Employers are being asked to be supportive, but honest, when it comes to the effects of COVID-19 on their business.

It comes as more than 60% of Irish employees are worried about the future impact of COVID-19 on their job.

That is according to a new Jobs.ie survey of almost 700 people.

It found that 66% of employees are worried about the impact of the virus on their job, and their ability to find a job in the future.

While over 70% are not confident that the changes to their job because of the pandemic will ever be reversed.

Mary Connaughton is director of HR body CIPD Ireland.

She told Newstalk Breakfast: "You do need to pro-actively communicate with people - so regardless of what's going to happen in the future to communicate to show some empathy and to show that you recognise actually that people are concerned and are worried.

"But that's about being open and transparent about what's going to happen, we're not saying that they should create false expectations.

"And then they should really put well-being first in terms of what can you do to support the well-being of people to make sure that they're actually staying healthy in the environment that they're working in.

"And then when it does come down to who can come back first, again be transparent: look at what are the critical roles that you need to take back and tell people what's going to happen".

"We're also saying that we know some people won't want immediately to come back into the workplace and be flexible in dealing with those particular situations - some people will have childcare issues, some people will be worried about transport".

"And really then when they are going to be things like extended lay-off or redundancy, again it is about communicating and being as open and honest as that".

   

The survey was conducted among employees across 40 different industries, and found that COVID-19 has already impacted over 80% of people’s jobs.

Of those whose jobs have been impacted, 45% have been let go on a temporary basis with a further 16% saying that they have been let go permanently.

Others have experienced reduced working hours, pay reductions, company closures, redundancies or have moved to a working from home environment.

The research also revealed those working in hotels (11%), retail (9%) and travel and tourism (6%) have been most affected.

Those within the hotel industry have been most affected by temporary job losses, with 66% of employees in this sector experiencing some level of change.

A further 16% in the hotel industry say they were let go permanently.