The way we work is changing. One company that is leading the way.

In their new book, Future Work, Alison Maitland and Peter Thomson argue that a revolution is taking place in the way we work and some CEOs have embraced the new way of working within their organizations. Maitland suggests in an article just published in the Fall 2011 Conference Board Review that “9 to 5 is so last century”.

She argues that, “Business leaders should pay heed to the divide between the self-employed and their own workers. In the future, the companies likely to attract the best people will be those that offer them the autonomy of a freelance lifestyle alongside the relative security and career opportunities of corporate employment.”

Further evidence of the desire for greater flexibility can be found in Kelly Services research on how free agents are redefining the workplace (August 2011). The report sheds further light on the changing employment landscape and employee preferences for greater flexibility. For example, 44% of the workforce now consists of free agents (up from 26% in 2008) of which 73% have chosen their freelance lifestyle. According to Kelly Services, employers are slow to change. They cite a growing gap between what employees want and what employers are providing, which has remained largely unchanged in the last three years. 

Unilever - A Company Leading the Way

AJO’s Senior HR Advisory Board (SHRAB) had an opportunity to visit the organization of one of the Group’s members. Unilever is an example of a company that has made significant advances in what it calls “agile working” and it happens to be featured in Maitland and Thomson’s new book. SHRAB members recently gathered at the North American HQ of Unilever in Engelwood Cliffs, NJ where Chris Herrick, VP Human Resources, NA and Chris Raia, VP Organizational Effectiveness made a compelling case to the assembled senior HR executives as to why Unilever has implemented agile working worldwide. 

What is agile working?

Put simply, agile working is an approach to working that offers maximum flexibility with a minimum of constraints. Employees are given flexibility to decide when, where and how works get done and they are measured against results. Maitland refers to this as measurement by output rather than measurement by hours.

The Drivers of Change at Unilever

• Efficiency and productivity – Unilever’s drive to consolidate its operations, reduce healthcare costs and increase productivity led the way for the move to agile working. It was also seen as a way to give back to employees whose roles were getting bigger.
• Talent attraction and retention - Interest in competitiveness in the labor market and the ability to attract and retain talent. (Unilever wished to strengthen its brand in the U.S. where it acknowledges it’s weaker than outside the U.S.).
• Workforce vitality – Concern for employee physical, emotional and spiritual well-being as well as productivity loss from poor vitality. Traditional workspaces were seen as energy sapping environments.

What does agile working look like?

The Unilever Working Model consists of three enablers and five outputs. Chris Raia described three enablers that serve to create maximum flexibility, harnessing the available technology and today’s working practices.

AGILE WORKING ENABLERS:

• Working practices focus on results. Employees may work anytime/anywhere as long as business needs are being fully met. Unilever’s approach is a play on Best Buy’s implementation, but interpreted a little differently. Interestingly, managers are assessed annually on how well they support agile working. While “pockets of resistance” have been encountered, adoption was not optional. Managers were advised that new employees entering the workforce are accustomed to working with maximum flexibility.
• Technology includes virtual collaboration and advanced mobility tools (e.g. laptops, iPads, cell phones and telepresence).
• Workplaces are designed around activities being performed.

AGILE WORKING OUTPUTS:

• Vitality which is achieved through increased work life balance and greater empowerment. As employees jobs were getting bigger and creating more work, the goal was to try and reduce the impact and foster healthier lifestyles.
• Talent attraction and retention of the best talent.
• Costs savings which are realized through less travel and consolidated real estate space. Traditional space is only utilized 60% of the time and agile workspaces are 40% less expensive to operate. Unilever has been able to consolidate four physical locations into one and is on track to have approximately 2,500 employees at its Englewood Cliffs offices (up from 1,100).
• Capabilities - Greater effectiveness in big jobs and virtual teams.
• Environment - Less CO2, energy & waste.

Click here to see more photos.

Agile Workspace Characteristics

• Spaces are designed around activities and not individuals.
• No one has a designated space. At the end of the day, work spaces must be cleared.
• Zones allow for Focus, Connection and Vitality
  • Focus zones are for individual working
  • Connect zones for working collaboratively with others
  • Vitality zones are for revitalization
• Within a given day, an employee might work in one or more of several zones.
• Each employee has a locker and two file cabinets. The generation of paper is discouraged and to this end, network printers are housed in printing/copying workspaces.

A Tour of Unilever’s Office

• Space is taken “cafeteria style” on a first come, first served basis. Space is mostly “free address” with rooms available for booking as needed.
• Small standalone soundproofed “booths” are available for conference calls and web conferencing. These typically house one or two people and are reserved as needed.
• Small conference rooms house small teams, with a monitor at the end of the table. At any time, a team member can share his/her screen with the assembled team.
• Telepresence conference rooms allow meetings to take place with Unilever employees worldwide. While there was concern that employees would not want to give up face to face meetings, high utilization and network capacity are the only limitations to the use of these facilities today. Someone not present can "telepresence" into the meeting from anywhere through technology set up on his/her laptop.
• A TV monitor attached to a wall allowed us to see a Brazilian office facility and employees there to see and hear us. You could approach and speak to your colleagues working at this location. “We have fun with this” shared Chris Herrick.
• Coffee/eating stations are brightly colored and modern. Paintings hang from the walls and stairwells, illuminated by modern lighting.

At AJO, we have seen greater interest in team development and we anticipate that this will grow. Organizations are focusing on how to optimize team performance in an era of increasing diversity, characterized by teams consisting of multi (five) generations, multi cultures; who are globally dispersed and working face to face and/or virtually. 

Recommended Reading

Books:

Future Work: How Businesses Can Adapt and Thrive In the New World of Work (2011) by Alison Maitland and Peter Thomson. Note that two chapters are devoted to what Maitland and Thomson call leadership 2.0 and management 2.0. (The book is available in the U.S. from Nov 8th 2011 and can be ordered at Amazon.com).

The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today (2010) by Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd. Explores the trends taking place in the workplace and discusses the implications. A recommended read for HR and OD professionals, as well as organization leaders.

Articles & Reports:

9 to 5 is So Last Century (Fall 2011) by Alison Maitland. The Conference Board Review, Workspace Column. You can request a copy of the article at Alison Maitland’s website, to which we link here.

Free Agents, How Knowledge Workers Are Redefining the Workplace, (August 2011) by Jocelyn Lincoln, Megan M. Raftery of Kelly Services. Kelly's free agent survey covers 1800 U.S. workers. (Note that you'll need to register first to access the report along with Kelly's eBook, "10 Things You Need to Know About Free Agents" and an infographic that provides a great visual of the free agent workstyle. 

The Future of Work (May 2011) by Rawn Shah, Forbes. Shah comments on the Aspen Institute’s paper on The Future of Work.