Over half of HR leaders now have implemented a policy addressing a pandemic disease in relation to COVID-19, but still over a tenth have no plans to do so.
Lewis Silkin, a law firm has found that 59 per cent of HR leaders have confirmed they have implemented a plan to address pandemic diseases such as COVID-19 whereas 11 per cent have no plans to implement such a policy.
A tenth (10 per cent) still plans to implement a policy, and less than 10 per cent had a policy in place prior to the COVID-19 outbreak.
Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) have restricted UK domestic travel and 26 per cent have restricted international travel.
The majority (88 per cent) of businesses are managing self-isolation by asking employees to work from home.
James Davies, the employment partner at Lewis Silkin, said:
These are unprecedented times and employers are having quickly adapt, evolve or scale up their workplace policies in response to Coronavirus. This is a fast-moving situation and businesses will need to collaborate and learn from each other in order to know how best to move forward, with the wellbeing of staff and business continuity very much front of mind. This is why we have launched this survey, to benchmark and monitor the best practice of some of the UK’s leading HR professionals, and we will continue to gather and disseminate helpful information and guidance to our clients and the wider business community wherever we can.
Still, Incomes Data Research (IDR) found that only 4 per cent of companies have the ability for their entire workforce to work from home. Remote working tends to be available for roughly a quarter of the workforce.
Employees who work in manufacturing, customer facing-jobs or drivers often have limited access to remote working.
In order to gather this data, Lewis Silkin asked 65 senior HR leaders for organisations who employ over 200,000 employees in their response to COVID-19.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.
