If you read the recent No Schedules, No Meetings, No Joke article in the December 11 of Business Week you shouldn’t be surprised by the effectiveness of this approach at Best Buy. Today’s workers don’t live to work they work to live. They crave an atmosphere and environment that meets their practical and personal needs. Open calendars, flex time, work at home schedules, even no schedules are all part of the formula for appealing to modern day workers.
But how do you convert this contrarian viewpoint to improved productivity? Modern day workers want independence. That’s apparent in the way some companies balance the façade of some paradigm measures like attendance against the real measure of productivity.
In my opinion independence really translates to empowerment. Engaged employees think of their job as their businesses and this self-employed entrepreneurial attitude guides their professional approach. Trust employees to get the job done and they will not only deliver they will most likely exceed expectations.
The key for all companies is to turn the bulk of their workers into highly engaged employees. If that’s on your agenda then follow this simple formula: Use your intranet or recognition portal to tell the stories of your top people. Focus not on their successes (what they have done) but also elaborate on how they did it. Chances are they used a key tool or technique that you are also tying to introduce or reinforce.
This will create role models in the organization, promote best practices and generate ambassadors for change while igniting a cultural transformation that supports and reaffirms that employee judgments are respected and valued. With a new level of “independence” more employees will begin to think of the customer as the boss. The results will surprise you just like they surprised Best Buy.
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