Our people

People strategy

Our people strategy was developed in support of our broader business strategy, The New Equation. We are focused on being the world’s leading developer of talent and enabling our people with greater agility and confidence in a rapidly changing world. Specific focus areas include creating a resilient foundation for times of change through supporting the well-being of our people and enabling effective delivery, developing inclusive leaders for a shifting world and enabling our workforce for today’s realities and tomorrow’s possibilities.

Martina Bender
Chief People Officer
PwC Switzerland

Transparency Report 2023

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People Value Proposition

In alignment with our broader business strategy, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG developed and launched a new People Value Proposition. It was co-created together with employees, partners and the management and operating board and describes what we stand for as an employer, what makes us unique and what people can expect from PwC. Externally, this was rolled out via our new global employer branding campaign. Internally, we kicked off a programme with specific activities, measures and communications to bring our People Value Proposition to life.

Diversity and inclusion

At PwC, we are committed to being a leading organisation for inclusion and belonging with our people, clients and external stakeholders and a leading employee destination for diverse talent. We are focused on ensuring our ways of working embrace diversity and fostering an inclusive environment in which our people are comfortable bringing their whole selves to work and feel that they belong and can reach their full potential. As demonstrated through our core values of Care and Work Together, we strive to more deeply understand and empathise with different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. We know that when people from different backgrounds and with different points of view work together, we create the most value for our clients, our people and society.

Recruitment

PricewaterhouseCoopers AG aims to recruit, train, develop and retain the best and the brightest staff who share in the firm’s strong sense of responsibility for delivering high-quality services. Our hiring standards include a structured interview process with behaviour-based questions built from the PwC Professional framework, an assessment of academic records and background checks. Across the firm in FY23, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG recruited over 1,100 new people, including over 600 university graduates, interns and apprentices.

Team selection, experience and supervision

Our audit engagements are staffed based on expertise, capabilities and years of experience. Engagement leaders determine the extent of direction, supervision and review junior staff. In addition, we are taking the personal preferences of our employees into consideration, if possible, when staffing for an engagement to support individual development and increase retention.

Feedback and continuous development

Our team members obtain feedback on their overall performance, including factors related to audit quality, such as technical knowledge, auditing skills and professional scepticism. Audit quality is an important factor in performance evaluation and career progression decisions for both our partners and staff. Feedback on performance and progression is collected via Workday. We use Workday to give and receive upward, peer and downward feedback. Ongoing feedback conversations help our people to grow and learn faster, adapt to new and complex environments and bring the best to our clients and firm.

Career progession

PricewaterhouseCoopers AG uses the PwC Professional, our global career progression framework, which sets out clear expectations at all staff levels across five key dimensions. The framework underpins all elements of career development and helps our people develop into well-rounded professionals and leaders with the capabilities and confidence to produce high-quality work, deliver an efficient and effective experience for our clients, execute our strategy and support our brand. Our annual performance cycle is supported by continuous feedback conversations and regular check-ins with the individual’s team leader to discuss their development, progression and performance.

Retention

Turnover in the public accounting profession is often high because as accounting standards and regulations change, accountants are in demand and the development experience we provide makes our staff highly sought after in the external market. Our voluntary turnover rate fluctuates based on many factors, including the overall market demand for talent. Ensuring a great people experience is a top priority of PricewaterhouseCoopers AG and embedded accordingly in our KPI framework. Feedback from our people, be it from new joiners, as part of our Global People Survey or from leavers, is systematically collected and analysed, and areas for improvement identified. Since the pandemic, PwC Switzerland has a hybrid flexible model which was rolled out in August 2021. In addition, we have launched a new taskforce ‘Strategic Talent Team’ consisting of several People Partners from Assurance, who are driving different initiatives to improve retention. Also, the Quality culture and behaviours programme aims to improve the culture in Assurance, which should have a positive impact on retention.

Global People Survey

Each PwC firm participates in an annual Global People Survey, administered across the network to all of our partners and staff. PricewaterhouseCoopers AG is responsible for analysing and communicating results locally, along with clearly defined actions to address feedback. PwC Switzerland generally has a high participation rate in the Global People Survey. In 2023, 88% of our partners and staff provided their feedback, resulting in an overall People Engagement Index of 80% and a Quality Behaviours Index of 77%.

The PwC Professional supports the development and career progression of our staff by providing a single set of expectations across all lines of service, geographies and roles; outlining the capabilities needed to thrive as purpose-led and values-driven leaders at every level.

We are committed to putting the right people in the right place at the right time. Throughout our people’s careers, they are presented with career development opportunities, classroom, virtual classroom and on-demand learning, and on-the-job real-time coaching/development. Our flexible training portfolio facilitates personalised learning with access to a variety of educational materials, including webcasts, podcasts, articles, videos and courses.

Achieving a professional credential supports our firm’s commitment to quality through consistent examination and certification standards. Our goal is to provide our staff with a more individualised path to promotion and support them in prioritising and managing their time more effectively when preparing for professional exams. Providing our people with the ability to meet their professional and personal commitments is a critical component of our people experience and retention strategy

We, and other PwC firms, are committed to delivering quality assurance services around the world. To maximise consistency in the network, the formal curriculum, developed at the network level, provides access to training materials covering the PwC audit approach and tools. This includes updates on auditing standards and their implications, as well as areas of audit risk and areas of focus for quality improvement.

This formal learning is delivered using a blend of delivery approaches, which include remote access, classroom learning, virtual classroom and on-the-job support. The curriculum supports our primary training objective of audit quality, while providing practitioners with the opportunity to strengthen their technical and professional skills, including professional judgment while applying a sceptical mindset.

The design of the curriculum allows us to select, based on local needs, when and to a certain extent the manner in which we will deliver the training. Our learning and education leader then considers what additional training is appropriate – formal and/or informal – to address any additional specific local needs.

The Assurance training comprises several technical update training courses and various e-learning programmes for Partners and experienced staff. The trainings focus on technical innovation and deal with topics such as risk management, independence, regulatory update, audit methodology, accounting and transformation/upskilling. In addition, we deliver core training for less experienced staff to undertake the work assigned to them and develop their professional skills.

Last but not least, if any Partner or staff member has a specific training need that cannot be covered by internal training, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG supports that individual in completing appropriate training offered and run by an external provider.

Annual assurance staff turnover rate (percentage)

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Contact us

Martina Bender

Chief People Officer , PwC Switzerland