Shafaq News/ Companies around the world have moved more of their operations online, plan to reduce office space and have made recruiting and retaining staff their top priority since COVID-19struck, a survey showed on Tuesday.

A survey from accounting firm KPMG showed 80% of business leaders had accelerated their digital expansion plans during the lockdown as they adjusted to staff working remotely and dealing with customers online.

There was uncertainty about the eventual scale of the shift away from shared workspaces in favor of working from home but 69% were planning to cut their office space in the short term.

"Maybe some kind of hybrid finds its way into the new everyday reality", Bill Thomas, KPMG International’s global chairman and chief executive said.

Seventy-three percent said the shift to working from home had increased the pool of job candidates.

That could lead to teams that are more spread out globally and interact more online.

"There’s a comfort level with this that people have never had before", Thomas said.

The COVID-19 crisis has split CEOs over the three-year outlook for the global economy with 32% saying they are less confident than they were at the start of the 2020 and another 32% saying they are more confident.

KPMG surveyed 315 chief executives in Australia, Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States between July 6 and Aug. 5 as part of its CEO Outlook, having initially spoken to 1,300 CEOs in January and February.