Money Buzz! Europa

Tag: remote

  • Half of global CEOs don’t expect to see a return to ”normal” until 2022

    Half of global CEOs don’t expect to see a return to ”normal” until 2022

    The 2021 KPMG CEO Outlook Pulse Survey finds that almost half (45 percent) of global executives do not expect to see a return to a ”normal” course of business until sometime in 2022.

    As opposed, nearly one-third (31 percent) anticipate this will happen later this year.

    The changes prompted by the pandemic have resulted in one-quarter (24 percent) of CEOs saying that their business model has been changed forever by the global pandemic.

    A majority (55 percent) of CEOs are concerned about employees’ access to a COVID-19 vaccine, which is influencing their outlook of when employees will return to the workplace.

    Interesting, 90 percent of CEOs are considering asking employees to report when they have been vaccinated.

    However, one-third (34 percent) of global executives are worried about misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine safety and the potential this may have on employees choosing not to have it administered.

    Government and vaccination rates driving decision-making

    Three-quarters (76 percent) of CEOs see government encouragement for businesses to return to ‘normal’ as the prompt for businesses to ask staff to return to the workplace.

    In addition, 61 percent of global executives said that they will also need to see a successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout in key markets before taking any action toward a return to offices.

    When employees can safely return to workplaces, one-fifth of companies (21 percent) are looking to institute additional precautionary measures.

    Global CEOs are less likely to downsize physical footprint compared to 6 months ago

    The research finds that only 17 percent of global executives are looking to downsize their office space as a result of the pandemic.

    In contrast, 69 percent of CEOs surveyed in August 2020 said they planned to reduce their office space over 3 years.

    Global executives remain apprehensive about a fully remote workforce

    CEOs are considering what the new reality will look like, but post-COVID, only three in 10 (30 percent) of global executives are considering a hybrid model of working for their staff.

    As a result, only one-fifth (21 percent) of businesses are looking to hire talent that works predominantly remotely, which is a significant shift from last year (73 percent in 2020).

  • Working from home reduces stress levels for Millennials and Generation Z

    Working from home reduces stress levels for Millennials and Generation Z

    Almost 70% of Millennials and 64% of Generation Z said the option of working from home in the future could relieve stress, according to the latest edition of Deloitte Global Millennial Survey.

    However, the share of respondents who said they were stressed most of the time decreased for both generations during the pandemic , from 50% to 42% for Millennials and from 52% to 44% for Gen Zs.

    Financial concerns remain an acute stress factor for Millennials, especially for those who started their career in the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 and now face another downturn.

    In the primary survey, more than 50% of Millennials believed their financial situations would worsen in the next year and their share increased to 61% after the pandemic outbreak.

    Four years ago, the share of Millennials in the primary survey who said they wanted to stay with their employers for five or more years was larger than the share of those who wanted to leave within two years.

    Those who would leave in two years or less dropped from 49% to 31%, while those who prefer to stay long-term jumped from 28% to 35%.

    Gen Zs remain more interested in changing the job, but only half of them said they would like to change jobs within two years, down from 61% a year ago.

    Interesting, a large majority (80%) think governments and businesses need to make greater efforts to protect the environment, yet they are concerned that the economic impact of the pandemic might make this less of a priority.

  • Half of Bucharest’s employees continue to work mainly from home

    Half of Bucharest’s employees continue to work mainly from home

    Half of the employees who normally work in office buildings continued to work mainly from home even after the state of emergency was lifted, a research study conducted by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox regarding the working methods of employees in Romania during the Covid-19 pandemic say.

    If during the state of emergency (March – May 2020) 83% of the employees worked from home, their number decreased to 50% during the state of alert (June – September 2020), while 22% of the employees completely resumed their work from the office, and 28% practiced a mix between work from home and work from the office.

    Most of the employees managed to adapt to the new working conditions, taking into account that working from home was a less widespread concept on the local market, and the return to the office was done under special conditions, in compliance with medical safety rules and social distancing norms.

    Thus, 83% of the employees declared having a good experience both in terms of work from home and work from the office after returning from the alert state, the others finding this period unsatisfactory or even demoralizing from a professional point of view.

    The time saved in traffic remains the main advantage of working from home, a benefit appreciated by 83% of the employees, while the additional freedom in managing working hours (56%) and cost savings (52%) represent the following favorable aspects.

    On the other hand, 76% of employees feel the lack of direct communication with colleagues, almost half (48%) have difficulties in separating the  personal and professional hours, and 39% do not have a suitable working space at home.

    Moreover, 32% of employees consider that the relationship with their colleagues has worsened during the work from home period, and 21% have difficulties in managing the relationship with customers, collaborators and partners.

    In this context, only 7% of the employees would like to work exclusively from home after the pandemic ends, the most desired schedule being a mix of 3 days work from the office and 2 days work from home, an option chosen by 26% of respondents.

  • 80% of companies believe remote work is the new norm on the labour market

    80% of companies believe remote work is the new norm on the labour market

    Most companies (80%) respondents to PwC’s global survey ”The future of remote work” shows that adopting remote work is the new norm on the labour market, and over 53% currently have created and implemented arrangement policies in this respect.

