WHY WE NEED MORE PILOT SITES
Businesses are considering Activity Based Working as an alternative work style because of the environmental, social and financial benefits it can provide.
Since its introduction to Australia several years ago, we have helped some of Australia’s leading companies such as Bankwest, CBA, NRMA, KPMG, IBM and Mirvac to apply Acitvity Based Working to their workplaces. Each of these companies has a strong desire to effectively align their business, cultural, operational and property requirements to create high performance workplaces. The common thread is the desire to increase collaboration and demonstrate to their customers their innovative approach to business.
In a recent Colliers Tenancy Survey conducted in Australia and New Zealand, 1/3 of organisations reported that they were considering Acitvity Based Working as a way of meeting their new workplace needs. This clearly demonstrates that organisations consider Activity Based Working a viable alternative to the highly cellular and even open plan workplaces that are based upon a one person one seat basis.
Acitvity Based Working represents an opportunity to move away from line of sight management style, towards something that supports an increasingly mobile and younger workforce. It also provides a structure that allows for expansion and contraction of headcounts whilst minimising churn costs, and helps develop a culture based upon trust and self leadership. We know change makes people nervous, so testing these ideas in a pilot site or learning lab is a great way to engage people in this transformational process and gather the vital evidence to help make the business case for change.
We have found that observation studies obtained from pilot sites tell the real story about just how the proposed levels of mobility utilisation, storage and various work styles perform. Technology, change management techniques and physical changes to the workplace can all take place in response to the studies so that the ideal workplace can be achieved.
Some examples of this success include reduction of churn cost by 90%, significant reductions in paper storage due to paper independence technology, 20% reduction in Net Lettable Area due to agile seating arrangements, and a highly energised workforce.