Since the global pandemic, business leaders and staff have been embroiled in a battle of wills. Leaders want their staff to work in the office, but staff have adapted far too well to the flexibility of working from home. The battle has been ratcheted up a level as the Creative Communications Workers union accuses agency leaders of weaponizing the word ‘culture’ to manipulate people back into the office, while Sir John Hegarty has suggested agencies could be run more like clubs so that people actually want to work from them.

So, we asked agency leaders about their approach to working in the office versus working from home and what tactics they are using to encourage their people to return to the office.

Louisa O’Connor, Managing Director, Seen Presents: “We are a young agency; having people in the office was critical for me. We needed face time to build that relationship, that trust and that shorthand I believe you can only get in person. I also wanted the more junior team members to be around the more senior members to learn from in the moment – see and hear firsthand what it takes to build a successful and happy agency from scratch. I would say 99% of people are on board because we have balance. We are in three days, you can work from home on other days if you need to and you can work from anywhere on WFH to help extend that respite holiday time if needed… Also, the office is a nice place to be… we have created a space that supports creativity, stimulates collaboration – people like coming here.”

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