After a trickling of return-to-office policies within individual teams, Target is officially calling back all headquarters workers from one of its largest business units three days a week.

The commercial unit, overseen by Target’s Chief Commercial Officer Rick Gomez, includes buyers, assistant buyers and planners. Those affected were notified through a department-wide email on Thursday and are expected to return to offices the first week of September.

“More time together, in the office, will help us grow our business faster, solve problems quickly, and build stronger relationships,” Gomez wrote in the email.

The move comes a little over a month after multiple teams had been notified by managers that they would be expected to work at the office soon. Those teams were in various departments from merchandising to design.

Employees will be allowed to set their own schedules and choose which three days work best for them and their immediate work teams, he wrote. Target declined to share how many employees will be returning to the office, but there are a total of 7,100 workers assigned to headquarters.

Target is working with the city and Metro Transit to reopen more bus lines and improve parking safety, according to a source familiar with the matter.

More people work downtown Tuesdays to Thursdays, and on those days, office workers can number 150,000, or 70% of pre-pandemic numbers, said Adam Duininck, CEO and president of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. The start and end of the work week, however, sees those numbers dip.

U.S. Bank, Xcel Energy and Ameriprise have already called workers back to the office at least three days a week.

Duininck said he hopes downtown worker traffic will rise to pre-pandemic numbers of 200,000 to 215,000.

Target’s corporate policy still has not changed. Besides five mandated in-office weeks, the company lets work groups decide if they should work in the office.

“Our goal here is to align around a common expectation that allows us to maximize the potential of our hybrid, remote, and global commercial team and move forward with clarity, connection and purpose,” Gomez wrote in his email.

Analysts have been critical of Target’s performance in recent months, with several citing the company’s largely remote work policy and dull merchandising.

On a fourth quarter earnings call in March, Gomez recognized the need for a “new way of doing work in a new way of doing business,” emphasizing the team’s plan to “redefine how merchants show up (and) how they spend their time.”

Earlier this week, 3M said it is calling employees back to the office four days a week starting Sept. 1. General Mills still allows individual departments to manage remote work policies, but in February the company’s largest unit, North America retail, was told to report to the office three days a week. Both companies’ headquarters are based in the suburbs and don’t impact downtown traffic.

In downtown Minneapolis, Ameriprise’s required in-office days will increase from three to four days Sept. 1.

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