The professional body for human resource professionals has urged employers to consider whether their staff should continue working from home.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Ireland (CIPD), said businesses should rethink their return to work strategies citing concerns surrounding rising rates of Covid-19 infection.

The CIPD also said businesses should carry out risk assessments to inform their staff’s return to the workplace.

“We believe that if a risk assessment shows steps such as mask wearing and working from home can have a positive impact in some workplaces, then they may be reasonable methods to take to protect employees and resources,” said CIPD director Mary Connaughton.

The organisation has also asked employers to look at re-introduction of mask wearing in closed office settings, citing the reluctance of some employees to return to a shared workspace without the health measures in place.

CIPD Ireland also said they have received a large volume of queries from managers to discuss the numbers of staff that are sick or isolating from the virus.

In recent weeks, organisations are also having to cope with a rising level of Covid-19-related staff shortages, as the country goes through a wave of the BA2 variant.

CIPD has urged employers to communicate with their employees as they finalise plans to reopen, and asked for greater flexibility to navigate this latest wave of infections.

Latest CSO figures also show that over one in five workers had not taken annual leave in the last 12 months. It said a lack of staff to cover absences was among the main barriers to taking leave.

Meanwhile, Fórsa has welcomed a new policy that gave all civil servants the right to apply for remote or blended working under a new framework agreed between unions and the Department of Public Expenditure and reform (DPER), and called for the framework to be quickly rolled out across the entire civil and public service.