As several countries grapple with the second wave of COVID-19, almost half of global CEOs surveyed have said they did not expect to see a return to ‘normal’ until 2022.
As per the findings of the 2021 KPMG CEO Outlook Pulse Survey, 45% of global top honchos executives said ‘normal’ course of business would not return until sometime in 2022, as opposed to 31% who anticipated this would happen later this year. Of those surveyed, 24% said their business model had been changed forever by the pandemic. Conducted by KPMG in February and March, the study asked 500 global CEOs about their response to the pandemic and the outlook over a three-year horizon. About 55% of CEOs remained concerned about employees’ access to a COVID-19 vaccine, which is influencing their outlook as to when employees will return to the workplace; while 90% were considering asking staff to report for duty after they are vaccinated.
However, 34% of global executives remained worried about misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine safety and the potential this might have on employees choosing not to have it administered.
“Before any major decisions are made, CEOs want to be confident that their workforce is protected against this virus,” Bill Thomas, global chairman and CEO, KPMG, said.
