Why We Don’t Track Hours Worked At Our Company

We made a decision from day one of starting Rype that we wouldn’t track hours. We received several backlashes about this decision from advisors and fellow entrepreneurs, especially since we’re a 100% distributed team.

“Won’t people take advantage of this?”
“How do you know who your best employees are?”
“You may be able to pull this off with a physical office, but not with a remote company!…”

But this is exactly why we feel strongly about this decision. Instead of measuring how early someone starts their day, or how late they finish, we can focus on what matters: results.

Too often we see this in today’s working environment:

Person A takes three days to get X output. He/she is always the first to come into the office, and last to leave.

Person B takes seven hours to get the same X output, and re-energizes to focus on future projects that will add more value for the company.

Yet Person A is rewarded for their “hard work” and dedication, when Person B added more value for the company in the end. While this may be how we’ve been taught to climb the corporate ladder, this is the exact opposite of how we want to reward our team.

Let me be clear, our point is not to dismiss hard work. We work day and night to grow the company and strive to exceed every milestone we set. But at the end of the day, everyone on our team is aware that they’re measured by one thing: results. This allows our team members to design a working schedule around their most productive hours, without the pressure to stick around just because everyone else is.

Fast-forward thinking organizations are already adopting systems such as ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) to promote output work cultures, where employees are evaluated on performance, not presence. Best Buy and Gap as an example saw 20% improvement in productivity, 90% decrease in turnover rates, and increased customer satisfaction.

We’re not saying any of this is easy. Nor should it be. It requires over-communicating feedback, setting specific goals that are measurable, and vetting new team members that you trust will thrive in a results-oriented environment.

But when everyone is working towards the same mission, at times when they’re most productive, and rewarded based on results, you’ll be surprised at what you can achieve.

While some may resist this approach of building a company, we believe this is the future of work.

This article was originally posted on Inc. Magazine for my column “Your Way.”