The chief executive of Yahoo recently surprised the working world by changing her policy and basically eliminating telecommuting. Likewise, Best Buy’s corporate office announced that it is reversing the implementation of its Results Only Work Environment program.

Edmunds.com, regularly recognized as a top workplace by the Business Journal and other sources, started adopting Rowe in February 2011 and has never looked back. To Edmunds, Rowe means setting clear expectations; treating people like adults; and monitoring results, not presence. Each employee focuses on what must get done and is allowed to determine when and where this can be best accomplished in the context of his or her work-life balance.

Edmunds is based in Santa Monica; not surprisingly, we have employees traveling to work from Santa Clarita, Diamond Bar, Huntington Beach and places in between. During peak travel times, these commutes can reach two to three hours one way. Rowe moved us away from the standard expectation that everyone be at their desks from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. That drastically improved people’s commutes, resulting in an overwhelmingly positive impact on the state of mind of our employees (not to mention the environment).

Case in point: Our senior visual designer reported to us, “My health and over all well-being have both improved exponentially at Edmunds. Not having to fight three hours of rush hour traffic every day means I have time to go to the gym, prepare meals at home and even get a little extra sleep. My friends and family have all noticed the difference in me. They say things like, ‘You seem so relaxed’ or ‘You seem so happy lately.’ ”

A number of employees have told us how much they appreciate taking their kids to school in the morning, then sitting down in a comfortable spot at home and completing an hour’s worth of email responses, and then, if need be, commuting 30 miles to the office. At that later hour, it doesn’t take 90 minutes as is fairly standard in L.A. commutes. Instead, they can arrive in 30-plus minutes or so and jump right in to collaborative teaming efforts and manage their time to navigate the L.A. traffic in nonpeak hours. Again, the time wasted in commuting is being put to much better use.

One of our software engineers shared another advantage of Rowe, pointing out, “I started grad school before coming to Edmunds, and I was ready to accept that working a full-time job would mean slowing down my school work and graduating later than planned. However, Rowe has meant that I can do both successfully, and I am scheduled to graduate in May as originally planned. I make myself available when people need me and I know that my work speaks for itself. Rowe means I don’t have to sacrifice other aspects of my life to be good at my job.:

Organizational trust

Having a Rowe culture requires organizational trust, and trust might be the biggest difference among Edmunds and the companies that have decided to more closely monitor their employees’ comings and goings. After all, Edmunds’ management team has stayed largely unchanged in the past decade and has great trust in the talented people who work for the company. On the other hand, both Yahoo and Best Buy have relatively new leadership, and those executives are likely eager to put their own stamp on the workforce as they sort out the wheat from the chaff and determine which people and projects they can trust. Also, Edmunds has enjoyed stable growth over the years, while Yahoo and Best Buy have experienced degrees of financial upheaval. It’s hard to have trust when you are struggling.

Most important, Edmunds has the organizational trust that supports Rowe because trust is a critical element of the Edmunds culture and brand. In fact, we think of ourselves as being in the “business of trust.” Car shoppers have trusted Edmunds’ automotive insights since the company published its first book in 1966. Today, we are striving to build a much needed bridge of trust between car shoppers and dealers. Trust is the foundation of any successful relationship, and we at Edmunds see the value of nurturing trust, even in weighty circumstances. That includes committing to our employees that we trust them to be focused on our company’s goals and to be given the discretion to achieve results from wherever they feel they will be most effective.

We are proud to be one of the best places to work in Los Angeles and believe that having a work environment that focuses on results instead of time worked will assist us in retaining this title.

Avi Steinlauf is chief executive of Edmunds.com in Santa Monica.