WPP is the latest global employer to promote working from home rules

Open the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, picks her favorite stories in this week’s newsletter.

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

In a memo sent to employees on Tuesday, WPP Mark Read said that “since the beginning of April this year, the hope . . . it will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office”.

He added that “WPP’s success” was based on the core principles of people communication, technology and relationships”, and “that we do our best work when we are together in front of our eyes”.

Until now, WPP’s subsidiaries had set their own working policies but staff at the group’s headquarters had to be in the office three days a week.

The news prompts WPP, which employs around 110,000 people in offices around the world, employers around the world to ask their employees to return to the office in full in the new year. Starting this month, Amazon has told employees worldwide to work in the office five days a week, CEO Andy Jassy said that the previous rule of three days a week at work “reinforced our belief in the benefits” of living in the office.

In the UK, BT asked its 50,000 office workers to return to the office at least three days a week from the beginning of this year. Other UK employers that are tightening rules this month on working from home include PwC, Santander and Asda, marking the biggest change in the way companies work since the end of the global pandemic.

WPP has found that increased office attendance is linked to “employee engagement, improved customer experience and improved financial performance”, Read said, adding: “Many of our clients are moving in this direction and expect that the teams they work with will be more productive.” with them.”

Employers are now sometimes faced with new challenges related to the lack of office space by bringing in more employees from home.

WPP said it would “undertake detailed planning over the coming months to meet the needs of technology and other related areas” in its global offices.

The UK 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. It was the former headquarters of the Financial Times.

The new office will join Rose Court across the road and its corporate headquarters near Sea Containers House as one of three offices in London, where it employs around 10,000 people.

In the new year’s memo, Read also mentioned a merger between two of its biggest rivals – IPG and Omnicom – he announced last month, saying that “even if the consolidation of companies and the conflict of positions may disturb our competitors, our focus will be important for us in 2025”.