This Big Four Accounting Firm Adopts A Stricter Hybrid Working Policy

PwC's UK Partner Laura Hinton announced that the company would start providing the employees with their working location data each month in a message addressed to colleagues on Thursday; as seen by the Financial Times. She also stated that employees are now required to spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites.

“We will start sharing your individual working location data with you on a monthly basis from January as we do with other data such as chargeable hours,” Hinton wrote in the memo. “This will help to ensure that the new policy is being fairly and consistently applied across our business," said Hinton.

She further added, “We all benefit from the positive impact of a hybrid approach, but the previous guidance of at least two to three days a week was open to interpretation.”

This new move hints as stricter attendance vigilance over the PwC UK employee base, one of the first firm-wide policy adjustments since Marco Amitrano became senior partner in July is the decision made.

According to a source with knowledge of the specifics, PwC career coaches will also receive the location data.

Large UK companies who switched to hybrid working during the pandemic are now advocating for higher office attendance. This year, rival EY began employing swipe card data to track the office attendance of its staff in the UK.

The Big Four accounting and consulting firms, PwC, KPMG, EY, and Deloitte, are all dealing with a slowing market and a more challenging economic climate. PwC issued a warning to employees in July, advising them to anticipate reduced bonuses and salary increases. The company has also reduced a pandemic-era benefit that permitted employees to take a half-day Friday during the summer.

In the memo written by Hinton, she wrote, “Our business thrives on strong relationships — and those are almost always more easily built and sustained face-to-face.

“By being physically together, we can offer our clients a differentiated experience and create the positive learning and coaching environment that is key to our success,” she added.

The policy will be put into force from 2025 January.