How to Implement Activity Based Working (ABW)
Activity Based Working (ABW) has been around for more than 30 years. Its continued relevance comes from a simple idea: the activities people perform at work change, and workplaces should be able to change with them.
ABW starts with understanding those activities, then translating the evidence into a range of work settings. The organisation provides the choice; employees decide which setting works for them at a particular moment. The important question is not how many desks can be removed, but what the organisation wants to achieve and how ABW can help.
I have spent more than 15 years working on workplace transformations in Australia and overseas, including ABW projects involving Qantas, QBE Insurance, Unilever and Water Corporation. My starting point is to understand why the organisation wants to change, how people work now and in the future, and what is needed to help them adopt that change.
Key takeaways
ABW is built around the activities people perform. As those activities change, the workplace can adapt, while giving individuals choice in how and where they work.
Understand the business problem and be open about the objectives, including cost reduction where relevant, before agreeing how ABW will operate or setting a desk-sharing percentage.
Standard workpoints determine the Desk Sharing %. Additional work settings provide the variety and short-term flexibility that distinguish ABW from hot desking.
Leadership, governance, evidence, delivery and employee engagement need to work together in the project from the beginning.
Give employees a meaningful voice and introduce new working behaviours incrementally, rather than expecting every change to happen at go-live.
Measure how the workplace performs after implementation. Launching the new way of working is not the same as achieving adoption.
First, Activity Based Working (ABW) is not hot desking
Desk sharing is an umbrella term. Hot desking is one way of sharing desks; ABW takes the idea further by offering additional work settings for different activities: concentration, calls, collaboration, project work and informal connection. These are not simply more desks. They are what give employees a meaningful choice about how to work.
An organisation that removes assigned desks without introducing a suitable range of additional work settings has introduced hot desking, not the full benefits of ABW. When sharing releases floor space, some of that capacity can be reinvested in different settings instead of treating every freed square metre as an automatic property saving.
I’ve explored this distinction in Hot Desking vs Activity Based Working (ABW). Here I want to focus on how you implement it.
A framework, not a checklist
My Work Future Framework has four mutually supporting layers: Environmental Factors, Project Governance Establishment, Delivery Model and Engagement. The delivery model then follows a five-stage project lifecycle, from evidence and strategy through design, implementation and close-out. Engagement isn’t something that begins near the end; it runs alongside the whole project.
The seven steps below are the practical ABW decisions to make within that framework, not a replacement for it. You can read more about the thinking behind the framework in How to Do a Workplace Transformation.
1. Decide whether ABW is actually the right answer
Start by being clear about why the organisation is considering ABW. Is the objective to improve collaboration, employee experience or flexibility? Are people struggling to find desks while other areas sit underused? Has hybrid attendance changed the requirement for space? Is a lease event prompting a rethink? Or is the main driver simply to reduce accommodation costs? If cost reduction is part of the business case, acknowledge it rather than dressing it up as something else.
More people than desks on a spreadsheet does not automatically mean more desks are needed. Equally, low average attendance does not mean every team has enough space on its busiest day. Understand the current supply and demand, the way people work and what is likely to change before committing to the solution.
ABW does not have to be a purist model in which 100% of desks are shared. An organisation can adopt ABW and retain some assigned or specialist workpoints where there is a justified need. The aim is to introduce a way of working that suits the organisation, not to force every person and role into identical arrangements.
2. Put leadership and governance in place before design takes over
ABW cuts across property, facilities, HR, technology, workplace design, finance and the business itself. The project needs someone accountable for the whole outcome, not just the fit-out or one part of the change.
Before the design work gets ahead of the business, establish the executive sponsor, client-side leadership, decision rights, budget, risks and delivery responsibilities. Agree what success looks like and who will make the difficult decisions when competing requirements arise.
An Activity Based Working (ABW) implementation is not a single discipline. It needs a lead who can coordinate the specialists and connect strategy to delivery. Leaders, middle managers and the Facilities teams that will operate and maintain the workplace should be involved from the outset, not brought into the discussion when the plan is almost finished.
Engage employees and relevant unions early in the process. Explain the reasons for the proposed change, provide opportunities for meaningful consultation, and address concerns while there is still scope to influence the decisions being made.
