Flexible dress code every day at PwC

Move over, casual Friday — PwC’s new dress code policy may as well be called “casual everyday”

The fim’s Singapore office has introduced a flexible dress code for everyday as part of a broader initiative to promote a flexible working culture and empower its people.

Officially called “FlexDress Everyday”, the revised dress code simply calls for employees to dress responsibly and exercise good judgement, which will empower staff to make the right decisions on their appropriate outfit for the day.

“One of our firm’s priorities is to focus on wellbeing and providing a flexible workplace for all. I truly believe that people are most productive when they are given the flexibility to be the best they can be, and organisations can play a part by being a catalyst to bring out the best in its people,” said Trillion So, Human Capital Leader at PwC Singapore.

“We are excited to go against the grain and enable our people to ‘be themselves’ unlocking the diversity each of us brings to the workplace,” added So.

Flexible working

According to a recent report by the Big Four firm about half of women (45%) in Singapore believe that their work demands interfere with their personal lives.

The survey involved more than 3,600 professional women globally (aged 28-40) to find out about their career development experiences and aspirations.

While flexible work measures have been increasingly introduced to mitigate this, employees remain sceptical on whether employers value flexible work as an efficient way of working.

Further, not everyone seems to think highly of flexible programmes, or the employees who actually use them — almost half (48%) of female respondents in Singapore believe that taking advantage of work-life balance or flexible programmes has negative career consequences at their workplace.

Almost 57% of new mothers in Singapore said that they were overlooked for career advancement opportunities, such as promotions, upon their return from maternity leave.

“In response to uncertainties that surfaced surrounding the impact of flexible work practices on career advancement, PwC is walking the talk with the necessary transparency and governance around our full suite of Flex initiatives to maintain the needed trust between employer and employee to make flexible work culture a sustainable success,” said So.