PwC tells 40,000 U.S. employees they can work remotely all the time

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PwC has told 40,000 employees in the United States that they can work remotely from anywhere in the country, but their pay will be reduced if they move to places where the cost of living is lower.

The decision to allow staff to work remotely on a permanent basis is a Big Four’s most drastic response to the changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under this plan, employees in contact with customers have two weeks to switch to “virtual” roles, working from home, except when they are sometimes needed in an office for team meetings, company visits. customers or other key events, PwC said.

Staff who choose to work remotely would be required to come to the office no more than three days per month, he added.

The reduction in pay for employees who move to cheaper locations mirrors the approach taken by tech companies like Facebook, Twitter and Google.

Yolanda Seals-Coffield, Vice President of the American People of PwC, said it was not a change of approach. “The way I look at compensation is that our strategy on it doesn’t change, which means we pay our employees based on where they live,” she told the Financial Times.

“You will earn the same salary as other similar employees in your area, whether you are virtual or not. “

PwC said it was the first professional services firm in the United States to allow its employees to work remotely from any part of the country.

The decision to allow professionals to work primarily from home for the long haul is likely to force competitors, including Big Four rivals Deloitte, EY and KPMG, to consider doing the same in order to retain their staff.

“Part of what we’ve seen over the past 18 months is that if you want to recruit people and keep the talent that you have, you have to give them more flexibility and options,” said Seals-Coffield, adding that the change was not driven by cost.

Fiona Czerniawska, chief executive of Source Global Research, a provider of data to the consulting industry, said PwC’s move was “bold.” She predicted that the change “would not only help retention, but could also help attract new talent.”

PwC US’s decision, first reported by Reuters, is at odds with the approach of its British sister company. PwC UK, which is owned and managed separately, has been a strong supporter of the offices and told staff they would spend an average of two to three days in the office after the pandemic.

“The virtual world is no substitute for human contact for a human enterprise like ours,” said Kevin Ellis, President of PwC UK, in July.

Yesterday, he told the Financial Times: “Every local business makes decisions based on their local markets. “

But Seals-Coffield said the fully remote staff should be able to progress. “There was a time when we would have thought that a person working part-time would never be a partner and that turned out to be wrong,” she said.

“I have no reason to believe that you can’t have a successful career here if you’re virtual. And it’s our job to make that happen.

Seals-Coffield said research has shown that 30-35% of the broad workforce want to work “virtually”, but cannot predict the level of adoption within PwC or whether groups such as working parents were more likely to participate.

The new policy does not cover PwC partners or its 15,000 back office employees, including functions such as human resources and IT support, most of whom are already able to work remotely.

The company had no major plans to downsize its offices, Seals-Coffield said.

PwC has left the door open for policy reversal if permanent remote working is not successful. “While these are not short-term measures and are permanent options for our employees, we will continue to evaluate and innovate – as we do with all of our policies, benefits and flexibility, ”he said.