Activity Based Working

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Meeting room for the American company WeWork in San Francisco

Activity Based Working ( ABW ) describes an office concept and an organizational structure with activity-related workplaces to promote productivity and creativity. The model was developed in the USA in the 1970s and 1980s by the architects Phillip Stone and Robert Luchetti and is characterized by the fact that the individual employee no longer has a fixed workplace and rigid spatial structures are dissolved. The architects represented the main idea - "Your Office Is Where You Are" - and made it the benchmark for workplace design. The ABW office design offers employees the opportunity to flexibly choose the optimal workplace for the respective activity. The Dutch management consultant Erik Veldhoen coined the ABW term in his book "Demise of the office" from 1995, in which he developed a concrete concept of work organization and organizational structure.

background

Open space office in Montréal

Few companies demand the same forms of work for all employees. Global megatrends are driving a change in corporate strategies and work behavior. The challenges for European corporations at the beginning of the 21st century are not only digital transformation but also demographic change , which is why the chosen office concepts must react to these changed framework conditions. The digital change in the world of work has led to fundamental changes in work and communication processes. Routine activities are becoming increasingly less important. The employees castle between classic workplaces, meeting and project rooms, as well as other locations and customers.

Flexible organizational structures and new spatial concepts are therefore the first approaches to face global changes. In addition to improving collaboration among employees, promoting internal communication is very important.

Louis Lhoest, partner of the Dutch consulting firm Veldhoen + Company, describes ABW as follows: "It is the vast number of options that make the workplace fit for all requirements."

history

Office landscapes

Site plan of an office landscape

In the 1970s, some companies began to experiment with the concept of open office structures - so-called "office landscapes". The architects Phillip Stone and Robert Luchetti initiated this process. The rigid spatial structures of open-plan offices were gradually dissolved. The open and undivided open-plan offices should encourage communication and collaboration. Positive economic aspects of the office concept were the reduced space requirement per employee and the lower construction costs due to the omission or reduction of structural separating elements.

Negative effects of this office concept were a lack of privacy, concentration problems, disruptions from staff and telephone calls. In this context, the term “ sick building syndrome ” was established. The open plan concept was associated with health problems for the workforce, which could be attributed to the poor air quality (low humidity ) and the loss of autonomy.

Open space concept

Kitchen and lounge area for the US company WeWork in New York

In the early 1990s, another office concept was developed in Sweden that combines the advantages of cell offices and open-plan offices. The open-space office is intended to improve communication and social interaction in companies. The aim is for employees to work openly, dynamically, agile, smart, transparent, creative, flexible and collaborative. The disadvantages of the concept are the lack of privacy, noise pollution and the faster spread of diseases.

Activity Based Working

From the mid-1990s, the office concept was established by the management consultant Erik Veldhoen under the term Activity Based Working. His book “Der Untergang des Büro” (“Demise of the office”) promoted activity-specific work. Veldhoen founded the company Veldhoen + Company and marketed the new office concept.

Under the motto “New Ways of Working” (NWoW), work should be done more effectively and, at the same time, resources should be used more efficiently in order to reduce costs while increasing productivity and creativity.

description

In Activity Based Working, the fixed desk workstation is replaced by an open range of different and attractively designed workplaces. Employees perform a number of different activities during the day, such as writing e-mails, formal and informal meetings, project meetings, making calls, doing research, thinking processes and taking breaks. Sometimes the work takes place in cooperation with other employees or alone with different degrees of concentration. An optimal and versatile office design should help to provide targeted support to employees in their work away from the classic desk workplace. The current activity is promoted in the best possible way by the individually selected work environment. The employees independently choose their suitable rooms for work, communication or retreat. Desk sharing (shared space) and hot desking are used in addition to home offices (remote work). In addition to office workplaces, the range of workplaces also includes varied and movement-oriented positions. The workplaces are arranged in the form of area modules with associated work equipment and services. Working sitting, standing or lying down is just as possible as in a swivel chair and velvet sofa or in the hammock.

aims

Communication , collaboration and cost reduction are the three main approaches of ABW. The office concept is intended to achieve synergies and encourage interaction among employees. The idea is that employees with multiple workplaces will work more effectively. In addition, the space required per employee is smaller due to the more efficient use of the space. The multi-space office (open-space office) should also offer an attractive working environment in order to qualitatively compensate for the significant reduction in space and to support new agile working methods.

