As the COVID-19 pandemic progresses and enterprise organizations adapt, the risk management community expects business travel and working patterns to stabilize by the end of 2022.

The International SOS Risk Outlook 2022 highlights that the time taken to reach the "new normal" post-pandemic varies significantly across activity type. Specifically, the data shows that both remote and site work are likely to have reached a measure of stability by now, while in-office working may take longer. Business travel is expected to face the longest period of disruption, with 15% of respondents expecting a “new normal” could take up to two years to be established.

This insight comes from a survey of nearly 1,000 risk professionals across 75 countries, coupled with insight from the Workforce Resilience Council and internal research data.

Key enterprise risk findings

• Business travel around the world: 40% of European respondents believe that new business travel routines will be established in the next six months, while respondents in the Americas and Asia are anticipating it will take longer. Forty-nine percent of respondents in Asia anticipated that stability could take between 12 months and 3 years to be reached. These differing expectations might reflect the relative disparity of COVID-19 mitigation measures and vaccination levels around the world, as well as different travel and entry requirements.
• Work environments: 77% of organizations have adopted a hybrid working approach. The most common split was for employees to work two days a week at home and the other three in the office or on-site. Only 15% of respondents said that they worked or planned to work five days per week at their office or on-site.

Discover more risk management findings here.