Survey: 40% of companies might reduce their social programme budgets

11.06.2020

From June 1 to 8, a donor forum conducted a survey of business representatives, which was attended by Russian companies (43.3%), international companies (36.7%) and corporate funds (20%).

A fifth of companies plan to keep their staff working remotely

Despite strict isolation having ended, 43% of companies have decided to continue remote working. Another 20%, mostly international companies, plan to continue the remote working setup, even after the end of official quarantine.

Just over a third of organisations are returning to the previous mode of work: at least 23% of companies have had some office employees return to full time work and in two companies the entire office is already working “off-line”. Another two companies are planning to have their staff return to offline working in the very-near future, from either June 9 or 15.

Majority of employees want to carry on working from home

Only 7% of respondents said that they wanted to return to the office, with 33% saying they would like to continue remote working, and 57% saying they would like to combine remote and off-line working.

The reasons given for preferring remote working included: being able to spend more time with children, being able to focus without distracting “office fuss”, increased working productivity and reduction in commuting time.

Supporters of working in the office cited how household chores negatively affected their work, how the office always had the necessary tool at hand and how it’s much easier to gather colleagues for a discussion or meeting when you are all sat in the same room.

Only 10% of respondents are planning to hold face-to-face meetings in July, with another 17% only planning to resume them in September. 65.5% of respondents are expecting to not hold any offline events until the end of the year.

Quarantine has accelerated digitalisation

Companies and corporate funds have been able to benefit from the pandemic – they have launched new social initiatives, increased the number of volunteers and also accelerated their use of technological solutions.

Many people have noted that thanks to quarantine they have discovered online formats and been able to appreciate the advantages of these formats. They plan to use them in their future work. “We noticed the opportunity to invite these really cool speakers who don’t always have time for these long-distance business trips.”

Social programmes

Almost two thirds of companies do not plan to change the priorities of their social programmes in the near future. In the wake of COVID-19 there have only been two new priorities for social programmes:

–          Assistance to affected citizens

–          Support for small and medium-sized businesses and for the self-employed

40% of companies have not ruled out reducing the budgets of their social and charitable programmes due to the current economic and health situation. Only 10% of respondents said they plan to increase their social spending.

However, it is possible that new legislative initiatives aimed at tax support for socially-orientated business will not be able to contain the negative trend in corporate fundraising; 30% of respondents are internally considering the possibility of applying the new law on tax deductions for business assistance to NGOs.

Source: https://www.asi.org.ru/news/2020/06/11/korporativnaya-otvetstvennost-sokrashhenie-byudzhetov/