BDO becomes latest auditor to tell staff to work where they like
BDO has told staff to decide where they would like to work post-pandemic, in a move that adopts a more flexible model than some of its rivals.
The challenger audit firm will ask staff to work wherever is most productive, depending upon the task they are doing. For most people this will likely mean a mixture of working at home, in the office, and at client sites.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Paul Eagland, BDO’s UK managing partner, said: “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.”
A BDO survey found nearly eight in 10 (79%) staff wanted to be able to work from home or have a hybrid model after the pandemic.
Major professional services firms have been open to the idea of hybrid or flexible working post-pandemic.
Staff at rival KPMG will spend on average just two days a week in the office from June, while PwC will expect staff to be in the office two to three days per week.
Deloitte is also going down the hybrid route, although the Big Four firm has not released specific information about the number of days per week staff will work remotely.
BDO plans to spend £8m of refitting its London and Bristol offices, Eagland told the FT, and plans to reconfigure its other offices to make space for meetings and teamwork.
BDO has no plans to close any offices in the medium term, the managing partner added.