Significantly, Veldhoen Company was one of the first organizations in the world to use ABW. Initial applications of ABW began by Veldhoen Company in 1996 by the promotion of the concept in the Netherlands, expanding to Europe and Norway, and now, currently, to Australia . Veldhoen Company focuses on three key components of ABW: sharing, connecting, and transforming. According to the company, the sharing component involves creating office space that can meet a variety of needs. That is, the office space is transformed to offer “efficient and sustainable management” that will allow employees to become more productive and increase teamwork throughout the organization . Thus, it is expected that employees will become more productive and teamwork will be increased throughout the organization.
According to the company, the connecting component involves creating office space that enhances “cross functional communication, collaboration and effectiveness” . As a result, connecting allows the organization to establish the true value of teamwork, then projects this value to the clients of the organization, which assists in earning customer loyalty. According to the company, the final component, known as transforming, involves creating opportunities for employees to meet the needs of a changing and diverse market . As such, initial research shows that companies that engage in ABW experience numerous changes throughout the organization, such as increased productivity and increased teamwork, not to mention lower overhead costs.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"Development of ABW in Australia".
However, there are other companies that have developed models of ABW for use in Australia. Thus, Veldhoen Company’s view of ABW is not the only one utilized. Another such model being utilized is known as “Space to Work,” and is considered to be an evolving ABW model . Through focusing on the “Space to Work” model, organizational focuses have shifted to virtual needs, physical needs, behavioral interventions on different levels of the company (such as corporate or departmental), and communication . As a result, organizations that focus on this version of ABW models tend to focus on the company as a whole, rather than just solely physical needs necessary to get the business’s daily activities completed.
Much of the current strategies utilized in ABW were originally established in Europe. In Australia, however, the concept has taken root, especially within the financial services sector, including within companies, such as the Macquarie Bank and the Commonwealth Bank . However, there are significant arguments promoting ABW. For instance, the biggest arguments for the movement are that “it saves money, [and] improves workers’ productivity and motivation” . Thus, employee engagement and creativity increases in these settings. Therefore, profits increase while costs decrease.
The use of ABW has expanded to other business service providers, such as MYOB. When developing their office space, the company chose themes relating to “a festival zone, music studio, campsite, laneway and playing field,” following numerous meetings, interviews, surveys, and discussion with its workforce at all levels . This company elected to develop its office space into distinct neighborhoods, in order to create a personalized workplace. Although one of the goals of ABW is to reduce space needed for employees, MYOB has moved into “the largest open office space in Melbourne” . The goals of the company’s move to ABW has been to “retain key staff and foster a fun, innovative collaborative space that drives interaction among staff” . Although the company is now located in the largest open office space in Melbourne, it has reduced its required office space by 1500 square meters, yet increased its workforce by 50 employees . This has been significant for the company because its profitability has increased, yet costs have decreased. Furthermore, employee productivity has increased, allowing the company to use their resources in more efficient ways.
These companies have several things in common. They have all engaged in ABW in order to create “a less hierarchical workplace that celebrates collaboration, personal accountability and flexibility” . That is, these companies want to put more emphasis on the activities taking place within the workplace, not on the workplace fixtures (such as permanent desks) itself. Thus, ABW promotes freedom for employees. Ultimately, in ABW, managers can no longer be managers. In contrast, they must be leaders because their teams may not be within their line of sight while in the workplace. This emphasizes the need for personal accountability . Therefore, employees become more responsible for achieving end results, rather than it all resting on the managers, leaders, and/or supervisors.
Many companies describe ABW as being “hot-desking on a grander level” . Hot-desking refers to having unassigned cubicles or desks. However, in ABW formats, employees do not ‘own’ any space and have the capability to choose workspaces that meet their current needs. For instance, one study showed “that desks are occupied only 52% of the time,” suggesting that these costs are too expensive for such little use . This shows that employees are working in different ways in order to create improved end results.
Thus, these changes have been beneficial because they “reflect a shift in values in the modern enterprise, [where] what you achieve is valued far higher than where or how you work to achieve it” . These types of workplace designs have allowed for smaller offices, less traffic, and greater sustainability for most companies. Therefore, more emphasis is placed on the employees in terms of meeting the expectations of their employers in individualistic ways. That is, employees are given more freedom in ABW in order to meet the company’s objectives and are allowed to select different mechanisms to achieve these objectives.
