Principal
Consultant, Collaboration / Multimedia / Video / AV
Dimension Data
Director of
Emerging Technology
Interactive
Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance
eMail:
David.Danto@DimensionData.com Follow Industry
News: @NJDavidD
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When is a Smarter Working Policy not a Smarter Working Policy?
There’s been
a lot of coverage in the media and
discussions on the internet recently about Yahoo’s new Chief Executive, Marissa
Mayer, issuing an edict that bans employees from working remotely. The original HR memo
said that Yahoo needed to increase its spontaneous face-to-face interaction
among employees to foster a more collaborative culture.
Now a statement like that doesn’t pass the sniff test on
a whole lot of levels. As a professional
in the collaboration space I am required to peel the onion a bit and help
explain what is really going on and what the facts are.
First-off, working remotely (which includes the
stigma-laden “working from home”) is just one small part of what has become known
as “Smarter Working.” Basically, this
concept means that a combination of today’s collaboration technologies, modern
collaborative office spaces and flexible working arrangements provides so many
benefits that the stodgiest old-school executive can’t deny it anymore. When implemented correctly, productivity
tremendously increases, organizational infrastructure and real estate costs go
down, recruiting efforts are improved and employee moral reaches new heights. Study after study continue to prove these
facts. If you want to think of it in
simple terms, just look at a single employee that commutes for one hour to the
office every day and a second hour home.
In the course of one year of remote working that’s approximately 500
hours of productive time that gets returned to the employee – much of which
goes to the benefit of the employer.
That doesn’t even begin to mention the carbon emissions saved, the
employer’s cost of real estate not needed for a desk and chair, the cost of
electricity, heating and cooling, etc.
In addition to all that, modern collaboration tools are
just as effective (if not more so) at fostering spontaneous interaction between
employees than any “bump in the hallway.”
Escalating an instant message to a video chat to a desktop sharing
session transforms an interaction from one that would have needed a number of
follow-ups (if it happened at the “water cooler”) to one that is immediately
resolved. It also allows for these
spontaneous interactions to break geographical boundaries. During my typical day I spontaneously act
with my team (and clients) in North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Washington
State, California and London from my home office in New Jersey. In addition, when I recently had an
unexpected delay at the airport (that never happens at the new United, right?),
I pulled out my technology and began to collaborate in a videoconference with
document sharing right from Hartsfield Gate 8.
My “office” is wherever I am
That is in fact one of the key tenets of “Smarter
Working” – work isn’t a place where you go, it’s what you do.
I was recently privileged to moderate a forum on smarter working
for a number of firms in San Francisco.
Take a look at the video on YouTube and see for
yourself what experts and end-users had to say about it.
The real situation at Yahoo is more likely that they are
in “Crisis Mode” as the New York Times put it, and are trying to rein-in
employees that have been mismanaged and getting away with things for
years. Good managers are undeniably an
essential part of an effective smarter working strategy. It takes strong managerial skills to
understand which employees are productive and which are not, and to ensure that
each one receives effective leadership.
However, go back and read that last sentence again. It doesn’t just apply to remote workers, it
applies to all workers. If ineffective
managers are allowed to supervise a workforce, poor employees will find ways to
slack off without any remote technology, and good employees will do their best
while dealing with the frustrations that a lousy boss brings. The technology is
never going to make a good employee bad or a bad supervisor good.
Ms. Mayer is more than likely trying to clean house
without coming out and saying that. In
fact, the day after the initial brouhaha, Yahoo issued a clarifying statement
that stated their new mandate “…isn’t a broad industry view on working from
home.” I believe that once some of the
excesses of the past poor supervision have been discovered and eliminated that
Yahoo and Ms. Mayer will again embrace smarter working and collaboration
technologies. Coming from Google I’m
sure she understands that they are the essential foundation of any organization
that wants to evolve rather than die.
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This article was written by David Danto and
contains solely his own, personal opinions. David has 35 years of experience
providing problem solving leadership and innovation in media and unified
communications technologies for various firms in the corporate, broadcasting
and academic worlds - including AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN,
Morgan Stanley, NYU, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Chase. He now works with Dimension Data as their Principal
Consultant for the collaboration, multimedia, video and AV disciplines. He is
also the IMCCA’s Director of
Emerging Technology. David can be reached at David.Danto@Dimensiondata.com
or DDanto@imcca.org and his full bio and
other blogs and articles can be seen at Danto.info. Please reach-out to David if you would like to
discuss how he can help your organization solve video problems or develop a
future-proof collaboration strategy.