Open Editor's Digest for free
Rula Khalaf, editor of the Financial Times, picks her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Advertising group WPP has told its more than 100,000 employees that they will need to return to working in the office at least four days a week, in the latest sign that employers have tightened work-from-home policies since the end of the pandemic.
In a memo sent to employees on Tuesday, WPP Chief Executive Mark Read said that “since the beginning of April this year, the expectation… would be that most of us would spend an average of four days a week in the office.
He added that WPP's success “continues to depend on the fundamentals of human connection, creativity and relationship,” and that “we do our best work when we are together in person.”
Until now, individual WPP-owned agencies had set their own hybrid working policies, but staff at the group's headquarters had to be in the office three days a week.
The news makes WPP, which employs about 110,000 people in offices around the world, the latest large global employer to ask its employees to return fully to the office in the new year. From this month, Amazon has notified employees Around the world, they must work in the office five days a week, with CEO Andy Jassy saying the previous rule of a three-day week in the workplace “reinforced our conviction about the benefits” of being in the office.
in the united kingdom, BT asked Its 50,000 employees will return to their offices at least three days a week from the beginning of this year. Other UK employers tightening rules this month around working from home include PwC, Santander and Asda, marking a widespread shift in companies' attitudes towards working since the end of the pandemic around the world.
WPP has found that higher levels of office attendance are associated with “stronger employee engagement, improved client survey results, and improved financial performance,” Reed said, adding, “More of our clients are moving in this direction and expect it from the teams that work.” . “With them.”
Employers now sometimes face new issues of lack of office space when bringing more employees back from home duties.
WPP said it “will require detailed planning in the coming months to address capacity requirements and other relevant areas” in its global offices.
The UK-listed advertising group will soon open a new office at One Southwark Bridge Road in London, which will largely house GroupM media agencies and around 2,500 people. It was the former headquarters of the Financial Times newspaper.
The new office will join Rose Court across the road and the company's headquarters at nearby Sea Containers House, as one of three university offices in London, where it employs around 10,000 people.
In his New Year's note, Reed also pointed to the merger between two of its biggest rivals – EPG and Omnicom “While industry consolidation and competition for status may distract from our competitors, focus will be paramount to us in 2025,” he announced last month.
