by Kay Boatner

Federal employees are well aware of “ROWE”—the term, meaning Results-Only Work Environment, is one that the U.S. government has utilized frequently since its coinage. ROWE was designed to encourage both the public and private sector to telework and to place more emphasis on employees’ results, or output, rather than how many hours they work.

The idea behind the program is a good one—what you produce matters much more than when or where you work. So why has the majority of the federal workforce been so hesitant to adopt telework?

Here at CHCI, we consider ourselves advocates of telework. But in designing our team’s telework structure, we felt ROWE was missing two key themes: accountability and reliability. Knowing you will be held accountable for your work and that you are able to rely on your colleagues just as you would in an office setting were huge variables that we wanted to incorporate into our program. 

Enter, ARROW: Accountable, Reliable, and Results-Oriented Workforce.

The assumption is that by moving toward ARROW, as a team, we agree to be held accountable for the results of our work. The presumption is that people are being productive until they demonstrate otherwise, and the measure for being productive is simply the results accomplished. The pertinent question is, “were the desired outcomes achieved within the agreed-upon timeframe?”We strive in all we do to be an exemplar of ethical behavior; thus, ARROW is Results-Oriented, rather than Results-Only. 

How we deliver our results and outcomes, like the results themselves, matters to CHCI.

ARROW is what works best for us. It might not work elsewhere, however. Just as ROWE might work in one agency, it could fail in another. 

Telework is not one size fits all.

Do you agree or disagree? Do you think ROWE is lacking or is the federal government just not flexible enough to adhere to a results-only program? Does your company have its own take on ROWE?

By Allan Schweyer

There is a strong consensus in Washington that the federal workforce should be more modern and flexible in the way that it gets work done. Just last week, President Obama argued that the impact of the DC snowstorms, which brought the city and the government to a standstill, could have been tempered if workers were better set up to telecommute and do their jobs from home.

John Berry, Director of the OPM, is experimenting with the Results Oriented Work Environment approach, known as ROWE. ROWE has transformed organizations like Best Buy – dramatically raising productivity and reducing turnover by focusing on what a worker gets done rather than where or when she does it.

ROWE operated as a clandestine operation in Best Buy headquarters for two years before the company’s CEO found out. He liked what he saw so much that the company has plans to implement the program organization-wide. Before Best Buy, Brazilian CEO, Ricardo Semler of Semco became famous for a “Treat them like adults” approach to his 5,000 person workforce. At Semco, employees work when and from where they want. Meetings, even those called by Semler himself are optional.  Semler’s policies were implemented about 20 years ago when the company had $4 million in annual revenues. Today, Semco is a $200 million plus multinational conglomerate.

No organization can or should borrow every element of even the most successful workforce programs from others. What worked at Best Buy and Semco, worked within their unique cultures. It is nevertheless clear that the federal government, which is comprised of a very high proportion of knowledge work, would gain tremendously from greater workforce flexibility and a focus on results rather than face time.