A very innovative and revolutionary concept has begun to really take off in the corporate world. The concept now known as ROWE which stands for “Results Only Work Environment” whereby employees are not bound by any particular set hours to define their work day.
The concept allows workers to basically set the hours they work in whatever way works best for them. If they choose to work from home or take a few hours out of day to perform personal tasks that is considered just fine. The caveat to all the flexibility is that quite simply the job has to get done. How and when you decide to perform the tasks that you are responsible for are for you to decide as long as you get the tasks completed.
The benefits derived from this type of culture in the workplace is higher productivity as counter intuitive as that may seem as well as much happier employees who have a much higher job satisfaction than employees in traditional 9-5 type jobs. Studies have shown that the two are directly correlated. If you have happier and more satisfied employees than studies show that productivity has been shown to grow exponentially.
The Federal government has also indicated that it will study this exact issue and may implement flexible work hours in certain segments including transportation, telecommunications, banking and broadcasting.
The idea behind is of course to try and generate more efficient and productive workers by allowing them the flexibility to set their own hours provided the work gets done including being able to work from home.
Quite obviously there are certain segments of industry that are exempt from even being able to offer flexible work hours such as the service industry where you fully expect to have a live person when needed. While there are many proponents to the idea of flexible work hours there are also people who studies show feel that flexible work hours would be detrimental to the possibility of advancement in the workplace.
The studies suggest that these people feel that by not actually being in the office they may somehow miss an opportunity that they would otherwise have been able to profit from. While there are certainly areas that would not benefit from the possibility of flexible hours there are many more that could implement this process and benefit from the increased productivity.
The worker would most definitely benefit from the option of either working from home which could save an individual massive amount money every year in commuting costs alone. Studies also show that workers who do have this type of workplace have happier and healthier home lives as well.
