Future of Work consortium

Brian Sherwood Jones called my attention to a recent article in the London Times Online about HSBC's plans to move at least 50 percent of their London office staff into a home-based and mobile work environment within seven years ("Work-from-home drive as HSBC aims to sublet HQ")

It's a powerful example of reality-based leadership. Here's a statement from HSBC's chief executive, Michael Geoghegan, about his goal of reducing the company's use of it's Canary Wharf facility in London:

I’ve challenged us within seven years to have 50 per cent of that building empty, to sublet to someone else. I don’t think we’re a really progressive, perceptive company if 8,000 people have to get up every day at an unearthly hour and go back again. Technology should change our thought process.

And here's the context for that statement:

Technology will enable HSBC, Britain’s biggest bank, to halve the 8,000-strong workforce at its Canary Wharf head office within seven years, its chief executive said yesterday.

Michael Geoghegan said he expected at least 4,000 employees to work from home or on the road by 2014, rather than at desks in the bank’s £1.1 billion headquarters.

The business case for distributed work is so incredibly compelling that I continue to marvel at the fact that a commitment like HSBC's is still big news. It should be simply the way things are.

Our friends at Sun Microsystems tell us they save something like $7000 a year in workforce support costs for every employee who moves into their iWork program. And the individual employees save about $2000 worth of gasoliine and automobile wear and tear annually from not commuting - to say nothing of the reductions in greenhouse gasses and traffic congestion.

I am convinced that eventually almost everyone will be working this way, but I do recognize there are lots and lots of hurdles - mostly psychological - to overcome before we get there. Best wishes to HSBC in their effort.

Posted by Jim Ware