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One of the lasting effects of the pandemic is a changing view of what the workplace means to both employers and employees.

While some businesses have gone back to having all employees on site full time, it’s clear that remote work will play an important role for both employers and employees for the foreseeable future.

A 2022 Gallup study showed that 53 percent of employees who held remote-capable jobs expect to work in a hybrid model, splitting their time between home and office, and 24 percent expected to work exclusively from home. Just 23 percent expected to work fully on-site.

Locally, many companies have embraced this socalled hybrid model and see it as a new paradigm for their operations.

“We are at a new normal,” said Amy Rennock, chief human resources officer for Jamf, a software company with an office in downtown Eau Claire.

“We made a concerted decision as we were approaching the end of the pandemic to not think of our office as the only place to work.”

The company’s experience during the pandemic guided the decision to re-think how to approach the workplace, she added.

“We had a really productive two years when we were remote from each other,” she said, leading the company to consider “what is the environment we can create to allow people to feel safe and how do we continue to allow to them to feel productive and creative, and do their best work.”

For some employees “who miss those socialization and collaboration pieces,” Rennock said, they need to be in an office setting, at least part of the time.

What emerged for Jamf is a concept of the “office as a service” to the employees. The office is there when, or if, employees need it, she said, and they decide how they want to use that office.

“We have improved our technology to enable that and make it inclusive for people who have decided not to come into the office,” Rennock added. The company also has “redefined the meeting room,” she said, with more technology enabled conference rooms for people who want to hold small group meetings, with the ability to include those who are working remotely.

Rennock said that Jamf has employees spread out across the country and the world. “It’s important for us to share the Jamf culture with them and make them feel a part of it,” she said.

For example, volunteering in the community is an important part of that Jamf culture, she said, and the company needed to “find ways to impact the community where they are at” by “providing the structure and infrastructure to make that happen.”

Remote working capability also is important in recruiting talented employees, she said. Remote work has “taken our footprint from beyond Eau Claire,” Rennock said, adding, “we’ve been able to add talent . . . from all over the world and retain that talent.”

Also in Eau Claire, accounting and consulting firm Wipfli similarly allows employees to work in the office or at home, or a hybrid arrangement between the two locations.

“We are just committed to creating the environment where you (the employee) still get to decide” where to work, said Valerie Fedie, Wipfli regional leader for western Wisconsin and Duluth.

Wipfli has taken that remote approach a step further, Fedie said, by opening its first ever “remote market” with aligned associates who only work remotely, in addition to those assigned to one of the 46 offices the company has across the country.

“Associates absolutely love the flexibility,” of either working in the office or at home, Fedie said. “From the organization’s standpoint, we have had to learn how to coach and mentor” in this new paradigm.

Wipfli’s building in Eau Claire is only four years old, Fedie said, so few alterations were necessary to accommodate the hybrid work environment “We already had dedicated space that is very collaborative for all associates,” she said.

“I would frame it up as, we are associate led,” Fedie said. “There is no mandate to be back in the office. We all learned how to work remotely, so we leave it up to the associate.”

Fedie said the company realized that after the first couple of weeks of working remotely during the pandemic, their associates said, “Wait a minute, I do like it. We find that if the associate is deciding, it really is a win-win for the associate and for Wipfli.” Each associate has different preferences and, she said.

“Everybody works differently,” Fedie said.

“We have the technology and platform to work anywhere to service the client.”

Allowing for remote work also has helped Wipfli attract employees who normally wouldn’t be available.

“We have all learned to work differently, and that has opened up our ability to attract talent” from “the nation and the world,” she said.