According to global professional services company KPMG, nearly half (45%) of global executives do not anticipate a return to a “normal” course of business until sometime in 2022, compared to nearly one-third (31%) who assume it will happen later this year.
According to the KPMG CEO Outlook Pulse Survey for 2021, changes triggered by the pandemic have caused one-quarter (24%) of CEOs to state that the global pandemic has forever changed their business model.
In a survey conducted by KPMG in February and March of this year, 500 global CEOs were asked about their responses to the pandemic and their outlook for the next three years. A majority of CEOs (55%) are worried about their employees’ access to the Covid-19 vaccine, which is affecting their hopes about when they will return to work.
A large majority of CEOs (90%) are considering requiring workers to disclose when they have been vaccinated, which could aid organisations in determining how to protect their staff. However, one-third (34%) of global executives are concerned about misconceptions about the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine and the effect this could have on workers refusing to receive it.
“CEOs want to know that their workforce is safe against this virus before making any big decisions,” said Bill Thomas, Global Chairman and CEO of KPMG.
“As leaders brace for a new reality, the Covid-19 vaccine rollout is providing a dose of hope. CEOs are preparing for market gaps that could affect their operations, supply chains, and employees, resulting in an uneven economic recovery,” he added.
To protect the rest of the workforce, nine out of ten leaders (90%) intend to require their workers to disclose when they have been vaccinated. 94% of CEOs in India plan to do so.
Before returning to work, the majority of CEOs around the world will wait until more than half of the population has been vaccinated. In India, this figure has been recorded as 76%.
66 % of CEOs in India, compared to 74% globally, believe the pandemic has accelerated the digitisation of operations and the creation of next-generation models.
Government support for firms to return to “normal” is cited by three-quarters (76%) of CEOs around the world as a motivator for companies to ask employees to return to work. In India, this percentage is 86 %.
Furthermore, 61 % of global executives, compared to 76 % of Indian executives, said they would need to see a good Covid-19 vaccine rollout in key markets (with over 50% of the population vaccinated) before returning to work.
When workers can return to work safely, one-fifth of businesses (% globally vs. 18 % in India) want to take extra precautions by asking clients and other in-person visitors to remind them of their vaccination status.
According to the report, only 17% of global executives want to downsize their office space as a result of the pandemic, compared to 22% in India.
In August 2020, 69 % of CEOs surveyed globally said they intended to minimise their office space over the next three years, indicating that either downsizing has occurred or tactics have shifted as the pandemic has progressed. In India, this figure was 48 % in 2020.
CEOs are pondering the new truth, but only three out of ten (30%) global executives, compared to 32% of Indian executives, are contemplating a hybrid model of working for their workers, in which most employees work remotely two to three days a week.
As a result, only one-fifth (21%) of companies around the world are trying to employ mainly remote employees. In India, this percentage is about 22%. This is a big change from the previous year (73 % in 2020 globally as compared to 77 % in India).
Remote working has become the standard during a lockout, posing new data protection threats to companies. As a result, over the next three years, global business leaders, including those in India, have described cybersecurity as the top concern affecting their growth and operations. Regulatory, tax and supply chain issues came in second and third, respectively.