However, ABW has not been beneficial for everyone and may not be the right option for some companies considering the move. This is due to the need for custom made designs for the plan to be successful. According to research, the “legal industry was the least likely to implement ABW” . However, it was also found that large organizations with long lease terms were most likely to implement ABW. Following the finance and banking industry, “ICT was the industry most likely to have implemented or be planning to implement ABW, consistent with the sector’s early adoption of mobility technologies and relatively mature approach towards staff working from home” . Canon was one company that adopted ABW only partially.
In fact, research shows that facilitating flexible working has not come easily to Canon. However, despite the challenges, the company has been able to establish a “high performance workplace” . The company partially adopted ABW, opting instead to utilize “a hybrid approach that better matches the different patterns of working among its employees” . The company determined the needs of its employees through observing how the existing office space was utilized and through asking existing employees what was needed in order to work more productively. The questions also included those about how long it took to conduct individual tasks and/or collaborations with other employees . The interviews and observations resulted in three categories of employees. The first category comprised of “focused workers, who spent most of their time desk-bound working on their individual tasks” .
The second category comprised of “balanced workers, who spent equal amounts of time performing individual tasks and collaborating with others” . The final category comprised of “mobile workers, who spent only a minimal amount of time at their desk” . Based on this information, it was found that Canon would not benefit from a strictly ABW workspace. Thus, the company modified different models from other companies in order to create a unique model that met the needs of its employees. The company has met these varying needs through a range of technologies. This is done through a “choose your own device scheme” . This mechanism was needed because it was realized that the employees in the different categories had different needs from their technological devices. The three options are: “a laptop, a tablet or a hybrid (a notebook where the screen folds right back to transform it into a tablet” . Therefore, it is concluded that ABW must be individualized for each company in order to be effective.
3.1.2. Shifting Demographics and Work Culture
The establishment of ABW has initiated many different changes within the workplace. In fact, for many companies, ABW is at the forefront for a cultural change within the organization. Part of this is due to shifts within the available talent market and technological advancements . However, one of the most important shifts is related to efficiency. In fact, it is found that “a growing number of employees are able to (and expect to) work efficiently and effectively regardless of time or location” . Therefore, ABW has been crucial in holding employees accountable for expected outcomes, creating a tremendous shift in work culture.
The rush to ABW did not reach Australia quickly. Once the concept gained foot in the workplace, many companies followed suit. Part of the reason this has occurred is due to an aging workforce, requiring the accommodation of “at least four generations of staff that each have different work experiences, work styles and expectations” . In fact, it has been found that Generation X makes up half of the working population in Australia. This group has been “characterized by an ethos of “work to live” rather than “live to work” like their Boomer elders” . As a result, ABW has been highly beneficial because it “relies heavily on the theory that introducing more flexibility to a workplace naturally leads to greater employee engagement and collaboration within an organization, which ultimately leads to improved productivity” . Therefore, it involves the creation of different types of workspaces, typically between 5 and 10, within a larger office space in order to meet a variety of needs . This allows organizations and employees alike to work together to meet mutual goals and individual goals.
ABW has become more important due to various evolutions within the workplace. For instance, the workplace has become “increasingly populated by self-managed knowledge workers (i.e. workers whose main capital/asset is knowledge” . Part of ABW has been influenced by demands by employees to have flexible work options. In contrast, corporations have utilized ABW in their quests to “cut costs and minimize their environmental footprints” . As a result, ABW has influenced workplace trends globally.
- Anon, Activity based working pushes into Australia.
- Cummins, C., 2012. Companies quick to embrace activity-based working plans. Sydney Morning Herald, p.9.
- Goodman Australia, 2015. Activity Based Working. Available at: https://au.goodman.com/about-us/activity-based-working [Accessed May 13, 2015].
- Hubbard, J., 2014. The shift to activity-based working (and what this means for the workplace). Finweek, p.8.
- Johanson, S., 2013. MYOB moves to customised activity-based workplace. , p.35.
