As I plan for the current & future growth of my company, I am taking a step back to consider not only how I want my business to grow, but what kind of business I want to grow.
Recently I have been introduced to ROWE – Results Oriented Work Environment. You can learn more about it here. In a nutshell? Results are the only thing that matter. Work whatever hours you want, wherever you want. Meetings and conference calls only happen when the topic cannot be taken care of via email or a quick phone call.
No, it’s not a “work from home” set-up, but instead one that focuses strictly on what each person produces. Paper shufflers and office chatters? They can’t hide behind showing up 8-5 with ROWE.
Running an office isn’t the only application of ROWE. While working with my clients, I take a strict ROWE approach. Discussions on branding and strategy are important, but the bottom line is what matters at the end of the day. We make things happen instead of talking about making things happen. My current client communications aren’t ROWE perfect, but we’re getting there.
Overall, I think ROWE is the next wave of how businesses will be operated. Besides the sustained 41% productivity increase, knowledge workers will be harder to find and more difficult to retain as Gen Y penetrates the skilled workforce. As a proud member of Gen Y, I realize "we" are more interested in results than 4-hour meetings that accomplish nothing.
For SearchMarketMe, ROWE is the way to go. I'm excited to get started and I’ll let you know how it goes, both as an internal employee policy & client communications.
