With lockdown slowly but surely coming to an end, and the UK government’s furlough scheme set to wrap up in October, the vast majority of employees across the country now face the awkward reality of going back to work in the post-pandemic world. But after months of disruption, returning to normality is not going to be as simple as just showing up at the office again for the tried-and-tested 9-5.

The coronavirus pandemic has changed how we work for good. Millions of staff up and down the UK were placed on furlough as businesses either shut completely or operated under restrictive social distancing guidelines between March and June, and even those that were held on were encouraged to work remotely wherever possible to limit contact between employees. So was born an unprecedented work from home scheme, which has proven that UK businesses can – and often do – operate successfully without employees in the office.

Of course, the work from home luxury does not extend to all industries. Millions of staff across supermarkets, building and the manufacturing sector were never able to conduct their business through Zoom calls and emails in the comfort of their own home. But for those comparatively fortunate desk workers who were, the prospect of returning to the city in the coming weeks comes with a great deal of anxiety about how businesses can guarantee their staff will be safe – and if they can do that at all.

The new normal

British asset management firm Schroders (LON:SDR) made headlines last week by announcing that they were to become the first company to embrace working from home for good. The FTSE 100 listed institution told its 5,000 staff worldwide that they would not need to be in the office five days a week, declaring a “new approach to flexible working” which allows employees to decide when they want to be on site as long as they work the total days or hours required by their contract.

Commenting on the move, Schroders’ chief executive Peter Harrison said that the coronavirus pandemic had “changed society irrevocably”:

“The contract between society and business has changed forever. The office will become a convening place where you get teams together, but the work will be done in people’s homes”.

Schroders’ is not the only firm recalibrating its post-pandemic office obligations; Aviva’s chief executive Amanda Blanc told journalists earlier this month that she expects a mere 10% of staff to return to the office in September, as the company explores how it can prioritise the “safety and wellbeing” of employees while ramping up productivity to pre-coronavirus levels. PwC also announced that it expects the majority of its 22,000-strong UK workforce to work from home for the foreseeable future, as chairman Kevin Ellis stated:

“There’s no question that lockdown has done away with presenteeism. It’s shown many business leaders that their people can be productive, engaged and happy working from home”.

How do Londoners feel about getting back to work?

The safety and comfort of working from home is not expected to last for everyone, and with thousands of businesses preparing to return to relative normality, anxiety is beginning to heighten about whether “normal” is actually achievable in the post-coronavirus world. Cramped office spaces will no doubt make social distancing difficult, and with the majority of London staff using public transport to travel to work, the risk of infection rises exponentially with each tap of their Oyster card.

A new survey published by Theta Financial Reporting has condensed Londoners’ anxieties about returning to work in the “first nationally representative survey across over 2,000 UK adults looking into how the UK workforce and business leaders feel about returning to work post-lockdown, and what it is that they are returning to”.

Among the survey’s findings was the claim that “57% of people in the Capital do not want to go back to a normal way of working in an office environment with normal office hours” and “35% of people in London say going back to work in a traditional office environment will have a negative impact on their mental health, which in turn will negatively affect their productivity”.

The mood is clear: Londoners are anxious about returning to normality, and if there is even something “normal” to go back to any more. Even outside of the office, the use of public transport raises a number of concerns, with a whopping 70% of Londoners saying that they “do not feel comfortable commuting to work via public transport anymore and think it will be one of the most stressful parts of their day”.

While Schroders’ and Aviva lead the pack of big names adjusting the way they do business to accommodate employee concerns, the vast majority have not yet been able to make any sweeping changes, and nearly “three in 10 Londoners – 28% – say their employer hasn’t explored any flexible working options to help them or their colleagues return to work”.

How can companies keep staff safe?

It may yet be too early to tell how businesses handle the back to work transition process. The furlough scheme is set to wind up in October, at which point Chancellor Rishi Sunak has already warned of “tragic projections” for unemployment, but for the staff able to hold onto their positions, the post-pandemic office landscape may look very different.

The BBC published a list of guidelines which employers are obliged to uphold to maintain the health and safety of staff in the workplace, including (but not limited to):

• Observing the “1m plus” rule of social distancing
• Introducing one-way systems to minimise contact
• Frequent cleaning of objects and communal areas

Staff that are concerned that their safety is not being addressed are advised to contact either their local authority or the Health and Safety Executive, while the Trades Union Congress has called for businesses to publish regular risk assessments to monitor the commitment to a safe working environment.

That being said, there is no feasible way for employees to 100% guarantee the safety of their staff from infection. Even with diligent mask-wearing, hand-washing and social-distancing, there is a small chance that someone can contract coronavirus from a minute error, such as absent-mindedly touching their face – something which neither employees nor employers can definitively control.

An unprecedented opportunity

Nevertheless, when the summer holidays end and staff increasingly return to their desks in the autumn, employers are faced with a rare opportunity to reassess how they should conduct business in a world still battling coronavirus – with no universal vaccine on the table just yet.

Chris Biggs, Managing Director and Founder of Theta Financial Reporting, commented on the survey’s findings:

“It is refreshing to see large firms take note of their employees’ concerns in regards to travelling into central London offices. From the commute to boosted productivity when working from home, there are numerous benefits to flexible working that this period has uncovered for millions of employers and employees alike. Business leaders would do well to realise this and adapt now to pivot their business, remove unnecessary overheads and plan for a post-COVID future.”