Plenty of agencies are tightening hybrid policies, but few match WPPs 4 office days [Video]

A straw poll of ad shops for our Agency Advice series shows many ad execs sympathetic to Mark Read’s return-to-office policies – but the vast majority remain more flexible than WPP’s new global standard.

After mutterings last year, the ad industry’s biggest holding company (for now), WPP, kicked off 2024 by announcing a global policy mandating four days a week in one of its offices.

Announced by chief executive Mark Read, the policy will come into effect in April for most of the marketing behemoth’s 111,000 staff. In an email to staff, Read insisted that “This doesn’t mean we’re going back to the old way of doing things” and pointed to “clear processes to request additional flexibility” for those with a clear need for it. But, for the most part, most of WPP’s workers will be seeing WPP’s buildings more regularly this year.

With the move, WPP breaks ranks with its major holding company peers, who all still …

Tags Global, Global Branding, Global Digital Marketing, International Marketing