| Work whenever I want? Yes please
Taking clock-watching out of the equation can create happier employees. It's amazing what trust and respect can do to your culture. We do not mind. We've had to ask people to go home because they had a headache because they didn't want to waste the day at home. You can turn up at 7am or you can rock up at 3pm. You can take a 10-minute lunch or a 10-hour lunch. One of the ways they assert that control is by enforcing strict hours of work. Who cares what time you start? As long as you attend meetings that you are a part of and you're delivering what's expected of you, then hey, sleep in a little every once in a while. BigCommerce's co-founder and co-CEO is Eddie Machaalani. Only the brave attempt it, and one of those that's taken the plunge in Australia has been BigCommerce, a fast-growing SME of 65 employees, specialising in online stores. "From day one we set about creating a supreme company culture in order to attract the best talent and keep our people happy," he said. "We wanted to produce a performance-driven culture. Sounds too good to be true, right? Well, it actually exists. "We have people coming in earlier and working harder," says Machaalani. The result was a 35 per cent increase in productivity as employees started working at more convenient times and during periods when they were more energetic. Since then, ROWE - or variations of it - has been rolled out in just a few companies. It really is a remarkable perspective for an employer to adopt - especially an entrepreneur. In essence, it meant one thing: employees were judged on their performance, not their presence. You can work whatever hours you like and still get paid a full-time wage. |
Friday 1 June 2012
Work whenever I want? Yes please
