Duty of Care: Keys to Supporting Post-Pandemic Mobility
The COVID-19 pandemic raised the importance of duty of care for organizations and heightened the focus on mobility support. In fact, 62% of respondents to SIRVA’s pulse survey, Spotlight on Duty of Care, indicated they now have more responsibility for duty of care. The pulse survey sheds light on pre-pandemic duty of care support, current support, and what mobility might look like in the foreseeable future.
Organizations are facing challenges with the increased costs of additional duty of care support, addressing the differences in global support, and managing resources that are already stretched thin. Among the findings of the survey were some key ways in which organizations can prepare for post-pandemic mobility.
Supporting New Duty of Care Responsibilities
Mobility practitioners indicated that they are supporting new duty of care responsibilities in two general areas—employee tracking and employee support. The top strategies organizations are applying for employee tracking are setting travel restrictions and guidelines (71%) and tracking all employees on assignment (47%). The top employee-focused areas of increased support are mental health and well-being support (65%) and sanitizing services (56%).
Listening to Your Employees
An encouraging sign is that 59% of organizations responded that they are increasingly open to listening to employee needs compared to before the pandemic. Employees want to feel valued and have their voices heard, so this tactic is one of the ways organizations can deliver a positive experience for relocating employees.
The top three areas of support requested by employees are additional quarantine support, extended relocation timelines and phased assignments where the family arrives after the employee. Employees are also seeking greater clarity and information on the security and medical support they will receive. Listening to your employees not only can increase the success of assignments, but can be a good way to attract and retain your top talent.
Adding New Provisions to Support Post-Pandemic Mobility
While we are not in the post-pandemic stage quite yet, it is important to think about what the future of mobility support will be. Following are the top five policy provisions that organizations have added, or will be adding, to their policy to support post-pandemic mobility:
- Following local quarantine requirements (68%)
- Providing sanitizing services (61%)
- Offering mental health services (56%)
- Quarantine support (53%)
- More robust tracking of employees and critical information (49%)
Read our Duty of Care Pulse Survey for key considerations on how you can best support your employees. For more information on how SIRVA can help your company address post-pandemic duty of care, please contact us, at concierge@sirva.com.
Recommended reading:
- Pulse Survey: Spotlight on Duty of Care
- SIRVA White Paper: Managing Your Remote Workforce
- Infographic: Managing Your Remote Workforce
- Key Considerations for Mobility Program Design
- SIRVA COVID-19 Matrix: Impacts on Relocation & Moving