BDO tells staff to work where they want post-pandemic
Accounting firm BDO has told its 5,500 staff that they can work where they want post-pandemic, in the latest sign that a significant proportion of white collar workers will not return to city centres when Covid restrictions are fully lifted.
The UK's fifth biggest accountant said it would ask employees to work wherever they feel they can be most productive depending on the task they are doing, which will most likely involve a mix of working from home, in the office and on client sites.
The move represents one of the most flexible approaches to post-pandemic working adopted by a major employer. Other financial and professional services firms have chosen to mandate that staff spend a certain number of days in the office.
A spokesman for BDO said: "The last 14 months have been tough on everyone but technology and remote working has allowed high quality work to continue. As lockdown restrictions ease we’ve been listening to our people, talking to our clients and thinking about the best way to return to the office in a way which balances wellbeing with work.
"We see post-Covid working as being neither solely office-based or home-based. Instead we will ask our people to work where they are most productive according to the task. For most, that will be a mix of office hubs, home and client sites."
The move, which was first reported by the Financial Times, comes after rival firms such as KPMG, PwC and Grant Thornton recently outlined plans for a post-crisis era in which home working would become the norm.
KPMG told its 16,000 UK staff earlier this month that they would spend on average just two days a week in the office from June.
Meanwhile Grant Thornton said nine in 10 of its UK employees wanted to spend less than half the working week in the office when lockdown restrictions were lifted, and PwC told its UK-based employees that they would spend an average of two to three days a week in the office.
Nearly four-fifths of BDO staff said they wanted to be able to work from home or have a hybrid working model, according to an internal survey.
"I can’t give you a barcode or an algorithm to tell each person exactly where they need to be and what they need to do but the trust that we can carry forward from the pandemic is that each individual human probably knows what they’ve got to do," Paul Eagland, BDO’s UK managing partner, told the FT.
The firm, which furloughed 700 employees at the beginning of the pandemic, has also rewarded staff for their efforts during the crisis with the choice of either a bonus of one week’s pay in their September pay packet or an extra week’s holiday.
BDO came under fire last year for refusing to repay the £4.1m it received through the Government's job retention scheme, while handing partners an average of £518,000. It ultimately reversed its position following public backlash.
The firm, which has its headquarters on London's Baker Street, will also invest £8m to refit its offices in order to create "vibrant hubs to support new ways of working".
