Archive for the ‘Productivity’ Category

My laptop broke this week and I realized I had totally underestimated my need for freedom. I know I need flexibility in how, when, and where I work. I mean that’s what this whole blog is about! And unlimited flexibility is the primary reason I own my own business and work from home. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is designed for people like me! But this week, as I’ve been stuck at my desk, glaring at my laptop from across the room, cursing my new stationary workstyle, I’ve come to deeply understand how important work environment is to productivity.

My laptop broke this week and I realized I had totally underestimated my need for freedom. I know I need flexibility in how, when, and where I work. I mean that’s what this whole blog is about! And unlimited flexibility is the primary reason I own my own business and work from home. The entrepreneurial lifestyle is designed for people like me! But this week, as I’ve been stuck at my desk, glaring at my laptop from across the room, cursing my new stationary workstyle, I’ve come to deeply understand how important work environment is to productivity.

Prior to this week I was unaware of how much I roam during my workday. Although I typically begin my day at my desk, I rarely stay there. Depending on task, I may work in the dining room, on the couch in the living room, on the couch in my office, on my bed, on the back porch, at Panera Bread, Starbucks, or up at the local library. I’m a roaming worker—I go where I feel inspired, where the environment best suits my needs at any given time.

And this week, since I couldn’t do that because of technology, I found myself frequently frustrated. I wasn’t as productive, creative, or motivated. I didn’t feel like working because I simply cannot sit at a desk all day. I’m sure you can relate if you’ve ever been assigned a desk or office or forced to work in a cubicle even though it’s not the environment where you produce the best results. The freedom and flexibility to move around while you work matters a great deal. And it matters to most people—not just entrepreneurs.

Although I’m not thrilled to be without a laptop as this week concludes, it is good to consciously recognize my deeply engrained need to freely roam and working where I feel inspired.

Leave me a comment and let me know where you do your best work. Are you a roamer like me or do you prefer a static location? What tools and technology do you depend on to make it possible?

In organizational development and certain psychology and HR circles, they talk about job embeddedness. It’s an odd sounding term that simply refers to how attached an employee is to their job. The more embedded an employee is, the less likely they are to leave their job and the organization.

There are three main parts to job embeddedness:

• Fit – Job fit refers to whether or not an employee’s knowledge and skills match job demands and it also refers to the employee’s sense of belonging. Do they feel like they are a good fit for the job? A good fit for their team? And a good fit for the organization?
• Links – Links are strong positive connections with other employees. Has an employee developed positive ties with their team and other colleagues?
• Sacrifice – If an employee left the organization, would they be giving up things they value? These can be material or psychological costs. What would they sacrifice if they left? What’s the cost of leaving?

Job embeddedness is important because if you can increase an employee’s embeddedness, they are less likely to leave. Research has shown it increases retention as well as performance. Employees who feel they are a good fit have a sense of job security, feel like they belong, are more committed, and more motivated to do their job well.

Ways to Increase Embeddedness

There are several things you can do as a leader or manager to increase your employee’s sense of belonging and fit. The first starts with onboarding—the process you use to bring new employees into the company. Studies have consistently shown the first 90 days on the job to be critical in terms of whether or not an employee commits and makes the decision to stay for the long haul. Ensuring they have a positive first experience, receive adequate training, and get connected or embedded quickly makes a world of difference.

Another way to increase embeddedness it to take an active role in employee career planning. What training and development opportunities do employees on your team want and need? Spend time with them to work out a career plan within your organization and make it standard practice to promote from within.

Third, enhance work-life balance. This plays to the sacrifice component of job embeddedness. Provide employees with more control over how, when, and where they do their job. You may even want to consider implementing a results-only work environment (or ROWE) which will allow employees to more effectively manage their work and their life. With more control over their schedule, they can pursue interests outside of work as well. This raises the cost of leaving. They will be sacrificing a whole lot more than just a job if they leave. They’ll be giving up work-life balance, the freedom to pursue other interests, and control over their schedule. That’s a pretty significant sacrifice.

Finally, consider moving employees around within the organization if they don’t fit on their team. Perhaps you have an employee that hasn’t been able to form any positive links with their team; they don’t yet have a sense of belonging. If you shift them to another work group, they may feel a better fit and find colleagues with whom they have more similar and compatible personalities and skill sets. This can completely turn around a low performer and make them one of your star players.

If you’re interested in improving performance, productivity, and increasing retention, look at job embeddedness. Examining fit, links, and sacrifice can make a big difference in terms of whether an employee stays or goes.

Do you ever feel like Wally? Or maybe you know a Wally? Someone getting paid to do nothing at work? An employee that slips through the cracks without really being noticed?

