Last weekend, John Wagner/On Message pointed me to a very good MSNBC article about Best Buy’s ROWE experiment for its employees (with ROWE meaning results-only work environment).
So, go ahead, read the comments on John’s post and the story. I’ll wait . . . .
Okay, but how would ROWE work in an agency environment?
Well, for a minor point, unlike Best Buy, there would have to be mandatory meetings. Face to face. Our work is all about communication. Interaction. Relationships. We can’t brainstorm, develop strategies and tactics, and other team-work activities via conference calls.
Secondly, we’d have to come to terms with objectives and goals for clients as a way to measure our productivity and value. We should be doing that already, but how often are year-long and campaign goals set? That is, for the client, not our agency income goals.
Yes, the work-at-home vs. work-at-the-office discussion could be worked out. For the most part, I don’t need to be in the office to do my work — just as long as I’m connected to the file server, my e-mail, etc.
I’d say we’d have to be in the office for team and client meetings, and X number of hours per week. The casual interaction, the stopping by a co-worker’s office for a quick question, working with creative to get RGB and CMYK jpgs and/or other work just can’t be done over the telephone or via e-mail.
It can, but something would be missing. Again, that level of one-on-one interaction among team members.
Let’s go back to the goals bit. Do we judge productivity on clients’ editorial coverage? Yes, but the lead time can be days to months, depending on the outlet.
What about social media? Do we judge by “hits” or visits to clients’ sites or sales?
What about turn out at events: # of customers/audience, media, etc?
What about clients’ internal communications programs: Do we judge by increase in morale (recorded via surveys), increase in participation rates in events and activities, feedback on newsletters and other communications?
Granted, these should already be part of our day-to-day jobs, but there is enough discussion and disagreement about PR measurement to make me think it’s not.
So, how would a results-only work environment work in an agency setting?
– Mike
