Survey results: attitudes towards Home Working and Training in the current climate

We asked hundreds of Health & Safety, HR, and Business Professionals (including business owners) for their thoughts on Working from Home and the impact that COVID-19 has had on their organisations and their personal lives...

Employers and guidelines

If you are an employer or manager, have you been issuing guidelines around effective working at home and how to manage current issues?

A resounding 94.8% of people said that they had been issuing guidelines around effective home working and how to deal with issues relating to COVID-19, whilst just 5.2% said they hadn't. 

Encouraging Home Working 

As an employer/manager, have you encouraged working from home? 

As expected, 96.3% of people said that they had encouraged working from home. Just 3.7% of people said they hadn't but this could be due to the organisation employing key workers that are still expected to continue working as normal. 

Making Home Working easier 

If you are an employer or manager, have you taken any action to make working at home easier for your employees?

96.2% of employers/managers claim to have taken actions to make working at home easier for their employees. 

How? 

When asked how, popular responses included: 

• DSE related - provided extra equipment, tailored assessments and training. 
• Risk assessments and guidance issued. 
• Additional IT equipment. 
• Increased communications with staff. 
• Mental Health support. 
• Flexi-working. 

Health & Safety and Compliance 

Are you still training your staff in Health & Safety and Compliance?

When asked if they were continuing to train staff during this challenging period, 78.7% of people said that they had been continuing with staff training, whilst 21.3% said they hadn't. 

It's clear to see that training is still important to employers and managers and we've seen strong evidence that suggests even organisations that have furloughed staff have continued to supply them with training to aid CPD.

Organisations adapting

Do you feel you have you adapted well to remote working as an organisation?

85.1% of respondents said that they believed their organisation had adapted well to working from home, whilst 14.9% couldn't be sure or thought that they adapted well as an organisation.  

Individuals adapting

Are you finding working at home easy to adjust to?

80.9% of people said that they had found home working easy to adjust to, whilst 19.1% have appeared to struggle to adapt. 

Problems? 

When asked about some of the pain points with working from home people cited the following as causing problems: 

• Family distractions. 
• Poor Wifi / Signal / IT problems.
• Issues with DSE.
• Poor time management.
• Difficulty in communicating with others.
• Workload and working beyond contracted hours. 

Working hours

Are you working more or less than you would at the office?

Surprisingly, 25.3% of respondents said that they have been working more than usual during COVID-19, whilst 45.3% said their workloads had remained about the same and 29.5% said they had been working less during COVID-19. 

Stress and effects on relationships

Are you noticing any effect/stresses on relationships with partners or children?

A third of respondents said that they had noticed stresses on relationships with their partners or children. 66.7% of people said that they hadn't noticed any effects.

Causes

When asked what they thought had caused stress on relationships, popular answers included: 

• Being tired at the end of a working day. 
• Childcare and homeschooling issues. 
• Effects of lockdown in general. 
• Small houses / not enough room to work. 
• Limited alone time. 
• Not being able to see ill relatives.
• Boredom. 

Home Working vs Offices 

It would appear that many individuals are looking forward to returning to the workplace, with 45.2% of people saying they would not work from home permanently if they were given the chance. 20.7% of people were not sure whilst 34% of people would permanently work from home if it was a possibility. 

Personal Development

Will you look to use online courses to continue your professional development?

A resounding 84% of individuals said they would still look to use online courses as a means of continuing CPD, whilst just 3.2% said they wouldn't. 

Most suitable training courses in the current climate

Respondents cited the following training courses as being the most suitable for the current climate: 

• Returning to work / Social distancing. 
• Mental Health / Stress Awareness. 
• H&S Compliance. 
• Mental resilience. 
• Soft Skills. 
• Homeworking H&S. 
• Time Management.

iHASCO training courses

If you're still looking to continue with CPD and offer your staff high-quality eLearning, why not get started with a free trial or request a quote and we'll be in touch.