The best-prepared organizations have optimized processes needed to keep the organization running smoothly, offer benefits and training that employees value, and are ready for the next shift in employee expectations— whatever or whenever that may be. Unprepared organizations, with less resilient operations, face compliance and cybersecurity risks, as well as retention and recruitment challenges.

To gain more insight into the changing nature of work and employee expectations, Oxford Economics and the SAP Concur business unit of SAP conducted a worldwide, cross-industry survey of 851 finance and IT executives and 851 employees in the finance and IT functions at companies with more than 1,000 employees.

The survey revealed several key takeaways: Employees are upping and updating their workplace expectations. In the wake of the pandemic, most employees reassessed what they value in a workplace—but executives are slow to understand this re-alignment or its broader implications.

Flexible work is here to stay. About half of executives and employees expect to work remotely at least some of the time in the next two years. However, employers are more likely to see flexible work as an inducement for potential employees, rather than a benefit for existing ones.

Operations are not optimized for flexible work. Executives must re-evaluate their companies’ processes to keep up with employee expectations and regulations, especially if most anticipate a hybrid work schedule over the coming years.

Inadequate training could create compliance risks. Less than half of executives and employees say their organization provides them with the right training and tools to keep up with changing policies and regulations—a major oversight, as those can change day by day.

Companies are not soliciting employee feedback. Just 42% of employees and executives each agree that their organizations use formal surveys to gauge employee sentiment, and less than half of executives say they use employee feedback to influence updates to travel and expense policies.