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No More Working from Home, Telecommuting or Calling in - By John Hendrie

2013-03-20

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LRA Worldwide The Mother Ship needs you in the office, or, as the Internal Yahoo memo stated, 'We need to be one Yahoo, and that starts with physically being together'.

No more working from home, telecommuting or calling in. Yahoo channeling Google? I think not. We can understand a new CEO establishing her stamp on the business, but this was handled so poorly, receiving hoots not only internal to Yahoo but also external from many other companies.

This approach may not fit the sketch of many Hospitality companies, for we are very Customer facing and much of our work does not relate to work from a remote location. But, we do have some flexibility in certain areas, mostly support – those functions not requiring Guest contact. Such is our lot. But, every company seeks to enhance creativity and productivity, with some, like Google, simply way out there, as reported by the New York Times on Saturday, March 16, 2013 in an article entitled, “A Place to Play for Google Staff”.

We can understand why Yahoo wants to emulate the Google spirit and success, but CEO, Marissa Mayer, may have just shot herself in the foot rather than kick the door open for advancing the Brand. The biggest difference is what defines a workplace. For most of us a workplace is an address, a desk or work station, maybe a phone line, employee time and attendance systems and extensive Policies and Procedures. Google might have geographical addresses, but the rest of the “layout” is very different, kind of a dreamland for many us, looking in. I mean you start with treating employees like adults and trusting them? Far out!

Let me tick off some of the Google perquisites: play areas, cafes, sunny outdoor terraces, free food, dogs allowed, eye brow shaping, Yoga classes, massage and many, many more, plus the usual benefit package, highly enhanced. Ping pong anyone?

Google has created a unique community, essentially what we all want with our businesses. But, then we add all the structure, walls and laws, which become the barriers to productivity and innovation gains. Hopefully, Yahoo will overcome some of their missteps. Interestingly, Google does not require employees to work from the office. They do not even keep track of who is there. People come into the office, because they want to work in that office. Wow, there is a change of attitude! Knock, knock - please let me in!

LRA Worldwide is a leading research and consulting company in the emerging discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM). We work with our clients to help them design and deliver consistently exceptional customer experiences in order to drive customer satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, and company growth and profitability. We have built a range of quality assurance, mystery shopping, research, training and consulting solutions to help them do so.

Today, we are a growing company operating in more than 120 countries throughout the world, servicing our clients from offices and resources in the Americas, EMEA and Asia Pacific regions and helping clients such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, the National Football League, Avis Budget Group, Madison Square Garden, the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas and Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group deliver exceptional customer experiences. Every touch. Every time. For more information, visit us at www.LRAworldwide.com.

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