ROWE – Part 2

Maybe your company or even your department isn’t quite ready for as radical as Best Buy’s Results Oriented Work Environment (ROWE). After all, we’re still working our way through the Great Recession, green shoots notwithstanding, and no one wants to be perceived as slacking off. However, you can start a micro experiment in your own little group and see how it works for you.
Here are four reasons you should try:

1. You can get more and better work from your teammates. The dirty little secret of virtual work programs is that people actually work MORE when they are in control of their environment. ROWE, the next generation of virtual work, can only increase these dynamics.

2. Workers will demand it. Maybe your older workers are still watching the clock but your younger workers have different priorities. All you should really care about is this: how well they produce.

3. In these tough economic times it is a great way to reduce costs. You can reduce your costs of real estate because you’ll need less space for fewer time clock punchers. You can also reduce your costs of turnover: hiring, training, productivity ramp-up, etc., because workers will be happier.

4. It’s good for the environment. People will need to drive less in a ROWE environment, and will most likely produce fewer paper stacks of PowerPoint presentations.

Remember the feeling you had as a kid when you begged the teacher to have class outside? And she agreed? Wouldn’t it be great if your job gave you that same feeling every day?