Engaging with our stakeholders

Alumni

• Personalised bi-monthly newsletters, regular series of events, dedicated alumni linked-in group, annual survey

• Keep our alumni updated on PwC developments, share business insights; help alumni to build professional and personal networks
• Part of broader relationship building

• Value the opportunity to network and keep in touch with peers and former colleagues. Value being kept up to date with PwC activity and insights
• Would appreciate more specific content

• Identified new initiatives for FY17 to ensure the programme continues to deliver value, including tailoring content by business interest

Clients

• Relationship management & dialogue via client teams; client satisfaction surveys; win/loss analysis
• Brand health index monitoring; social media monitoring and dialogue; research on expectations of PwC
• Participation in industry and client forums on responsible business (e.g. ‘Building Public Trust’ debates and awards); polls on specific topics on our website
• Survey business leader opinions on key sustainability issues

• Understand client, industry and business challenges; Identify opportunities to improve our service and products; Help clients understand how megatrends understand how megatrends and sustainability-related international agreements impact businesses
  
• Understand the role that sustainability plays for clients

• Appreciate the events we hold on best practice (e.g. non exec training on sustainability)
• Expect us to manage environmental impacts of operations and supply chain
• Lack the tools to identify the most relevant Global Goals (SDGs), and assess implications for their business
• Increasing interest in potential risks and opportunities from climate change

• Share our sustainability credentials and experience with clients as part of proposal process
• Developed Global Goals Business Navigator diagnostic tool to help businesses assess SDG impacts and define business priorities
• Ran ‘#Paris2015 and beyond’ campaign to help businesses understand the implications of the agreement

Employees and partners

• Annual ‘youmatter’ people survey; regular career meetings; diversity networks; regular sustainability communications and campaigns
• Staff and partner roadshows
• Supervisory Board liaison meetings
• Internal campaigns on specific issues

• Inform our talent strategy; Support wellbeing of our people; Create a diverse and inclusive workplace; Understand attitudes, and change behaviours relating to corporate sustainability
• Set direction for business; Confirm major decisions

• Concerns, in parts of the business, over work pressures
• Ongoing desire for more flexible working
• Would like clarity on correct way to recycle specific waste items
• Aware of online meeting tools, but unfamiliar with how to use them well

• Extended resilience programme for staff to our Professional Skills curriculum 
• Launched ‘25% challenge’ to reduce unnecessary work, meetings and travel
• Launched ‘Green Light to Talk’ campaign to destigmatise mental illness and stress-related illness
• Committed to ‘flexible hiring’ and joined the Hire Me My Way campaign
• Ran ‘Climate Week’ campaign to promote awareness of COP21 and how staff can make a difference as individuals
• Reconfigured recycling hubs and signage; established online forum to answer staff questions on waste
• Refreshed online meeting campaign to focus on functionality

Global
& local
institutions,
advocacy
groups,
NGOs^1,2

• Regular and ad hoc dialogue
• Responding to consultations
• Secondments, and participation in leadership teams and working groups
• Contributions to new protocols

• Understand emerging areas for business
• Contribute to thought leadership and standards on megatrends and sustainable development
• Work in partnership to develop solutions to global challenges

• Appreciate our contribution to key areas including future of tax, trust in society, and valuing natural capital
• Respect our achievements to date in recycling. Expect us to manage all waste streams.

• Extended ‘Paying for Tomorrow’ tax reform campaign, including a citizen’s jury to explore intergenerational equality
• Helped to create new indicators to identify where tax reform is necessary
• Extended campaign to identify tangible actions business can take to build trust in society
• Collaborated in the technical development and launch of the Natural Capital Protocol
• Extended scope of ‘Going Circular’ programme to include all waste streams.

Local
communities

• Review meetings with local councils, community and charity partners
• Provision of professional expertise; volunteering and social impact measurement
• Senior management team advisory positions
• Survey of key community partners

• Inform community investment decisions; Shape joint community programmes that maximise shared value; Focus capacity building support through PwC Foundation; Develop opportunities to broaden our peoples’ experiences

• Appreciate our help in achieving their organisational goals
• Want more regional activity, networking opportunities and master classes
• We could do more to introduce them to wider business and supply chain opportunities

• Held new masterclasses, on winning work and accounting skills
• Extended programme of activity, including creation of new regional hubs, and more regional events
• Joined Buy Social Corporate Challenge to increase procurement from social enterprises

Media

• News releases and results announcements; conferences and roundtables; continuing conversations with journalists; social media discussion; responses to our opinion pieces, blogs etc.

