As more Minnesota companies rethink remote work, Solventum and others hold the line on flexibility

As more Minnesota employers begin pushing workers back to the office, at least a few companies are betting flexible work will prove a long-term advantage.

Twin Cities-based health care company Solventum, spun off from 3M last year, is now among a dwindling group of large firms that continue to allow fully remote work for many employees. CEO Bryan Hanson reassured staff this week there are no plans to change that.

Other Minnesota companies are also sticking with hybrid work models. Leaders said the approach helps recruit talent, especially among professionals with caregiving responsibilities or long commutes.

According to a Solventum employee’s LinkedIn post, Hanson drew a clear line between the company’s ongoing flexibility and 3M’s recent mandate requiring most employees to be in office four days a week.

“We are committed to offering flexible work arrangements, while recognizing the importance of having central hubs for collaboration, innovation and community,” a Solventum spokesperson confirmed Thursday.

Hanson is contractually allowed to work from his Florida home and positioned such as a key differentiator in attracting and retaining top talent. Some employees celebrated that stance.

“As a dad to two young boys and husband to a wife who also works full time, that trust means everything,” wrote Ben Johnson, a Solventum marketing leader based in Canada, on social media. “This kind of leadership helps our organization retain talent; and having talented people around me is yet another reason this company is a place at which I want to work.”

Other Minnesota companies are adjusting their policies.

St. Paul-based Affinity Plus has embraced a “virtual-first” model for roles that don’t need to be on site. Chief Talent Officer Julie Cosgrove said more than 60% of employees have remote working arrangements and only come in about once a month for collaboration or team building.

“We were challenged on finding a ‘why’ to return employees to the same workplace,” she said, adding there was no drop in engagement or performance during the pandemic. “Instead, we started to ask ourselves, ‘How could we build our workforce for the future vs. going back to what we had?’”

In Minneapolis, Thrivent allows division leaders to decide how, when and where employees work.

“It helps us attract and keep great people who love our purpose,” a company spokesperson said. “This philosophy aims to enhance collaboration, culture and innovation and enable better results.”

At a New York Stock Exchange panel last week, Tennant Company CEO Dave Huml said flexibility is likely employees’ third priority after compensation and development. The Eden Prairie-based cleaning equipment-maker requires three in-office days per week, he said, though Friday tends to be a “ghost town,” and Mondays vary.

He added the pandemic was an interesting “social experiment” and showed the value of face-to-face collaboration and problem solving. If productivity declined, Huml said the requirement would grow to four in-person days.

But that hasn’t happened.

“The work is getting done,” he said. “Customers are being served. The projects are on track and on time.”

Winnebago Industries CEO Mike Happe agreed remote work helps with recruitment but warned it can hinder leadership development and creativity.

Eden Prairie-based Winnebago’s enterprise team follows a three-day in-office minimum, though policies vary across units, a Winnebago spokesperson confirmed.

U.S. Bancorp CEO Gunjan Kedia, who also participated on the panel, acknowledged the reasons workers want to stay home: “There’s the safety aspects. It’s so expensive to buy a simple salad during lunch. Day care is very difficult and very expensive now.”

She advocated for gently and carefully nudging employees back to the office, adding middle-career employees supporting families are often the target audience.

She also hears many reports on “the mental health challenges of isolation” and said companies shouldn’t ignore that.

Alissa Henriksen, co-founder and co-president of Minnetonka-based recruiting firm Grey Search + Strategy, said companies that rush back to the office without planning often see pushback.

“You will see resistance if [a policy] comes without any warning and without any flexibility along the way,” Henriksen said. “We can’t forget that the majority of people made life-changing decisions during the pandemic, and going back without communicating a plan and laying out a timeline would be detrimental.”

Henriksen said Minnesota companies successful with hybrid work usually avoid one-size-fits-all rules and instead focus on consistency within departments.

“If your team meets on Wednesdays, and the company has a team meeting on Thursday, those two days are mandatory in-office days,” she said. “Now, allow your team to select the one to two days they can work from home.”

University of Minnesota Professor Colleen Flaherty Manchester researches workplace practices and their effects on career outcomes. She said dual-career households, common in Minnesota, especially benefit from flexible work arrangements.

Managerial and professional employees, as well as married and highly educated workers often take advantage of remote or hybrid policies.

“Given that employed women are more likely to be in dual-career partnerships than men, remote or hybrid work for either partner is particularly useful for facilitating women’s careers,” she said.

A Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis report found more than a third of the state’s remote workers were in management, business and finance occupations. By industry, the highest shares of remote workers were in professional services and finance, as well as health care and social services.

3M CEO Bill Brown has said he believes in-person work will be the spark for greater innovation, and he’s routinely at the company’s headquarters. At Solventum, some departments have worked in person and continue to, like manufacturing and R&D.

Solventum is spending more than $200 million on a headquarters campus in Eagan, with $13 million in state support as long as it creates and retains local jobs.

“Our new Eagan facility will provide state-of-the-art research and development facilities, a quality lab and a pilot factory, as well as workspace for our approximately 1,100 local employees to collaborate in person,” Solventum’s spokesperson said. “Eagan will see significant daily use as intended.”

But for now, Solventum’s remote work exists within the same Maplewood HQ as 3M’s majority in-person staff.

Brooks Johnson of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.