Brainpower. Sylvia Ann Hewlett
Not because the space was mismanaged, but because people attend meetings, travel, take time away from work—and they’re not at their desks. In addition, American Express employees said they want more ways to collaborate and connect with each other as well as have more choices in how they do their work. To solve this, American Express has successfully piloted a new initiative designed to more closely align employee work styles with workspace options and workplace technology.
BlueWork—as it’s called—addresses how work is changing at American Express by opening up the boundaries around where and how work is being done. The combination of pioneering flexible policies with modern workspaces creates great engagement and innovation. At AmEx, work is done through global teams, in different locations and working at different times. The four workstyles of BlueWork, Hub–Club–Home–Roam are representative of how work actually happens and remind us that work is no longer a place, but rather, it’s what we do whether at home, in the office, on the road, or wherever you connect. BlueWork promotes flexibility by enabling employees to work in the way that they are most successful and productive.
In short, a role that has been designated Home gives employees the opportunity to work from a home office. A role categorized as Roam assumes that an employee—for instance, in a sales role—will spend much of his or her time on the road and with clients and will only need to come into a hub location on occasion. Hub and Club roles typically require more face-to-face interaction, and those people spend all or most of their time in a hub location. For Club roles, trade-offs in personal space are compensated by amenities such as personal lockers, huddle rooms, and other flexible options which enhance the work experience.
Importantly, the program has generated cost savings for the company. Pilot programs in Singapore, Sydney and London have been well received, and plans are already underway to implement BlueWork in locations across the United States. The development and implementation of the program has required the expertise of global teams across American Express including real estate, technology, and human resources.
For American Express, this innovative approach enhances the employee value proposition, increases employee engagement, and supports their position as a global employer of choice.
Bank of America/Merrill Lynch: Greater Returns
Greater Returns, a suite of programs at the Columbia Business School sponsored by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, offers high-potential female executives an exciting new opportunity to gain the critical tools necessary to reignite their careers. The Greater Returns program provides participants with unusual access to professional development and networking opportunities.
The first component of the two-part program, “Restarting Your Career,” took place in the fall of 2008 and was geared toward helping women who have been out of the workforce for a period of time on-ramp and return to the workforce. A second, up-ramping component, Accelerating Your Career, will take place in spring 2010, this time with a focus on helping on-track women advance their careers. Hidden Brain Drain Task Force research has shown that over 90% of highly qualified women who take time out for childcare or eldercare want to reenter the workforce, but many find it difficult to do so. Greater Returns: “Restarting Your Career” sought to ease this transition by providing reskilling and retraining, coaching and mentoring, and re-networking and leadership development opportunities. Participants in the program had three-ten years of experience in business or financial services. Program expenses were underwritten by Bank of America/Merrill Lynch to reduce participant costs.
Further research conducted by the Task Force has shown that large numbers of high-performing female managers find it difficult to move upward—their careers become stuck or stalled. Greater Returns: “Accelerating Your Career,” aims to break this logjam by providing women with tools that will allow them to increase their bandwidth, acquire sponsors, and move up in their industries.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett serves as program director of Greater Returns. Ann P. Bartel, the Merrill Lynch professor of workplace transformation and director of the Columbia Business School’s Workforce Transformation research initiative, is the faculty director. Taught by highly regarded Columbia Business School faculty and a distinguished group of female corporate leaders, the Greater Returns programs provide substantive rigor and unusual access to hands-on help and advice.
“Accelerating Your Career” is scheduled for May 2010, with a focus on helping on-track women at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch advance their careers. A number of Hidden Brain Drain Task Force members will present information and lead workshops. Carolyn Buck Luce, EY’s global life sciences sector leader, will present “Building Your Personal Brand.” Rosalind Hudnell, corporate director of diversity at Intel, will lead a session on “High Impact Leadership.” Representatives from Bank of America will describe changes in the financial sector. Ann Bartel will advise participants on developing their negotiation skills. Other sessions, taught by Columbia Business School professors Bob Bontempo and Murray Low, will focus on leading across cultural and generational boundaries and on how to bolster internal and external networks. Sylvia Ann Hewlett will share Task Force research on Extreme Jobs. Kerrie Peraino, chief diversity officer of American Express, will lead a session on the role of sponsorship.
Both programs include a substantial networking component. Additionally, peer mentoring is the cornerstone of the Greater Returns programs. Participants develop a personal roadmap over the course of the two-and-a-half day program. Working with a peer buddy, they connect during and after the program to share their plans of action.
Boehringer Ingelheim: Workplace of the Future
Value through innovation is the “business of the business” at Boehringer Ingelheim, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. From advances in HIV/AIDS treatment to rethinking animal health, the firm has long been a trailblazer in its industry. Innovation at Boehringer Ingelheim does not end with its approach to R&D, however. To continue to be a game changer in the field, the firm knows it also needs to be an innovator around talent management. In pursuit of this goal, the company recently piloted a program called Workplace of the Future.
The germ of the idea for Workplace of the Future came from Boehringer Ingelheim employees themselves at a Senior Leadership Development Conference. In 2008, a Workplace of the Future team was formed to better understand employees’ workplace and work-life needs. The Workplace of the Future survey revealed that 75% of the firm’s employees were looking for more efficient ways to work collaboratively. Prodded by this finding, the firm spent two weeks closely observing the work patterns and habits of employees at its U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, Connecticut. The results surprised everybody. Most employees, it turned out, spent as much as two-thirds of each day working away from their primary workstations. The company decided to adapt its office environment accordingly.
In April 2009, Boehringer Ingelheim piloted a redesign of its office environment at its Ridgefield headquarters. The new space configuration features three primary types of workstations—“I,” “You plus me,” and “We”—each crafted to embrace a variety of work styles. “I” spaces—for individual work—include laptop docking stations on elevated counters for highly mobile workers as well as more traditional desks for people who need touchdown spaces at which to work for longer stretches. “You plus me” and “We,” designed to promote collaborative interactions, offer semi-enclosed spaces equipped with white noise technology to mask ambient sounds. Other stations feature smart board technology, dry erase cabinets, and monitors that can link to employees convening in other offices. The new office models also include relax stations and scenery screens.
Michael Carneglia, the architect of the project, explains the motivation behind its design. “Some of the most collaborative and most productive interaction in an office takes place in the hallway. The idea behind Workplace of the Future is to embrace and internalize that.”
The firm anticipates that the interactive, adaptable nature of its new office design will promote informal idea sharing, collaboration, inspired partnering, and tangible bottom line benefits. Among its other advantages, by saving space Workplace of the Future will reduce the company’s property costs and carbon emissions—and may also earn Boehringer Ingelheim a corporate tax break from the State of Connecticut. The firm also expects the new space design to serve as a valuable