Staff at FTSE 100 ad giant WPP will be made to come into the office four days a week under a new policy announced to staff just weeks before it is set to lose its crown as the world’s largest advertising firm to Publicis.

Boss Mark Read confirmed the policy change at the London-listed media behemoth, which owns the likes of Ogilvy, Burson and GroupM, in an email to staff on Tuesday.

Under the new global rules, staff across the group’s dozens of markets are to attend the office at least four days a week from April onwards, including a move to mandate all staff to attend the office for at least two Fridays a month.

Employees will then be able to choose which of the other four days they would like to work from home.

In a company-wide memo seen by City AM, Read told staff: “Spending more time together is important to all of us, and we are making a change to help that happen.

“From the beginning of April this year, the expectation across WPP will be that most of us spend an average of four days a week in the office.”

With the decision, WPP becomes the first of the major advertising holding companies to recall its staff to the office for four days a week.

Publicis and Omnicom – the other two firms to make up the top three advertising giants – are both understood both to operate three-day week policies.