Staff plan safe return to work at Milton Park as lockdown eases

A survey also found that people’s biggest worry about returning to work was ‘the ability to socially distance in the workplace’.

Milton Park carried out its survey between May 13 and May 22, which received 605 responses from people who work in many different roles at the park and included 57 business leaders.

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Philip Campbell, commercial director at Milton Park, said: “With so many changes impacting so many people in different ways, several businesses have asked us about the return to work intentions of other Milton Park occupiers and we wanted to share the feedback we have heard from people in our community.

“The aim is for such results to assist our occupiers and people who work here so that they can understand how people are feeling and can plan for when people are ready to return to work.

“The survey showed us that by and large business leaders were more confident about returning to the workplace than employees.

“We believe this is because business owners will have thought about what they need to put in place and a better knowledge of what they need to do.

"Therefore, we believe that communication with staff around measures that have been put in place will be key.”

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The survey findings included:

People’s greatest concerns on returning to work were, in order of their biggest worry:

The ability to socially distance in the workplace

Managing my domestic situation - ie childcare or living with a vulnerable household or living with a keyworker

My commute

Cleanliness of the workplace.

Turning to people’s sentiments about returning to work, people were asked their feelings about returning to the workplace:

-24.7% said that, with the right safeguards in place, they were ready to be back in the workplace

-22.1% said they were concerned and were worried about some elements of the return

-38.4% said they were very concerned and that, at this time, there were too many unknowns and would prefer to continue remote working

-13.5% said that they or someone they live with are vulnerable

-9.1% said it is not relevant to them as they have continued to work at the park throughout the outbreak.

Reassuringly for employees, of those 57 Milton Park-based business leaders who replied, 95% said that they had a Covid-19 return to work strategy or plan in place or were working on one.

When business leaders were asked how they plan to reconfigure their physical workspace as part of their return to work strategy, to enable social distancing:

-24.53% said that they were considering making substantial changes to their physical workspace

-49.06% said that they were considering making minor changes to their workspace

-11.32% said they didn’t yet know

-15.09% said they will make no changes.

Turning to transport, of the people who responded, when asked how they usually travel to work, 81.64% usually travel by car, 12.55% by bike and 15.27% travel by bus.

Most of those said they would continue to travel by car or bike.

However, 20.22% of people said that they were considering changing modes when they return to work.

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And 10% who usually use public transport are considering changing modes to travel by car or by bike and 5% of car drivers have said that they will start cycling or walking to work when they return.

Mr Campbell added: “The survey suggests that between now and September, up to 50% of our 9,000-strong community will return to work. This may be as staggered working or spread over a period of days.

“However, this will mean that socially distancing should be easier during this time as a significant proportion of people will remain working from home for various reasons, which will mean commuting might be easier too.

“We expect smaller companies to return to work more rapidly than larger companies which have tended to prepare space for people’s return, but they will stagger return to work times and days, and leave the decision to continue to work from home with the individuals.

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“Those with childcare issues or other domestic issues will face problems coming in every day until things in the outside work return to a ‘new normal’.

“On food and drink, as outdoor markets have started to reopen, we are looking at catering facilities to make people’s return to work easier, from their daily coffee to grabbing a bite to eat at lunchtime.”