Half of furloughed workers to return full-time, research finds

Employment specialists XpertHR recently carried out a survey of more than 190 HR professionals, to find out what their working arrangements were for employees going forward.

The research found that employers expect close to half (46 percent) of their employees currently furloughed to be working full-time by the end of August, with a further 20 percent of employees to be working part-time under the flexible furlough scheme.

To date, more than nine million employees have been furloughed, with the government picking up 80 percent of salary costs under the the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS).

From July 1 employees have been able to return to work on the flexible furlough scheme, but added costs have been put on employers - to start paying towards National Insurance and pension costs, with further contributions towards salary, phased in from August.

Given the extra costs employers will have to take on, the survey asked HR professionals if they were planning to make redundancies - at least one in three are.

The research also found that HR professionals believe as many as one in 10 of those currently furloughed could be facing redundancy by the end of August.

Although most organisations (72 percent) predict that employees will be reluctant to return to the workplace, and many (26 percent) anticipate a fall in employee engagement, the survey found that 22 percent of employers are now beginning to reopen their workplaces.