Adding 19 Hours To The Workweek

Admittedly, I was never an easy person for whom to work,  okay, that’s an understatement.  Often the reasons some people thrived and others didn’t are the same reasons that I was pretty good at other aspects of organizational growth and leadership.  However, I never gave up trying to find and integrate solutions to compensate, the most successful of which was teaming with an extremely effective and gifted COO during the last decade of my management career.

Receiving four more International MarCom awards further cements the marketing reputation of Durham’s official community or destination marketing organization, for whom I once worked and now a new study of 25,000 IBM employees in 75 countries may distill of DCVB’s secret.  Among the 120+ best practice recognitions DCVB has received in just two decades of existence are many as a “place to work.”

Destination marketing, practiced at or near its full potential as DCVB does, is a high-energy, all-consuming effort.  The target is always moving.  Competition is super-intense.  Rapid change is the norm.  Critical thinking and resilient learning from mistakes  is imperative.  Improvement must be continual and never-ending.  It definitely isn’t for everyone and it begins with selecting and grooming employees with the right fit and mental toughness.

A study released this year and  led by E. Jeffrey Hill at my alma mater Brigham Young University (BYU) reveals that organizations like DCVB have a way to add 19 hours to the work week.  Part of the reason is hiring only people who live in Durham, curbing commutes.  But workplace flexibility, for which DCVB has been recognized nationwide several times including three Sloan Awards, is the secret.

Hill’s study of 25,000 IBM employees shows that after 38 hours a week in the workplace, employees experience work-family conflicts which cause a decline in efficiency and concentration.  When an employer does as DCVB has long been widely recognized and “strategically” employs comprehensive workplace flexibility through things like telecommuting and flex-time, the result is like adding 19 “workable” hours to the workweek improving workplace satisfaction and productivity.  The study shows that employees in a flexible work environment are able on average to juggle work responsibilities over 57 hours vs. just 38.

However, as DCVB has learned, with workplace flexibility, management responsibility intensifies.  DCVB handles this with an intricate process of highly measurable, cascading performance objectives for each employee, calibrated to each level of responsibility with relentless coaching and in-depth quarterly and annual reviews including several dozen core competencies that begin and end each year with the governing board’s review of CEO Shelly Green.

The results show in DCVB’s annual progress report, issued this week.

As a whole, DCVB has found a formula where employees work faster, harder and smarter on behalf of the community but without sacrificing personal or home-side responsibilities.  The result is a destination marketing organization that truly walks Durham’s overarching brand signature, “Where Great Things Happen!”