Maybe you’re not a true Wally, but statistics show many people are wasting significant time during the workday. A July 2005 survey conducted by Salary.com and AOL found the following:

• The average American wastes more than 2 hours of each workday.
• The most popular time-wasting activities are:
  • Surfing the Internet
  • Socializing with coworkers
  • Conducting personal business
  • Spacing out
• The top 3 excuses for wasting time:
  • Not enough work to do
  • Feel underpaid for the work they do
  • Distracted by coworkers
• $759,000,000,000 is lost each year as a result of low worker productivity and wasted work time.

One of the best ways to combat wasted time at work is by making work about results, rather than time. In most organizations, work culture and management practices are focused on the clock and filling the void between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. As long as employees are in the office and at their desks during normal business hours, everyone’s happy. However, when that’s the structure and the focus is on time, it’s easy to hide. Just like Wally, you can “look busy” and no one will be the wiser.

If you make work more about results and outcomes, and less about the clock, things quickly change. When employees have control over their work, and are free to leave when their work is done, they stop “wasting” time at work. When your time is yours, rather than the company’s, you’ll spend it wisely, right?

By giving employees control over how and when they do their work, as they do in a results-only work environment, they will produce better and faster results. And when managers begin evaluating performance by looking at results and outcomes, rather than a combination of results, physical presence, and office politics, workers will stop wasting time in the office. You can’t hide in a model like this—if you don’t produce results, you job is in jeopardy.

Eliminate wasted time at the source. If there’s no payoff, employees will be less likely to do it. The more efficient and productive you are, the more time you have to live your life. By focusing on results, maybe we can restore our Work-Avoiding Ninjas’ hopes and dreams.

Related Post: What’s the Biggest Productivity Challenge Leaders Must Solve?

During our fourth and final call in the Flexible Work Summit, Blake Leath of The Blake Leath Group, Ryan Healy, co-founder of Brazen Careerist, and Kyra Cavanaugh, owner of Life Meets Work, shared “Strategies for Stretching Leaders and Teams.”

During today’s call we talked about ways to successfully implement change within your organization, how Generation Y is changing work and leadership, and tips for managing flexible performance. Here are a few of my personal notes from the call:

• Resilience is paramount in a changing work environment and can show up 4 different ways: in individuals, in behaviors (e.g., it can be practiced and learned; meaning & engagement are important), in experiences (e.g., emotional echoes), and in leadership (be engaged, accessible, and get some wins).
• The One Degree Assessment: Look for the right one degree of difference—one thing you could change and do really well, that would make a world of difference within your organization.
• Gen Y employees, despite the common perception that they are disloyal job hoppers, are actually extremely loyal to their team.
• When leading Millennial employees, take extra time to provide clear direction, fully explain expectations, and provide plenty of feedback. It’s also important to provide opportunities for leaders to emerge from groups and teams.
• Want to start a flex work policy in your organization? Take first steps by co-creating a flexible work agreement with your employees. Lay out all the expectations and set a time to revisit and revise after a trial period.
• Which side of the management style continuum are you on? Controlling or Trusting? 
• Work-life balance doesn’t have to be perceived as a “soft” benefit. You can, and should, tie flexibility to profits and productivity—especially in this economy.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the fourth session, head over to www.FlexibleWorkSummit.com and register for the entire teleseminar series (the recording is available until Friday afternoon). 

If you missed any part of the Flexible Work Summit and want to grab the recordings, transcripts, and action guides for the entire series, you can do so here. There is a Home Study version with binder and CDs, as well as a Digital Version with MP3s and PDFs. These packages are available at a discounted price for the next few days.

Finally, I’m offering $100 off of the upcoming Flexible Work Bootcamp until Friday, May 22nd. As a member of the Bootcamp you’ll receive 12-week s of in-depth and personalized training and coaching, along with a lot of extra resources to help you implement flexibility within your organization. We’re keeping the size of the group small so you and your team can get the personal attention you need to implement a customized flexible work solution within your organization. You can find the full details about the program and reserve your spot at the discounted rate at www.FlexibleWorkBootcamp.com.

During our third call in the Flexible Work Summit, Scot Herrick, founder of CubeRules.com, Andrea Emerson, founder of EspressoShots.com, and I shared “Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work.”

