WPP becomes latest global employer to tighten working from home rules

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WPP, the advertising group, has told more than 100,000 of its employees they must return to work in the office at least four days a week in the latest sign of employers tightening work-from-home policies since the end of the pandemic.

In a memo sent to staff on Tuesday. WPP: CEO Mark Reid said that “the expectation from the beginning of April this year . . . will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office.”

He added that WPP’s “success is still based on the fundamentals of human connection, creativity and relationships” and “that we do our best work when we are together in person”.

Until now, individual WPP-owned agencies set their own hybrid working policies, but employees at group headquarters were required to be in the office three days a week.

The news makes WPP, which employs around 110,000 offices, the latest major global employer to ask its staff to return to the office more fully in the new year. Amazon told employees around the world that they must work in the office five days a week, and CEO Andy Jassy says the previous three-day-a-week workplace rule “reinforced our belief in the benefits of being in the office.”

in the UK BT asked Its 50,000 office workers will return to the office at least three days a week from the start of this year. a sweeping change in corporate attitudes toward work.

WPP found that higher levels of office attendance were associated with stronger “employee engagement, improved customer survey scores and better financial performance,” Reid said, adding: with them.”

Employers are now sometimes faced with new issues related to the lack of office space as more employees are brought back from working from home.

WPP said its global offices “will require detailed planning over the coming months to address capacity requirements and other related areas”.

The UK-listed advertising group will soon open a new office at One Southwark Bridge Road in London, which will house mainly GroupM media agencies and around 2,500 people, the former headquarters of the Financial Times.

The new office will join Rose Court across the road and its corporate headquarters at nearby Sea Containers House as one of three office campuses in London, employing around 10,000 people.

In the New Year memo, Read also addressed the merger of its two biggest rivals; IPG and Omnicom — announced last month, saying that “while industry mergers and status quo battles may distract our competitors, focus will be paramount for us in 2025.”