Business leaders think COVID is on its way out

Posted on February 7, 2022 by - News

 More than two-thirds of business leaders believe the COVID-19 pandemic will become endemic this year according to a survey released Thursday by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The professional services firm conducted an online survey of 678 C-suite executives, which included CEOs, CFOs, COOs, tax and audit executives, and corporate board members. Two-thirds of those surveyed were from Fortune 2000 corporations and 69 percent said they believe this is the year the pandemic will wane.

About a third require vaccinations for on-site work and will continue to do so. Almost a quarter require it now, but will reconsider in the future. And 16 percent have dropped the vaccine requirement in response to labour shortages. Companies are also divided on automatic contact tracing: 38 percent  have implemented it (with half of them likely to revisit it) while 29 percent have no plans to require it.

Aside from pandemic-related concerns, more than three-quarters of respondents said their ability to hire and retain talent is both the most important factor (77 percent) and the biggest risk (48 percent) they face in reach corporate growth goals in 2022. And notably, 88 percent of board members see hiring and retaining talent as “very important” to a company’s prospects; that subject is atypical in the corporate boardroom.
PwC survey results

PwC

Results of the survey, which took place from Jan. 1-14, also revealed most executives feel good about their organisation’s prospects for 2022, though many expect inflation will remain elevated.

 PwC’s chair Tim Ryan said during a news conference. “CEOs feel very good about the things they can control.”