PwC is ‘tipping the balance’ of hybrid working and will start tracking their workers’ locations

The accountancy firm informed its 26,000 U.K. employees in a memo that from January they’ll be expected to be at their desks—or with clients—at least three days a week, or for 60% of their time. 

Previously staff were expected to spend two to three days working in-person.

What’s more, to ensure staffers are not secretly working from home (or at a beach) when they shouldn’t be, the company will monitor how often they’re working from the office, in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work.

Every month, workers will be sent information about their “individual working location data” which will even be shared with their in-house career coaches, according to the Financial Times.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed to Fortune that the announcement only impacts U.K. staff.

 “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,” Laura Hinton, Managing Partner at PwC UK, said in statement. 

“This feels right for our business and right for our people, given our focus on client service, coaching, and learning and development,” Hinton concluded while emphasising that this doesn’t mark the end of flexible working at the firm. 

“We continue to offer flexibility through hybrid working.”

Employees resisting RTO 

PwC wouldn’t confirm whether the new measures have been brought in to clamp down on worker’s dodging the company’s current mandate. 

However, Hinton’s memo suggested that there are currently inconsistencies in how worker’s are interpreting the company’s policy and that by tracking who’s in—and who’s not—management can ensure it’s being applied “fairly and consistently” across the business.

“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,” she wrote in the memo seen by the FT. 

The new policy comes as research shows that London workers are in the office just half the week—less than many other major global cities. 

This is partly because workers are resisting their bosses’ in-office mandates: While employers in London are asking staff to come in 3.1 days a week on average, employees are actually showing up only 2.7 days.

Although a return to face-to-face working in the U.K. capital is particularly “sluggish”, according to the report from Centre for Cities—Toronto is the only major city measured to do worse—employees dodging RTO requests has become a global phenomenon.

Even in Sydney, where workers face the most demanding RTO policies at four days per week, they’re still only heading to the office for 2.8 days. 

Likewise, in Singapore workers are being asked to work from the office for 3.6 days of the week—but are only showing up for 3.2 days.

RTO clampdowns

Although PwC’s location monitoring measures are unusual, many major employers have started clamping down on remote working after unsuccessfully trying to convince workers to volunteer more of their time in the office.

Earlier this year, rival firm EY began formally keeping track of swipe-card entry data collected by its turnstiles to track how often employees were coming into the office.

Likewise, Dell is giving its workers literal red flags for not swiping their badges enough. Meanwhile Amazon is putting an end to “coffee badging” by setting a minimum-hour obligation on in-office days.

To that end, TikTok even launched its own internal app, “MyRTO” which monitors in-office attendance and asks them to explain absences.

At the same time, there’s a growing cohort of defeated CEOs who are taking the path of least resistance: Having witnessed RTO mandates’ negative impact on employee engagement, retention and recruitment, many are softening their stance on working from home.

KPMG surveyed U.S. CEOs of companies turning over at least $500 million and found that just one-third expect a full return to the office in the next three years.

That marks a complete turnaround from their stance last year, when 62% of CEOs surveyed predicted that working from home would end by 2026.

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