Half of UK Employees Want Access to Workplace Virus Data

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• Half of UK Employees Want Access to Workplace Virus Data

29 March 2021

Infogrid has announced the results of a survey it conducted on what employees expectations for a healthy workplace are, as restrictions ease in England.

Surveying 2,000 UK employees, Infogrid found that 50 per cent of employees are concerned about returning to the physical workplace

65 per cent said they are more concerned about the healthiness of the workplace than they were before the pandemic.

58 per cent of workers said they would feel more comfortable returning to work if their employer was using data to improve the healthiness of the building. They are most interested in having access to data on virus risk (59 per cent), which is the risk of airborne virus transmission, followed by cleaning information (57 per cent) and data on air quality (54 per cent). 

Infogrid, the company that combines IoT sensors with powerful AI to make any building smart, has published its report Creating a Healthy Workplace, which surveyed 2,000 UK employees to understand how they feel about returning to the workplace as the next phase of lockdown easing begins today. Infogrid has launched the Healthy Building System to help organisations track factors including air quality, water safety, occupancy, cleanliness, and occupant welfare in one place. For the first time, companies will have a holistic view of the healthiness of their facilities to ensure their employees feel safe as they return to work.

“As humans we spend 90 per cent of our time indoors, and with their health on the line, employees will understandably be expecting more action from their employers to improve their workplace. A failure to meet their standards may see organisations lose talented workers. The challenge for businesses is how they can measure the effectiveness of the steps they are taking to make healthy working environments and reassure their employees. The answer lies in the use of data.” 

–William Cowell de Gruchy

CEO, Infogrid

Workplace Safety More Important Than Vaccine Rollout

Infogrid’s research surveyed UK employees’ opinion on returning to the physical workplace. It showed that 48 per cent of those that expect to return to the office believe they will be back before July 2021. A further 16 per cent have already returned to the workplace in some capacity.

Of those who aren’t concerned, 60 per cent said it was because their employer had made their workplace safe. This factor was more important to employees than the vaccine rollout (54 per cent)

Employees said regular cleaning has the biggest impact on how safe they feel to return to the office (73 per cent). Other popular measures included limiting the number of people in spaces (69 per cent), and improved air quality to reduce the spread of COVID-19 (61 per cent)

The research also showed that employees are generally more conscious of their health at work, with 65 per cent saying they are more concerned about the healthiness of the workplace than they were before the pandemic. More than half said that the healthiness of their workplace impacts their mental (54 per cent) and physical (56 per cent) wellbeing.

William Cowell de Gruchy, CEO of Infogrid commented on the findings: “This research shows that businesses have to accept that their employees have reservations about returning to the workplace. Organisations need to take action now to prepare the workplace. Not only to make their employees feel safe but to safeguard their ongoing welfare. Employees are now more conscious than ever of how their workplace impacts their wellbeing.”

“As humans we spend 90 per cent of our time indoors, and with their health on the line, employees will understandably be expecting more action from their employers to improve their workplace. A failure to meet their standards may see organisations lose talented workers. The challenge for businesses is how they can measure the effectiveness of the steps they are taking to make healthy working environments and reassure their employees. The answer lies in the use of data.” 

Using Data to Improve the Healthiness of Buildings

Employees are already bought into the idea of their employers using data to make their workplace safe. The majority (58 per cent) of workers said they would feel more comfortable returning to work if their employer was using data to improve the healthiness of the building. They are most interested in having access to data on virus risk (59 per cent), which is the risk of airborne virus transmission, followed by cleaning information (57 per cent) and data on air quality (54 per cent). The challenge for companies has been in the ability to collect and measure this data.

Cowell de Gruchy explained: “Until now the measurement of the factors that contribute to a healthy workplace - such as occupancy, cleanliness and air quality - has been a difficult, manual, and costly process. As a consequence, checks are typically done irregularly - if at all - and the data produced is unreliable and siloed. This makes it difficult for organisations to make positive changes to improve the workplace and the welfare of their employees. However, breakthroughs in cost-effective and simple-to-deploy IoT technology means this no longer needs to be the case.”

Infogrid has today launched its Healthy Building System, the first product that combines the factors that contribute to making a healthy workplace into one unified view. Infogrid uses the best available sensors for each particular use case -  including air quality, water safety, occupancy, cleanliness, and occupant feedback - and integrates the data in its platform to provide organisations with a holistic view of their estate. Infogrid’s AI derives insight from the raw data generated by the sensors, making it easy for companies to identify issues and take timely action. Companies receive a healthy building score, a single metric that makes it even easier to understand, measure and improve.

Picture: a photograph of two people working at a desk

Article written by Ella Tansley | Published 29 March 2021

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