THE ACTIVITY-BASEDWORKING PRACTICE
GUIDE(Second edition)
Juriaan van Meel

MENUIntentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASEDWORKING PRACTICE
GUIDE(Second edition)
Juriaan van Meellogo icop zwart / pms 3005

Public Real Estate Network

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDECONTENTSSUMMARY ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING (ABW) 	

4

FOREWORD TO THE SECOND EDITION 	

7

INTRODUCTION 		

9PART 1:
CONCEPT

PART 2:ANALYSIS

PART 3:
PROCESSPART 4:
DESIGN

What is ABW?
A short history
Related concepts
Objectives
What research says about ABWIssues and how to deal with them

13
15
19
23
27
33

Analysing the existing situation
Exploring new possibilities
Validating new ideas

41
45
47

Stage 1: Envision
Stage 2: DefineStage 3: DesignStage 4: Build
Stage 5: Settle-inStage 6: Manage

53
54
55
56
57
58

Sharing ratio
ZoningSpace types

63
67
71

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEPART 5:SUCCESSFACTORSPART 6:EXAMPLESPART 7:APPENDICES

Analysis
Process
Design81
83
85

Ministry of Finance British Colombia (CA)West Dunbartonshire Council (UK)Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (FI)State Treasury and Patent office (FI)Public Services and Procurement Canada (CA)Danish Building and Property Agency (DK)
Government Office ‘De Knoop’ (NL)
Ofgem (UK)City of Hardenberg (NL)
LAIKA (DK)
Robeco (NL)
Rabobank (NL)
Danone (NL)

90
94
98
102
106
110
114
118
122
126
130
134
138

Specifications per space type
More information
Interviewees
References

145
156
157
158

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDESUMMARY
ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING (ABW)

WHAT IS IT?
Activity-based working (ABW) is a way of working in which
employees make shared use of a diversity of work settings
that have been designed to support different kinds ofactivities (hence the name activity-based).

WHAT DOES RESEARCH TELL US ABOUT ABW?
There is a lot of scientific research available on ABW,
but it does not provide any simple or definitive answers
about whether ABW is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The overall picture,
however, is that ABW can work very well, provided it is
implemented and executed properly.

There are three crucial elements to this definition:

Research observations• Users tend to be quite happy with ABW, especially withrespect to the increased interaction and freedom of choice;• The main complaints about ABW concern distractions anda lack of privacy;• Younger workers tend to be more positive about ABW thanolder ones, but the differences are small;• ABW can have a positive impact on staff interaction,
especially across teams;• People’s ‘switching behaviour’ is often limited, in whichcase people do not exploit ABW’s full potential;• ABW’s impact on productivity is difficult to prove, butpeople’s self-rated productivity can rise;• The ABW concept can have a positive impact on people’s
health perception, probably because the concept gives
them a sense of control over their work environment;• ABW favours jobs that are characterized by a high level ofautonomy, interaction and mobility;• People’s satisfaction depends not just on job type, butalso on their personality traits—people’s personal need for
privacy is particularly important.
• Success is not a given. Making ABW work requires
careful implementation, excellent execution, and strong
management commitment.

Diversity
The office provides a diversity of work settings to support
different kinds of activities and work styles.
Sharing
All work settings are available to everyone. By sharing
workspaces, it is possible to provide a greater diversity ofsettings while at the same time saving square metres.
A way of working
ABW is a way of working and not just a design concept. The
core idea is that employees work in a mobile and flexible
fashion, making their own decisions as to where and when
to work.
WHY DO IT?
There is an obvious financial incentive for adopting ABW,
as the concept allows organizations to make better useof their office space. Just as important, however, is theconcept’s aim to empower employees by giving themmore control over where and when
they work.
Benefits for the organization:• Reduced occupancy costs• Smaller environmental footprint• Increased flexibility• Better interaction across teams• Potential improvement in staff performance• Support for cultural change
Benefits for employees:• More autonomy in choosing where to work
• More choice and variety in work settings• Advanced technologies that facilitate mobile working• More contact with colleagues• Fewer hierarchical differences• A less sedentary, healthier workstyle• Fewer but better workplaces

4THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEHOW TO DEVELOP A CONCEPT?
Before deciding to adopt ABW, it is important to makea systematic analysis of the organization’s needs andaspirations. The purpose of such an analysis is to assess
the organization’s readiness for ABW and to gather dataand insights for the development of the concept.

HOW TO MAKE IT A SUCCESS?
Implementing an ABW concept can be challenging. Like
any major organizational change, it is likely to meet with ahealthy dose of resistance. So when implementing ABW,
make sure to do it properly. The most important factors for
success are as follows:

Analysis activities

Analysis• Gather data on work processes and space usage in order tobe able to make informed decisions;• Look at numerical data, but also at the stories behind thenumbers;• Be aware of the latest insights from workplace research;• Link the ABW concept to strategic organizational
objectives;• Visit other projects to gather inspiration and to benefit fromthe lessons learnt;• Look at ABW as part of a bigger narrative about employee
empowerment and flexibilization;• Involve employees in the analysis process to createawareness and engagement.

