Latest news with #trafficlightsystem
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
PwC keeps tight rein on Irish staff's office attendance
Big Four accountancy group PwC is monitoring staff attendance at its Irish offices, according to current and former staff. It comes in the wake of reports that the firm's UK office uses a traffic-light system to monitor staff compliance with an instruction to work from the office or client sites three days every week. Staff who slip below 60 per cent of required days are flagged as orange. They are moved to red if they attend for fewer than 40 per cent of mandated days. Staff who breach the policy can face formal sanctions, with their performance evaluations and bonuses potentially affected, according to guidance for staff seen by the Financial Times, which said some staff had expressed unease about the approach. PwC's Dublin staff say a similar regime operates in the Irish offices. People were required to reach their quota of in-office days each week, they said, and are not allowed flexibility to average the three days a week over, say, a month-long period. READ MORE Staff living far from Dublin under previous hybrid work arrangements were told they had no choice but to make themselves available in the office three times a week. 'It's here around a year now and is tracked incredibly closely,' said a former staff member. One current staff member confirmed the monitoring scheme was in place in the office but was observed with differing levels of diligence by different teams. A spokeswoman for PwC noted that 'working together three days a week (in the office or at a client site) has been the position for a long time'. She added: 'Coming out of last summer (2024), we did set this as an expectation for all groups. We do ask all our teams to comply with this.' The firm operates a swipe-card system, allowing it to monitor office presence. However, it was not prepared to discuss how it kept track of people using the prescribed three days a week to visit clients. [ Working from home 'trending upwards' despite moves to bring workers back to the office Opens in new window ] The UK firm traces laptop wifi connections to check whether employees are working at client sites on the days they say they are, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. The battle over office attendance in Ireland is heating up. AIB met significant staff opposition in July when it altered hybrid working arrangements. And the Financial Services Union earlier this month instructed its members in Bank of Ireland to ignore any instruction from bank bosses to increase office attendance until agreement was reached with the union.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
City firm's 'league table of shame' for WFH staff who rarely visit the office amid crackdown on remote working
City accountancy giant PwC is cracking down on staff who work from home too often with a 'traffic light' system that tracks their movements. Bosses are monitoring whether employees are spending the required three days a week – or 60 per cent of their time – either out with clients or in the office. The firm will track how often workers swipe their security passes in the office and when their phone or laptop is connected to a client's wifi network. If they fall below the 60 per cent threshold, an amber light flashes on their screen, switching to red if they drop below 40 per cent, the Financial Times reported. Staff, who are said to be unhappy with the new system, then face being sanctioned at appraisals or having their bonuses cut. One senior employee said they had 'lost count' of the number of colleagues who had raised concerns about monitoring, while another said workers wanted more transparency as the company began 'pushing hard' to increase attendance. PwC, whose partners in the UK earned £862,000 on average last year, will make allowances for those who are unable to meet the new rules in certain instances, for example due to sickness or family issues. The attendance data can be viewed only by the individuals concerned, their business unit leaders and chief financial, administrative and human resources officers. In April, PwC threatened to sack employees who worked from home too much after it scrapped a policy that let them stay at home three days a week. The shift reflects the view of many businesses that the working from home regime brought in during the pandemic is unproductive. EY, another of the world's so-called Big Four accountancy firms, began using swipe-card data to monitor office entries last year. Rival Deloitte has a more flexible remote working policy. The world's most powerful banker, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JP Morgan, has said that working from home 'doesn't work', and some of the UK's biggest employers including Amazon, BT and Asda have ordered their staff to spend more time at the office. Phillippa O'Connor, PwC's chief people officer, told peers on the House of Lords Home-based Working Committee in April that working in the office is 'better for our business and clients' and helps with the training of new recruits. PwC is a major employer of university graduates, hiring more than 1,000 every year. Asked whether PwC would discipline those who refuse to comply, including withholding bonuses or sacking them, Ms O'Connor said: 'This is, as with any other employment policy, something that we would look to follow through to disciplinary action if that were required.' PwC did not respond to a request for comment last night.
Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Times
PwC tracks wi-fi and passes to monitor staff office attendance
PwC, the Big Four accountant, has introduced a 'traffic light' system to ensure staff are meeting a mandate to attend the office at least three days a week. The dashboard uses pass swipes and wi-fi connections to determine whether workers are 'amber', if their office attendance falls below 60 per cent, or 'red' if it dips under 40 per cent. The attendance data, which went live for supervisors in April, can be seen by business unit leaders and chief financial, administrative and people officers. Staff can also access their own data. The firm also traces laptop wi-fi connections and cross references the information with data from the HR platform Workday and employees' time sheets to establish whether staff are working on client's sites. The policy applies to all 19 offices across the UK and Ireland run by PwC UK, which has about 23,000 employees. A senior staff member told the Financial Times, which first reported the system, that they had 'lost count' of the number of colleagues who had raised concerns. Staff whose attendance is not up to scratch can face formal sanctions, affecting their performance evaluations and bonuses, PWC confirmed. Last September, the accounting and consulting firm told staff it required them to work in the office or at a client site at least three days a week, and that they would monitor this in a way akin to billable hours. A PWC spokeswoman said: 'There are clear benefits to in-person work for both our people and clients, and we have seen these borne out since adjusting our approach to hybrid working at the beginning of this year. 'The dashboard ensures our people have easy access to their attendance data, so they can manage and plan their time in a way that works for them, our teams and our clients. We remain committed to flexibility, including the option for people to condense their usual working hours and finish early on Friday lunchtime for six weeks in the summer.' PwC said its approach was 'consistent' with other businesses. Rival EY started monitoring office attendance using swipe card data last year. Deloitte's approach is split between its UK arm, which has no minimum office attendance, and its US arm, which announced in March that swipe card data would be used to determine performance reviews and bonuses. Phillippa O'Connor, chief people officer at PwC, told the Lords committee on home-based working in April: 'We have not seen any impact on recruitment in the round. It is asked about in recruitment processes, so I think people are very alive to it as part of the contract now.'
