Work from Anywhere: The employee benefit and its implications for business

Woman boarding airplane

Working from Anywhere’ (WFA) policies have extended across the globe, with some circles implicitly acknowledging it as the future of work. But it leaves businesses and their people divided – every stakeholder seems to present the issue from a different perspective, whether positive or negative. Is there a gap between expectations of employees and leaders? What are the practical impacts and considerations of employees working remotely from a different country? How many are working from anywhere in line with their company’s policy – and how many are not? 

We asked 835 HR decision-makers, 835 finance decision-makers and 1,670 employees across Benelux (Belgium and The Netherlands), DACH (Germany and Switzerland), France, Italy, Nordics (Denmark, Finland and Sweden), Spain and the UK.  

In doing so, this research from SAP Concur digs deeper into WFA-related challenges and helps to identify a shared consensus between employers and employees – to help make working from anywhere work for everyone.  

The research reveals the following key findings:

  • Almost 1 in 5 (18%) employees have knowingly ‘Worked from Anywhere’ (i.e., remotely from a different country) without telling their employer over the past 12 months
  • Over half of employees (58%) believe it would be easy for them to incorrectly report the number of days they work abroad 
  • Two thirds (66%) of employees would be willing to accept a reduction in salary to be able to permanently ‘Work from Anywhere’
  • 6 days is the average number of days that employees have knowingly ‘Worked from Anywhere’ in the past year without telling their employer
  • Only 8% of employees are concerned about penalties for themselves or their employer because they unconsciously neglected tax regulations whilst ‘Working from Anywhere’ [Q3], whereas 68% of finance leaders are concerned about employees ‘Working from Anywhere’ due to tax implications 

Download the report now to learn what businesses need to be aware of and how they can master WFA-related challenges.