Understanding the existing situation• Document analysis• Walk-through• Workplace survey• Spatial analysis• Occupancy measurements• Stakeholder interviews• Social network analysis
Exploring new possibilities• Leadership workshops• Visits to reference projects• Staff workshops• Scenario studies

Process• Allow enough time for preparing the organization for ABW
and for getting used to it after move-in;• Bring in dedicated expertise on change management;• Take a multidisciplinary approach; involve FM, HR and IT in
the process;• Make sure that the organization’s leadership demonstrates
ownership and leads by example;• Involve employees, but be specific about the matters on
which employee input is sought;• Take employees’ input seriously, otherwise theirinvolvement will backfire;• Communicate clearly and repeatedly what ABW is and why
it is being implemented;• Don’t try to please everybody but take people’s concerns
seriously;• Provide extra training and support for middle management
as they are the ones who have to make ABW work ineveryday office life.

Validating new ideas• Focus groups• Persona method• Design prototyping• Pilot projects
HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT?
The implementation process starts with the formulation ofa broad vision, which is then translated, step-by-step, into
concrete solutions. The process should be a combinationof project management and change management
activities. The change management activities are
essential for creating acceptance and ownershipamong employees.
Process stages• Stage 1 Envision – Analyse the organization and develop an
inspiring vision for the work environment;• Stage 2 Define – Translate the vision into specificworkplace requirements;• Stage 3 Design – Create design solutions for the spatial
and technical environment;• Stage 4 Build – Construct the new environment andprepare the organization for the move;• Stage 5 Settle in –Support people in their new way ofworking and solve any teething problems;• Stage 6 Manage – Make the work concept ‘stick’; adjustand improve where necessary.

Design• Provide employees with real choice from a diversity ofsettings;• Don’t compromise on quality, thereby removing the need tocompete for the best workplaces;• Facilitate focus work by creating excellent acoustics andprovide plenty of quiet spaces;• Create a human scale; avoid large, open-plan work areas;• Create a welcoming office where people feel they belong,despite not having a personal desk;• Make sure the IT infrastructure and technologies are ‘topnotch’ as they are crucial enablers of mobility in the office;• Use design features to signal that the new office isdifferent from a traditional office but avoid arbitrary design
gimmicks.

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Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEFOREWORD TO THE
SECOND EDITION
Much of this publication was written before the Covid-19 outbreak, which raises the obvious
question of whether it is still relevant. After all, we have just been through the biggest workingfrom-home experiment ever. Aren’t we witnessing the beginning of end of the office, witheverybody working from home happily ever after?
It is too early to know, but that is the impression you get when reading the recent barrageof social media posts on this topic, typically headed by dramatic titles such as The world ofwork has changed for ever or This is the end of the office as we know it or even The Office is
Dead. There is some truth in these titles in the sense that the Covid-19 crisis has demonstrated
that organizations do not necessarily need offices. Managers have discovered that remote
working is not as scary as they thought, and that staff productivity is more likely to go up thandown. Employees, for their part, seem fairly happy as well. Working from home comes withdownsides—distractions from kids or spouses, a risk of overworking, social isolation—but theoverall experience appears to be positive.
Even so, I think that it is too early to write off the office as a relic of the past. Fundamentally
people are social beings who seek out the company of others. Office buildings remain
excellent places for this. Being in the same buildings facilitates both planned and unplanned
meetings, enabling people to build social networks, collaborate, learn, build trust, exchange
ideas and shape a common culture—all essential ingredients for organizational success.
Without doubt, some organizations will opt for a fully virtual way of working (a ‘digital-first
approach’ in management-speak), but I expect that most will adopt a midway solution (a‘hybrid’’ or ‘blended’ or ‘mixed-presence’ approach), in which employees are allowed to
split their time between different locations: home for solo-work, the office for collaboration.
Depending on the type of work, cafes, hotels, libraries and co-workspaces might also bepart of the mix. Obviously, this is not a new idea. In his 1997 classic The New Office, architectFrank Duffy predicted that the office would become a node in a wider network of workplaces,
writing: “No longer is it necessary for an individual to occupy a particular place from nine tofive, five days a week ... Most people will learn how to work from a variety of places.”
Now that Duffy’s ideas seem finally to have become reality, I expect that activity-based
working (ABW) will become still more popular. Even before the pandemic, traditional desks
were heavily underutilized, with occupancy levels of no more than 40 to 50% on average. If
people are going to be working from home more often, these figures will drop further, making
the logic for sharing workspaces at the office even more obvious.
It is important to stress, however, that ABW should not be viewed solely through the lensof efficiency. To be successful, the ABW concept should also be about creating a better,more attractive work environment. Less space but better space, so to speak. Better spacemeans providing staff with a larger diversity of spaces to choose from: not just open-planworkstations, but also focus rooms, phone booths, break areas and informal collaboration
areas. Better space also means more attention to design, using casual elements such as sofas,rugs and plants to create spaces where people actually enjoy spending time.

7THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE

Also important are health and well-being. These were already key themes in office design
before the pandemic, but post-Covid they will become even more important. Indoor climate
aspects such as acoustics, daylight access, air quality and thermal comfort may finally get
the attention they deserve. Likewise ‘biophilia’ (bringing natural elements like plants into theoffice) and ‘active design’ (design solutions that promote movement). Hygiene should now be
added to this list as the pandemic has triggered a greater awareness of the risk of contagion in
office buildings. This issue is of particular relevance to ABW offices where people share work
settings. So, think of more frequent cleaning, dirt-trap-free furniture, easy-to-clean finishes
and abundant wipes and hand sanitizers.
With these notions in mind, I would say that there is a promising future for activity-based
working. But, in all honesty, it is hard to know for sure. There is no shortage of wild predictions
about the future of the office. Decision makers should not be carried away by these alarmist
prophecies. As before, organizations should base their workplace strategies on a careful andcritical analysis of their work processes, their culture, and the needs and expectations of theiremployees. The Covid-19 crisis has provided them with an excellent opportunity to conduct
such an analysis and, even better, make good use of it.
Copenhagen, September 20208

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEINTRODUCTION
What is the perfect workplace? There is no single answer to that question. Sometimes all you
want are four walls and a door. At other times, an open space with colleagues. Or a project roomwith writable walls. A comfy sofa in a coffee lounge. Which setting works best, is likely to differ
from time to time, depending on your activities, your personal preferences and your mood. So
wouldn’t it be great to be able to choose any of these, at any
given moment?
Essentially, that is the promise of activity-based working (ABW). Instead of providing
employees with just one, fixed workstation, ABW aims to offer a diversity of work settings
that are designed to facilitate different kinds of activities (hence the name activity-based). To
make sure that everybody has the same choice, all settings are shared, which comes with theadditional benefit of requiring less space.
This concept is often considered as new—by some as shockingly new—but it isn’t. The origins
of activity-based working lie in the 1970s and since then it has become increasingly popular.
This is not to suggest, however, that activity-based working has yet become the ‘new normal’.
In many projects the concept still gives rise to a lot of debate, if not resistance. And while many
projects are successful—achieving both costs savings and increased staff satisfaction—there
are also projects that fail due to design errors, cultural barriers and flawed implementation
processes.
This practice guide’s aim is to steer organizations through these complexities. It explains
what the activity-based working concept is, what its aims are, how it works and how it can be
implemented. The recommendations are based on the first-hand experience of experts and ona review of the available literature on ABW.
The book’s main message is: when implementing ABW, make sure to get it right. Activity-based
working is not some kind of formula that can simply be applied to any given situation. It is a
way of working that touches upon deeply held assumptions about how we use space, how
we interact with colleagues and how we organize our work lives. The implementation of ABWshould therefore be seen as a change process rather than a fit-out project. As this guide will
explain, its success requires excellent workplace design, a multidisciplinary approach, carefulchange management and, last but not least, commitment from the organization’s leadership.

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTPART 1: CONCEPT
Activity-based working (ABW) is a much-discussed concept and there is no shortage of
opinions about it. It is not always clear, however, what people have in mind when they talk about
ABW. For example, it is often confused with the concept of an open-plan office, whereas ABW
is actually a reaction to the lack of choice in open-plan offices. So this first part of the bookaims to clarify what ABW is—and what it is not. It also explains the concept’s background, theunderlying objectives and the main issues that may arise.
• What is ABW?
• A short history• Related concepts• Objectives• What research says about ABW• Issues and how to deal with them11Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTWHAT IS ABW?
If you do an Internet search on the term ‘activity-based
working’ (ABW), you will get lots of results and lots ofdifferent interpretations. You are also likely to find lotsof alternative terms (lean office, agile working, smart
working, etc.), which all refer, more or less, to the sameideas. For the sake of clarity, this guide will stick to‘activity-based working’. Not the catchiest term, but it
is widely used, and it relates directly to the following
definition.
Activity-based working (ABW): a
way of working in which employees
make shared use of a diversityof work settings that have been
designed to support different kindsof activities.
There are three crucial elements in this definition.
1 Diversity
The essence of an ABW office is that it provides users withchoice. Instead of the traditional binary model, in whichpeople are stuck in either an open-plan or an enclosed
office, the ABW concept provides employees with adiversity of settings in terms of openness, furniture, size,
technology and atmosphere. For example, a mix of regular
workstations, phone booths, quiet areas, break areas,
lounges and project spaces. At any time, people canchoose the setting that is right for them, depending on theirtask, mood and personal preferences.
2 Sharing
In an ABW office, everything is available to all, regardless of
their hierarchical or functional status in the organization.
The logic behind this ‘free seating’ approach is well known:
traditional workstations tend to be underutilized as people
spend a large part of their working hours away from theirdesk—in meetings, chatting at the water cooler, on theroad, working from home. By sharing workspaces, it
becomes possible to provide a greater diversity of settings
while simultaneously saving square metres, which has bothfinancial and environmental benefits.

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WHAT IS NOT ABW?
There are a lot of misconceptions about ABW.
So here is an overview of what it is not:
It is not hot desking
Hot-desking is only about the shared use ofdesks and not about empowering employees
by giving them more choice about when andwhere to work.
It is not an open plan office
As the name implies, open-plan offices are
just open. ABW is different in the sense thatit provides a mix of both open and enclosed
workspaces, available to all.
It is not interior design concept
There is a strong design component to ABW,
as it usually requires new furniture and spatialchanges, but the concept is primarily aboutorganizational change.
It is not a cost cutting operation
The ABW concept will typically save money,
but a one-sided focus on costs will not leadto success. The key objective should be to
improve productivity by facilitating a diversity
of office activities.
It is not a formula
ABW projects tend have a lot in common, but
ABW should not be seen as an off-the-peg
solution. It is a concept that must be tailored toan organization’s specific culture and activities.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

3 A way of working
The last defining characteristic of ABW is that it is a way ofworking, and not just a design concept. Compared to a
traditional office setting, an ABW office requires employees
to work much more independently, making their own
choices about where and with whom they work. Managers
for their part are expected to evaluate their staff by looking
at their performance rather than just their presence in theoffice. These behavioural and managerial practices cannot
be seen as separate from the physical work environment—
they are at the core ofthe concept.

