Latest news with #workplacemonitoring
Times
2 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.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
PwC tracks UK office attendance with ‘traffic light' dashboard
The big four accountancy firm PwC has intensified the way it tracks how often its UK employees come into the office by monitoring swipes of work passes and connections to wifi, prompting concerns among staff. Bosses use a dashboard to record attendance and check whether workers are adhering to the company policy that requires them to spend three days a week, or 60% of their time, with clients or in the office. The panel shows staff as 'amber' if they fall below the 60% threshold, while workers show as 'red' if they drop below 40%. The dashboard was first available for use by supervisors in April, while the office attendance data can reportedly be viewed by business unit leaders, as well as PwC's chief financial, administrative and people officers. Employees are also able to access their own data. Employees' wifi connections from their laptop are traced by the system to check whether they are working from client sites on the days expected, according to the Financial Times, which first reported details of the system. This is then cross-referenced with information from staff time sheets and the company's HR platform. The increased scrutiny of office attendance is causing unease among PwC's 23,000-strong UK workforce, and one senior staff member told the FT they had 'lost count' of the number of colleagues who had shared concerns about the monitoring. Another person reportedly said workers were seeking more transparency from their employer about the tracking. Employees who breached the accountancy and consultancy firm's office attendance policy could face formal sanctions that could affect their bonus and performance rating, according to the report, which said those unable to meet the attendance rules because of sickness or for family reasons can request allowances. PwC told UK employees last September that it was going to start tracking their working locations from January, to ensure that all workers spend 'a minimum of three days a week' in the office or at client sites amid a clampdown on remote working. The company told staff in a memo it would track their locations in the same way it monitors how many chargeable hours they work, as the company looked to place 'more emphasis on in-person working'. The rival firm EY began monitoring office attendance at the start of last year using staff turnstile data in an effort to crack down on breaches of its hybrid working policy. PwC UK's chief people officer, Phillippa O'Connor, told the House of Lords home-based working committee in April that the company's monitoring was 'not clocking people in and out'. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion She added: 'This is not an old-school manufacturing world; it is about empowered flexibility – they have attended an office in our world. Where we do not have that data, we look at shared IP.' PwC said there were 'clear benefits to in-person work for both our people and clients' and the approach was 'consistent with other businesses' and 'recognised and accepted by the vast majority of our people'. A spokesperson said: 'We always listen to feedback and are committed to regular, clear and transparent communications about expectations … 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.' PwC said the firm remains 'committed to flexibility' and allows employees to condense their usual working hours and finish early on Friday lunchtime for six weeks over the summer.