The traditional understanding of leadership is changed by the office concept, since hierarchies are no longer mapped spatially and physically. The management staff up to the Board of Management or Chief Executive Officer (CEO) work under the same conditions as all other employees.

Framework

Factors

The following factors are associated with Activity Based Working:

  • Personal jobs are usually completely abolished or significantly reduced.
  • In relation to the total number of employees, fewer classic workplaces are made available.
  • More alternative places of work are offered compared to the number of employees. The workplaces include, for example, lounges , think tanks ( brainstorming rooms), project and multi-media rooms and touch-down workstations (short-term workstations) for creative work.
  • The offices are preferably run without paper. A very high digitization is sgrad prerequisite.
  • Flexible working hours and remuneration models favor individual design leeway.

Equipment and furnishings

The furnishing of the workplaces and working environment is characterized by a high level of diversity. The furniture types are individually selected and adapted to the specific work environment. The corporate design of the company is partly used . The typical equipment and furnishing of the ABW office world is characterized by:

  • The classic office workstation is usually provided with height-adjustable sit-stand desks that have a display for indicating the height in order to simplify individual settings. Screens should reduce the propagation of sound and promote sound absorption and protect against visual disturbances. The office swivel chairs are ergonomically designed with setting options that can be operated intuitively. The workstations are equipped with a docking station , mouse , keyboard , monitor holder and one or two screens .
  • For short-term workplaces, which are also known as touchdown workplaces for “nomadic” workers, electrified bench solutions are used for up to eight employees with sound-absorbing screens, which can be supplemented with wireless charging if necessary. Ergonomic swivel chairs with individual setting options complement the touchdown workstations.
  • Spaces for concentrated and isolated activities as well as confidential discussions are also required. Room-in-room systems for so-called think tanks can be used. These rooms have an individual light and Klimatisierun g sregelung and are provided with furniture, which corresponds to the experience.

Change management

The conversion of a company to the new Activity Based Working concept requires good change management and the involvement of employees in the process.

Communication is a key factor for the success of the office concept, four elements are important:

  • Informing employees about upcoming changes ("what"),
  • Informing employees about the background to the change ("why"),
  • Meetings for questions from employees about the new office concept and
  • Room for discussion on how the changes affect employees.

disadvantage

The complete loss of permanently assigned jobs can have negative health effects on the workers concerned. Many studies show the negative effects of desk sharing, which may outweigh the positive effects of ABW workplaces. Employees without a permanent job complain about the lack of desks. In addition to the lack of privacy, noise pollution and concentration disorders are the main points of criticism of open office concepts. Employees are sometimes concerned if they don't have a fixed desk and the clean desk principle means that there is no more space for personal items (family photos , trinkets ). The emotional connection to the workplace is lost. The unfamiliar and flexible working environment can mean that employees can no longer find their colleagues and they have to spend unnecessary time looking for them. In order to counteract this problem, special application software (app) has already been developed so that employees can be located in the building. The app helps to support the tracking process.

For a group of people - for example flexible and autonomous employees - the ABW work environment has a positive and supportive effect. However, research shows that many employees do not get along well with the activity-related jobs. The chosen leadership style - as a social and cultural factor - is largely responsible for the success of ABW.

A global study of office concepts from 2018 showed that classic cell offices are in the lead with employees in terms of job satisfaction, well-being and effectiveness compared to other concepts such as activity-based working, combined offices or open space structures.

In the opinion of Christian Scholz, professor of organization and work studies at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken , forced desk sharing does not meet people's needs. “Who feels comfortable when they travel to Jerusalem every morning and have to look for a free desk?” (Christian Scholz, 2018) Not all employees perceive the imposed activity-related work as positive. Scholz explains: “Looking for a free“ telephone booth ”for a phone call, going to the“ bus stop ”to talk to colleagues, that has nothing to do with feeling good, security and structure. The colorful couch, the ball pit and the playroom don't change anything. "

Examples

Basel: Roche Tower

IT sector

Multinational IT groups rely on the new office concept. Microsoft uses ABW worldwide to induce a radical change in the work environment. Google is aggressively promoting activity based working. Frank Kohl-Boas, former head of human resources at Google in Central and Northern Europe, summed up the new approach as follows: "Work the way you live!"

