PWC will dismiss staff who refuse to work from the office, the company's Head of HR has suggested.
Philippa O'Connor, Pwc People's Chief Officer, told the House of Lords Home Executive Committee that the accounting giant is ready to take “disciplinary action” against employees who Failed to comply with new rules requires them to work from the office for at least three days a week.
Lord Fuller asked, Conservative peer, had Pwc taken action against those that refuses to complyIncluding by removing staff bonuses, limiting promotions or dismissing them.
Ms O'Connor said PwC had not yet punished any staff due to a lack of evidence, after only monitoring office attendance in January.
However, he added: “Until we have been monitored, the ability to get (the) right evidence to do any of the things that you are referring to, I think we feel sufficient … over time we will look at that as we roll through our monitoring process.
“We feel that is actually important to the very minority of the non -compliant population to achieve the fairness agenda (PWC)… There is a very careful balance that we have to strike”
The warning comes in the midst of increasing concern among management that home working is widely stifling productivity. Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan's chief executive, has said remotely work is “working”.
Big companies including Google, Barclays and WPP have all submitted strictly Return to Office Policies In recent months.
Ms O'Connor said PWC's own data suggested that staff working from the office were more productive and more involved in their work.
PWC, which employs 23,000 UK staff and has 19 offices across Britain, introduced a stricter hybrid working policy in January, where staff have to work from the office for at least three days each week.
Previously, the business had a flexible working policy that staff could work from the office for only “two to three days” a week.
Ms O'Connor said: “This, as with any other employment policy, is something we would look to follow with disciplinary action if needed.”
The accountant “Big Four” told staff in January that he would begin to monitor office attendance and start sharing the data he collects with them on a monthly basis.
Ms O'Connor said that the data collected so far suggested that staff working from the office were more productive than workers working at home.
He said: “There is a very clear correlation between time in the office and using our people and that only shows us … that we have had this link between entering the office (a) being more productive.”