PwC Public Accountant Office Will LAY Off 1,800 Employees

Lay off illustration (Photo: Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The accounting company Pricewaterhouse Coopers or PwC will terminate employment (PHK) for its 1,800 employees. The decision was taken amid the weakening demand for some of the company's services.

Launching The Well Street Journal, Friday, September 13, this step has been the first formal layoff by PwC since 2009. The accountability company, which is often called The Big Four, is currently carrying out the process of cutting employees in the United States (US) and several other places.

Termination of the employment will have an impact on the advisory, product and technology division. According to a source of The Well Street Journal, half of this termination was made for employees abroad.

Still citing the same source, layoffs cover employees from various levels. Starting from association to managing directors and including business services, audits, and taxes.

PwC plans to provide employees affected in October. This layoff includes about 2.5 percent of the workforce in US units.

On Wednesday, PwC announced its plans for layoffs and restructuring in an internal memo to employees in the US obtained by The Wall Street Journal.

In the memo, US PwC leader Paul Giggs said the layoffs were indeed difficult. However, this step is needed to prepare the company for future challenges.

"There will be elements of the action of resources that will have a relatively small proportion of our people, something that is never easy," said US PwC leader Paul Giggs, quoted from the Well Street Journal, Friday, September 13.

"In particular, we position our company for the future, create the capacity to invest, and anticipate and react to market opportunities today and tomorrow," added Giggs.

Giggs also said the announcement took place on September 11, a very meaningful day for PwC as the company lost five co-workers in the 2001 terrorist attack tragedy.

Just for information, PwC conducted the latest official layoffs in US units in 2009. In 2017, the company did not dismiss it directly. However, it gives employees an offer to take on a new role as part of the restructuring and if employees refuse, then they leave the company.

Over the past two years, PwC has been an exception among the world's accounting firms for not cutting off work in the US and not planning to do so. In fact, in that period, other major account firms such as EY, KPMG and Deloitte collectively laid off thousands of workers in the US.

As part of the restructuring, Giggs said, PwC plans to integrate its technology products and teams into individual business lines, as well as streamline the process in business services.

The move comes after Giggs started as a US leader in May. He replaced Team Ryan in the role, and launched a structural overhaul that came into effect in July. He shifted the US unit which has about 75,000 employees from two business lines to three.

In July, taxes returned to separate US businesses. Earlier in 2021 the tax reporting and accounting division was merged into a unit called a trust solution. While the rest of the income comes from consultation solutions, including tax consultations.

Tim kirih, chief operating officer of PwC AS, mengatakan dalam sebuah pernyataan kepada The Wall Street Journal mengatakan untuk tetap kompetisi dan memposisikan bisnis untuk masa depan, PwC terus mengubah area perusahaan dan berselamat tenaga kerja untuk mendukung strategi dengan lebih baik. Termasuk menarik dan mengindahkan talent dan kevisi yang tepat ke area yang paling dibutuhkan.

Joe Atkinson previously served as PwC's chief product and technology officer. But last July, he was appointed the global chief AI officer after seven years of leading the technology division.

In a podcast in 2021, Atkinson said it was important to give employees the right tools to carry out their responsibilities, not just updating their knowledge of industrial trends.

Therefore, he said, PwC prefers to build its own products more often than to buy them from third-party vendors. PwC products and technologies are aimed at addressing various company challenges, including managing risks around supply chains, data privacy, and regulations.

One of PwC's flagship products is ProEdge. A digital platform that offers more than 150 interactive learning experiences to help train employees in new skills. PwC will also continue to evaluate whether to stop building certain products, among other investment decisions.