As COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted, it appears that women are more concerned and worried about the idea of returning to work compared to men.
Culture Amp, a people and culture platform has found that there is a 10-point difference on average between women and men in regards to how confident they feel about returning to work. As 56 per cent of women compared to 46 per cent of men want their company to implement more safety measures to the office.
Women are also more concerned about the availability of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), with 86 per cent of females wishing to have access to PPE in contrast to 77 per cent of men.
Men feel safer using the company gym, cafeteria, or other social areas than women with a difference of 45 per cent to 36 per cent.
Nearly a third (32 per cent) of women said they feel comfortable about the idea of traveling to work, compared to 43 per cent of men. More than half of men (52 per cent) are looking forward to returning to work in contrast to 44 per cent of women.
However, slightly more women (79 per cent) than men (75 per cent) know how to access the company’s employee support programme.
Jess Brook, lead people scientist at Culture Amp said:
Women have been disproportionately impacted by Covid-19, especially when it comes to childcare duties, job losses and healthcare – it’s no surprise that as we look to what the future may hold, women are more likely to prepare themselves for a ‘worst case scenario’.
The findings should serve as a stark reminder to business leaders about the very real concerns that employees have about emerging from lockdown and what ‘new normal’ they’ll discover when they do. It also reminds us that these concerns aren’t blanket across employees.
In order to collate these results, Culture Amp surveyed over 31,000 employees between 5th May and 1st June 2020.
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.