Campaign magazine reported last week that WPP is requiring its staff to return to the office four days a week. It was an interesting read and sparked much discussion – including a petition that has already received a massive 14,000 signatures.
It prompted us to reflect on why hybrid working has been such a successful model for us, helping our teams not only thrive but also driving great results for our business.
We’re proud of our agency culture and believe flexibility is crucial to attract and support a broad talent pool – not just those who are able to get into an office 5 days a week. It’s good for business too – research by Mother Pukka for her ‘Flexonomics’ campaign revealed the economic contribution of flexible working is a huge £37 billion.
We recognise that hybrid working helps not just with work / life balance, but it makes the demands of juggling children or other caring responsibilities manageable. 34% of our staff are parents, and we are proud to have key members of our Senior Management Team working adjusted or flexible hours. We know that doing the school run and being there at sports day is more important than anything.
We also recognise the needs of our BWP fur babies, with a rota to bring your pup into the office for the days when you’re not WFH (although we haven’t quite worked out how to do that with kids yet ?).
Creativity doesn’t take a back seat while our teams are working remotely. From the use of tech, to establishing a culture of trust, we know award-winning ideas don’t have to be produced in the boardroom (and we’ve got the awards recognition to prove it).
Producing award-worthy work has helped us grow our client partners and attract new ones – with 13 new brands and businesses putting their trust in us over the past three years since we’ve adopted a permanent hybrid model.
As a result, we’ve grown our team by 126% since 2022, with recent hires including a data and insights manager to add to our strategy team, as well as recruiting across all our departments including PR, social, client services and our creative studio.
We’ve also bolstered our senior leadership team, with the addition of a new Senior Business Director, Berni, who returns to BWP for the second time, as well as a new Chairman, Pete Edwards who brings with him a huge breadth of experience and sector knowledge.
We don’t rest on our laurels, and we’ve got big plans for the future – helped by recently securing strategic investment from BGF – one of the largest and most experienced investors in the UK and Ireland – proving that you don’t need everyone in the office every day to grow and develop a business. So, the BWP approach is a way of working we’re proud to stand behind.