3. Establish the evidence before you set desk-sharing ratios
I collect two types of evidence. Quantitative data tells us about people and space: headcount, FTE, growth, standard workpoint supply, available floor area and attendance patterns, including peak days. Qualitative evidence tells us how work is performed: the activities people undertake, when teams need to be together, which roles need privacy or specialist equipment, and why people come to the office. It also helps us understand the culture, personal working preferences, what works today and what should be maintained, fixed or enhanced.
Use the information the organisation already holds and fill the gaps where necessary. Floorplans, people records, access-card data, workplace observation and conversations with teams each contribute something different. Understand the limitations of every source. An access-card swipe shows that someone entered a building; it does not tell you which desk or alternative work setting they used.
Do not use average building attendance to justify one blanket desk-sharing percentage. Consider typical peak days, individual team patterns, visitors, operational requirements and future growth. A building can have spare desks overall while a particular team struggles to access the settings it needs.
4. Agree how ABW will operate and make sharing work
Agree the practical rules before go-live. Will teams use neighbourhoods, and how large should they be? Can people use desks in adjacent neighbourhoods when their own is busy? How will desk booking, clear desks and personal storage work? What happens when employees leave their desk for a meeting or workshop? And how much flexibility is needed on the busiest days?
This is where I distinguish two types of workpoints. Standard workpoints are desks and private offices. They alone determine the Desk Sharing %. For example, 75 desks plus five private offices equals 80 standard workpoints. Allocate 100 people to those workpoints and the Desk Sharing % is 80%.
Additional work settings include touchdown desks, quiet pods and other settings that can support individual work for a short period. They do not count towards the Desk Sharing %. Neither do cafés or meeting rooms. That distinction matters: providing those alternative settings, informed by the activities people perform, is a fundamental difference between ABW and ordinary hot desking.
The additional settings are not intended to become full-day substitute desks. They might be used for an hour or two for a particular activity, or provide somewhere suitable to work while waiting for a standard desk to become available. They give the workplace flexibility through the day, but they still need to be appropriate for the work being undertaken.
The other part of the model is keeping standard desks in circulation. Clear-desk rules, personal lockers instead of under-desk pedestals, no permanent desk personalisation and large enough neighbourhoods make sharing practical. Staff should be free to choose any available desk in their neighbourhood and, where appropriate, move into another. Reserving a desk for a colleague who might arrive later is counterproductive. So is holding a desk all morning while attending a half-day workshop when someone arriving after the school run could use it. Booking systems can help, but the behaviour matters just as much as the technology.
The Desk Sharing % needs to be informed by occupancy data, including typical peaks, rather than average attendance alone. If everyone works from home two days in a five-day week, that represents a 40% reduction in weekly office attendance days. It does not mean 40% of desks are spare on every day: people do not distribute their office days evenly. In my experience, around 70% to 75% can be worth testing, provided the data supports it. Too generous a ratio allows personalisation to creep back in; too aggressive a ratio can create unnecessary pressure. The right balance will change as the organisation grows or contracts, so desk numbers, other work settings and potentially the footprint should be reviewed as demand changes.
I do not ask, “who wants to share desks?”, as we can likely guess the response. Instead, I start from the position that employees are capable of desk sharing. Assigned desks should therefore be the exception, supported by clear and consistently applied criteria rather than preference alone. I generally discourage private offices in an ABW environment, but where they remain, they are counted as standard workpoints. The expectation is usually that others can use an office when its allocated executive is away, subject to genuine confidentiality or operational needs. Accessibility, disability and other specific requirements still need to be addressed fairly.
People may be giving up familiar routines, personal storage or the certainty of always sitting near particular colleagues. The new arrangements should consider employee control and psychosocial risks without automatically granting permanent desks to everyone who would prefer one.
Employees should have meaningful input into how these arrangements will work and a clear process for addressing genuine needs. I discuss this more fully in Desk Sharing and Psychosocial Hazards: What Employers Need to Know.
There is also an important distinction between the number of employees allocated to a workplace and the number of people permitted to occupy it at the same time. ABW can allocate more people than there are standard workpoints, but additional work settings do not override applicable building occupancy approvals or restrictions. These depend on the particular building and jurisdiction, so the project should have them checked by appropriately qualified specialists rather than assume that its Desk Sharing % establishes an occupancy limit.
