While visiting New Orleans in March to watch the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team play in the Sweet 16, I got involved in a conversation with Katie Leuer, a 25-year old professional who works for Best Buy corporate in Minneapolis. She was in the midst of a four-day trip to cheer on the Badgers. For those of you who follow college basketball, her brother is (soon-to-graduate) Wisconsin Badger forward, Jon Leuer.
Katie was in the middle of an “enjoy life priorities while working” trip. Given my fascination with Generation Y work preferences, I had to ask about her ability to be there. I learned that, as a member of a Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE), Katie has a fantastic amount of flexibility in her work schedule and can come and go as she pleases, as long as she gets her work hours in.
So, what is a ROWE….aside from something that allows a young professional, not long on the job, to just pick up and go…as she would like? In a ROWE culture, every person can do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done. For those of you having an anxiety attack right now, performance management will apply to non-performers. And, yes, it makes sense that this will not work in all types of jobs. Let’s just get that out of the way.
Created by corporate HR professionals-turned consultants Jody Thompson and Cali Ressler, while working at Best Buy, a Results-Only Work Environment is a management strategy in which employees are evaluated on performance, not presence. In a ROWE, people focus on results and only results – increasing the organization’s performance while cultivating the right environment for people to manage all the demands in their lives…including work. A couple of key ROWE basics include:
Results have to be defined.
Managers and staff have to spell out explicit tasks or achievements and specific dates for them to be completed.
Communication methods are more limited.
Employees may get more work done at home without as many office distractions, but if something needs to be communicated, options are e-mail, instant messaging or phone. Incidentally, many meetings are also attended remotely.
Every day feels like Saturday.
This is a favorite ROWE tenet, though it begs the question: When does the work happen? ROWE’s creators point out (on their website) that many of us are incredibly busy on weekends, but we feel more relaxed because we are in control of our schedule. So ROWE lets employees set their own schedule every day, fitting in laundry, conference calls, kids and errands, as needed.
Incidentally, ROWE teams report an average increase of 35 percent in productivity by eliminating waste from systems and processes, which increases employee capacity. ROWE teams also experience up to a 90 percent decrease in voluntary turnover rates.
For more information, you may want to visit http://gorowe.com.
Katie explained that at Best Buy, some of the specifics are left up to the preferences of individual managers. Some managers choose to not participate while others weave in their own unique nuances. Her manager, for example, asks that they sign in and out of the system as a measure of their time actually spent working.
“I love it. It definitely gives me the motivation to want to work hard and put in my time,” Katie said. “While in New Orleans, I worked all day Thursday and spent Friday enjoying the sun. I’ll be working on Sunday to make up for my time off.”
While this type of environment would appeal to many, Generation Y, as a population, is generally perplexed by the “butt in seat” mentality of existing baby boomer cultures. You know, “If I can see you, you’re working.” As they see it, “Work is something we do, not somewhere we go.” A ROWE environment seems to be in perfect alignment with their preferences. Check it out!
