Most Firms Have No Return-To-Work Strategy In Place: Survey

More than 73% of companies have not yet created a return-to-work strategy, according to a survey of 150 professionals by attorneys at Philadelphia-based law firm Blank Rome LP released Thursday.

The survey polled clients that included C-suite executives, in-house counsel and human resources professionals in a wide range of industries from April 18-24, finding that more than a third of companies are relying on their state, local or regional authorities to create their return-to-work strategy, though slightly more than half of respondents said they were in the beginning stages of designing a plan.

More than half of the professionals surveyed said their company plans to mandate social distancing in the workplace when workers return, 64% of respondents said they will provide masks or facial personal protective equipment to workers and more than a third said they will provide gloves.

Fewer than 10% of respondents said they do not plan to provide personal protective equipment.

Of the respondents, 12% said they had received a U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration complaint and 15% said they had received a COVID-related employee complaint.

About 12% of companies said they expected to make substantial changes to reconfigure physical spaces in the workplaces for social distancing purposes, but about a third of companies said they do not have plans to make physical changes yet.