Research reveals employees ‘uncomfortable with skipping isolation’

A recent survey has revealed that 60% of the UK workforce wouldn’t feel comfortable skipping isolation even if they were legally exempt.

The research, conducted by Edays, indicates that regardless of proposed new government policies, this won’t be an issue that just goes away overnight.

These findings also suggest that HRs ‘need to develop clear guidelines on what the ‘pingdemic’ means for staff’.

Despite a recent update to the app to minimise the number of alerts sent out, even the resulting 40% fall in pings still saw almost 400,000 people across the UK told to isolate in a single week.

It’s not just those who are pinged that feel the impact as teams are forced to try to operate at reduced numbers as they try to minimise any disruption to their services.

Train services across the south west are still seeing disruptions due to a shortage of crew to operate the network.

“At a time when planning an isolation-free holiday seems a lot like trying to hit a moving target and with the continued juggling of unplanned sickness absence due to increased COVID infections and self-isolation, how are HR teams meant to plan accordingly while keeping their employees’ safety and wellbeing a top priority?” said Edays CEO, Matthew Jenkins.

“It’s a delicate balance to strike and a challenge that has never been experienced on this scale before. Listening to the concerns of your workforce and planning with this in mind should be the go-to for any HR team.

Once this is understood, businesses can plan accordingly to take into account what it is their employees actually want and need.”

Although the government is allowing isolation exemption for certain industries, some businesses have resorted to suggesting that employees delete the NHS COVID-19 app to avoid large swathes of the workforce being out of action.