By Katie Bailey
It’s now been five years since the pandemic upended the way we work. And for companies and workers alike, remote work is one of its most pervasive legacies. In January, WPP was the latest major holding company to implement a return-to-office (RTO) policy, requiring all workers in-office at least four days a week.
The move followed three-day-per-week mandates from Omnicom in 2023 and Publicis Groupe in 2024. As three of the industry’s largest global holding companies, these moves are significant for the overall ecosystem. There has been evidence of pushback – petitions against WPP’s policy and reports of layoffs at Publicis were attributed to non-compliance with the policies – but the long-term impact is unknown.
We remain in the midst of the greatest workplace experiment of modern times. A variety of factors impact workers’ enthusiasm for RTO, says John Trougakos, professor of management at the Rotman School of Management in Toronto. And if those variables aren’t managed correctly, the people that leave will be the ones that you least want to lose, he says. Top performers always have options.
Above all, people need to see that there’s a good reason to be in the building (i.e. in-person client meetings), he says, and that there’s a tangible benefit. It’s also crucial that the office environment be conducive to working, or else people will see home as more productive.
It has been argued (notably, in CEO memos) that advertising is the kind of creative field that responds best to in-person collaboration. Trougakos thinks that is a myth and that creativity responds just as well to quiet reflection as to noisy collaboration.
But Mandy Gilbert, CEO of the sector-specialized recruitment agency Creative Niche, says the opposite. “To crack bold, unconventional, and big ideas, you need to be in a space where you can jam together, bounce ideas off one another and build on each other’s [ideas] to create magic. Virtual meetings, while efficient in some contexts, miss non-verbal cues and it just can’t replicate the spontaneity and vibrancy that make in-person creative collaboration so impactful.”
Andrew Bruce, CEO of Publicis Groupe in Canada, tells strategy he believes Publicis’ RTO policy enabled its recent big wins. “Whether it was the growth of TD as a client… or the win of Rogers last January, all these things we could have never done remotely. We did them when we were together, where we could work and collaborate and move at a much faster pace.”
The magic number seems to be two-to-three days a week in-office, research indicates. Creative Niche surveys show, “the consensus is clear: two days per week in-office is the most desired amount,” says Gilbert. A major benchmark study published in Nature last year found that productivity, promotion and job satisfaction were all improved by hybrid work, leading its author Nick Bloom of Stanford University to conclude, “Hybrid work is a win-win-win for employee productivity, performance, and retention.”
It begs the question: if small or niche agencies focus on a flexible or hybrid option, will it give them an edge in the war for talent?
Gilbert and Trougakos agree it could if RTO policies are badly implemented at the big shops. Trust is paramount to creatives and if that is lost, they may leave to smaller shops or open their own. Conversely, however, a well-handled RTO transition can have the opposite effect.
“If you come into our offices now, they’re dynamic,” says Bruce. “A lot has to do with the culture you create in your office, and in the sense of community that you establish.”
Gilbert says 2025 is likely to be a year where lines will be more clearly drawn. “This year, I believe we’ll see agencies make clear decisions, communicate those choices confidently, and move forward with what feels right for their teams – focusing on what their agency truly needs to remain competitive and profitable,” she says.
