"Like Tivo for your work..."

My international readers may not have heard of Best Buy. (How cool is that? I have international readers!) It's a consumer electronics and media company based in Minnesota. They have stores all over the US. It's a lot of fun to visit their stores, because they have lots of Big TVs set up all over. Hmmm... big TVs... There are also lots of movies and games. Don't forget the cameras and mobile phones! It's pretty much a playground for adult men.

Best Buy has instituted a new policy for its corporate employees that I find fascinating. And, no, I am definitely not a socialist!

So, Best Buy. High technology, (kinda)low prices. It's basically a big-box store for technology. Not the sort of place where you'd expect to see new-age, life-balance, family-friendly corporate policies.

But, surprise! They're trying something that sounds pretty good. What they're doing is allowing the corporate employees to come and go as they please, as long as their job gets done.

The nation's leading electronics retailer has embarked on a radical--if risky--experiment to transform a culture once known for killer hours and herd-riding bosses. The endeavor, called ROWE, for "results-only work environment," seeks to demolish decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.

They even want to expand it, somehow, to the retail employees. Another quote from the same article:

The official policy for this post-face-time, location-agnostic way of working is that people are free to work wherever they want, whenever they want, as long as they get their work done. "This is like TiVo for your work," says the program's co-founder, Jody Thompson.

I really like this concept. At first glance it seems like a dream come true. Just get your job done, thqt's al that matters! The concept also sounds like socialized jobs in France. I've tried to work with people at a French company- you can never get them, because they're always on vacation!

I tried to apply this ROWE idea to my workplace. The idea of being free to "work wherever they want, whenever they want, as long as they get their work done" is also practiced by management my job. It's just that to get the work done you often need to work 10 hours a day.

I wonder how you manage employees who are working on a loose schedule like that. How do you set expectations for results? It would seem to me that if you are able to get your job done in 4 hours a day, you'll be given more work, not more time off.

I'm given a lot of freedom at my job as well. I often leave a bit early, but I also will work late after the kids are in bed. Maybe this new ROWE policy at the core is similar to my experience. You stil have a lot of work to do, but you don't have to do it at your desk from 8-5.

One thing this new policy is doing, is making employees happy.

Since the program's implementation, average voluntary turnover has fallen drastically, CultureRx says. Meanwhile, Best Buy notes that productivity is up an average 35% in departments that have switched to ROWE. Employee engagement, which measures employee satisfaction and is often a barometer for retention, is way up too, according to the Gallup Organization, which audits corporate cultures.

I hope this new strategy is not causing this recent headine:

Best Buy Misses Forecast: Stock Tumbles