5. Design the workplace around the evidence and test the experience
The design should follow the quantitative and qualitative evidence collected during the strategy stage. It should provide an appropriate range, quantity and quality of settings for concentration, collaboration, conversations, project work and informal connection. Those settings need to be intuitive and flexible, not simply a list of furniture types on a floorplan.
The same role does not mean the same working preference. Two colleagues performing identical tasks may have very different personalities and preferences: one might seek a quiet enclosed setting for focused work, while the other is comfortable in a more active space. Both should be able to choose. I call it allowing employees to "choose their own adventure": move through suitable settings throughout the day, autonomously and without unnecessary rules or friction. The ABW workplace provides the settings; the individual chooses how to use them.
Employee involvement matters, but I would not design by committee. Give people decisions they can genuinely influence. For example, shortlist three ergonomic chairs that satisfy the cost, quality, warranty and performance requirements, bring in samples and let employees try them and choose. That is meaningful participation without asking staff to run the procurement or redesign the entire office.
The technology and practical arrangements must make that choice easy: connectivity, docking and monitors, room and desk booking where needed, lockers, accessible settings, AV, visitor access and workplace support. Test the everyday experience before and after go-live. Can employees find a suitable setting, connect, take a call, move between activities and release a desk when they no longer need it? If those basic tasks are cumbersome, choice on the floorplan will not translate into choice in everyday use and post go live refinement might be needed For example an unused work setting might be in the wrong location, rather than be the wrong setting. Test and trial a few options, observe and capture user feedback to inform decisions.
6. Prepare people for the new way of working before go-live
Engagement is one of the four layers of the Work Future Framework and should continue throughout the project. By go-live, people should understand the reason for ABW, the new settings, the technology, the operating rules and what will be expected of them.
My preference is to introduce changes at least three months before go-live, ideally six where the program allows. Where practical, let people try the booking system while they still have their existing arrangements. Discuss clear desks, lockers and releasing desks when leaving for longer activities. Familiarise teams with the different settings and agree etiquette before implementation. Leaders, middle managers and change champions should participate in the change, not simply pass on messages about it.
Employees will ask whether ABW is just another name for cost cutting, and they will want to know, “What’s in it for me?” I often describe the change as a deal. My side is to listen, understand what is not working in the current workplace and use the ABW project to improve it. In return, I ask employees to give the new arrangements a fair go: try desk sharing and the different work settings before deciding they do not work. ABW has been implemented around the world for more than 30 years, so there is good reason to approach it with confidence while still taking individual concerns seriously. Leaders need to demonstrate the same behaviours they are asking of their employees.
When someone is resistant, the stated objection is not always the real issue. A person may raise several concerns about desks, lockers or where they sit, but often there is one underlying worry that matters most. Find that issue, understand it properly and address it. That is frequently the key to gaining their support. Repeating the benefits of ABW without understanding the individual rarely changes their mind.
I discuss the benefit of introducing change gradually in Harajuku Girls and Effective Change Management. The more people can understand and practise before go-live, the less unfamiliar the new approach will feel when it starts.
7. Pilot where useful, launch properly and allow 90 days to settle
A pilot is an opportunity to demonstrate the ABW approach before rolling it out more widely. It should confirm the overall concept and allow for minor refinements, such as adjusting a particular work setting, furniture item or booking arrangement. The fundamental strategy should already have been worked through. Not every project needs a formal pilot, but every project should test the employee experience before go-live.
At go-live, make support easy to find. Give Facilities, managers and change champions clear roles, provide practical guidance and record issues as they arise. Employees should have already been introduced to the technology and working arrangements, so the first days are about getting comfortable with the new model, not learning everything from scratch.
I favour a clearly communicated 90-day settling-in period after launch, with a change freeze on non-urgent adjustments to the agreed way of working. Collect feedback, but do not abandon desk sharing simply because some employees resist it in the first week or two. People need time to experience a different routine and give it a fair chance. At the end of that period, review the feedback alongside the evidence and decide what genuinely needs to change.
A change freeze does not mean ignoring defects. Safety, accessibility, technology failures and serious operational issues must be addressed promptly. There is a difference between resolving an actual problem and changing the operating model in response to every initial preference or complaint.
Then measure whether the intended benefits are being achieved. Can employees find appropriate settings? What happens on peak attendance days? Are neighbourhoods and shared desks working as intended? Are teams able to work effectively? Has the organisation achieved the outcomes set at the beginning? These questions matter more than whether implementation went smoothly.
