Yahoo Finance PwC's 22,000 staff share record £128m bonus pot
Auditing and consultancy giant PwC handed a record high of £128m ($177.4m) in bonuses to staff last year.
PwC said on Thursday that its staff bonus point for the financial year ended 30 June 2021 jumped from £83m in 2020 and surpassed 2019's total of 2019. The firm, which has about 22,000 employees in the UK, recruited 3,300 people over the last 12 months.
As well as healthy bonuses, PwC's "people-related investments" last year included a 24/7 virtual GP service, health centres in its offices, digital skills training and support to help staff cut their carbon footprint.
“We need an employment-led recovery in the UK that is focused not simply on a war for talent but on creating talent with the skills to address the urgent issues of socio-economic inequality, the climate crisis and the need to harness tech innovation,” the company said.
Back in March the company told staff they can spend around half their working hours at home and end work early on Fridays in the summer.
The jump in bonuses came as total group profit was up 25% to £1.2bn thanks to strong demand in audit, deals and transformation services as client activity rebounded. Profits were flattered by lower business travel costs due to pandemic restrictions. Revenue increased by 2% year-on-year to £4.5bn.
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“After a challenging first six months where we held our nerve, made no redundancies and honoured job offers, we were well-placed to meet demand and create investment capacity as confidence in the market picked up,” said Kevin Ellis, chairman and senior partner.
“Like our clients, we see the pandemic recovery as a catalyst of profound change, driving increased demand for our deals, financing, digitisation, ESG [environmental, social and corporate governance] and supply chain transformation services.”
Demand for transformation advice, including finance transformation and digital and data strategies as clients move to the cloud, were key drivers of second half growth.
This was accompanied by increased demand for services such as decarbonisation plans and designing and delivering hybrid working strategies.
“Looking ahead, while uncertainty remains, we’re a bellwether for the economy and we see positive signs as our own trading pipeline strengthens,” the company said.
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