T here was a time when “work” was a physical location – an office,

a factory or a shop. Now, thanks to the Internet and mobile

technology, for many people work is purely an activity, and one

that can be performed at any time from almost any location.

This has many potential benefits for both workers and employers, but

it also poses a challenge to conventional management practices. In

particular, how should businesses monitor the performance of their

employees when they are not physically present?

One common concern is that without the professional atmosphere of

the workplace, home and remote workers will be easily distracted and

productivity will drop.

However, many companies are finding that by forcing teams and their

managers to focus on metrics that measure their output, rather than

simply their presence, remote working can be a force for engagement

and motivation.

One example is the IT department at builders’ merchant Travis Perkins,

where employees are allowed to work either in the office or at home

however they see fit, as long they get their work done.

This approach is aided in part by the fact that the company’s IT project

teams use an Agile methodology (the Scaled Agile Framework, or SAFe,

to be precise). This means that they produce working software every

two weeks and receive immediate feedback from their colleagues in

other parts of the business.

According to JJ Van Oosten, the group’s chief information officer,

adopting the SAFe framework has established a steady rhythm of

delivery every two weeks.

Within a two-week sprint, employees are free to work exactly as

they wish. Indeed, they are encouraged to find the working arrangement

that suits them best. However, they are acutely aware of the work

they are expected to deliver at the end of the sprint, according to

Mr Van Oosten.

This approach is better suited to the lifestyles of Travis Perkins

employees than the traditional nine-to-five, Mr Van Oosten says,

especially for those with young children.

And it has dramatically improved productivity. “Our productivity has

shot up by over 100%,” he says.

A recent project to build a mobile website for a client, which would have

taken months to complete before the introduction of the new working

style, took mere weeks, Mr Van Oosten explains.

Meetings are also more productive, he says, as attendees spend less

time ascertaining who is doing what and focus instead on taking

decisions. The average length of time for a meeting has dropped from

60 minutes to 15.

As for management metrics, Mr Van Oosten uses an unusual measure

to gauge the engagement of his workforce. Despite the fact that

employees can work more flexibly, he says, “noise in the office has

increased from 38 decibels to over 70 decibels”.

This tells Mr Van Oosten that his teams are happier, he says. “Laughter

is a good ingredient of an everyday, successful business.”

Measure of successWhat the example of Travis Perkins arguably shows is that in order for

remote and flexible working to be beneficial, the structure and river of

work must be explicit.

The same goes for performance metrics, says Sally Cornall, head of

human resources at online recruitment specialist reed.co.uk.

She believes that as employers increasingly support remote working,

the metrics by which employee performance is judged and the outputs

which they are expected to deliver must become more visible.

Furthermore, those metrics and outputs must be incorporated into

employees’ training and career development programmes, lest they fall

foul of being “out of sight, out of mind”.

In short, she argues that a more flexible working environment calls

for more explicit and regular feedback for employees, whether it is

quantitative or qualitative.

firM targets Why flexible Working calls for structured ManageMent Written by The Economist Intelligence Unit

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“Our team members receive regular feedback on the achievement of

their personal goals and objectives,” says Ms Cornall. “In many cases,

this performance can be measured systematically, both quantitatively

and qualitatively.

“For instance, we measure the performance of our sales team against

financial targets and activity that is recorded automatically, and we give

continuous training and development by referring to recorded calls,”

she says. “This benefits training, development and future objective

setting. All of these metrics can be used both locally and remotely.”

Of course, another aspect of engaging with one’s work is the social

dimension. A recently completed survey by reed.co.uk found that 77%

of employees believe the people they work with are essential or very

important to their job satisfaction – ranking higher even than salary.

Matt Ridley, the company’s chief information officer, warns that this

social interaction must not be lost in the move to more flexible working

patterns. “Technology needs to augment, not disrupt, these personal

relationships,” says Mr Ridley, who believes digital technology offers

plenty of opportunities for interaction at a distance.

Indeed, mobile and social technologies can play a vital part in bringing

disparate parts of the organisation together. Yet as employees reap the

benefits of technology by working more remotely and more flexibly,

their managers must make sure that the unspoken benefits of a physical

workplace – including a shared pace of work, immediate feedback and

social interaction – are replaced with structured alternatives.