Many countries are facing a surge in Covid-19 cases, but CEOs are starting to plan for the post-pandemic workforce policies, mainly without input from employees who are seeking greater flexibility in a post-pandemic world.
Office
According to a recent poll, two-thirds of the CEOs said that they are personally leading the planning process with the majority wishing to see the employees back to the office.
But a Future Forum Pulse survey reveals challenges, eToro Romania analyst Bogdan Maioreanu wrote on Thursday.
The executives who work remotely are nearly three times more likely than employees to prefer returning to the office full-time. But three-fourths of employees do not want to return to full-time office work and are looking for flexibility where they work. Another 93% want flexibility when they work, the commentary said.
Two-thirds of executives are designing post-pandemic workforce policies with little or no direct input from employees.
This will be a blow to remote conferencing software providers during the pandemic such as Zoom Video Communications.
Zoom
The 2020 lockdown and working from home made Zoom an everyday word as in “Shall we have a zoom?”
The company capitalized on the need for an easy and reliable way to video conference, using an electronic, online platform.
The company’s shares rose from about 100 USD before the pandemic to a peak of 559 dollars in October 2020, before they dropped.
Returning to the office in these cities is directly linked to the high vaccination rate and low infection rates.
Prague
In Europe, 40% of employees were working from the office in September 2021. Prague is the top city with about 80% of employees back at work, followed by Hamburg (60%) and Warsaw (45%).
In Romania, about 40% of employees were back working from the office, according to the Cushman & Wakefield “Return to the office” report.
Future growth is likely to slow as many companies are planning on having their employees returning fully to the office for at least part time. This could mean less Zoom meetings and more face-to-face discussions.
Market leader
Last week, Apple said its employees would begin coming into the office starting Feb. 1.
Zoom continues to be the market leader with around 46% of the market, followed by Google Meet (GOOG) with 21% and Microsoft Teams with 14.5%.
Skype lost about 80% of its client base dropping the market share from 32% in 2020 to 6% in 2021.
The survey was carried out by Opinium from September 17-30. Some 6,000 retail investors were sampled across 12 countries: UK, US, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Denmark, Australia, Poland, Romania and the Czech Republic.
Romanian investor comes up with plan B for office buildings: turn them into residential space
