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If you’re a member of a certain generation, you might remember having a traffic light in your school cafeteria that measured noise levels. Green meant you were fine, yellow meant “Keep it down,” and red meant you were in for whatever punishment your principal deemed fit.
Now, staff at PwC UK will share a similar experience with US schoolkids back in the day. The Big Four firm is using a traffic-light-style dashboard to enforce its return-to-office policy, the Financial Times reported.
The system tracks badge swipes and employees’ wi-fi data to confirm their location, sources told the FT. Staff whose office attendance falls below 60% receive an “amber” rating, while those whose attendance is below 40% are, literally, in the red. Employees can view their data on the dashboard, as can senior partners and leadership, including the CFO, chief administrative officer, and chief people officer.
Last year, PwC UK announced an RTO policy, starting this January, requiring staff to be either in the office or at a client site at least three days per week. The new system cross-checks employees’ wi-fi location data with time sheet systems like Workday to see whether they’re at client sites.
In a video message to staff, PwC UK’s chief people officer, Phillippa O’Connor, said she was aware of concerns that the dashboard could conflict with the firm’s emphasis on “trust” and “empowerment.” She stated that it “aims to address persistent and deliberate non-compliance.” PwC staff can receive exemptions from the RTO policy due to “life events and unforeseen circumstances.”
But PwC’s not alone. Fellow Big Four firm EY UK is also using swipe card data to track employees’ attendance, CFO Brew previously reported. Companies in general may be getting stricter about their RTO policies. More than two-thirds (69%) of respondents to an Americas-based survey by commercial real estate firm CBRE said their companies are monitoring staff’s office visits, up from 45% last year. Office visits have ticked up slightly in both 2024 and 2025, according to data from Placer.ai.
And if those returning employees make offices too noisy, there’s always the Yacker Tracker.