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Best Buy's Results-Only Work Environment
Dec 5
Here’s a crazy idea: Best Buy implemented a Results Only Work Environment (ROWE).
At most companies, going AWOL during daylight hours would be grounds for a pink slip. Not at Best Buy. 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.
Results: Productivity up 35%. Summary: Face time is overrated.
Technorati Tags: BestBuy, ROWE, results, planning, HR
About the Author
Frank Roche
Frank started IFRACTAL over 7 years ago with Sarah Chambers. Together, they've created HR communications and HR software for some of the world's leading companies. Frank is also studying Flamenco guitar and origami.
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Hooray for Best Buy (and especially for their employees).
I used to work in an office where the boss left at 5:30, and the six of us who worked for her left at 5:31. We felt a little sheepish when she forgot her car keys one day and came back to the office … our little hallway meeting on the way to the parking lot was terribly uncomfortable. Oddly, none of us discussed it after that — we all just chose to keep up the charade.
Thankfully, logging “seat time” to appear productive is becoming obsolete. Just showing up, and “giving good meeting” are no longer relevant.
Hi Michael, I was listening to NPR on the way home today, and they were talking about how more and more companies NEED to get with the telecommuting program. They were talking about it in the context of the bridge collapse in SF Bay….but were saying that being at work was a bit of a waste.
Your story is a powerful one…crazy how that stuff works with face time. Giving good meeting…beauty!
As a committed lifestyle-over-workstyle business owner, I was really looking forward to the ROWE book. I hoped that it would help me to restructure my business as a Results-Only Work Environment for everyone that works at our office.
In the end, I was hugely disappointed. “Cali and Jody” have put their consulting careers ahead of the ROWE idea itself, and have handicapped its development by publishing a 10-page memo in a 200-page form. The tagline for the book is ““No Schedules, No Meetings — No Joke”, but due to the complete lack of detail, the tag line should be: “No Tips, No Detail — No Help.”
More of my thoughts on the ROWE book can be read here: http://www.whyrowesucks.com.