PwC NZ's office space above the Commercial Bay shopping centre. Photo / Supplied
PwC NZ has one of the newest and most expensive office spaces in Auckland CBD but just 20 per cent of its workers are coming in to use it and that is expected to fall further as the Omicron outbreak builds.
But Mark Averill, chief executive of the NZ arm of the global financial services firm, is still confident of its investment in the tower above the Commercial Bay shopping centre and believes workers will return - as they are doing in its offices overseas.
"We have fantastic offices all around the country and we have always thought that is a really important part."
Averill said collaborative work spaces that were highly tech enabled would likely see a combination of flexible working and physical offices in the future.
"We are a people business. Connecting with each other, in my view, will always be really important, but equally embracing and providing that flexible environment so people get a balance is going to be a great opportunity to help us continue to evolve the most attractive work environment that we can provide."
Currently staff can choose whether to come into the office or not and working from home was predominant at the moment.
Overseas evidence showed that as the outbreak grew fewer staff would come into the office, Averill said.
While it was difficult to know how long the Omicron wave would last in New Zealand he said there were some encouraging signs in Australia that it was coming out the other side.
"In Australia - Sydney, Melbourne, they are still predominantly operating from home. But there are some encouraging signs that they are coming through the other side and hopefully that will be the case [here] in the next four to six weeks. The reality is it could easily be three or four months."
Averill said in the UK signs of a far less restricted environment were emerging with people returning to the office.
"I can see that in calls and meetings - two or three months ago they were often at home during the day but now they are often in the office."
PwC doesn't meet the criteria for a critical worker business - a scheme which allows workers who are close contacts of Covid cases to keep going to work in person if they take daily rapid antigen tests (RATs) - but it has put in an order for RATs.
"Like everyone else we are working to secure supplies should we need them. It is not a critical part of our response given our flexible working. But absolutely we know we will require them, particularly working on client sites and also for people to get tested if they feel coming into the office is the right thing to do to enable us to provide peace of mind and comfort.
"They are an important part of our response. But not at the scale that some essential services might need."
Last year PwC released a new strategy aiming to hire 500 more staff by 2026 including a big diversity push.
It currently has around 1700 staff. Hiring more staff has been difficult for all industries with the border closures.
Averill said its vacancies were up slightly both due to Covid and its hiring strategy. It had just appointed 10 new partners of whom two were new to the company.
"We are making progress in that, we do see with the borders opening it is certainly going to be easier. What we have seen since the border opening announcement is a higher level of inquiry from our internal network and from previous alumni in terms of returning back to New Zealand."
Averill said it typically had more than 50 people on international secondment programmes at any one time.
"The MIQ has been an obstacle for that."
While there were pent up signs of younger workers wanting to leave to get overseas experience he said there was also pent up demand from Kiwis wanting to return home.
"While the borders have been closed that cohort of people wanting to return has also been delaying their time to come back. We are maintaining a positive outlook in that environment and do see it will be really important for us to do that."
Averill said the New Zealand economy was going to take some patience to get through this year.
"There is going to be inevitable frustrations as we go through different settings, there is going to be supply chain disruption and that is going to certainly impact a number of sectors so therefore as we work our way through the uncertainty, we are now into our third year of living with Covid. I do see that patience is going to be really important."
But he also said it was important to remain positive and keep a sense of ambition.
"There is a lot of opportunity and, looking forward the next 12 to 18 months, certainly from a PwC perspective, we are keen to retain our course and momentum."
Averill predicted this year would be different to 2020 and 2021.
"As we get through Omicron with borders open and other parts of the economy opening up, the settings change ... we are starting to see the green shoots in the UK and other territories and less restrictions. That has to be a step forward as we come through the other side and get to the next phase of living with Covid, living in a pandemic world."