Three dimensions
Activity-based working touches upon the social, physical andtechnological dimensions of the work environment (often referred to as‘people, place and technology’ or ‘bricks, bytes and behaviour’). Below is
an overview of the key principles for each dimension.
SPATIAL DIMENSIONDIGITAL DIMENSIONSOCIAL DIMENSION

The building and the spaces it
provides.

The technologies needed for mobile
working.

The way staff and management work,
manage and interact.

Diversity – different settings fordifferent activities, balancing open andenclosed spaces.

Mobile devices – light, powerful tools
with long battery lives that can bequickly fired up from any location.

Autonomy – greater freedom (andresponsibility) for employees to decide
when and where to work.

Free seating – all spaces can be usedby everyone.

Collaboration apps – applications thatallow employees to stay in touch in aneasy and intuitive way.

Results-oriented management –judging employees on theirperformance rather than their presencein the office.

Availability – workspace numbers
should provide staff with real choice.
Ergonomics – all settings should be
usable by everybody.
Zoning – different areas for quiet andlively activities.
Limited storage – as few filing cabinets
as possible, although there should beroom for personal items and some teamstorage.

Workplace apps – apps that enable
employees to find empty workspaces
and to locate their colleagues.
Cloud solutions – Internet-based
applications and filing systems
that allow employees to work fromanywhere.
Top-notch infrastructure – all thepracticalities: docking stations, powersockets, a robust Wi-Fi network andhigh-quality screens.

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Mutual trust – as employees are notnecessarily in the direct sight of their
managers, mutual trust is essential.
Courtesy and respect – sharing
workspaces requires that people are
more considerate of one another’s
workplace needs.
Being mobile – moving to different
spaces or locations when the task
requires it.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTA SHORT HISTORY
Activity-based working is often trumpeted as a newphenomenon, but it isn’t. The concept has been aroundfor decades, albeit under different names and guises.
This short history will explain how ABW has moved frombeing a novelty to becoming a mainstream solution,
driven by changes in technology, culture and work
processes.
Way back in 1970, a group of about twenty IBM productengineers moved, somewhat reluctantly, into what wascalled a ‘non-territorial office’. This was probably the first
ABW office ever, even though it was not called that at thetime.1 In their new office, the IBM employees no longer had
personal workstations, but a variety of shared workspaces:ordinary desks, but also work benches, a quiet area andeven a ‘total quiet area’ (formerly the department head’s
office). A thorough evaluation of the project showed thatthe new concept had improved communications andsatisfaction levels. The research report did, however, warnthat the concept was liable to provoke “a good deal of fearor even panic” among users who were new to the concept.2
Sound familiar?
The IBM experiment was an isolated blip in 1970s
office design. It did not receive much publicity nor any
emulation—not so strange since at that time office work
was still very much paper-based. This changed howeverin the 1980s when laptops, Internet and email started toenter the world of work. On the back of these technologicaladvances, the idea of the ‘non-territorial office’ resurfaced.
In his 1982 book The Successful Office, Franklin Becker
explained the logic behind the concept, stating that no
single workspace could satisfy the myriad of functions
people perform.4 He anticipated that new technologies(“portable computers the size of a briefcase”) would allow
people to use a network of different workspaces, each
designed for a distinct function and psychological or social
need. The same idea was discussed by the architects
Stone and Luchetti in their seminal 1985 article ‘Your office
is where you are’, which quickly became a popular slogan
among office innovators.5
It was not until the 1990s that activity-based working
really took off. Triggered by economic expansion, theICT revolution and the dot-com boom, there was a huge
eagerness to create exciting, innovative spaces.6 Much of
the idea development came from the British firm DEGW,
15

In 1989, the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)created its ‘Office of the future’ in Finland. Oneof the novelties of this ‘non-territorial office’ wasthat staff were equipped with cordless phones.3(photo: Digital Equipment Corporation)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

headed by Frank Duffy and John Worthington. In theirwritings, their projects and their talks, they promoted theidea of a ‘distributed workplace’ for ‘footloose’ nomadic
office workers who could work anywhere they wanted. Early
adopters were IT companies and consultancy firms. The
public sector showed a lot of interest as well. In countries
like the Netherlands, Denmark and the UK, governmentorganizations launched pilot projects and experiments
based on these new ways of working.
In the decade that followed, the concept’s popularity
continued to rise. It was then that the term ‘activity-based
working’ was coined by the Dutch workplace strategist Erik
Veldhoen.7 The increased adoption rate was accompanied
by more critical notes as well. For example, in its study
The State of the Office, the British Industrial Society wrotethat “It [the flexible office] might be all the rage, but notwith employees” and that “private offices for senior staff
remain the norm, even while non-territorial forms of flexible
working are introduced for everyone else”.9 And so it was.
There were both success stories and projects that failed.
Many organizations were simply not yet ready for such
radical change. For many managers, the status of a private
office was still too important. Mobile technologies werestill too slow or too expensive. And there was still too much
paper around.
Today, twenty years later, the world of work is more
receptive to the ABW concept. Many of the technologicaland practical challenges faced by the early ABW projects
have simply disappeared. Wireless networks, smart
devices, long battery life and cloud computing are nolonger novelties but mainstream solutions, and they havemade mobile work easier than ever. Even the paperlessoffice is, at last, coming of age. And, just as important, many
managers and employees seem to have become used
to the concept. ABW is no longer shockingly new—many
employees have ‘been there and done that’. Another factor
is that remote working has become much more common.
The number of people who frequently work from home has
been slowly rising in past decades, but the Covid-19 crisis
has really pushed the concept into the mainstream. This
will further increase the relevance of ABW as working fromhome reduces the need (and probably also the desire) for
having a personal workstation at the office.

