COVID-19 Threat: Around 83% of Indian workforce nervous to go back to office without vaccine

Around 83 per cent of employees in India are still nervous about going back to the office as there is no vaccine, according to a survey by IT company Atlassian. From an organisational perspective, 88 per cent of Indian employees believed their company was already well prepared for returning to the office, while 78 per cent of the workforce in India were annoyed that it took a pandemic to allow them to work from home, the survey found.

The survey, conducted in October, found that around 86 per cent of employees in India thought the members of their team feel closer to each other now and 75 per cent thought their team worked better together compared to pre-COVID-19.

"The research findings point to how the 'new normal' will shape work, relationships and collaboration in the future. These are the voices of real people facing real complexities," Dinesh Ajmera, site lead and head of engineering (Bengaluru) at Atlassian, said in a



statement.

Now is the opportunity to use the insights the company has been presented with to adapt for the better, guided by the experiences of employees around the world, he added.

The company said it used a mixed-method approach, combining 19 in-depth remote interviews through Zoom with various workers in India, a two-week global diary study of six participants and a 15-minute quantitative survey of almost 1,400 knowledge workers across tier-1, tier-2 and tier-3 cities in India.

"People are sharing more personal experiences with their team. The majority of Indian employees (89 per cent) reported a feeling of unity and cohesion in their team. Another insightful revelation was that 1 in 2 (50 per cent) of managers said their job security was much better now than before COVID-19," the survey report said.

It added that the pandemic has triggered a shift in managerial roles, and managers are feeling more integral to workflows and productivity than ever.