Silicon Valley ditches the office (by Maggie Shiels, BBC News Online, March 10, 2004) reports on Sun Microsystems' innovative iWork program, which promises to update the workplace to match the needs of today's knowledge-based workforce. The program offers employees a menu of options, from traditional assigned offices, to working from home, to flexibly assigned workspaces in Sun buildings. The program recently received the "Global Innovators Award" from CoreNet, an association for corporate real estate.

 

Eric Richert, head of the iWork Solutions group, estimates real estate savings of $71 million. Bill Vass, head of IT, says overhead expenses are also down, citing annual electricity savings of $2.8 million as an example.

Close to half of Sun's 35,000 Santa Clara-based employees have given up their assigned desk, many saving significant time by avoiding a length commute. Surveys show that "60% of those time savings are given back to Sun, and they keep 40% for themselves, so its a terrific win-win situation all round."

A review of Sun's documention shows the close collaboration between Sun workplaces (real estate), IT, and HR departments required to craft the innovative approach. HR's employee surveys provided the foundation for change and keeps tabs on employee satification with the program. The "flexible office" standards that guide construction of the physical workplaces are based on an 8' x 10' planning module provides a mix of individual workspaces and team-oriented areas that can be reconfigured as needs change.

IT ensured ready access to shared resources in common areas, including access to workers' desktops from any location via smart-card enabled Sun Ray 150 workstations, "follow me" phones, and additional access to the SunReserve system through kiosks in the iWork areas.

Sun provides an archived copy of an article that originally appeared in CBS MarketWatch on March 24, 2003: They work, you work, and iWork By Scott McNealy, that adds a great view of many management issues of a remote workforce. Among the advice it offers is one of the Telework Consortium's favorites: don't discount the importance of face-to-face contact.