The Future of Work: Results Only Work Environment (ROWE)

Looking back on my childhood, I always wondered why my dad praised and rewarded my sister for getting an ‘A’ after many long hours of studying, but praised me less for getting the same grade (or slightly lower) without real application. It’s as if, to him, my ‘A’ was worth less because I had invested less time in it. But to me, my ‘A’ was more valuable, because I then had time to focus on other things I loved — friends, building things, The Simpsons, etc.

So what does this have to do with the future of work? Just like my dad’s philosophy, most businesses and employers still focus on how much time is being put into a job rather than focusing on the results and outcomes that make them successful. Think about it: Does your employer still tell you what time to come to work and what time to leave? And how you’re expected to work when you’re there? Do you have to ask for time off or sneak out early when your kid has a soccer game? I mean, when’s the last time you actually took a sick day for fear your boss would think you’re just skipping out on work? The current employer/employee relationship is much like a parent/child relationship, operated by the premise that employees can’t be fully trusted, and so they treat them like children, who must be continuously monitored.

But why not measure employees by the value they create, rather than by the number of hours they sit at a desk? A lot of employers and businesses are starting to. Even the U.S. Government — the epitome of inefficiency — recently jumped on board (more on that here). This relatively new movement, called a Results Only Work Environment, or ROWE, is based on the premise that employees should be judged upon their successful completion of the task at hand. The goal? Better performance.

The model was developed at Best Buy in 2002 by two former HR workers, who were frustrated by daily routines of constraint and inefficiency. In true guerrilla fashion, they started running certain departments of the company using the premise that Best Buy should hire people they trust and treat them as adults, capable of making responsible adult choices and doing work at their own time and pace. After two years of running the covert operation, they told their CEO about the approach: define clear deliverables, give people full responsibility for achieving them, and they’ll deliver far more often than they fall short. It worked. After implementing ROWE, productivity at Best Buy increased at their headquarters office by 41%, while decreasing voluntary turnover by 90%.

Although they developed the formal concept, Best Buy may not have actually been the first to invent the concept of the results only work environment. Tech companies had been going ROWE for years without actually calling it that. At IBM, 40% of the workforce has no official office, and Sun Microsystems calculated that over a six-year period, it saved $400 million in real estate costs by allowing nearly half of its employees to work anywhere they want. Further, a 2008 Boston Consulting Group study found that 85% of executives surveyed expected a big rise in the number of ROWE workers in the years ahead, and that at many companies, the most innovative new product may be the structure of the workplace itself.

Of course companies who give employees more autonomy have every right to expect accountability. That begins with clearly and explicitly defining what success looks like in any given job, and making that, rather than face time, the measurement by which you define success. Not everyone is able to handle that level of autonomy and responsibility. Further, not all businesses employ people that can work from anywhere at any time they want, with little supervision. But ROWE isn’t about teleworking or flextime; it’s about a renewed focus on outcomes and results.

Although my dad and I don’t see eye to eye on this, I’ll stick to my grade school-age philosophy: that time worked does not equal results and, quite simply, the more confidence you have in your people, the better they perform.

Oh, and for once, the next time it snows in D.C., the government isn’t going to shut down. Amen to that.

Must-reads: Feds to Test Results-Only Work Environment Reward Value, Not Face Time Smashing The Clock: No schedules. No mandatory meetings. Inside Best Buy’s radical reshaping of the workplace