    Of the remainder (47%), more than 50% of companies anticipate that they will refine or implement a remote work arrangement policy by the end of 2020.

    The top three priorities for enabling remote work arrangements are health and safety of employees (70%), enhancing the employee experience (65%) and attracting and retaining key talent (60%).

    What means ”remote working”

    45% of companies define remote work arrangements as employees ”working outside of their home office or work location, without any cross-border movement”. However, this is followed closely by 30% of companies defining remote work arrangements as employees working outside their home office, with both domestic and international cross-border movement anticipated and/or permitted.

    Regarding the salary policy, 80% of companies are not making any salary adjustments during the remote work arrangement period. Over half of the respondents are not providing any allowances, reimbursements, or mobility support for a remote work arrangement.

    The majority of companies are anticipating their remote workers will have access to an office. However, 45% of companies will not require employees to go into the office, and 21% are anticipating a hybrid approach between remote working and office workdays.

    The survey was conducted on more than 300 global companies.

  • Xerox: 82% of employees expected to return to the office in 12-18 months

    Xerox: 82% of employees expected to return to the office in 12-18 months

    A new global business survey commissioned by Xerox shows an estimated 82% of the workforce in respondents’ organizations will have returned to the workplace in 12-18 months’ time, on average.

    In preparation for a return, companies are investing in new resources to support a hybrid remote / in-office workforce, with 56% increasing technology budgets and 34% planning to speed their digital transformation as a result of COVID-19.

    The Xerox Future of Work Survey, conducted by the independent research firm Vanson Bourne, polled 600 IT decision makers including senior C-level professionals from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Germany and France, whose organizations have at least 500 employees.

    Respondents reported challenges caused by the sudden transition to remote work, with 72% citing they were not fully prepared from a technology perspective.

    In addition to technology (29%), the biggest pain points during the required work from home period were communication breakdown across teams/employees (26%) and maintaining focus (25%).

  • Companies will return with only 40% of the employees back to the office

    Companies will return with only 40% of the employees back to the office

    With the ease of travel restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic, companies begin to resume their activity in the headquarters located in office buildings, but with only 40% of employees in a first phase, according to a survey of real estate consulting company Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

    Thus, if during the period of isolation at home imposed by the authorities, only 4% of the employees continued their activity from the office, the occupancy degree of office buildings will ten times increase in the next period.

    However, more than half of the employees working in the services area will continue, at least for a while, to work from home, according to the survey applied between May 21 and 29 on a number of 33 companies in Bucharest and Cluj with a a total of over 17,000 employees working in office buildings.

    Half of these companies have returned or will return to the office with a significant share of employees during June, almost 20% of companies scheduled their return in September, while 13% of the surveyed companies, especially small and medium, intend to return to the office only at the beginning of next year.

    In this context, 30% of the interviewed companies say that in the next 12 months they will need less office space, 61% of the companies cover their office needs with the already contracted spaces, while 9% of the companies expect to need extra space.

    The stock of modern offices in Bucharest and Cluj reaches almost 3.5 million square meters, hosting over 300,000 employees in various fields, such as IT, telecom, financial services (banks – insurance), professional services (lawyers – consultants), media, etc.

  • Remote employees miss social interaction and the instant share of ideas

    Remote employees miss social interaction and the instant share of ideas

    Remote work is challenging for most Romanians who have worked from home in the current epidemiological context. Only 13% of them say they have a dedicated workspace at home, half compared to employees in Central and Eastern European (CEE), according to a study conducted by Colliers International among countries in the region, including Romania.

    In this context, most feel isolated and miss meetings with colleagues, even if work from home has meant a better work-life balance for some.

    In absence of an office or a dedicated workspace at home, 45% of Romanians say that the living room is the main area where they carry out their work activities, as is the case for half of respondents from Central and Eastern Europe. As a result, 40% of respondents say that they have difficulties working remote and feel that sometimes they have low concentration because they carry out professional activities in the same space where their children carry out school or fun activities.

    From home, half of the Romanian respondents to the Colliers International study admit that they feel isolated from their colleagues and only 27% still feel connected to the team. In contrast, in Central and Eastern European countries the situation is exactly the opposite – 62% of respondents say they are equally connected to the team even when working remote and only 29% feel isolated.

    Spontaneous meetings with colleagues are what lack most to employees working remote from the region (68%). In Romania, however, 75% of respondents lack especially the physical interaction with colleagues during a working day.

    For 67%, the lack of clear separation between their professional and personal life is most challenging and only 42% indicate spontaneous meetings with colleagues among the aspects they lack the most when working from home.

    The work-life balance has improved

    Even so, Romanians continued to work efficiently. Most respondents (CEE – 51%, Romania – 54%) consider that they remained equally productive during the remote working period, and for 21% of the respondents from CEE and 23% of those from Romania productivity even increased. At the same time, 44% of Romanian respondents say their work-life balances improved since their home became their workplace, a higher percentage than that recorded in Central and Eastern European countries.

