After reading Patrick Kiger’s article in Workforce Management, I can’t help but spread the word about Best Buy's amazing new Results-Only Work Environment.  ROWE, as it’s called, is a radical experiment whose aim is to redefine the very nature of work itself.  In ROWE, most of the rules associated with working in the business world – mainly keeping set hours and coming into the office each morning – are thrown out the window.  Employees can come and go as they please, as long as they get their work done.

According to Kiger, since Best Buy began switching to ROWE on a division-by-division basis in 2002, 2,400 employees, or 60 percent of the 4,000 people at its headquarters campus, have converted to the new way of working.  Employees in divisions that convert to ROWE report in surveys that they have better relationships with family and friends, feel more loyalty to the company and feel more focused and energized about their work.

But does the company make money?  Apparently so.  The Best Buy per-employee cost of turnover is $102,000, and ROWE teams have 3.2 percent less voluntary turnover than non-ROWE teams. So once Best Buy's 4,000-person headquarters is completely converted to ROWE, the company stands to save about $13 million a year in replacement costs. Also, when workers switch to ROWE, their productivity jumps by 35 percent.

Most organizations I know define a flexible working environment as handing an employee a cell phone and other mobile gadgets and telling them that they can work from home, but only if they’re sick.  But I wonder, is this the way of the future?  Best Buy sure has metrics that say it is, and I for one am fascinated.  Anyone out there working for a company doing something similar?