Classic

Results Only Work Environment

The Results Only Work Environment came out of Best Buy in 2003, built by Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson. Employees work whenever and wherever they want, as long as they deliver the results they agreed on with their manager.

The question it answers

What is each person on my team actually responsible for and measured on?

Use it when

Your management fundamentals are already in place.
Your best people get rewarded for finishing early with more work.
You want an ideal to manage toward, even if you’re not there yet.

It’s the wrong tool when

Your management fundamentals aren’t securely in place yet.
Roles and priorities change so often that scope and metrics can’t hold still.

“Management by objective works . . . if you know the objectives. 90% of the time you don’t.”
Peter Drucker

What Best Buy tried

In 2003, a couple of HR executives at Best Buy started experimenting with ways to improve productivity and employee satisfaction. The model they built was the Results Only Work Environment. Employees could work whenever and wherever they wanted, as long as they delivered the results they agreed on with their manager.

Employee productivity went up 35 percent. Voluntary turnover dropped 97 percent. The employees loved it, and the company profited from it.

Leaders at other companies pushed back. Comically, the most common gripe was how to account for vacation and sick time, since those stop meaning anything once people can work, or not work, anytime they want.

What it demands from you

The biggest challenge I’ve seen is that ROWE forces management to clearly define what each employee is responsible for and measured on. Without that, the most productive people get more work piled on to fill the 40 hours a week they owe the company.

Most owners end up treating employees like indentured servants: show up for 40 hours a week and do whatever I tell you to do. ROWE doesn’t allow that, which is why it’s so hard to implement in a growing company where tasks and priorities keep changing.

Why I still recommend it

I’m a big advocate of ROWE, but I would never suggest tackling it until your management fundamentals are securely in place. Treat it as the ideal you’re working toward. How great would it be if your employees were as productive as they could possibly be, and loved their work so much they never thought about looking for another job?

[JOSH ADDS: one line on the Weekly Implementation Meeting as the first step toward ROWE]

Where owners get it wrong

They try to give people the freedom before defining the results. Without clear scope and performance metrics for every role, ROWE has nothing to measure.