The research surveyed 75 agency and in-house leaders to reveal that 44% of senior professionals will not specific the number of days employees are required to be in the office. Only one in twenty industry leaders will expect their employees to be in the office five days a week.

Francis Ingham, director general of the PRCA says, “PR and communications professionals have delivered exceptional work while operating remotely. But ours is a social industry; one in which teams are built and creativity is sparked through face-to-face relationships. There are elements of our practice which simply cannot be replaced by Zoom calls.”

The study also asked leaders about their plans for testing, wearing masks and vaccination policies. Almost a quarter said they planned to Covid-19 test on a fortnightly basis while 56% have no plans for testing. Others said they planned to follow government guidelines.

Only 22% of respondents said they have asked staff whether they have been vaccinated, and 86% said they had no plans to implement a vaccine policy. Looking at the wearing of masks within offices, 58% said they will not require staff to do so, while 35% will require employees to wear masks at all times apart from when at their desks.

“Our future will be built around a hybrid model that fuses the best of both worlds. But let’s be clear - for the great majority of us, our working lives have changed fundamentally and forever,” adds Ingham.