PwC tells employees it will use location data to police 'back-to-office' rule

Office attendance by staff at PwC in the U.K. will be tracked from January in a bid to see more people return to office-based work. (Matthias Balk / picture alliance/ Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

LONDON — PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) will start tracking where its employees in the United Kingdom work, in a bid to dial back its current work-from-home culture.

Staff at the U.K. arm of PwC, one of the world’s “Big Four” accounting firms, were this week informed by management that the new policy would take effect on Jan. 1.

A memo sent to the company’s 26,000 U.K. employees on Thursday and shared with CNN said the measure was being taken to formalize the company’s “approach to working together in person.”

Employees were told they must spend at least three days a week – or 60 per cent of their time – in the office or with clients. Previous guidelines required them to be in for between two and three days each week, but the memo suggests that was not universally adhered to.

It said: “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.”

According to PwC, the move is intended to “adjust” the firm’s hybrid working approach and put “more emphasis on in-person working.”

“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 update aims to provide clarity around where and how we expect everyone to work,” the memo said.

While many staff are already “spending more time in person with your clients and teams,” for others, “time may be needed to settle into new working patterns,” the company told employees.

“With that in mind, 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. This will help to ensure that the new policy is being fairly and consistently applied across our business,” it added.

In a press release published online, Laura Hinton, managing partner at PwC U.K., said: “Face-to-face working is hugely important to a people business like ours, and the new policy tips the balance of our working week into being located alongside clients and colleagues. This feels right for our business and right for our people, given our focus on client service, coaching, and learning and development. At the same time, we continue to offer flexibility through hybrid working.”

When asked by CNN what would happen if someone did not fully comply, a spokeswoman for PWC said: “If the monthly data shows someone is consistently breaching the policy, we’d first want to understand the reasons why.”

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a workplace revolution that led to many companies around the world adopting a hybrid approach, allowing employees to balance office-based work with home life.

However, many firms have been taking measures to encourage staff to spend more time in the office.

Earlier this year, IBM told its US-based managers they had to work in the office at least three days a week or leave their positions. Other companies that have taken similar steps include UPS, Amazon, Meta and even Zoom, which played a large part in the work-from-home revolution.

Evidence collected by the CIPD, the professional body for the U.K.’s human resources industry, suggests that companies with a hybrid-working model generally rate the performance of employees working from home positively, according to Claire McCartney, the organization’s policy and practice manager.

“It makes good business sense for employees or teams to be together on certain specific days, rather than employers needing everyone in because they don’t trust people to be performing effectively remotely,” she said.

“Employers should be seeking to find a balance, where flexibility over where and when people work meets the needs of employees, without compromising the needs of the business,” she added.