The UK manufacturing & industrial engineering industry is one of the least prepared for a mass home working strategy, according to a survey from Leesman.

Leesman has surveyed more than 700,000 employees worldwide. Of the 52,240 of those working in the manufacturing and engineering space within its index, 53% have no home working experience, compared with 52% of overall respondents globally.

With COVID-19 declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation, major companies are now advising employees to work from home in a bid to curb the outbreak and protect their workforce.

While the UK government asks even mildly sick people to stay home, leading researchers have suggested British workers who can work from home should be advised to do so, regardless of whether they are symptomatic, to reduce their risk of contracting coronavirus and fuelling the outbreak by spreading it to others.

The data suggests the manufacturing and engineering space must brace itself for reduced productivity and innovation. Of the employees across the industry that do work from home occasionally, 90% typically do so for just one day a week or less, and just 0.5% work from home for more than four days per week. What’s more, only 35% of sporadic home workers in the industry have a dedicated room to work from.

The main risks with home working include a reduced sense of community (-21.1%), social interaction (-20.4%), knowledge transfer (-25.8%) and learning from others (-11.0%). 

Tim Oldman, Leesman CEO, said: “Home working will undoubtedly prove pivotal in limiting the impact of coronavirus crisis. But the data suggests that many employers and employees across the manufacturing and engineering space will be out of their depth should British businesses be forced into lockdown. Our advice is for organisations to quickly quantify where their main obstacles will be and seek support. We know how and why corporate offices impact employee sentiment but have significantly less understanding of even the short-term impact of dispersing teams to environments designed for living, not working. Industries must brace themselves, but the manufacturing and engineering space must remain one of the most cautious.”