Roper: Hennepin County’s lax hybrid work policy deserves more scrutiny

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Count me among those glued to the regular updates about large employers pulling staff back to the office, which will shape the future of downtowns and our workplaces.

3M: Four days! Target: Three days! State: Half time! We might need to erect a big scoreboard in the heart of downtown Minneapolis to really capture the fervor.

Let’s make sure it faces the offices of Hennepin County, a top downtown employer that’s in no hurry to revisit its laughably lax hybrid work policy.

Hennepin County employs about 6,000 people in Minneapolis and roughly two-thirds of them are classified as remote or hybrid — mostly the latter.

The key here is what “hybrid” means in county speak. Hybrid employees work at county facilities or in the community “as job duties require and on average more than 1 day a month or 12 days a year,” according to the county’s remote work guidelines.

Now, I’m sure a lot of these employees are working in person more often than we test tornado sirens. But the written baseline is so low that it might as well not exist.

Compare it to Ramsey County, which defines a hybrid worker as someone coming to a county facility or project site at least twice a week. That’s about eight times Hennepin County’s minimum.

In an interview, County Administrator David Hough said hybrid employees come in at least two or three days a week.

“In reality, those [definitions] are minimum and we’re doing much more than that,” Hough said. “Do I clock-check and determine who’s coming through gates with their security badges? No.”

Hough said he strongly encourages top leadership and their deputies to be present. Leaders are tasked with determining the best arrangement for their teams, he added. He took issue with my characterization of the policy as “lax,” saying that it is flexible, that they trust their workforce, and that they are getting their work done.

“That is a technical policy that was drafted three years ago that hasn’t been updated ... in writing,” Hough said. “It’s been updated through verbal confirmation with my trusted leaders.”

I can understand the challenges of applying standards to such a diverse range of county jobs. County employees run jails and libraries, design roads, determine if people are eligible for benefits, argue cases in court, calculate tax assessments, and many other tasks. But there is just as much complexity in state government, which has nonetheless imposed a meaningful return-to-office mandate.

It’s worth noting that the city of Minneapolis, which has a smaller downtown workforce than the county, does not technically have a return-to-office policy. City spokesperson Jess Olstad said the mayor told department heads in 2022 to ensure staff worked in the office or the field at least two days a week. She said nearly 86% of city staff are doing that at least three days a week.

Too much of the discussion around return-to-office policies focuses on real estate and saving downtowns. I share the goal of a strong downtown, but merely filling buildings and restaurants is a poor reason to ask workers to return.

At their best, offices foster collaboration that generates better ideas and helps solve problems on the fly. They provide informal mentorship that develops skills and careers, as well as a place for people to vent. The biggest problem with pre-pandemic offices was a lack of flexibility, which is now baked into many workplaces.

(This warrants its own column. So feel free to email me your thoughts at eric.roper@startribune.com.)

That said, Hennepin County made a big bet on office space before the pandemic. So it is worth discussing real estate, since taxpayers are on the hook.

In 2018, the county paid $55 million to purchase the glassy, rust-colored former Thrivent building in downtown — more than 500,000 square feet of space. They paid about $60 million to renovate the place, now known as the “625 Building,” and more than $11 million for parking stalls in an adjacent building.

Watching the county board meetings from 2017, it’s clear this was a big and slightly controversial decision. The goal was to consolidate the county’s offices around downtown. Then-Commissioner Mike Opat, one of two “no” votes on the board, called it “a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.”

Things didn’t go entirely to plan. Hennepin County Medical Center’s back office operations were supposed to be one of the largest occupants of the 625 Building. But Hough said in our interview that they ultimately chose not to move in.

The 625 Building is pretty quiet for a place that — back in the day — boasted a popular cafeteria. I spent some time recently sitting in the lobby at exactly noon to observe the lunch rush. I counted just over 30 people entering and exiting during one half-hour span on a Thursday (and fewer than 20 on a Monday).

I don’t sense much urgency to change the return-to-office approach from the county board. Board Chair Irene Fernando said in a statement that “flexibility is essential to recruit and retain employees” and the county is monitoring the performance of its staff.

Opat’s successor, Commissioner Jeff Lunde, said it hasn’t been discussed at a board level. Lunde emphasized that the board is focused on worker productivity over “presence.”

Hough, who recently announced his retirement, isn’t fazed by the trend of more employers calling workers back. “I like to buck the trend because of who we are and what we’ve done and the culture I’ve fostered and encouraged,” Hough said.

When we put up the scoreboard of return-to-office announcements, perhaps we can program it to flash “HENNEPIN COUNTY” each month when the tornado sirens have wrapped up — as a nudge to Hough’s successor.