    Most companies that are now focusing on remote work have already implemented the “work from home” concept in the pre-pandemic period. Specifically, both in Central and Eastern Europe and in Romania, over 60% of respondents were occasionally working from home before the current context, while 31% of those interviewed in Romania and 23% in countries in the region say they didn’t work at all remotely before.

    The study was conducted in March-April in 25 countries where Collies International operates, by collecting data online among nearly 4,400 respondents, including about a quarter of Central and Eastern European countries.

  • 47% of companies will make remote work a permanent option

    47% of companies will make remote work a permanent option

    Almost two-thirds (64%) of the respondents globally plan new safety measures and requirements for employees in order to return to work, according to the most recent edition of PwC’s COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey, from 28 April.

    In this context, 55% want to reconfigure work sites to promote physical distancing and 22% to reduce real estate footprint.

    47% of the companies make remote work a permanent option for roles that allow, 46% want to accelerate automation and new ways of working and 44% to change shifts and/or alternate crews to reduce exposure.

    Regarding the COVID-19 impact on businesses, the level of concern related to the crisis is holding steady with the previous edition of the survey, with 70% expecting significant impact to their business operations and most of them (80%) across all territories expect a decrease in revenues and profits.

    From an industry perspective, retail and consumer CFOs report the highest level of concern (75%), because of the decrease in consumer confidence and the consumption power, due to reduced disposable income.

    The lowest level of concern about the potential business impact was reported by energy, utilities and resources CFOs (57%).

    The share of the CFOs believe their operations could return to „business as usual” within three months if the coronavirus pandemic were to end today, fell to 49% from 56% in the previous edition of the survey.

    Other conclusions of PwC’s COVID-19 CFO Pulse Survey

    • The main priority of finance leaders is cost containment. Thus, the share of those considering cost reduction measures increased to 82%, from 77% in the previous edition.
    • In the top of CFOs concerns are the potential global recession (69%), the financial impact on operations (67%) and consumption decrease (58%, up from 39% in the previous report).
    • CFOs in the financial sector are most likely to be concerned about recession (74%) and financial impact (72%).
    • CFOs in Ireland take the most hardline view, with 98% saying they expect the crisis to lead to a decrease. Even in countries with a more optimistic outlook, CFOs take it as a given that the economic impact of the coronavirus will reduce revenues and profits: Switzerland (80%), Denmark (73%) and Germany (66%).
    • Among industries, financial services (86%), industrial manufacturing and automotive (86%), and retail and consumer (80%) have the highest share of CFOs who expect a decrease in revenue.
    • About half of the respondents say they will prioritise the development of alternate sourcing options (52%), understanding the financial and operational health of their suppliers (50%) and change contractual terms (42%).
    • 56% plan to include discussion of the coronavirus in their financial statements.

    The survey was led among 871 CFOs from 24 countries or territories: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Malta, Mexico, Middle East, Netherlands, Philippines, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, US and Vietnam.

  • Employees who work from home appreciate saving time and money

    Employees who work from home appreciate saving time and money

    The saving of money and time spent in traffic are the main advantages considered by the employees of office buildings that are currently working from home, while the disadvantages mentioned are the lack of direct socialization with the colleagues, in the first place, followed by the difficulty in separating professional from personal time, secondly, results in a survey conducted by the real estate consulting company Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

    The study was applied online via a questionnaire to more than 200 employees who normally work from the office, but have been working from home in the last weeks, as part of the social distancing measures adopted to limit the spread of Covid-19.

    The respondents have an average age of 36 years and work mainly in Bucharest (88%), in various sectors of activity, such as professional services (24%), financial (18%), real estate (17%) or technology and telecommunications (13%).

    On average, respondents performed their activity at home for 15 working days before completing the questionnaire.

    80% of the respondents appreciate saving the time spent in traffic, a considerable advantage in the context in which, on average, the employees in Bucharest have a commuting time between home and office of about 45 minutes on a regular day, according to a study performed last year by Cushman & Wakefield Echinox.

    The following advantages are considered to be financial savings (for 49% of the respondents), the improvement work-life balance (43%), more freedom to manage working hours (40%), as well as the extra rest time (33 %).

    What about the disadvantages

    On the other hand, the biggest disadvantage is the lack of direct socialization with colleagues, mentioned by 74% of the respondents, followed by the difficulties in separating the time dedicated to the professional activity and the personal one (44%), the lack of a proper space to work (33%) and the diminished capacity to focus, due to disturbing factors in the house (33%).

    Other issues reported are related to difficulties in managing the relation with clients and collaborators (29%), technical issues (26%) and lack of direct feedback on the activity performed (24%).

    In this context, there is a certain balance in terms of the general description of the work from home experience. Thus, 38% of the respondents consider this period as very good or excellent, 34% good, while for 28% of them the work from home time is unsatisfactory or even frustrating.

    Moreover, the option of working exclusively from home after the activity restriction ending period is preferred by only 3% of the respondents, most of them opting for a flexible program of 4 work from the office days and 1 from home (39% of respondents) or 3 days at the office and 2 at home (27%). On average, the employees interviewed would choose, if they had the opportunity, to work 3.4 days from the office and 1.6 days from home.