PwC, one of the Big Four accounting firms, is battling for talent amid the tight labor market, deploying full-time remote work as one of the most powerful tools in its arsenal to attract workers.

“This white-hot talent market, this war for talent, I don’t think, has ever been more intense,” Yolanda Seals-Coffield, principal and deputy people leader at PwC, told Yahoo Finance. “The ability to attract new channels of talent to go out to people and tell them that they can have a differentiated experience with us around flexibility is what’s motivating us here.”

PwC announced on Oct. 1 that its 40,000 client service employees will have the option to work virtually from anywhere in the country on a permanent basis.

“What we’ve learned most of all [amid the pandemic] is that our people can work very effectively remotely. We’ve learned that we can manage and grow hybrid teams and we’ve learned how important choice is for our people,” said Seals-Coffield.

The accounting firm had planned to open its offices in September, but ultimately decided to push back its return date to Nov. 1 at the earliest in response to the rise in coronavirus cases.

PwC has a workforce of roughly 55,000 employees. “As we look to return to the office in the coming months and start to return to our clients, we know that many of our people are so excited to get back in and reconnect in person with their colleagues,” said Seals-Coffield. “But we also know that there are parts of our organization that want or need to remain virtual.”

Many companies, like PwC, are aware of how restless some workers have grown with their current employers, seeking added incentives to stay or choosing to quit if they can find them at another job.

PwC’s external August survey found that 65% of workers are looking for a new job, up from 36% in May. Employers “have a good grasp on why employees are leaving,” according to the firm, citing salaries, benefits, career advancement, and flexibility as the top reasons.

“Organizations like ours are trying to make sure that we’re giving our people the greatest flexibility and choice that we can, that we’re attracting people who need or want to work differently and that we’re putting together the right complement of diverse talent to service our clients,” said Seals-Coffield.

The firm has stated that its current workforce composition is 20% Black and Latinx representation for entry-level employees, 17% for experienced hires, and 25% for interns. The company’s goal is to attain a 50% increase in their Black and Latinx workforce by 2026.

Employee well-being particularly among caregivers and the outsized impact on women has been a major focus of PwC’s retention efforts amid the pandemic as the company has worked to support employees who have borne the brunt of having to manage their children’s virtual school work, family, and work needs.

The firm added new benefits for caregivers, including emergency childcare. Impacted employees were given the option to work reduced hours or to work condensed work weeks. Workers were also given the opportunity to take a sabbatical while still earning 20% of their pay to cover the cost of benefits if balancing the needs of family and childcare amid the pandemic made it nearly impossible to keep up with work.

As a result, the company “didn’t see an increased number of women resigning from PwC over the past year,” said Seals-Coffield, who expects the firm’s flexibility journey will evolve.

“Compensation and benefits are always going to be drivers [in terms of what matters most to employees]...but the need for greater flexibility, the need for people to be able to live where they need to live for personal reasons, for family reasons should not be underestimated or undervalued,” said Seals-Coffield.

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