Accounting and professional services firm PwC has told employees it will begin tracking its working locations to ensure they spend required time on site.
The company sent an email to 26,000 employees this week to inform workers that, from January, it will start tracking them in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work.
Employees will be required to spend “a minimum of three days a week” in the office or at client sites, according to a report in the Financial Times.
They will be sent information about their individual location data each month as they are with their chargeable hours, to ensure that PwC’s hybrid working policy “is being fairly and consistently applied across our business”.
This data will also be shared with employees’ career coaches, the firm said.
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Managing partner Laura Hinton told employees: “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.”
In a press statement she added: “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. At the same time, we continue to offer flexibility through hybrid working.”
Audrey Williams, employment partner at Keystone Law, said employers considering a similar approach would need to consider a range of circumstances.
“PwC is not alone in seeking to formalise its approach,” she said. “Aligning office attendance records to other records such as chargeable time, gives structure and emphasises its importance.
“That this information will be shared with an individual’s career coach, suggests that employees not attending the office two-three days per week as required will initially at least, be counselled on what is needed.
“Some will have existing agreed exemptions – for example, those with contractually agreed home working arrangements or adjustments because of long term or temporary health issues. Those who don’t may seek to make formal requests for flexible working.”
Williams added that tracking data could help employers to apply policies fairly.
“One of the aims may be to ensure employees are treated equitably when tackling office attendance,” she said.
“Employers do need to be careful not to discriminate, typically by allowing greater flexibility for female staff than male, based on stereotyping and assuming women rather than men have greater need and childcare responsibilities.
“Special care needs to be taken where staff have issues complying due to health issues or any disabilities,” she added.
A number of UK employers have begun using staff turnstile data to monitor office attendance, including EY and Slaughter & May.
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