WPP, the worldwide promoting company, has introduced a brand new office coverage requiring its staff to work from the workplace at the least 4 days per week. This transfer marks a major shift as firms proceed to reassess distant working preparations post-pandemic.
In a memo issued on Tuesday, WPP CEO Mark Learn said, “From the start of April this yr, the expectation . . . can be that the majority of us spend a median of 4 days per week within the workplace.” He emphasised the significance of in-person collaboration, noting that WPP’s “success nonetheless depends on the basics of human connection, creativity and relationships” and that “we do our greatest work after we are collectively in particular person.”
Till now, particular person WPP businesses had the flexibleness to set their very own hybrid working insurance policies, whereas workers on the group’s headquarters have been required to be within the workplace three days per week.
This announcement makes WPP, which employs roughly 110,000 folks throughout its world places of work, the most recent main employer to name for a extra in depth return to office-based work within the new yr.
WPP has noticed that elevated workplace attendance correlates with stronger “worker engagement, improved shopper survey scores, and higher monetary efficiency,” in line with CEO Mark Learn. He famous, “Extra of our shoppers are shifting on this path and anticipating it of the groups who work with them.”
Nevertheless, as extra workers transition again to office-based work, employers like WPP are encountering challenges akin to restricted workplace house. The corporate acknowledged that addressing capability necessities and different associated wants in its world places of work would require “detailed planning within the coming months.”
Because the world’s largest promoting group by headcount, WPP owns famend businesses akin to Ogilvy, Gray London, and GroupM, using over 111,000 folks. Its PR portfolio contains Ogilvy’s PR community and Burson, which was fashioned by means of the merger of BCW and Hill & Knowlton final yr.
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