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In 1997, Francis Duffy published his classic The
New Office, in which he discussed the conceptof the ‘club office’, described as an office where“individuals and teams occupy space on an
as-needed basis, moving around it to takeadvantage of a wide range of facilities”.8

Employee retrieving her ‘flex-suitcase’ withpersonal items at the office of the Dutch
insurance company Interpolis (1998). In the
Netherlands, this project created a wave of media
attention for the flexible workplace concept.
Workplace consultant Erik Veldhoen, who was
responsible for the project, would later coin theterm activity-based working. (photo: Hollandse
Hoogte)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTThe adoption of ABW over time
The evolution of activity-based working seems to follow the classic‘innovation diffusion pattern’.10 The concept started out at as an isolated
experiment; it was then embraced by an enthusiastic group of early
adopters; after that, the ‘late majority’ became interested as the necessary
technologies became more mature. And today, the ABW concept seems,
at last, to be on the verge of becoming a mainstream solution.

Some organizations try out ABW
in pilot projects.
The concept get
its first media
attention.

Adoption

Large scale ABW
projects in IT andconsultancy.
Lots of publications and seminars.
ABW adopted as astandard solution
by many large
businesses andgovernmentorganisations.

ABW on its way
to become amainstream
solution?
The new normal?

The first ABW
office ever.
No emulation.

Time

1970s

1980s

1990s

2000s

2010s

Stage

Innovators

Early adopters

Early majority

Late majority

Laggards (?)

Q&AJohn Worthington, Founder DEGW, Collaborative Urbanist
When did DEGW start to work with the idea of sharing
work settings?
The seeds were sown in the early 1970s when Frankreturned from Princeton and established a listening post
for JFN Associates, a leading practice of New York spaceplanners. In our projects, we questioned the status quo
in office design and looked for more egalitarian andflexible ways of allocating space.

How did ABW evolve into a mainstream solution?
Change is incremental, until a seismic occurrence
triggers a change in perceptions. The recession of
1989–93 was the catalyst to appraise the impact of
ICT on the office. The focus was shifting from costs(efficiency) to maximizing people’s performance(effectiveness) and how the organization presented
itself (expression). From then on, the interest in New
Ways of Working only grew and grew.

What triggered the idea?
As with most insightful and lasting ideas there was not
one eureka moment. Frank’s 1974 doctoral dissertation
Office Interiors and Organisations acted as the catalyst.
Over the next two decades, working with innovative
corporations and developers, and supported by a global
research programme, a robust conceptual platform
was established for championing distributed ways ofworking and shared activity-based settings.

Will we witness the demise of the office any time soon?
The need to congregate, build trust and exchange
knowledge and ideas will continue to exist. It may not
be located in a place we now call an office. It could bein a castle or a canteen. The use class called office isoutdated. Long live the coffee house and bourse.

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Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTRELATED CONCEPTS
In practice, the activity-based concept is often
combined with other workplace concepts and designideas. Below we discuss the most important ones. They
are all concepts that can help to strengthen the ABWconcept, but they are not by definition part of it.
Remote working
Remote working is about working from places otherthan the office, such as home, co-workspaces or public
spaces like cafes. The concept is an obvious companion
to ABW because it builds upon the same idea of giving
people more freedom to choose when and where towork. Managers often have mixed feelings about remote
working—especially about working from home—but
this seems to have changed during the Covid-19 crisis.
Their fears of organizational disintegration proved to beunjustified. Nor did productivity figures go down. It is as
yet unclear how these matters will play out in the long run,but for now there seems to be a broad acceptance of theconcept of working from home. This will have a positive
impact on staff acceptance of ABW, as sharing office spacemakes more sense if you are not always there.
Collaborative space
Much of today’s office design is geared towards thepromotion of collaboration in organizations. Offices aredesigned as ‘serendipity machines’ with attractive meeting
spaces and strategically located circulation routes that
increase the likelihood of people crossing paths. The idea
is that ‘chance encounters’ and ‘creative collisions’ foster
the exchange of knowledge and ideas in the organization.
For the same reason, work areas are often designed
as open spaces, allowing for teamwork and a greaterawareness of what colleagues are doing. These ideas andambitions overlap to a large extent with the concept ofactivity-based working. It is important to stress, however,that the design of ABW offices is not just about promoting
collaboration. It is just as much about facilitating solo workand concentration.

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Remote working is an obvious companion to
ABW as it builds upon the same idea of giving
people more control over where and when
they work.

