As PwC reverses its hiring target, expert recommends HR focus on employee development investments rather than concrete goals
Big Four consulting and accounting firm PwC caused a ripple last week by reversing a hiring target set publicly five years ago.
Current chair Mohamed Kande “quietly scrapped” the goal, The Irish Times reported, citing slowing revenue growth and artificial intelligence (AI) as reasons; Kande told the Financial times that investment targets continue to be met: “We have rolled out AI tools and upskilled over 315,000 in AI, which is boosting the productivity of our people.”
Rather than a reputational hit or a signal for HR leaders to panic in such a situation, Rafael Gomez, professor of employment relations at the University of Toronto, explains that when making – or reneging on – big goals, context matters.
“The situation is a little curious because it's not exactly a downsizing, it's not like they're announcing layoffs,” Gomez says, adding that the theory of ‘loss aversion’ explains why PwC’s target reversal isn’t a PR or employee morale disaster.
“It doesn't cause the same level of discomfort or pain – or in economic terms, ‘loss of utility’ – that an actual downsizing would have, like a redundancy announcement of an equivalent number of people.”
Essentially people tend to feel the pain of losses more acutely than the pleasure of gains, Gomez explains. In the context of human resources management, this means that failing to realize a promised gain, such as a major onboarding, does not sting as much as layoffs or terminations, especially when circumstances are out of the employer’s control.
“People are understanding that it was out of the company's control. They're usually also more forgiving,” he says.
Being transparent about external factors
PwC’s 2025 Global Annual Review underscores the scale at which these decisions play out – rather than focusing on big hires, there will be a shift to upskilling: “Workforces are being reshaped, requiring new skills, new tools, and new ways of working,” Kande wrote in his chairman’s letter.
The firm employs more than 364,000 people across 136 countries and works with 82% of the Fortune Global 500 – as detailed in the report. In the past year, PwC’s global revenue reached US$56.9 billion, with 315,000 employees upskilled in AI since July 2023.
When a company’s inability to meet a public goal is clearly due to external factors, such as economic downturns and technological disruption, employees are more likely to be sympathetic, Gomez says, noting “When the company itself can say, ‘Hey, look, we've got increased costs … it doesn't generate the same ill will than ‘We're cutting the workforce to make more profits.’”
The risk, however, is that organizations may still appear overconfident or unprepared if they do not adequately communicate the uncertainties involved. For HR and communications teams, this means that the way a reversal is communicated is just as important as the reversal itself.
By being transparent about external pressures, organizations can help maintain trust and morale.
“I think just understanding the psychology of consumer behaviour is very important,” Gomez says.
“Communicating anything that involves a potential loss, whether it's an unrealized gain or an actual loss, is very sensitive. And that should be treated very well.”
Building trust with transparency
This advice is particularly relevant in today’s unpredictable employment and economic landscape – Gomez recommends HR focus on employee development investments rather than concrete goals.
“You can promise that you will do everything in your power to weather the economic uncertainty by holding on to your human capital and your employees for as long as possible. Should you make a commitment that you'll never lay off a single employee because of an economic headwind? No,” he says.
“Here's the things that could upset the apple cart or upset our goal, and if those things happen, we have a plan B. Then people know that you're not so wedded to one strategy.”
Hiring targets are often rooted in optimism about future business growth – however, Gomez explains that such targets should be framed as contingent on continued demand and evolving market conditions.
“It signals a view that the firm is growing, that it has ambition to meet the needs of its clients, and more,” he says, recommending transparency around what’s behind staffing projections, and regularly revisiting those assumptions as circumstances change.
“At the time that they made it, they probably had a good sense that, based on expected revenues, that would end up happening. Labour demand is always a derived demand.”
