-case where each employee works.

Sources:

• “SHRM Survey: 45% of U.S. Workplaces Don’t Have a Return to Work Date.” SHRM, 9 June 2020.
• https://shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/Documents/FOR MEDIA SHRM CV19 Return to Work HR data v4.pdf