The idea behind the creation of collaborative
spaces is that they facilitate the exchange ofknowledge and ideas in organizations.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Co-working
Co-working is a membership-based office concept
in which members—typically freelancers and small
businesses—get access to workspaces, office facilities andservices in return for a monthly fee. As in the ABW concept,
the range of spaces tends to be diverse and members
can choose to work where they want. The main differenceis that co-working is an ‘out-of-house’ concept in whichpeople from different companies make use of the same
spaces and facilities, while ABW is an ‘in-house’ concept.
The lines are blurring, however. Some organizations are
creating their own co-workspaces, aiming for synergies
with external parties such as start-ups. Other organizations
provide their employees with corporate co-workmemberships so they can work in co-workspaces
and be part of a more diverse environment.
Smart offices and ‘proptech’
To an increasing extent, office buildings are equipped withvarious kinds of sensors that measure how the building isbeing used. Such buildings are referred to as ‘smart offices’and the technologies used are called ‘proptech’ (property
technology). The sensors can automatically detect who
is in the building and which work and meeting spaces arebeing used. Employees can use their phones to locatecolleagues, find available workstations, book meetingrooms, adjust the lighting levels in a space, rate the qualityof spaces, and create service tickets if something is wrong
with a space. For users, this can make office life easier,especially in an activity-based office where everybody ismobile. A point of concern is whether the use of sensors
infringes on people’s privacy rights.
Healthy offices
Health and well-being are currently big themes inworkplace design (although not exactly new for anyone
who remembers the ‘sick building syndrome’ of the 1990s).
The central idea is that buildings should be designed insuch a way that they have a positive impact on people’s
mental and physical well-being. Much of this relates toindoor climate: acoustics, daylight access, air quality andthermal comfort. Because of the Corona crisis, hygiene canbe added to this list as a crucial topic (see page 35). Other
relevant concepts are ‘biophilia’ (bringing natural elements
like plants into the office and using natural materials likewood) and ‘active design’ (design solutions that promote
movement, for example by creating attractive stairs). The
idea of encouraging movement fits neatly into the ABW
philosophy as the sharing of workspaces requires a higher
level of staff mobility in the office.

20

Co-work offices are like a hybrid of a cafe, aserviced office and a community space. The
facilities provided are just as important as thesense of community on offer.

Sensors can be used to monitor where people
are and where there are available workspaces.
Both kinds of information can help staff tonavigate an ABW office.

Biophilic elements, like plants, are likely to havepositive impact on people’s well-being in theoffice, making it a more natural and less artificial
environment.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Agile working
Agile working is highly popular, but a somewhat confusing
concept as the term has different meanings in different
industries. Workplace professionals often use the term
‘agile’ to refer to the flexibility of spaces. But in the worldof software development (and increasingly beyond),agile refers to the flexibility of work processes. This canbe explained as a highly interactive and iterative way ofworking, in which teams work in small ‘sprints’ with lotsof feedback loops. In terms of space, the most important
requirement of this way of working is that team members
can sit together and can have daily meetings (‘stand-ups’)
to discuss their activities. The workstyle is not incompatible
with activity-based working, but it is not the same. The
emphasis is on keeping teams together rather thanpromoting the mobility of individual employees.
Casual aesthetics
Traditionally, office aesthetics have been dominated bywhat architectural historians call ‘corporate modernism’:copious glass and metal, grey suspended ceilings, beige
carpets, and large numbers of identical workstations, neatly
arranged on orthogonal floor grids. In recent decades, thismanifestation of efficiency and order has been challenged
by more casual and home-like aesthetics. Many of today’s
offices feature lots of colour, graphics, plants, and domestic
elements like rugs, sofas and armchairs. Some offices evenincorporate playful features such as basketball hoops or
foosball tables. This is also what you see in many activitybased offices where design is used to create different kindsof informal settings, expressing the idea that office work is
not just desk work.

Agile working requires that team members can
sit together and have daily meetings (‘stand-ups’)
to discuss their activities.

Domestic elements like armchairs and sofas areused to make the office less office-like.

Q&A
Jeremy Myerson, Director WORKTECH Academy
There is more interest in the design of the work
environment than ever. How come?
Workplace design used to be a specialist subject with
its own rules. Now the work environment has been
consumerized and many offices look like hotel lobbies
or retail showrooms. Workplace design has joined themainstream design discourse.

Are those the things that users want?
Users in office buildings definitely want better mental
health and more preparedness for the challengesof 24/7 digital working. Most would willingly swap
command-and-control leadership for something more
empathic and responsive. But whether bringing robots
and machine learning into the workplace might be aroute to either is a moot point.

What are your top three workplace trends?
(1) Mental Health and Well-being – a growing
awareness of behavioural psychology andneuroscience to avoid stress and burnout andincrease productivity.
(2) Augmented Intelligence – there is a lot of interestin AI and automation, but the real gains will be inaugmented work where humans and machinescollaborate and coexist.
(3) New Generational Leadership – leadershipredefined not as a property of charismatic
individuals but as a property of a particularenvironment or culture. Workplace design andleadership strategy will work more closely together.

Is the desk going to survive?
The desk featured in Antonello da Messina’s 1475
painting Saint Jerome in His Study and it features today
in Apple Park’s campus. The desk will survive as longas evolutionary traits remain. It will, however, become
more intelligent, monitoring our health and our work,
correcting our mistakes and connecting us to others.

21Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTOBJECTIVES
To make ABW a success, it needs to have a purpose.
Having clear objectives will help to give direction to thedesign of both the concept and the implementation
process. Furthermore, it will help foster acceptance as
employees are more likely to accept change when they
understand the reasons behind it. Below, we discuss themost common objectives of ABW—some of which areeasier to achieve than others.
Reducing costs
It is often argued that cost reduction should not be theprime objective of activity-based working, which is true.
A one-sided cost focus sends the wrong message toemployees and it is likely to result in an office that is too
cramped and too crowded to be productive. Yet it would
be naïve to suggest that costs are irrelevant. As mentioned
earlier, traditional workplaces are not very efficient interms of occupancy. Applying ABW means better space
utilization and thereby a reduction in occupancy costs,
typically by 20 to 40%, depending on how radical theconcept is. Part of these savings can be reinvested tocreate better workspaces, part can be seen as real savings.
Reducing the environmental footprint
By increasing workspace utilization, ABW helps to reduce
the environmental footprint; organizations will require lessspace to serve the same number of employees. This means
lower amounts of energy needed to light, heat and cool theoffice space, and thus fewer carbon emissions. Moreover,
it reduces the environmental impact of construction
activities in terms of the use of raw materials, theproduction of construction waste, and the use of energy
for manufacturing and transporting building materials
and elements.

23

HOW?
OBJECTIVES
CONCEPTSREQUIREMENTS
SOLUTIONSWHY?

FROM OBJECTIVES TO SOLUTIONS
The formulation of clear objectives canbe seen as the start of a process in which
strategic intentions are translated step-bystep into concrete design solutions. This
process can be represented as a pyramid
consisting of four levels:11
1 Objectives: strategic benefits that must be
delivered (e.g. enhancing staff performance)
2 Concepts: general ideas about how thatcan be done (e.g. good acoustics)
3 Requirements: specific, verifiablerequirements (e.g. a reverb time of 0.6 sec)
4 Solutions: design solutions that meet thoserequirements (e.g. specific ceiling panels)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Increasing productivity
Increasing productivity is a crucial objective of ABW, albeita challenging one because it is not so easy to prove or
measure ABW’s impact on productivity (see page 28). Thereis a general belief, however, that ABW can help to improve
people’s performance as it allows people to choose thosespaces that best suit their activities, which should make iteasier to perform those activities. Moreover, productivity
should benefit from the accompanying change inmanagement thinking, which focuses on people’s
performance rather than their presence in the office.
Improving employee experience
When done right, ABW can contribute positively to people’ssatisfaction and their experience of the work environment.
The concept’s most important quality is the freedomof choice it offers, which can give people a sense of
empowerment. The extra attention to design that usuallycomes with ABW is a positive factor as well. It is importantto keep in mind, however, that people’s satisfaction andworkplace experience will, in part, depend on what they
are used to. Staff coming from a crowded open-plan officewill be easier to please than those coming from spacious
private offices.

THE BENEFITS OF ABW
ABW’s benefits for the organization as awhole are different from its benefits forindividual employees. It is an importantdistinction because individual users will
want to know ‘What’s in it for me?’.
What’s in it for the organization?
• Reduced occupancy costs• Smaller environmental footprint• Potential improvement in staff performance• Increased flexibility• Better interaction across teams• Support for cultural change
What’s in it for the staff?
• More autonomy in choosing where to work
• More choice and variety in work settings• Advanced technologies that allow mobile
working• More contact with colleagues• Fewer hierarchical differences• A less sedentary, healthier workstyle• Fewer workplaces, but better ones

Supporting cultural change
Activity-based working can be used as tool to support
particular cultural changes. For example, it can play a rolein creating a more egalitarian culture, as both management
and employees make use of the same set of spaces. It may
also help to foster a collaborative culture because there
are no longer clear boundaries between departments.
It is important to note, however, that cultural change isnotoriously difficult to achieve. Changes in the workplace
will only work if they go hand in hand with changes inmanagement style and employee behaviour.
Increasing flexibility
ABW offices have the great advantage of being extremely
flexible. Employees and teams can be moved without
having to clear out filing cabinets or having to pack andunpack moving boxes. Fluctuations in team sizes can easilybe accommodated as there is no 1:1 link between headcount and workstations (although there is obviously a limit
to how much growth can be absorbed within a given area).
The overall effect is that the ‘rate of churn’ (the percentageof employees moved during a year) and the related costs
are relatively low.

24

Do not expect cultural change to happen by
itself. Moving into a new work environment canhelp and stimulate cultural change, but it is rarely,
if ever, enough. Organizational leaders andother ‘influencers’ have to lead by example in theenvisioned new way of working and they haveto be consistent, persistent and insistent in theirmessage.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Enhancing interaction
Face-to-face interactions are critical for the exchange ofideas and information within organizations. ABW can help
to promote such interactions by providing inviting meetingareas and effective collaboration spaces. Furthermore,
the concept of ‘free seating’ increases the likelihood that
employees will rub shoulders with people other than thosefrom their own team. It should be noted, however, thatinternal team interactions may suffer in ABW concepts asteams no longer necessarily sit together—although thecreation of team zones can help with this (see page 67).
Attracting new generations of staff
The attraction and retention of new generations of staff(referred to as Millennials, Generation Y, or Gen Z) is often
given as an objective of ABW. The reasoning is that a
dynamic and vibrant ABW office will be more appealing
to this group than a ‘dull’ traditional office with outdated
furniture and a hierarchical set-up. That is probably true,
but this objective requires some nuance. It is not so muchthe sharing of workspace that younger generations areinterested in (research suggests the opposite 12, 13), but more
the general notion of flexibility in terms of hours and workat-home options.14, 15

It is often argued that sitting is the new smoking—which isn’t true because smoking is far worse—
but prolonged sitting does hurt people’s health.
Activity-based working can contribute to ahealthier workstyle as the concept promotes
movement and typically offers ergonomic
workplace solutions like sit-stand desks.