Chemical industry

Activity-based working is gaining in importance in the chemical industry . ABW has replaced the old office concept at the Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche . In the Roche Tower in Basel , the design of the workspaces was geared towards activity-based working.

The biotechnology and pharmaceutical company Novartis started changing its office concept and organizational structure based on ABW for its headquarters in Australia (Novartis HQ campus) in 2013.

See also

literature

  • Werner Seiferlein, Christine Kohlert: The networked health-relevant factors for office buildings. Verlag Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden, 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-20851-6 .
  • Erik Veldhoen: The Demise of the Office. Verlag Uitgeverij 010, 1995, ISBN 90-6450-272-2 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Werner Seiferlein, Christine Kohlert: The networked health-relevant factors for office buildings: The planned health . Springer Vieweg, Wiesbaden 2018, ISBN 978-3-658-20851-6 , p. 82, 127 ff .
  2. ↑ a b Karl Friedl: Activity Based Working - Practical Examples Show Effect. (PDF) MOOCON, February 26, 2014, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
  3. ↑ Agile work - agile workplace. Living WorkPlace, accessed September 24, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f Sandra Brunia, Iris De Been, Theo JM van der Voordt: Accommodating new ways of working: lessons from best practices and worst cases. (PDF) European Real Estate Society, February 2016, accessed on September 23, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Christopher Budd: The Office: 1950 to the Present. (PDF) In: Workspheres: Design and Contemporary Work Styles. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), 2001, accessed on September 22, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Carina Kontio: Five deadly sins when planning open-plan offices. Handelsblatt, August 24, 2017, accessed on September 23, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Christopher Kiel: Open Space Office: More Creativity and Productivity? Telekom Deutschland GmbH, August 30, 2016, accessed on September 23, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Erik Veldhoen: The Demise of the Office . Verlag Uitgeverij 010, 1995, ISBN 90-6450-272-2 .
  9. ↑ Activity Based Working thinks office concepts further. MOOCON, April 25, 2012, accessed September 21, 2018 .
  10. ↑ a b Wojciech Czaja and Selina Thaler: The office of the future adapts. Standard, May 6, 2018, accessed September 21, 2018 .
  11. ↑ MOOCON home.base. (PDF) MOOCON Austria, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
  12. ↑ a b c d Sergio Aiolfi: Here you have to reinvent the workplace every day. Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG, April 4, 2017, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
  13. ^ Mandy Campbell: Australian pilot study into activity-based working announced. University of Sydney, accessed September 23, 2018 .
  14. ↑ a b Office of the future: Search for colleagues with the app. Standard, July 11, 2018, accessed September 22, 2018 .
  15. ↑ a b c d Libby Sander: The research on hot-desking and activity-based work isn't so positive. The Conversation, April 11, 2017, accessed September 27, 2018 .
  16. ^ Workers dissatisfied with open plan offices. University of Sydney, September 13, 2013, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  17. ^ Bryan Borzykowski: Why You Need To Rethink Your Office Space. Forbes, April 19, 2018, accessed October 1, 2018 .
  18. ^ Lina Engelen: The evidence is in on activity based working. The Fifth Estate, May 1, 2018, accessed October 19, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Gerrit Krämer: Worldwide study on office workplaces and concepts. PRIMA VIER Verlag Frank Nehring GmbH, August 3, 2018, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Anja Kühner: "Generation Z doesn't want work-life blending". Springer Professional, August 21, 2018, accessed September 22, 2018 .
  21. ↑ Activity Based Working - The future of work. (PDF) MOOCON, September 12, 2013, accessed on September 21, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Activity Based Working. AVR, accessed September 23, 2018 .
  23. ^ Novartis' Activity-Based Work Environments Have Broad Appeal. Tradeline, Inc., 2018, accessed September 24, 2018 .
  24. ^ Gijs Nooteboom: A transformative, activity-based working environment. Veldhoen + Company, accessed September 24, 2018 .