PwC Set on Monitoring Employee Location to Guarantee RTO

In January, PwC plans to start monitoring the location of its workers in the UK to ensure that they follow the guidelines of the hybrid model and return to the office on a regular basis. Workers are expected to work from the office at least three days a week but globally, employees have been known to prefer working from home. 

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ worker tracking system will use location data from the employees to confirm that they are returning to the organization as scheduled. While PwC has suggested that this “feels right for our business and right for our people,” there are concerns about privacy and a lack of trust in the employee’s commitment to their work. PwC reasons that it wants to ensure employees work together, but the reasoning remains unsatisfactory to many.

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PwC to Begin Monitoring the Location of Its UK Employees

PwC UK’s approach to hybrid work is not unusual, but the measures being taken by the organization might appear extreme to many. A memo was sent to the company’s UK staff on Thursday, informing all 26,000 employees of the goal to work together in person. The employees are expected to spend 3 days a week or 60% of their time working from the office. 

The consulting firm clarified that its business relied on “people” and as such, working face-to-face with each other was essential for the workers. “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 a statement that highlighted the goal of the policy.

“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.”

Unlike other organizations that are determined to reverse all work-from-home or hybrid policies, PwC’s hybrid work tracking system still allows workers to enjoy some days out of the office as long as they ensure they are available at their workplace when scheduled. The organization claimed that the previous “guidance” provided on the hybrid system was open to interpretation, and the latest memo was intended to provide more clarity on how employees were expected to work, guiding them to work more with their teammates and clients.

Organizations have faced multiple challenges in getting workers to return to the office, with many employees choosing to quit directly or forego their promotions in exchange for working at home. Amazon has also taken strict action to force employees to comply with the rules, permitting managers to terminate non-compliant employees according to HRD America.

Once PwC starts monitoring the employee’s location data, they will share the data with the employee on a monthly basis to ensure that the new policy is being implemented fairly across the entire business. If employees are found to violate the company policies, they will be called in to discuss why that is. PwC’s employee office tracking systems are a bold move but it is hard to determine if it’s the right one. 

Is PwC’s Worker Tracking System Necessary?

PwC’s monitoring of location data was a decision that the company felt was necessary and right for its business. We haven’t heard from the employees directly to understand how they feel about the system but the general public has expressed a dislike for the policy on various discussion forums. The hybrid work tracking systems by PwC might feel excessive to many but multiple trends have sparked up recently that have damaged the fragile relationship between employers and employees. 

The hushed hybrid trend recently revealed that many workers are choosing to work from home, ignoring the company policies of returning to the office. Some managers who see the benefits of working from home support these employees and avoid reporting the policy violation back to the organization. While this improves the relationship between employee and manager, it does the opposite with the employer. This is far from the only reason employers are pushing for a return to the office but its the reasoning that is most openly discussed.

At the same time, it is also important to consider why employees prefer working from home in the first place. Most employees see little reason to work from the office and are likely to be more unsatisfied with the organization and their tasks when asked to return. Poor employee performance and distrust in the employer may be more damaging to the organization’s productivity. And yet employees unwilling to accommodate and adhere to a hybrid model that still allows them to work from home occasionally show a lack of any desire to compromise and meet the organization halfway. 

 PwC’s location monitoring strategy may seem excessive, but the complex nature of work has necessitated extreme measures. There may be other strategies that PwC could have employed other than a worker tracking system, but these appears to be the primary strategy now. We’ll understand the effectiveness of the policy better once the system is rolled out.

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