The Covid-19 pandemic turned bustling offices into ghost towns practically overnight. As employees proved they could work productively from their homes, some finance leaders couldn’t help but wonder: Why are we spending so much money on office space, and could that money be better used elsewhere? And even as social distancing became less imperative, some employees still found no compelling reason to return to their offices.

But the return-to-office debate may be less divisive than it initially seemed. In a survey of about 1,800 global finance workers, published in May, 22% of workers said they believed their companies should operate in an off-site work model for the following 18 months. By comparison, only 2% of CFOs expected that off-site would be the enterprise work model for 2023. But the hybrid model seems situated closer to middle ground. Almost two-thirds (63%) of employees chose the hybrid model in the May survey. In the CFO Signals™ survey for the third quarter of 2022, 86% of CFOs said that they expected their company’s workplace model to be hybrid in 2023.

In this edition of CFO Insights, we’ll explore the logistical and managerial issues CFOs may face to ensure that their organizations’ reimagined workspaces are outfitted with the necessary technology and collaboration tools. CFOs may need to fully consider how to make the new hybrid model effective for employees and the enterprise. Transforming an entire function’s workforce and way of working, not to mention the work itself, is much easier said than done.

This publication was released by our US firm.

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