Cosmetics giant L’Oreal has told employees to come to the office at least two Fridays a month to tackle diminishing attendance at the end of the week, The Times reported Sunday.
The new policy was introduced to its 87,000 employees globally in January and came into effect on Thursday, per The Times.
L’Oreal employees are currently expected to be in the office three days a week.
Business Insider contacted L’Oreal for comment but did not immediately hear back.
L’Oreal was among the first companies to bring workers back to the office after the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, to employees’ dismay.
The company’s US president and CEO at the time Stéphane Rinderknech told employees: “The world of beauty is not a remote or virtual one.”
The company’s CEO Nicolas Hieronimus recently reaffirmed the company’s firm stance on in-person working while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month.
“I know so many employees of so many other companies than L’Oreal that have been working from home for months, that have absolutely no attachment, no passion, no creativity,” he said.
He added: “One of the reasons that we hit the ground running after COVID is that we did not do like many tech companies and say everybody works from home all the time, and now they say: ‘Oh my God, that was a mistake, please come back.'”
Research has shown that Mondays and Fridays are often the most popular days to work from home. A 2023 BI poll of 16,000 readers via LinkedIn found that 49% voted that they wouldn’t go into the office on Mondays or Fridays.
Several major firms have mandated employees to return to the office in the past year including Google, Amazon, JPMorgan, and Citigroup.