• Openly communicate our performance and strategy; Manage our reputation; Share our thought leadership and insight into public and business concerns; Discuss our response to responsible business issues
• Provide trustworthy analysis and informed debate to our stakeholders
  

• Recognise PwC for being informed on key business issues
• Recognise our contribution as  a major employer, particularly, for graduates
• Recognise our contribution to the debate about diversity in the workplace 
• Keen to understand policies on dress code – and shoes in particular - for women at work

• Published research and insight around ‘Brexit’  in the run up to and following the referendum
• Made public commitment to maintaining graduate hires, to maintain post- Brexit confidence
• Published social mobility statistics in our 2017 Annual Report
• Extended progressive employer focus to include campaigns on shared parental leave, and ‘Back to business’ for women who have been out of the workplace
• Worked with suppliers to update their dress code policies; contributed to social media debate.

Policy
makers

• Consultations on and issuance of standards and legislation (e.g. proposed Ethical Standard, better workplace pensions); participation in round tables or other forums; advisory panel positions
• Proactive engagement through ‘Citizen’s juries’
• Sharing our thought leadership and research on tax reform
• Dialogue and input to new policy on a wide range of responsible business issues (e.g. tax system reform, social mobility and apprentices, climate change, natural capital)

• Provide business perspective and help inform policies; Provide new insight through collaborative exchange; Create a more responsible business environment

• Feel we make a positive contribution to the debate
• Recognise us as experienced advisors in international climate negotiations

• Assessing appropriate approach to reforming tax legislation
• Supported developing countries in preparation for COP21 negotiations, through the Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)

Regulators

• Responding to inquiries inspections, reviews and consultations
• Proactive engagement on expectations and concerns

• Ensure compliance with existing regulations
• Help shape new regulations and standards by collaborating  to create a better regulatory landscape

• Value our contribution to the regulatory agenda
• Recognise our expertise and knowledge of the market
• Recognise our emphasis on quality through systems and controls; identified areas for further focus

• Worked to enhance the understanding and application of new audit regulations
• Ongoing refinement of audit quality metrics, which we report our performance against

Shareholders

• Meetings with shareholder representatives to understand areas of focus, including audit quality, regulatory and governance issues, and to educate them on the audit process
• Secretariat to the Corporate Reporting Users Forum (CRUF)
• Surveys of shareholder views on a variety of topics
• Facilitation of meetings between shareholder representatives and senior audit partners

• Act as a responsible member of the corporate reporting community so we can educate companies on what investors want from their reporting
• Educate the investment community about PwC’s role in serving the public interest
• Help us to improve audit quality through better understanding of shareholder expectations
• Help give investors a voice in the corporate reporting debate (via the CRUF)

• Perceive us as having an active and responsive shareholder engagement programme
• Noted improvement in the quality and usefulness of our audit reports
• There is still some misunderstanding about how audits work
• There is scope to improve various areas of corporate reporting, to make it more useful, for current and potential shareholders

• Continued to hold regular shareholder feedback sessions across a number of specialisms and hosted round-table discussions on  future of reporting
• Held first PwC Investor Update event for shareholders and analysts
• Published our largest investor survey, comparing the views of investment professionals with responses from  CEOs in our CEO Survey
• Continued to hold ‘meet the auditor’ meetings for investors and analysts to discuss relevant issues with senior industry audit partners

Students

• Recruitment events, publications and webcasts, surveys, online employability training; paid work experience and internships
• Classroom discussions through our PwC Classroom programme

• Understand career motivations and job search behaviours of students, and perceptions of PwC
• Inform candidates about career choices to widen talent pool and access to our professions
• Inform our tax and other thought leadership programmes

• Want to be assessed on capability and potential rather than historical school performance
• Lack relevant work experience opportunities at school

• Mentored students from under-represented backgrounds through our Diversity Mentoring Scheme Introduced ‘Business Insight’ internship weeks for 6th form students
• Educating students about the tax system and public finances

Suppliers

• Tendering process, formal supplier assessments, key supplier sustainability workshops, conversations with individual suppliers, research to understand barriers to sustainability performance

• Understand supplier concerns; Mutual support to enhance quality of service and sustainability standards in our supply chain; Identify opportunities to collaborate on innovative solutions for sustainability

• Many suppliers appreciate the impetus arising from our engagement on sustainability performance improvement (e.g. human rights, carbon reductions)
• Keen to collaborate on sustainability issues, but would welcome support
• Do not all have technical capability to measure carbon emissions

• Engaged suppliers on human rights requirements and reported number of suppliers with relevant policies in our sustainability scorecard
• Developed and delivered a bespoke game and workshop to help suppliers calculate carbon emissions and set realistic reduction targets