PwC has stepped up monitoring of its UK employees' office attendance through a dashboard that tracks wifi logons and pass swipes, sparking staff concerns. The Big Four accountancy firm requires workers to spend three days a week or 60 per cent of their time with clients or in the office.
The dashboard displays an amber warning for those falling below the 60 per cent threshold and red for those below 40 per cent. Available to supervisors since April, attendance data can be viewed by business unit leaders, the chief financial officer and other top executives, while employees can access their own records.
Staff have voiced unease over the system, with one senior employee saying they had “lost count” of colleagues raising concerns. Breaches of policy could lead to formal sanctions affecting bonuses and performance ratings, though allowances exist for sickness or family reasons.
The firm informed employees last September that tracking would begin in January, similar to how it monitors chargeable hours. Rival EY began monitoring attendance using turnstile data at the start of last year.
PwC’s chief people officer, Phillippa O’Connor, told a House of Lords committee that the system was “not clocking people in and out”. A spokesperson said the dashboard “ensures our people have easy access to their attendance data, so they can manage and plan their time”.
