Today's guest post is by Diane Stegmeier is founder of Stegmeier Consulting Group, a consultancy focused on workplace change management. She is author of the book Innovations in Office Design: The Critical Influence Approach to Effective Work Environments, which was ranked the #1 Favorite Workplace Strategy Book by Amazon readers.


I recently had an invigorating conversation on a flight home from a client engagement. After the preliminary exchange of questions with the 50-something business executive sitting next to me ("Flying out or returning home?"; "Business or personal trip?"), we began chatting about our respective jobs. He asked, "So, what do you do?" Ordinarily, when I give my standard answer of, "I am a consultant in workplace change management," the reaction I observe is the classic 'deer in the headlights' look. It's frustrating, but I've become used to that being the end of the conversation because many people don't understand the shift to a more flexible workplace. Imagine my surprise when his reply was , "My company is considering an alternative workspace environment. Do you feel that Web commuting has become mainstream?"

Wow, I knew right away that the conversation would be a breath of fresh air. But the truth is, more frequently I'm standing face-to-face (or having a virtual discussion in this "work is what you do, not where you do it" business world) with senior business leaders who think they need to decide whether or not to allow staff members to work outside of their assigned workspaces. Employees are already conducting their work in a variety of places.

In fact, Stegmeier Consulting Group's workplace research has revealed that the average employee spends 63 percent of his or her business day working anywhere but their dedicated workspace.

A big struggle for executives is not knowing how to move off dead center...where to begin in developing a workshifting initiative. The challenge is creating the appropriate infrastructure--technology, security, policies, behavioral protocols, performance management, etc. -- to best support the distributed workforce in how, where, and when they perform their jobs.

It may seem a daunting task, but it is well worth the effort. With a strong business framework for workshifting, companies can benefit from both cost savings and the maximum level of employee productivity and satisfaction.


Benefits of a workshifting policy:
When I'm working with clients who are creating new workplace strategies, I draw from the findings of Stegmeier Consulting Group's 10-year research study of 140 organizations in 24 diverse industries. Applying best practices in developing and implementing workshifting initiatives ensures the client will significantly reduce workplace costs and improve employee productivity. Powerful ammunition, indeed!

Cost Reduction:

• Operate more productively with fewer resources.
• Analyze workspace utilization and refine workplace strategy based on actual usage.
• Establish business continuity strategy.
• Offer low-cost employee perks to offset reduction in company-paid healthcare coverage.
• Reduce energy consumption through corporate-wide Green initiative.
• Enhance security and control to prevent costly compromise of data.
• Implement productivity-enhancing technology and provide 24/7 support without increasing IT staff.
• Eliminate up-front costs of purchasing hardware and installing software by adopting browser-based solutions

Performance Improvement:

• Increase productivity through teamwork and collaboration despite the location.
• Improve employee morale.
• Provide staff more choices and control to balance work-life.
• Create a workplace to attract, inspire and retain talent.
• Accommodate the needs of the multigenerational workforce.
• Enhance employee access to company information where and when they need it.
• Challenge managers and supervisors to focus on the results, rather than on the tasks of their direct reports.
• Reinforce the corporate values of trust, teamwork and customer centricity.

How to Begin:
In one particular company, the senior business leaders struggled with how to begin creating a workshifting strategy. The executives knew the enterprise could benefit from enabling a greater level of workforce mobility, but were hesitant to jump headfirst into a new workplace strategy they felt could disrupt business operations and distract employees from their work. By developing and implementing a pilot workshifting program, rather than starting out by instituting a major enterprise-wide initiative, the client could focus on clearly understanding how to best support a manageably-sized group of 67 mobile professionals, refining the model and reaching informed decisions prior to launching a more formalized mobility program to other individuals within the company.

To prepare members of the workforce who were selected to participate in the pilot study, Stegmeier Consulting Group conducted a series of training sessions focused on company-specific issues and requirements called "From Resistance to Results: Guiding Business Leaders on Managing in the New Workplace™" (for senior managers and directors), "Mobile Workforce Management™" (for supervisors and managers) and "MobilityWorks™" (for individual contributors).

A conservative approach was also reflected in the amount of time people could work outside of the corporate facility. Individual contributors were given the flexibility to workshift two-to-three days per workweek. Managers were given the option to workshift two-to-three days as well. Supervisors, hesitant in trusting their direct reports who were out of sight, helped set the pilot program guidelines for their own job category and committed to workshifting at least a half day per week. Senior managers and directors, who ordinarily traveled on company business three-to-four days per week, agreed to spend some of their non-travel time working in the open, collaborative spaces in the pilot work area.

Hard Benefits:
Stegmeier Consulting Group conducted work-time studies prior to the initiation of the pilot workshifting program to establish baseline metrics for employee productivity. We repeated the work-time studies approximately six months following the pilot launch and discovered strong improvements in several critical areas:

• A 37.6 percent reduction in the length of staff meetings
• Managers had an average decrease in interruptions of 43.2 percent
• Individual contributors saved an average of 6.3 hours per week in commute time
• Individual contributors re-invested an average of 4.5 hours back into their work tasks
• Supervisors logged an average increase of 90 minutes of planning, goal setting and strategizing per week

While this client eased into a pilot workshifting trial period, once the cost savings and performance improvements were evident, the senior leadership team had a high level of confidence to quickly expand the program to leverage the many benefits of workforce mobility. Within 18 months, the organization had nearly 250 people enrolled in its workshifting program, when originally only 67 individuals were enrolled.

Over the years, I've struggled with how best to describe my work. The next time a person sitting next to me on an airplane asks what I do, I'm going to test a very simple answer--"I help our clients significantly reduce workplace costs while improving workforce productivity." Perhaps, the 'deer in the headlights' look will be replaced with a green light for continued conversation.

Listen to this podcast to learn how to present a business case for workshifting, or for a more in-depth look, read, "The Business Case for Web Commuting: How to Reduce Workplace Costs and Increase Workforce Performance."


What are your thoughts?