SURVEY: Alternative working arrangements a popular option for local companies since COVID-19

More than 50 percent of locally-based companies that participated in a recent survey have offered alternative working arrangements for their employees since the COVID-19 pandemic began affecting the territory.

This is according to a recent report by HireBVI – a local online employment agency – which surveyed 26 companies from various economic sectors between March 31 and April 7.

The report stated, “58 percent of the companies that were surveyed has provided alternative work arrangement to its employees while 35 percent has not provided arrangements and may never provide such arrangements.”

Remote working most popular option

The survey said the most popular alternative work arrangement option was for employers to enable their employees the ability to operate remotely while the crisis persists.

A total of 63 percent of all the companies offering alternative arrangements said they offer workers the option to work remotely. Some 16 percent offered flextime while 13 percent reduced the hours of their workers.

Curfew affected businesses

The report also found that eight percent of the overall companies require their employee’s presence to be operational, and therefore could not provide an alternative work arrangement.

These companies, according to HireBVI, fall within industries such as health, manufacturing and wholesale, security services and cleaning.

The companies, which were not approved by government as essential businesses, were all forced to close following government’s 24-hour curfew.

HireBVI has said the objective of the survey was to attain an overall idea of the actions and response of the human resource of local companies during the pandemic.