In order to achieve a pre-quarantine level of development, according to 20% of entrepreneurs, it will take six months, and for 39% – about a year.

Such data is the result of a study conducted by the European Business Association (EBA).

So, most of the companies surveyed are ready to restore offline work or return to the office in the near future – 35% in May and 34% in June. In addition, 16% of respondents said that they had already resumed work or had not stopped at all during the quarantine period due to the peculiarities of the company’s activities. Another 15% do not plan yet to return to the office or have not yet decided on the final date.

In the context of organizing work in the office, 42% plan to introduce flexible or shift work schedules, another 13% will recommend their employees to continue working from home. 20% of companies are preparing for a phased exit to work, starting with 25% of employees in the office with a possible increase to 50%. Another 17% of enterprises are ready to leave 50% of employees from the first weeks with a possible expansion to 75%.

Based on the experience of the past few months, 62% of directors said that they are considering the option of full or partial change of the operating mode to a remote one on an ongoing basis. Most of them are ready to allow up to 50% of the staff to work remotely.

Most companies managed to keep their wages unchanged – 62% of respondents reported this. Wage reduction affected 23% of companies, while 7% increased wages for some categories of workers. In another 3% of cases, some categories of workers went on unpaid leave.

82% of businesses managed to keep the company’s staff unchanged, and 8% even now are looking for new employees. Accordingly, 11% of companies were forced to reduce their staff.

If we talk about the financial results of two months of quarantine, then most businesses report losses. So, 36% of respondents received up to 20% of losses from income, another 28% – at the level of 20-50% and 18% – 50-75% of losses from income. Only 11% reported that there were no changes, and 3% were able to increase revenue to 20%.

According to entrepreneurs, today the business needs support, and the following measures were named among the most effective options:

• reduction of the tax burden on the wage fund;

• introduction of payment of assistance to employees from the social insurance fund from the 1st day of employee illness;

• abolition of fines for violation of tax legislation by the end of the year.

“Obviously, over the next one or two years, we will have to deal with the consequences of this forced stoppage of business and work in an intensive mode. Let’s hope that the epidemiological situation will be favorable, and companies will be able to move to the recovery phase now without repeating the quarantine scenario, ”commented Anna Derevyanko, Executive Director of the European Business Association.