The Big Four firm PwC has been collecting data on its latest RTO mandate for three months, and the results are in — three days in the office is the sweet spot for employee engagement.
In January, PwC increased its in-office requirement for its 23,000 UK employees to a minimum of three days. The accounting firm had previously asked staff to come into the office two or three days a week.
Since the new policy began, PwC has been monitoring employees’ attendance through their badge swipes into the office and shared IP addresses, if staff are out at client sites, Phillippa O’Connor, PwC’s chief people officer, told a UK government committee on home-based working.
Staff can use a self-declaration form to highlight if there’s a valid reason they can’t come into the office, which will be reflected in the data.
After the first quarter of monitoring employees, O’Connor said there was “a really clear correlation between time in the office and the utilization of our people.”
PwC also cross-referenced the attendance data with preliminary data from its annual employee engagement survey and found that those coming in three days a week were the most engaged.
“The initial data there shows us that where we have people in the office three days a week, they are more engaged,” she said. “Where they’re in the office five days a week, they’re less engaged.”
The accounting giant believes that in-person work for the majority of the week is best for its business and clients and for driving innovation, O’Connor said.
It is also “absolutely critical” for training the 1,000 graduates who join the firm’s UK branch every year, she added.
O’Connor told the government committee that this was “not a one-policy.” PwC is in “listening mode” and providing flexibility and exemptions, particularly for parents and neurodivergent employees, is key to the firm’s approach, she said.
Lindsay Pattison, the Chief People Office of the advertising giant WPP, also gave evidence to the committee, which was set up to consider the effects and future development of home-based working in the UK.
WPP has asked employees to return to the office four days a week, including two Fridays per month. After the policy was introduced, thousands signed a petition calling on the firm to rethink its 4-day RTO mandate.
Pattison said WPP was monitoring general email traffic and employees’ use of AI tools, and that both measures started to decline on Fridays when staff worked from home.
PwC declined to comment.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at pthompson@businessinsider.com or Signal at Polly_Thompson.89. Use a personal email address and a nonwork device; here’s our guide to sharing information securely.
