Key Takeaways
If you’re familiar with 97th Floor, you know that we practice an HR management strategy called ROWE, which stands for Results Only Work Environment. In fact, we’ve become a ROWE Certified Organization. While ROWE isn’t all that our culture is, it definitely is the first aspect of our culture that people think of.
That recognition is earned. Autonomy is one of our strongest differentiators, and it often sparks curiosity: What does results oriented, or results only, actually mean? Results oriented, put simply, is a professional environment where employees have complete control over how they accomplish their work, so long as the outcome meets expectations. Productivity replaces presence. Quality replaces hours. In exchange for freedom, employees give full accountability. A fitting results oriented synonym might be performance-driven, outcome-focused, or impact-first.
The autonomy a results oriented culture gives our employees is one of the things that really sets 97th Floor apart. That said, it feels like there might be some misconception about what the reality of ROWE really entails. I’ve heard non-97th Floor employees describe our results oriented culture as being all about working remotely from sun-soaked vacation spots, sipping icy drinks and brushing sand off of your keyboard while you tackle your tasks — or throwing decorum to the wind, and working from your couch while wrapped in an old blanket.
But while it’s true that all of us at 97th Floor have the freedom to do both of those (I know I have a few times with the former… and, yes, maybe a couple of times with the latter), that doesn’t mean that the perceived opposite (working 9–5 in the office) isn’t also ROWE. In fact, sometimes a standard 9–5 employee is more ROWE focused than the guy who’s working from the beach (or the living room).
You see, what ROWE is all about is allowing the individual employee to decide what works best for them. Productivity, efficiency, effectiveness — these are the considerations that drive a results oriented employee. Hours spent in the office, or hours not spent in the office, don’t even come into play. In essence, the workforce gets 100% autonomy, and in return gives 100% accountability. We can do whatever we want, whenever we want, wherever we want, as long as we get the work done.
Of course, it’s not hard to see how this perceived division between ROWE and standard 9–5 work environments came to be. In fact, just a couple of week ago a local business magazine picked 97th Floor as one of the best companies to work for in Utah County. Unfortunately, in the resultant article I was quoted as saying something that in retrospect I feel may have added to the misconception that ROWE (and therefore 97th Floor) is against the 9–5 schedule.
“Too often,” I posited, “mediocre employees hide behind a 9–5 environment. ROWE lets the work — not the punch clock — do the talking.” And while I stand by my assessment, the point I was trying to make may not have been as clear as I would have hoped. What I meant by this is that just putting in 40 hours (or even 50 or 60) per week doesn’t necessarily mean effective results.
The truth is that lackluster employees will likely be just as unengaged at 40 hours as they are at 20 hours, but it’s those same employees who are so quick to point out that because they’re putting in the hours, they must be ‘working.’ A results oriented company is one that recognizes that employees are paid to do more than just warm a seat in the office. Underperforming employees shouldn’t be able to hide behind perfect attendance, because attendance doesn’t generate profit. Where someone does their work or how many hours they are working simply doesn’t matter, as long as they’re getting the results.
And yes, it’s true that even in most traditional 9–5 workplaces, employees are still judged on results as well. But oftentimes the amount of hours put in can help keep an underperforming employee around for a bit longer. If your 9–5 based company doesn’t allow hours worked to be a factor in employee evaluations, then that’s great, but if that’s the case, then what’s the point enforcing a schedule in the first place?
For the record, 97th Floor doesn’t have a problem at all with people working Monday through Friday, 9am–5pm. In fact, based on my estimate (and obviously I can’t pull in actual numbers since we don’t track time), about 20% of our employees still work every day during the week at our office, showing up at 8 or 9am and staying for about 8 hours. These people are absolutely taking full advantage of ROWE. They are deciding that being at the office for 8 hours each day from Monday to Friday is the best for them.
I’d venture a guess that these people are more effective by choosing for themselves to work a traditional schedule than if they were forced to by their employer. I’d also estimate that another 20% of our employees work almost exclusively from home or elsewhere (only coming into the office for meetings) and the remaining 60% work a hybrid between the office, home, and elsewhere. Each of these work schedules are just as much a part of ROWE as the next.
One benefit that people often point at of having everyone in the office each day from 9–5 is that people need to collaborate and communicate with each other. With Slack, GoToMeeting, and other collaboration tools, that’s really not an argument anymore. For the times when an employee needs to meet in-person, they just schedule a meeting at the office, giving everyone involved enough notice. Again, this isn’t to say that working in an office everyday from 9–5 is bad. The bad part is not having a choice in the matter. People should choose for themselves where and when they work.
Building a results oriented workplace takes intention. Through our transition, we found that it comes down to changing four things.
First, get clear on what “done” actually means.
If the goal is fuzzy, effort becomes the measurement by default. We’ve all seen projects that took many hours or even days, yet no one can really say if progress was made. Setting clear, measurable targets gives people something concrete to run toward instead of just filling time.
Second, make accountability visible.
Accountability isn’t a threat; it’s a promise. When people know what they’re responsible for, and when results are reviewed openly, ownership becomes natural. Not because someone is watching, but because they care about delivering.
Third, give people room to figure out how they work best.
Autonomy is the magic ingredient of a results oriented model. Some of us think best at a desk. Some do our best work in a coffee shop, or at home with a dog on our lap. Let adults be adults. Give them space, trust, and the expectation that the work gets done.
Last, communicate like a team that’s rowing in the same direction.
Slack threads, quick meetings, shared timelines; none of that goes away. In fact, it matters even more. Freedom works because communication does. It keeps projects moving and prevents anyone from feeling like they’re building in a vacuum.
Put those four things together and you can get your team to stop watching the clock and start chasing outcomes. When you make the shift, it’s hard to imagine working any other way.
When measuring success, obviously, we’re really only talking about time and location here, and not everything that ROWE encompasses. Still, in regard to time and where we work, science is backing up the principles of ROWE. Recently, Nicholas Bloom, a professor at Stanford, gave a talk at TEDx about working from home. His study with one large company found that giving employees the choice to work from home resulted in a 50% drop in employee attrition, employee performance went up by 24%, and the company made an additional $2,000 in profit per employee. There was also a study by author and National Geographic Fellow, Dan Buettner, that showed cutting an hour-long commute each way from a person’s daily schedule gives that person the happiness equivalent of an extra $40,000 per year. At 97th Floor, we focused on tracking four metrics when we switched over to a results oriented culture: client retention rate, employee turnover rate, revenue per employee, and goal completion percentages of contracts. Over the lastC two years, all four have improved. Our clients and employees are staying longer, we are delivering better results, and we’re more efficient.
Our society is getting better and better at allowing people to be individuals. People are increasingly encouraged to do and be what makes them happy. Yet with work, the majority of companies still expect everyone to be the same. We need to change this mindset and let individuals manage themselves, while the company manages the work results. When that happens, success will come — whether that means working 8 hours a day in the office, or doing it all from the comfort of a well-worn couch.
