(NaturalNews) Consume electronics retailer Best Buy is shaping a new program to let employees set their own schedules. By letting employees go AWOL during the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. workday during the week, Best Buy is finding that transforming its culture to ensure employees are functioning at their best is working well.
Best Buy's ROWE project -- which stands for "results-only work environment" -- seeks to demolish the decades-old business dogma that equates physical presence with productivity. The goal at Best Buy is to judge performance on output instead of hours.
Employees to Best Buy's headquarters can come in at 7am or 2pm with no repercussions. Those leaving at 1pm aren't seen as loafers, either. As long as the work is done and the productivity is there, hours don't count for much under Best Buy's experiment.
Although flexible work schedules have been around for many years, this is a first for such a radical departure form the normal workday. At IBM, AT&T and Sun Microsystems, employees are happier and real estate expenses have shrunk, as employers realize that having everyone present during the same hours is not necessary.
In fact, a recent Boston Consulting Group study found that 85 percent of executives expect a big rise in the number of unleashed workers over the next five years. "This is like TiVo for your work," says Jody Thompson, who developed the program at Best Buy.
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