Cisco initiates flexi timings for staff and saves $490 million!

Firm offers this work option to 80% of its staff, saves $196mn on opex and garners $294 mn via building sales

US-based technology giant Cisco’s decision to implement flexible timings for its staff globally has resulted in savings worth $490 million in the real estate portfolio.

At the same time, employee satisfaction has increased dramatically.

Cisco, which is among the early adopters of flexible timings, provides this option to more than 80 per cent of employees, who are free to work from anywhere.

As a result of its workplace transformation since 2012, Cisco has saved $196 million in opex year-on-year around real estate, while garnering $294 million through sales of buildings.

The company has closed 239 buildings after implementing flexi working hours.

Globally the company has around 80,000 employees, of whom over 10,000 are in India. Employees working in the sales, marketing and engineering divisions can avail of flexi timings.

Only 20 per cent of employees who are in support like call centres have to go to office.

A senior manager of the company said: “We don’t measure the number of hours in office, we care about the outcome.”

The company has enabled its employees with latest collaboration tools, which help them to be productive wherever they are based.

“They no longer need to come to office every day. We have implemented the internal teams tool, which allows employees working remotely to regularly engage with their managers and do a ritual week on week called ‘Check in’ where they discuss priorities for the next week and monitor the current week’s progress,” the company said.

Through its collaborative products like WebEx and Spark, Cisco is leading workplace transformation with customers in India.

The company said large IT companies in India such as Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant had deployed pervasive collaboration solutions and led the usage chart.

“The top 5 IT companies in India consume 183 million Webex minutes per month (2.19 billion webex minutes a year),” Cisco said.

Photograph: Albert Gea/Reuters