Good Question: How Many Workers Are Back Downtown? How Many Are Hybrid?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- As the seasons change, so too is the feeling around downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul. Both are seeing a resurgence of workers getting back to the office. It's happening here at WCCO this week.
So how many workers are back downtown? What does their work schedule look like? Good Question. WCCO learned what's happening now is laying the groundwork for how downtown workplaces operate in the future.
The buzz that comes with a bustling metropolis hasn't returned quite yet to downtown Minneapolis or St. Paul, but it's definitely nowhere near as empty as it used to be thanks to workers like Richard Petit-Frere. He works five days a week downtown.
"Probably for a good month and a half (now)," he said.
What percentage of workers have returned to downtown officers in Minneapolis? Steve Cramer, president and CEO of the Minneapolis Downtown Council, said that number is about 44%.
"We are making great progress. And that's been a consistent growth pattern since the fall of 2020. Took a little bit of a dip in January but we bounced strongly back," he said.
The dip was due to the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19, which had offices across the Twin Cities sending workers back home to create social distancing.
Of the 44% of workers who are back downtown, Cramer said a majority as doing a hybrid work format. That means roughly three days are at the office and the other days are remote.
Ameriprise, Wells Fargo, U.S. Bank, and the City of Minneapolis have brought workers back in that way. Thrivent starts its hybrid format in April.
Cramer doesn't believe this is just a temporary change.
"It's a period of reinvention to some extent for our downtown," he said.
Spending half the week in a skyscraper and the other half on a home computer is happening across the river in St. Paul.
"I think by the end of April, we're gonna have the vast majority of our workers back," said Joe Spencer, president of the St. Paul Downtown Alliance.
He said entering 2022, staffing levels downtown were around 35% before taking a dip due to omicron in January. Now into late March, he said the numbers are growing nearly as fast as they dropped two years earlier. Businesses want staff back in the office, even if it's only for part of the week.
"When you look at some of the more complex problem-solving and innovation that different companies want to do, they want their teams together," Spencer said. "Whether it's about leadership development, culture building, or just overall productivity, they're really excited to have their teams back."
But it's not just people in suits who make downtown feel busy. It's visitors heading to sporting events, concerts, and conventions. Clementine Koudii is a hotel worker in downtown Minneapolis.
"In my hotel, April is busy," she said.
Cramer is confident her hotel isn't alone.
"We had about 5 million people come to events last year and we'll top that in 2022," he said.
One aspect of the downtown work environment that continues to lag is business travel. But as people return to the office this spring, Spencer said business travel should pick up and in turn make both downtowns busier.
