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GAP goes ROWE

Sep 14, 2009 » by Cali & Jody

We’ve been bursting at the seams to talk about our latest ROWE success story and now we finally can:

Gap Outlet, a division of San Francisco-based Gap, Inc. has officially migrated 137 Corporate Headquarters employees to a Results-Only Work Environment.

The work began back in February 2008, when Outlet’s production and technical services team piloted ROWE.  When the voluntary turnover rate dropped by 50 percent and employee engagement rose by 13 percent, the program was expanded in September ’08 to include 137 headquarters employees (adding merchandising, design, HR, and finance).

HR Magazine, which is published by the Society for Human Resources Management, recently did a nice piece on the positive effects of Gap’s journey. The story is not available online, but we’ll be writing about the Gap experience in the coming weeks. In the meantime, please join us in officially welcoming another authentic ROWE into the world.

  • http://blog.conmergence.com Ed Dodds

    Dell right-sizes call center; allegedly adopts work from home

    http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/09/14/daily1.html

  • http://taranofzigerdesign.com Tara Nofziger

    Great news! Can’t wait to read more!

  • http://www.procrastinatingwritersblog.com Jennifer Blanchard

    Congratulations! I’m so excited for you ladies and for GAP! I recently started a small publishing house and I’m building it piece-by-piece with ROWE as the foundation.

    Thanks for being such a great inspiration to businesses everywhere!

    • Cali & Jody

      @Tara and Jennifer – we love to see the excitement about this! Obviously, this has been in the works for quite some time, but Gap (understandably!) wanted to remain mum until they had solid success measures to share. There will be lots more news about this in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

      • Ashley

        Hi Cali & Jody,
        I’m a college student working on a project that is aimed at increasing the use of programs that allow telecommuting, such as ROWE! Do you think I could email you with a few questions about Gap’s program?

  • Matt

    And the momentum keeps building…

    I am excited to see every new company added to the list because it is another salvo in my proposal to implement ROWE in my department. I was offered the opportunity to implement some changes to our department that are related to ROWE. I have been struggling with this, as I know ROWE can’t be piecemeal, but I am not being given the opportunity to do more. Maybe the addition of more and more companies will help expand the scope of my work.

    All I know is that recessions can make even the ‘titans’ of industry think they are walking on a frozen lake during a heat snap. Just glad to see some are still willing to innovate.

    • Cali & Jody

      @Matt – this is often how it happens…those organizations/leaders that haven’t felt comfortable letting go enough to explore ROWE are waiting for that one thing that will push them over the edge. For some, it will be this Gap news and for others, it will be news about the next company…but however long it takes for your particular organization, we hope you will remain strong so you’re ready when the time presents itself…

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  • Concerned Employee

    This is great news! The successes keep growing. The revolution keeps gaining momentum. The awareness of this way of doing business is going to help businesses and employees during this recession – not to mention the economy!
    Companies that are just observing at the moment are missing out on the opportunity to be part of the movement. Businesses like GAP and the others are becoming leaders and they will have the edge.

  • Tanya

    While this is very exciting for the Outlet division at Gap, Inc. many of us in other brands at Gap, Inc. have not been able to join in the excitement. I just want to set the record straight that the only brand at Gap, Inc. fully on ROWE is Outlet.

    One brand in particular at Gap, Inc. has been so opposed to ROWE that the head of HR for that brand got up in a brand quarterly update meeting to scold us all for asking about whether or not this particular brand would consider moving to a ROWE model given the success the Outlet division has had.

    Clearly I work for this brand and clearly I am frustrated with this brand’s response to ROWE and refusual to give it a shot. Many brands at Gap, Inc. have had no exposure to ROWE so saying GAP is on ROWE is not entirely correct.