Deloitte Africa employees can now work from anywhere in the world, including Mauritius.

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Deloitte Africa has made a formal commitment to a hybrid working paradigm. All Deloitte employees will be able to split their time between any of the firm’s offices, their clients’ offices, or any remote location of their choosing.

This means that someone who works in the new Deloitte SA Midrand headquarters can relocate to any town in South Africa, or even to Mauritius, if they can continue to serve their clients.

“This will change how our work is done and where it is done,” said Deloitte Africa’s Managing Partner for ‘people and purpose’, Justine Mazzocco. Deloitte’s strategy is also motivated by a desire to minimise carbon emissions by reducing travel and commuting, including air travel for servicing customers and working across many sites, according to the firm.

The auditing firm’s focus, according to Mazzocco, will be on assisting people as they make the shift and try to strike the correct balance between in-person and virtual work. Given how auditing firms’ work has been scrutinised in recent years, this will be a particularly difficult balance.

Deloitte hasn’t said whether this affects solely client services and consulting workers, or if auditing partners will be able to work from anywhere as well. However, workers must still spend time on their clients’ premises, allowing them to physically count and audit what is required.

Deloitte’s hybrid working paradigm will be client-focused, according to the firm. It will move with clients according to their needs and the nature of their business. Financial firms are leading the way in committing to a long-term position on whether or not their employees would return to work.

PwC offered all of its 40 000 US client services workers the opportunity to work virtually and live anywhere they wanted earlier this month.

Story By: Norvisi Mawunyegah