The not so loved baby of the corporate world suddenly became the eye candy of every company and professionals. Work from home was never so loved & appreciated as it is in the COVID era. It has enabled businesses remain functional but only through a different medium, which is now being praised by every individual and organization. This is being confirmed in a survey titled Finance in the new World of Work conducted by SAP Concur, which says that around 88 percent of Indian workforce prefer to have the flexibility of working from home.

Moreover, 69 percent of Indian employees believe their productivity has increased while working remotely. This is the highest in the APAC region when compared to countries like Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Malaysia and Thailand. The study also reveals that only 11 percent of Indian organiations have embraced end-to-end digital finance and administrative processes, which when done manually takes up significant employee time. Across India, 36 percent of mid-large sized companies are still using manual processes for submitting business expenses.

Elaborating on the insights from the study, Mankiran Chowhan, Managing Director – Indian Subcontinent, SAP Concur, said, “2020 is proving to be a turning point for companies in terms of managing employee experience and productivity. While employees working remotely

are being supported digitally in many areas, there still exists a major gap in digital adoption for crucial yet often overlooked finance and administrative processes. Owing to this, employees have to devote significant time for menial tasks that could otherwise be used for productive, business value-added work. Bringing in digital transformation for expense claims or invoice processing can have a huge multiplier effect on business and cost control and at the same time provide the operational agility needed for business continuity.”

The report also reveals that Indian employees spend an average of 6.1 hours per month filing expense claims while the managers had its worse who spent an additional 7.3 hours reviewing and approving expense claims. The study also found that beyond the current expense management systems’ support for modern payment methods is inadequate. Over 39 percent of respondents want their expense management software to integrate with external apps to enable added functionality like reimbursement of payments made through super apps.

Going forward, remote work will be the default mode of work for many organizations soon. But the companies need to understand the changing need and hence compensate employees accordingly. The report mentioned that only 76 percent of the employees in the country said their organizations provide subsidies or completely pay for mobile plan, broadband internet and IT peripherals, which is though greater than the APAC average of around 68 percent. On the other hand, 22 percent employees in India want their organizations to pay for all expenses needed for a productive working environment at home. The respondents even want their employers to enable easy remote claims and travel management, improve collaboration and provide better IT equipment and services.

Business Travel will never remain the same
Once the current pandemic situation normalizes, business travel will be back. But it will be nothing as it used to be, especially when business travel management is piecemeal and disjointed for many companies, leaving 27 percent of employees less than satisfied with the time and effort incurred. Moreover, 57 percent of Indian respondents expect their companies to improve on the ability to personalize all elements of business travel, while 52 percent want to spend less time in the entire process of booking in addition to access to real time alerts. It is important for companies to make business travel more streamlined and personalized by enhancing controls, improving visibility and bolstering duty of care readiness.

Such measure will surely make the work from home experience more futile and a work culture we inherit.