During today’s call we talked about results-only work environments (ROWEs), SMART goals, and ways to increase performance and drive results. Here are a few of my personal notes from the call:

• Results-Only Work Environments require 2 components: A relentless focus on results and complete schedule control. You can’t have one without the other.
• There are 4 different types of jobs: automated, boring, convoluted, and dynamic. By increasing control, a ROWE creates dynamic jobs where employees can freely meet the demands of their job how, when, and where they see fit. 
• Setting SMART goals in highly flexible work environments helps get rid of many excuses against increasing flexibility. When results are clear, face time, physical presence, and clock watching become less important. 
• Don’t neglect setting individual goals for high-performers. Individual goals (in addition to department and team goals) allow high-performers the ability to distinguish themselves.
• Servant leadership: put people over profits and you’ll increase your influence as well as increase your profit. This gets easier to do when the focus is more on results, and less on being the hall monitor.
• Don’t wait to confront non-performance. Avoiding conflict, performance issues, interpersonal problems, etc., gets worse quickly in a flexible work environment. You must be proactive to manage non-performance.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the third session, head over to www.FlexibleWorkSummit.com and register for the entire teleseminar series. During tomorrow’s session we’ll be talking about “Strategies for Stretching Leaders and Teams” by focusing on how to make organizational change successful, the ways in which Generation Y is changing the workplace, and we’ll share some final tips for managing performance in a flexible workplace. 

If you have any questions you’d like addressed during the final day of the Summit, leave me a comment below.

During our second call in the Flexible Work Summit, Chip Kohrman, founder of Telesaur.com, Brad Garland, CEO of The Garland Group, and Phil Montero, creator of YouCanWorkFromAnywhere.com shared some amazing “Strategies for Stretching WHERE You Work.”

The focus of today’s call was telecommuting, virtual teams, and how to use technology to revolutionize your business. Here are a few of my personal notes and biggest takeaways from the call:

• During the recession, consider alternatives to layoffs. Telecommuting has been proven to increase productivity, boost morale, and decrease costs.
• By getting clear on results and communicating expectations effectively, you can “get rid of the drama” as Brad Garland says in many work environments.
• Purposefully look at the type of communication that needs to happen internally and externally and create a plan to accomplish your goals. Tip: Look at needs for instant communication, transfer of knowledge, and collaborative efficiency.
• Informal communication is still important for virtual work. Even though there’s no physical water cooler, create opportunities for team members to connect. As Phil shared, virtual work is still a human process—we need to know, like, and trust our coworkers and clients—even if we’re never physically in the same place.

If you’d like access to the full recording of the second session, head over to www.FlexibleWorkSummit.com and register for the entire teleseminar series. During tomorrow’s session we’ll be talking about Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work, and will be discussing results-only work environments (ROWEs), SMART goals, and sharing tips for increasing performance and driving results.

If you have any questions you’d like addressed during the Summit, leave me a comment below.

Jessica Lawrence, CEO of the Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council, recently posted the ROWE Report on her blog.  The report offers a peek inside her organization’s successful first six-months of working in a results-only work environment (ROWE). 

You can download the full report here, but I want to highlight a few of the findings I found especially compelling (note: these statistics compare the percent change pre-ROWE to 6-months post-ROWE):

• “Good” or “great” productivity when working: 69% increase
• “Good” or “great” efficiency when working: 81% increase
• “Good” or “great” control of time: 245% increase
• “Good” or “great” work/life balance: 417% increase

Additionally, they found:

• Job satisfaction increased 80%.
• Voluntary turnover decreased 40%.

The employees felt strongly that teamwork and communication had greatly improved and that employee engagement had increased. Overall, 93% of employees feel more in control of their lives, and feel ROWE is good for them as employees and good for the organization as a whole.

The report also includes open-ended comments. Here is a snapshot of how employees feel about ROWE:

• “I LOVE ROWE!!! PLEASE DON’T EVER GO BACK TO THE OLD WAY!”
• “It’s been the best work experience ever.”
• “It is the best of both worlds–providing me with the freedom and flexibility of an independent contractor combined with the collegiality and team spirit of a traditional corporate structure — I LOVE IT!”
• “I hope we never stop ROWE.”

Finally, Jessica makes an excellent point in the ROWE Report:

“ROWE is not an employee “perk” – it is a way of aligning the company’s culture around key values that have a positive impact on both the employees and the company.”

And she’s absolutely right. ROWE isn’t just a perk, it’s a new way of operating. It’s a new way of working that has the potential to change everything. Take a look at the report and decide for yourself: Does ROWE really work?

I believe wholeheartedly in the ROWE business model and will be talking about it next week during Wednesday’s session of the Flexible Work Summit: Strategies for Stretching HOW You Work. During that time I want to answer your biggest questions about ROWE. Please leave a comment below and let me know what you want to know about going ROWE. And be sure to grab your free pass for the Flexible Work Summit – we have an amazing line-up of 10 speakers talking about all aspects of workplace flexibility and I know you don’t want to miss out!

I attended a business building seminar not too long ago and as we neared the final hours on the last day, the trainer gave us time to plan our upcoming week and encouraged us to integrate what we had learned from the weekend into our schedule in the coming days.

