PwC to Use Location Data to Track Employees Return to Office

In a press launch printed online last week, the “Massive 4” accounting agency PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) mentioned it’s upping its in-office necessities for companions and employees from “two to 3 days” within the workplace or with purchasers to now 60% of their time, or three days every week.

And in a special memo seen by CNN, and despatched to the corporate’s 26,000 UK staff, PwC shared how they’d be monitoring the brand new rule — via location data.

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“We are going to begin sharing your particular person working location knowledge with you on a month-to-month foundation from January as we do with different knowledge comparable to chargeable hours,” the memo reads, per CNN. “This may assist to make sure that the brand new coverage is being pretty and constantly utilized throughout our enterprise.”

The brand new coverage takes impact January 1, 2025.

“Face-to-face working is vastly vital to a individuals enterprise like ours, and the brand new coverage suggestions the stability of our working week into being situated alongside purchasers and colleagues,” mentioned Laura Hinton, managing associate at PwC UK, in a statement. “This feels proper for our enterprise and proper for our individuals, given our deal with shopper service, teaching, and studying and growth. On the identical time, we proceed to supply flexibility via hybrid working.”

Some specialists, although, marvel if the transfer might carry down morale and make staff cautious of their employers.

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Kelly Tucker, the founding father of HR Star, a guide agency, told HR magazine that sustaining belief is the important thing to creating this coverage work.

“Employers ought to repeatedly overview the need of monitoring, and guarantee it does not erode belief,” Tucker instructed the outlet.

Nonetheless, PwC is hardly the primary firm to trace staff’ return (or not returning) to the workplace. Amazon made the time period “coffee badging” mainstream earlier this summer time when it was reported the corporate is monitoring how typically staff swipe and the way lengthy they keep within the workplace. Salesforce can also be reportedly tracking swipes.

In the meantime, at Dell, and Amazon, distant staff are not eligible for promotions.

Whereas PwC didn’t add extra specifics on enforcement, a spokeswoman for PWC instructed CNN: “If the month-to-month knowledge reveals somebody is constantly breaching the coverage, we would first need to perceive the explanation why.”