Two things you told us in our business outlook survey

By Charles River Regional Chamber

5/18/2022

Looks like we need to flatten yet another COVID curve.

And -- once again -- things feel unsettled.

But not, perhaps, the uncertainty surrounding whether or not workers will one day be returning to the office. Here's why:

We asked chamber members last month to describe their current workplace: 44% of our 435 survey respondents told us they were operating on a hybrid model. 37% said they were working fully onsite. And 17% were working entirely remotely.

Here's where it gets more interesting:

We then asked: “Do you expect this to change in the coming months?”

Nearly 75% said they expected "no change."
And very few employers were "unsure."

Perhaps the results would be different in a survey of downtown Boston companies.

?But for our suburban employers, it appears that the workplace changes we've viewed for the past two years as transitional are our new normal.

Here’s another thing you told us in our survey

68% of our respondents say they are “optimistic” or “very optimistic” about their financial performance for the balance of 2022.

Sounds pretty good, right?

Yes, except when we asked the same question of our members one year ago, 80% said they felt “optimistic” or “very optimistic."

Of course, one year ago vaccines were rolling out, restrictions were being lifted, Plexiglas was coming down and we were all emerging from a winter indoors thinking the pandemic and related troubles were behind us.

We’re we naive? Perhaps.

Since then, millions have quite the workforce. In addition to the hiring, our latest survey respondents ranked inflation, supply chain dependably, wage pressure and energy costs among the top issues keeping them up at night.

View our full survey results here.

‘Silver linings to the clouds of COVID’

Yesterday morning during our chamber’s annual Spring Business Symposium, I asked our panel representing four different industry segments to reflect on our survey results and how it aligned with what they were observing.

You can watch the full event here

I also asked Catherine Peterson (ArtsBoston), Hilina Ajakaiye (Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau), Jon Hurst (Retailers Association of Massachusetts) and Bob Rivers (Eastern Bank), if they feel optimistic and why.

Here's how they responded to that specific question:

Charles River Chamber 2022 Spring Business Symposium

That’s Need to Knows for today, unless you need to know what dinner will look like in the next 100 years, according to scientists (and sci-fi authors).

Be back Friday.

Greg Reibman (he, him)
President
Charles River Regional Chamber
617.244.1688

Newton, Needham, Watertown, Wellesley

Two things you told us in our business outlook survey

Two things you told us in our business outlook survey

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