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April 13, 2021

Survey: CEOs predict hybrid remote-work model post-COVID

Photo | Pixabay More than 80% of middle-market CEOs said they will likely allow employees to work from home at least part of the time, even after the pandemic.
By Zachary Vasile

More than 80% of middle-market CEOs believe at least some COVID-19-inspired changes in work habits, including telecommuting, are here to stay, according to a new study.
 
In a survey performed by accounting and advisory firm Marcum LLP and Hofstra University’s Frank G. Zarb School of Business, 82% of 251 polled chief executives said they are likely or very likely to allow some employees to work from home, even after the pandemic passes.
 
The findings appear to be in sync with the consensus forming among larger Fortune 500 corporations, many of which have adopted or plan to adopt hybrid working models to assuage health concerns and preserve some elements of remote work, such as increased flexibility, that employees responded positively to over the last year.
 
“There is no doubt that workplace practices, policies and behaviors will be changing permanently in many ways, post-COVID,” said Janet Lenaghan, dean of the Zarb School of Business. “Mid-market CEOs clearly recognize that giving people flexibility is a smart business strategy that leads to greater productivity.”
 
Sampled responses to the Marcum-Hofstra survey indicate that at least some company leaders are considering substantial changes to the way they do business in order to boost efficiency and safeguard operations against future global disasters. Those strategies included going completely remote, reducing real estate exposure, hardening supply chains, and factoring pandemic-scale scenarios into debt modeling.
 
About half of CEOs said they will require workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if it is legal to do so, and 36% said they would offer incentives to employees who get the vaccine.
 
The survey also found that middle-market CEOs have a generally sunnier outlook on business prospects than they did two months ago.
 
Three-quarters of the respondents rated their outlook as positive, up from 48.3% at the time of the last Marcum-Hofstra study in February, and the share of executives who feel very positive jumped from 3.4% to 10%.
 
CEOs of wholesalers and distribution companies were the most optimistic, followed by their counterparts in technology and communications, retail, and manufacturing.

 

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