How PwC might save $850M by listening to millennials

Dive Brief:

The millennial generation's growing impact on today's workplace is undeniable, but an example involving PwC, the large global professional services firm, really drives the point home, according to Accounting Today. The firm may save hundreds of millions of dollars by implementing changes desired by their younger workers.
Accounting Today reported that turnover at PwC was running high, especially among younger employees, so the company surveyed 44,000 employees try and understand why. At the top of the complaint list was that jobs "interfere with their personal lives," and close to the same percentage of respondents indicated a desire to do more work from home, according to Accounting Today.
In response, PwC created a plan to convert its U.S. offices to co-working spaces. With that move, employees instead reserve a seat or an office, rather than report to the same office every day. The plan may save millions of dollars in recruiting and training. But the potential real estate cost savings alone could eventually hit $850 million, the article reports.

Dive Insight:

Carol Sawdye, PwC's company’s vice chairman and chief financial officer, told Accounting Today that real estate is a "huge cost" in the professional services business, running at about 8-9% of revenues on average. She says that PwC’s current goal is to bring that number to 2%. Accounting today reports that the company’s U.S. revenue as of mid-2015 was $12.2 billion, so that's where the $850 million in savings comes in.

In addition to the co-working solution, PwC gives employees more control over their schedules, allowing them to work from home when they can, in direct response to the poll result. According to Accounting Today, 80% of PwC's employees are in the millennial category.

"Our message was: This flexibility is for everyone: for fitness, for recharging, for personal travel,” Michael Fenlon, the company’s global and U.S. talent leader, told Accounting Today. “Sometimes it’s for family, but it could also be to go to yoga class." As a result of the added flexibility, nearly 90% of the PwC workforce now "hotel" (share space) when at the office.