I added several action items to my calendar and was excited to get back home and start working away. After the exercise had concluded, the trainer asked a few audience members to share what they were going to do over the next week. I was dumbfounded by their answers; everyone was going to spend the next week planning. During a rare gift of focused time to schedule action, they used their time planning to plan. Planning to plan is NOT the same as implementation!

People who are successful are taking action! Recently I heard Carrie Wilkerson, the Barefoot Executive, say something that perfectly captures this concept. She said (and I’m paraphrasing), “How much money is your potential making you? None! Start taking action.” Many of us have a ton of potential, but if we’re not taking action and putting our potential to use, we won’t be successful.

Planning is important, but where do you spend the majority of your time? Planning to plan or taking action and implementing the plan? When you start taking action on a regular basis you will be consistently successful.

If you’ve been intrigued by the idea of workplace flexibility (e.g., flexible schedules, working form different locations, flexible work days, results-only work environments), but aren’t sure it’d truly benefit your business, think again! Here are five benefits of workplace flexibility that will help you make the business case.

Benefits of Workplace Flexibility

1. Flexibility helps attract talent.

A flexible work environment is highly attractive to dual-career couples that need a job which allows them to juggle the demands of work and their life and flexibility also attracts Generation Y. If fact, a recent Oxbridge study revealed that work-life balance is the primary factor new graduates are looking for in a job (salary came in 8th on the list). Having a workplace flexibility plan in place, will help you stand out among your competition and enable you to attract top talent.

2. Flexibility aids retention.

Losing an employee is costly; turnover statistics estimate the cost of replacing an employee to be 100-200% of their annual salary. Studies have shown that flexibility actually decreases voluntary turnover. In a survey of 614 companies, flexibility was ranked by half of the companies as their most effective retention tool, better than above-market salaries, stock options, or training.

3. Flexibility raises morale and job satisfaction.

When employees have more flexibility to meet all the demands of work and life, they are more satisfied with their job and have higher morale. This is good news because there are clear links between job satisfaction and turnover. The more satisfied the employee, the less likely they are to leave. Additionally, employee satisfaction is linked with customer retention and satisfaction. When your employees are satisfied they will treat your customers better. It’s a win-win for everyone. 

4. Flexibility improves productivity.

This benefit works with the previous. When employees are more satisfied with their job, they are more engaged and more productive. Companies that offer flexibility also experience fewer unscheduled absences. When employees have the ability to work from home, they can contribute even when their child is sick, they have to care for an elderly parent, or they aren’t feeling well enough to make the commute into the office. Finally, flexibility improves productivity because workers experience fewer interruptions, and thus can get more work done, when they are working outside the office. 

5. Flexibility reduces stress and burnout.

When employees are stressed and burned out they have less commitment to their job and the organization and are more likely to have plans to leave the company. One survey found that half of the workers surveyed said job stress and burnout reduced their productivity. Employees that are stressed and burned out also are sick more often. When you offer your workers flexibility in how, when, and where they are working, they begin to get more sleep, spend more time exercising, and are better able to relax and unwind. When employees reduce their stress, they gain energy, eliminate burnout, and are more productive at work. 

These are just five of the many benefits of workplace flexibility. Which of these will help you make the business case for adding more flexibility to your organization? Choose one or two of these points and begin a conversation about how increasing flexibility in how, when, and where you work could help solve some of the challenges you’ve been facing. If you already have workplace flexibility initiatives in place at your organization, what benefits are you realizing? Share your experiences by leaving a comment below.

Shannon Proudfoot shares an interesting look at work-life balance and the recession in her recent article for the Financial Post on Canada.com. If you’ve been looking for a way to cut costs AND save jobs, shorter workdays may be an option.

In the article, Proudfoot writes about how this worked well for Kellogg’s during the Depression:

“During the Great Depression in the 1930s, Kellogg’s instituted a six-hour workday in its plants to take up the slack of too many people and not enough jobs, he says. Within two years, workers were accomplishing as much in six hours as they had in eight because they were less tired and more efficient, he says, and the policy was so popular – even with its accompanying wage reduction – that remnants lasted into the 1980s.” 

The article goes on to mention several benefits of shorter work hours:

• Increased productivity
• Increased efficiency
• More alert or energetic employees 
• More time to care for aging parents
• Reduced childcare costs
• Reduced commuting costs
• Flexibility to accomplish household tasks

As you can see, there are many reasons a shorter workday might be a good fit for your small business. Very few people truly need a full eight hours to accomplish their work—there is always wasted time because humans aren’t meant to sit at a desk and focus for a full 8-hours a day. 

The article also cautions employers against “one-size-fits-all thinking.” Every employee is different and shorter work days will work better for some rather than others. Talk with your team about the impact reduced wages and a shorter work day would have on their lives. 

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think. Would this work in your company? Why or why not?