Cisco saves $490 million by implementing flexi timings for employees

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 on real estate portfolio. At the same time employee satisfaction has increased dramatically. 

Cisco, which is among the early adopters of flexible timings, provides this working option to over 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 building sales. The company has closed 239 buildings after implementation of flexi working hours.

The company has around 80,000 employees globally, of which over 10,000 are in India. Employees working in sales, marketing and engineering divisions can avail flexi timings. Only the 20 per cent employees, who are in support like call centres etc 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 to get work done. We have also implemented internal teams tool which allows employee working remotely to regularly engage with their managers and do a ritual week on week called “Check in” where they discuss priorities for next week and monitor current week progress,” the company said. 

Through its collaborative products like WebEx, Spark etc, Cisco is leading the workplace transformation with customers in India. The company said large IT companies in India such as Infosys, Wipro and Cognizant have deployed pervasive collaboration solution and lead the usage chart. Companies from manufacturing banking and public sector have started adoption. 

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