Activity Based Working (ABW) Consultancy
Perth

Activity Based Working (ABW)

 

Changing where people sit is relatively easy. Changing how an organisation works is not. Activity Based Working (ABW) succeeds when the business understands the activities its people perform, provides the right mix of work settings, and brings employees and leaders along with the change.

 

Work Future is an independent, Perth-based, client-side workplace consultancy. We help organisations assess whether ABW is right for them, define the workplace strategy, plan the employee engagement and lead the implementation. We connect the evidence, the people and the delivery, rather than treating ABW as a fit-out exercise.

 

Considering ABW, desk sharing or a new way of working?

 

There are many reasons to reconsider the way an office works: a lease event, more people than desks, underused floors, hybrid attendance or the need for better collaboration. ABW may be an excellent response. Equally, it may not be the right answer for every organisation, every team or every role.

 

The starting point is not the number of desks you can remove. It is a clear understanding of the problem you are trying to solve and what your people need to do their work.

 

What Work Future helps you do

 

• Assess suitability: establish the business case, leadership commitment, constraints, current work practices and whether ABW, a mixed model or assigned seating is most appropriate.

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• Understand workplace demand: review people data, peak attendance, workpoint supply, team dependencies and the activities performed across the working week.

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• Define the strategy: agree guiding principles, future ways of working, work-setting requirements, desk-sharing assumptions and any justified assigned-desk exceptions.

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• Support design and technology: work with your appointed designer and technology specialists so the physical environment, workplace systems and everyday experience work together.

 

• Lead the people side: develop the change strategy, employee engagement, leadership briefings, communications, workplace etiquette and operational readiness approach.

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• Deliver and refine: coordinate the client-side implementation, pilot where useful, prepare the business for launch and assess how the workplace performs after occupation.

 

ABW is not simply hot desking

 

Hot desking and ABW both involve some form of desk sharing, but they are not interchangeable. Genuine ABW starts with the activities people do and deliberately provides alternative settings: spaces for concentration, collaboration, confidential conversations, project work and connection. Desk sharing is a component, not the whole concept.

 

If the project removes assigned desks but provides no meaningful choice of settings, it is worth asking whether ABW is really what is being delivered.

 

The people and culture challenge

 

Staff may be asked to give up things that are familiar and personal: a personalised desk, under-desk storage, sitting alongside close colleagues or an established routine. Some will question whether the change is really about better ways of working or is simply hot desking and cost cutting. They will also want to know, ‘What’s in it for me?’ These are reasonable questions. People need a clear explanation of why the change is proposed, what will be different in their working day and how their concerns will be addressed.

 

Successful adoption relies on early employee engagement, honest and clear communication, opportunities for staff to help shape the new ways of working, and intuitive, reliable technology. It also needs time. Allow an initial two to three months for people to adapt and for the operating model to be assessed and fine-tuned against real-life use, while dealing with practical problems as they arise. The project is not finished on the day the new office opens.