Engaging with our stakeholders
There are a wide range of stakeholders that shape our thinking as a business, and benefit from our products and services. We engage with these stakeholders to understand their expectations and how well we’re meeting them, as well as collaborating for deeper insight and mutual benefit. We gather qualitative and quantitative input, which informs both our strategic direction and our day-to-day performance. We draw on a wide range of techniques, from simple surveys of particular stakeholder groups, to group discussions, depending on the need and objectives. And, where appropriate, we’ve established indicators to measure the coverage and quality of our engagement, and we report back to the relevant stakeholders on the results and actions we take. In addition, in 2024 we conducted an independent audit of our stakeholder engagement, including an extensive survey of our stakeholders and a series of stakeholder interviews. Our materiality matrix is another example of how we periodically engage with different stakeholder groups, and detailed case studies are highlighted each year in our Annual Report and Integrated Reporting hub.
Our stakeholders
- Alumni
- Clients
- Employees and partners
- Investment community
- Local communities
- Media
- Policymakers
- Regulators
- Students
- Suppliers
Alumni
(e.g. former employees and partners)
Why we engage
- To keep our alumni updated on PwC developments, share business insights.
- To celebrate their careers and contributions to the growth of the firm.
- To keep them connected to both the firm and one another.
- To help alumni to build professional and personal networks.
- To enable continued recruitment of talent and support firm growth.
How we engage
- Alumni community platform, with fortnightly and twice yearly newsletters, events (as and when possible), and alumni LinkedIn group.
- Identifying new initiatives, and ensuring the alumni programme continues to deliver value, including tailoring content by business interest.
Clients
(e.g. FTSE 350, private business, Government)
Why we engage
- To understand client, industry and business challenges.
- To identify opportunities to improve our services and products.
- To help clients understand the importance and impact of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues.
How we engage
- Managing relationships and dialogue via client teams; client satisfaction surveys; win/loss analysis.
- Participation in industry and client forums on responsible business, for example, ‘Building Public Trust’ debates and awards; polls on specific topics on our website.
Employees and partners
(e.g. current staff and partners)
Why we engage
- To help ensure our people understand how their work contributes to our Purpose and delivers our strategy.
- To support the wellbeing of our people.
- To help create an inclusive and diverse workplace where everyone can thrive and feel that they belong.
- To help promote the tools and opportunities that will support our people in their day-to-day roles and career progression.
- To help to understand attitudes, and change behaviours relating to corporate sustainability.
- To set direction for business and confirm major decisions.
How we engage
- Periodic engagement, such as people engagement surveys; regular staff and partner townhalls/roadshows; People Council meetings and virtual forums; Partner & Staff Diversity Councils; regular career or talent coach meetings; and quarterly Supervisory Board liaison meetings.
- Regular firmwide and local communications from leadership, our People teams, and People and Sustainability networks on campaigns and specific issues, for example, inclusion topics, physical and mental wellbeing, and sustainability.
Investment community
(e.g. buy-side and sell-side analysts, credit ratings analysts, fund managers, and corporate governance professionals)
Why we engage
- To be a responsible party within the corporate reporting ecosystem by providing insights to companies on what the investment community wants from their reporting.
- To help us to improve audit quality through better understanding of the investment community’s expectations.
How we engage
- Meeting the investment community to understand their areas of focus, including audit quality, accounting standards, regulatory and governance issues.
- Acting as secretariat to the Corporate Reporting Users’ Forum (CRUF), and facilitation of meetings between investment community representatives and senior audit partners.
- Providing insights to companies on what the investment community wants from their reporting.
Local communities
(e.g. local councils, charities, schools and other social purpose organisations
Why we engage
- To shape joint community programmes that maximise shared value.
- To develop opportunities and collaborate to broaden our people’s experiences within local communities.
- To support charities by recruiting more people from lower socioeconomic backgrounds and helping disadvantaged communities to develop skills.
How we engage
- Reviewing meetings with local councils, community and charity partners.
- Providing professional expertise; volunteering and social impact measurement.
- Informing community investment decisions; shaping joint community programmes that maximise shared value; focus on capacity building support through PwC Foundation; develop opportunities to broaden our people’s experiences and share skills.
Media
(e.g. local and national media, social media)
Why we engage
- To openly communicate our purpose, performance and priorities.
- To share our thought leadership, research and expert insights on important issues facing clients and wider society.
How we engage
- Sharing thought leadership, research and insight into public and business concerns, discussing our response to responsible business issues.
- Regular engagement with the media, including meetings and interviews; press releases; briefings; written articles and opinion pieces; participation in conferences and roundtables; social media engagement and live events/ discussion; blogs.
Policymakers
(e.g. civil service, politicians)
Why we engage
- To provide our insight into and perspectives from the wider business community to help inform policy making.
How we engage
- Responding to consultations on and issuance of standards and proposed legislation, and Parliamentary inquiries.
- Sharing our thought leadership and research through roundtables, reports and surveys.
- Creating opportunities for dialogue and input to new policy on a wide range of responsible business issues such as social mobility, audit reform, and climate change.
Regulators
(e.g. the Financial Reporting Council, the ICAEW)
Why we engage
- To ensure our compliance with existing regulations.
- To contribute to the evolving regulatory agenda.
How we engage
- Responding to information requests, inspections, reviews and consultations.
- Proactively engaging on expectations and concerns, for example the transition to operational separation and the Audit Firm Governance Code.
- Responding to consultations and collaborating to create a better regulatory landscape.
Students
(e.g. sixth form and university students)
Why we engage
- To understand career motivations and job search behaviours of students, and perceptions of PwC.
- To inform candidates about the opportunities and career choices at PwC.
How we engage
- Recruitment events, publications and webcasts, surveys, online employability training; paid work experience and internships.
- Informing candidates about career choices to widen the talent pool and access to our professions.
- Mentoring students from under-represented backgrounds through initiatives like our Black Talent in Business programme.
Suppliers
(e.g. subcontractors and individuals associated with our suppliers subcontractors)
Why we engage
- To understand supplier concerns.
- To provide mutual support to enhance quality of service and ESG standards in our supply chain.
- To identify opportunities to collaborate on innovative solutions for ESG.
How we engage
- Tendering process; formal supplier assessments; key supplier ESG workshops; conversations with individual suppliers; research to understand barriers to sustainability performance.
- Engaging suppliers on human rights requirements and reporting the number of suppliers with relevant policies in our sustainability scorecard.
- Understanding supplier concerns; mutual support to enhance quality of service and sustainability standards in our supply chain; identifying opportunities to collaborate on innovative solutions for ESG.
More on our sustainability strategy
Contact us
Emma Thorogood
Partner, Head of Purpose, Community and Corporate Affairs, PwC United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)7990 563100
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