The company polled 500 executives worldwide in February and March about their expectations for a 3-year period

Half of executives don’t see return to pre-pandemic life until 2022. Source: pexels.com

KPMG has published CEO Outlook Pulse Survey revealing that 45% of CEO do not expect to see a return to a ‘normal’ course of business until 2022. At the same time, 31% of them expect this will happen later in 2021. 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.

76% of CEOs see the government encouraging businesses to return to “normal” as an incentive for them to ask employees to return to work.

Meanwhile, 61% of global executives said they would also need to see a successful COVID-19 vaccine rolling out in key markets before taking any action to return to offices. Once employees are able to safely return to their jobs, a fifth of companies will try to introduce extra precautions by asking customers and other visitors to personally advise them of their vaccination status.

Furthermore, the study found that only 17% of executives worldwide are looking to reduce the size of their offices as a result of the pandemic. Another 69% of CEOs surveyed in August 2020 said they plan to cut their office space within 3 years.

Due to the COVID, only 3 in 10 global executives are considering a hybrid work model for their workforce, with most employees working remotely 2-3 days a week.

Consequently, only 21% of businesses are looking for talent who work mostly remotely. It is a large difference from 73% in 2020.

We’ve reported that 3 in 4 UAE SMEs optimistic about business recovery.

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