I discuss the importance of the post-occupation period further in Who Do You Need to Deliver a Workplace Transformation?
The mistakes I would watch for
Reducing desk numbers and calling it ABW without providing a meaningful choice of work settings.
Setting a sharing percentage without understanding actual attendance, team patterns and future demand.
Allowing individual preferences to turn into permanent assigned-desk exceptions without clear criteria.
Failing to establish who leads the project and how design, technology, Facilities and engagement work together.
Leaving new behaviours until go-live, then retreating from the agreed model at the first sign of resistance.
Measuring success by whether the project launched rather than how the workplace works afterwards.
Returning to assigned desks before a three month period has elapsed due to pressure from employees or unions.
How do you know if ABW has worked?
Agree success measures at the start. Peak attendance, utilisation of standard workpoints and additional work settings, and whether desks return to circulation are useful measures. So are employees’ ability to find suitable settings, the freedom to move between them, team effectiveness and the business outcomes the organisation set out to achieve. If the objective included better collaboration or a better employee experience, a reduction in property costs alone does not demonstrate success.
The strength of ABW is that it can adapt as activities and individual needs change. The measure of success is whether people have useful choices and the workplace continues to support how they work.
Frequently asked questions
Does ABW require every employee to share a desk?
No. Shared workpoints should be the starting point, with assigned or specialist workpoints approved against clear criteria where an operational or individual need justifies them. Private offices, if retained, are included in the standard workpoint count and should generally be made available when their usual occupant is away, subject to genuine restrictions.
What counts towards the Desk Sharing %?
Desks and private offices are standard workpoints and count towards the ratio. Additional work settings such as touchdown desks and quiet pods do not; nor do cafés or meeting rooms. An office with 75 desks and five private offices has 80 standard workpoints, which at 80% can be allocated to 100 people.
What is the right desk-sharing percentage for ABW?
There is no universal figure. An 80% Desk Sharing % means 80 standard workpoints for every 100 people. A figure around 70% to 75% may be worth testing in some workplaces, but the decision should be based on peak attendance, team patterns, operating practices and future growth, not a general assumption about days worked from home.
What are additional work settings for?
They support different activities and offer short-term flexibility, often for an hour or two, including when a standard desk is temporarily unavailable. They are not intended to replace standard desks for an entire working day.
Can more people be allocated to an ABW workplace than there are standard workpoints?
Yes. That is the purpose of desk sharing, supported by real attendance patterns and additional work settings. It does not, however, change any applicable limit on simultaneous occupancy. The building’s relevant approvals and requirements should be confirmed by qualified specialists for the specific site.
How early should employee engagement and change management start?
Start engaging leaders and employees while the strategy is still being developed. My preference is to introduce practical working changes at least three months before go-live, ideally six where the programme permits.
What should happen during the first 90 days after ABW goes live?
Support employees, collect feedback and fix genuine safety, accessibility, technology or operational issues promptly. Avoid making non-urgent changes to the agreed operating model in response to initial resistance. At around 90 days, review the feedback and usage evidence together and make considered refinements.
Does ABW mean reducing the office footprint or relocating?
No. ABW can be introduced within an existing workplace, as part of a refurbishment or alongside a relocation. Desk sharing may allow space to be released, but it can also create room for additional focus, collaboration and other work settings.
What if employees do not want to give up an assigned desk?
Listen to the concern and find out what is really behind it. Explain the new way of working, ask employees to try it fairly and assess genuine exceptions against consistent criteria. A preference for keeping the same desk is not, on its own, a reason for an assigned workpoint.
Why ABW Endures
ABW has remained relevant because it is built around something that never stands still: the activities people perform. The rise of AI is a perfect example of how those activities continue to evolve, and why an ABW approach can adapt alongside them.
Gather the evidence, provide the right variety of work settings, and give people the autonomy to choose how to use them. Make the shared workpoints genuinely available and support the behaviours that keep the model working. That is how an ABW workplace becomes more than hot desking.
Work Future is an independent, Perth-based, client-side workplace consultancy. We help organisations establish whether ABW is appropriate, shape the strategy and implement the changes across the workplace, technology and people.
If you are exploring ABW or desk sharing, see our Activity Based Working consultancy service or contact Work Future below to discuss your workplace challenge.
