Just under three quarters of employees are not comfortable with returning to work unless social distancing measures have been put into place.

A poll by GHD, a professional services company, revealed that 70% of workers are not happy returning to the workplace until social distancing measures have been fully implemented.

60% of employees want to see more permanent social distancing measure in the workplace.

GHD suggests that one issue regarding social distancing is that it goes against the idea of maximising productivity at work. In fact it asks businesses to be more inefficient at a time when they need to be efficient as possible.

Businesses believe that the guidance set out by the government to help employees return to the workplace is positive but it is not specific enough. As GHD explains ‘they do not tell owners/operators how to determine the capacity, or how to ensure social distancing by reconfiguring spaces and designing new procedures that, importantly, account for the way people behave. More details on design and operations principles and standards are urgently needed nationally.’