Posted on 11-Sep-07 by The Timekeeper

So, have you seen all the stories cropping up lately about the trend toward increased flexibility in workforce management? Seems it’s gone way beyond just allowing people to telecommute a couple of days a week.

The latest one I came across was this from the N.Y.Times about the vacation policy at IBM. Apparently, this isn’t actually new, though. According to the article it’s been quietly spreading through the company over the past ten years or so.

Seems that most employees at IBM nowadays get to schedule their own time off. Nobody tracks when anybody’s out or how much time anybody’s taken. Basically, people just work it out with their direct supervisors. The only real criteria is that people get their work done on time.

Of course, as one employee is quoted as saying, “IBM tends to be a group of workaholics,” so there’s not much chance of widespread abuse. In fact, most everybody the reporter talked to said they rarely if ever took their full allotment of vacation days, even back in the days when they were tracking their usage.

Potentially compounding the issue, something like 40% of IBM employees don’t have an office to start with — they work from home, at client sites/on the road, or at the company’s “e-mobility centers,” which are “drop in” offices around the world where employees can make use of office equipment, broadband connections and office phones.

All of which begs the question: when you’re always in touch with the office via email and cellphone, can you ever truly be said to be “on vacation”?

Best Buy has done IBM one better — with their ROWE (Results Oriented Work Environment) program, they’ve told the majority of their workers they don’t need to come in to the office at all unless they want to or it’s necessary to get their work done. As the name implies, the program focuses on results, not on simple attendance, so people are free to work when and where they want. (Click here to listen to a report from NPR.)

The really interesting part is that Best Buy is apparently going to try to roll this initiative out to its stores, too. I’m still scratching my head over how they’re going to make this work for store sales staff.

Should be interesting to watch.

As an employee with family obligations and a typically busy life, I like the idea — a lot! — but I’m also concerned about the “out of sight, out of mind” factor. I’m also wondering how they reconcile these programs with the requirements of state and federal wage and hour laws. Fine for the salaried exempt staff, but what about the people you need to pay overtime to? If you don’t track how much time somebody works, then how do you know when you need to pay them for overtime? For that matter, how do you know how much to pay hourly workers at all?

Obviously, this kind of arrangement won’t work for all jobs. And for others, it will work, but companies may have to invest in new technology, such as a time and attendance systems that lets employees clock in and out over the phone, or via their PDA.

My own employer is remarkably flexible compared to other companies of our size and location, but let me tell ya, we don’t hold a candle to some of these places I’ve been reading about.

So, what does your company do? If you’re the boss, would you ever consider implementing something like this? Why (or why not)? If you’re an employee and your company offered this kind of flexible arrangement, would you take them up on it?

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