Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/131821
Workforce Leadership Teleworking Harder Yahoo threw out the baby with the bathwater. You don't have to. By Mac McConnell In the wake of Yahoo's very public decision to cancel its "work-at-home" program, the future of telecommuting seems to be in question. The popular media's decision to simultaneously declare the move both a watershed moment in work culture and a seriously questionable leadership decision has done the public a grave disservice. Why? Because the move represented neither. Instead, it should be seen more as evidence of a breakdown in process, technology, and policy within one of Silicon Valley's bellwether organizations. CEO Marissa Mayer's decision was made using hard data; she was checking VPN logs to find out who was logging in and who was not. These logs were not checked regularly nor was there a process in place that required anyone to do so. More troubling is that Yahoo has offices worldwide. The challenges of managing a mobile workforce and teams scattered globally are not that dissimilar. The same challenges exist. Interestingly enough, Yahoo has not eliminated its global network, just its policy of allowing employees to telecommute. Recognizing this further confirms that the controversial decision was fueled by poor business process management (BPM) as it relates to the company's telework policy. With the proper technology and planning, the issue could have been avoided altogether. A universal example of the role BPM can play in an organization is the on-boarding process of a new employee. During the first day of work, documents need to be signed. Training sessions need to be completed. For a teleworker, specific technology needs to be shipped and installed to the home. Instead of a system that requires scrambling each time your company brings in a new body, this process can be automated and simplified. The proper technology and process has the ability to connect the often multiple pieces of software that are charged with governing various departments by linking specific tasks into the social stream of a company. Be it Salesforce Chatter or Yammer, these locations are where managers keep the pulse [50] HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | APRIL 2013 of an organization. In the HR-related example of the new employee, managers want to be sure that tasks are being completed appropriately in a timely fashion so they can contribute on day one. Proper BPM allows management to reflexively monitor the success of both short-term and long-term goals. This brings us back to Yahoo. Proper BPM allows managers to track the ongoing progress of projects. It benchmarks when specific tasks are completed. And by default, it monitors when employees are logging in and the amount of time they are working within an application. With this information, leadership can properly allocate resources, establish key performance indicators (KPIs), and control the amount of time spent on specific activities. No such process was in place at Yahoo. None of this data was collected. Efficient processes were not put into place. This fiasco could have been avoided. At its core, every organization is run on process. No, processes are not always mapped out on a whiteboard or printed within an employee handbook, so they are not always obvious. But native processes exist and keep projects and goals moving forward. When it comes to telework, the mistake most companies make is not putting a formal process into place that facilitates productivity. There's no need to throw out the baby because of the bathwater. In this case, Yahoo might just have needed to draw another bath. Mac McConnell is vice president of marketing for BonitaSoft, a provider of business process management technologies