Improving health and well-being
Activity-based working can be linked to health and wellbeing in the sense that it gently encourages people tomove around the office. More movement and changes
in posture can help to reduce the risk of cardiovasculardiseases, chronic back problems and other ‘officediseases’. In addition, an ABW concept may positively affectpeople’s sense of well-being by giving them more control
over their work environment—although it must be said thata causal link with well-being is hard to prove (see page 29).

Q&A
Harald V. Nikolaisen, Director General of Statsbygg
What is the strategic relevance of ABW for publicorganizations like yours?
ABW allows flexibility for the organization when it comesto space utilization, while simultaneously reducing realestate costs. Flexible working environments reduce
the property footprint and support sustainability. They
accommodate more informal meetings and thereby
create a culture of collaboration. The physical solutions
are part of organizational development, management
and technology, not isolated projects.

changing business conditions. Perhaps this makes it
easier to achieve ABW in the private sector. In the public
sector, we struggle to overcome employee anxiety andresistance to change.
Is the concept part of the plans for the future
government quarter in Oslo?
Yes. For the first time Statsbygg has been given a
mandate to test ABW as a workplace concept. The
emphasis is on variation and freedom of choice, rather
than a personal desk for everyone. But from the start thishas been the subject of a debate that is still ongoing, so
we do not yet know the final outcome.

Is there a difference between public and privateorganizations when it comes to ABW?
Many private companies are better at meeting the
expectations of younger employees looking for new
ways of working. These companies are keenly aware ofoperating costs and alert to the benefits of concepts
that can accommodate more people and adapt to

Are you planning to give up your own office?
What office? I gave up my office ages ago! I work in
an open plan workspace and enjoy being close to
my colleagues.
25

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT
Making objectives more specific
The objectives as described here are still very broad. In an actual project,they would need to be more specific to be effective. The objectives
should ideally be linked to concrete metrics to make them actionable
and measurable.

OBJECTIVESINDICATORSReducing costs

Lease / occupancy costs

Reducing environmental
footprint

CO2 emissions per employee
Use of energy, water and materials
per employee

Increasing productivity

Productivity as perceived by staff(survey)
Output/input data (e.g. hours
worked for particular tasks)

Improving employee experience

Employee satisfaction levels(survey data)

Supporting cultural change

Staff perception of culture (survey
data)

Increasing flexibility

Rate of churn (# of people moved/
year)
Cost of internal moves

Enhancing interaction

Staff perception of interaction/social cohesion (survey data)
Actual interaction data (e.g. from asocial network analysis)

Attracting and retaining
employees

Staff retention rate

Improving health and wellbeing

Staff perception of their own healthand wellbeing (survey data)
Annual number of sick days

26

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTWHAT RESEARCHSAYS ABOUT ABW
There is a lot of research dedicated to figuring out
how ABW affects people’s behaviour and wellbeing.
This section summarizes the findings. Before doingso, it is important to note two caveats. First, almost all
research concerns user surveys that measure people’s
perceptions rather than their actual behaviour. The
second caveat is that the evidence base is still rather
limited, with a lot of individual case studies and only a
few large data sets. This means that the conclusions
below should be regarded as indications rather thanabsolute truths.
Quite happy
Are employees happy in an ABW office? Research suggeststhat they are, but the evidence is mixed. Multiple studies
show that people appreciate the availability of spaces forbreaks and collaboration, the aesthetics, and the improved
interaction with colleagues.16, 17 But there are also reportsof dissatisfaction, especially in relation to misuse of theconcept (e.g. territorial behaviour), design mistakes (e.g.
bad acoustics) and flawed implementation processes (e.g.
a lack of user involvement).18, 19 In general, however, the prosseem to outweigh the cons. An extensive Swedish study
showed that ABW offices, together with cellular offices,
generated the highest satisfaction scores, while open-plan
offices scored worst.20
Small generational differences
It is often argued that activity-based working is moresuitable for younger workers than for older ones. There issome data that seems to support this. Research from theDutch Center for People and Buildings shows that young
employees (< 31 years) are generally more positive about
ABW than older ones.22 Likewise, data from Leesman,a commercial research company, shows that young
employees consider ABW more effective than their older
colleagues.23 The question is why. Are young workers more
flexible, and older ones more change-averse? Perhaps, but
in both data sets the differences are too small to justify suchgenerational stereotyping. Other factors, such as where
people are in their career, are more likely to play a role.24
Better interaction
Many organizations hope that ABW will help to improve
employee interaction (‘breaking down the silos’, asmanagers like to say) and this notion is supported byresearch.25 In surveys conducted by the Center for People
27

MIXED FEELINGS
There are things that employees like about
activity-based working, and there are things
that they don’t like. According to benchmark
data from the Center for People andBuildings, the picture is as follows: 21
Best liked(>50% respondents satisfied/very satisfied)• Possibilities for communication• Atmosphere/expression of the interior• Quality of support services• Functionality/comfort of workplaces• ICT facilities• Spatial layout• Openness of spaces
Least liked(> 50% respondents dissatisfied/very
dissatisfied)• Lack of privacy• Possibilities for concentration

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

and Buildings, users generally rate the ‘possibility forknowledge sharing’ as one of the concept’s most positive
aspects.26 In similar fashion, the surveys conducted by
Leesman show consistently high scores for the facilitationof ‘informal social interaction’ and ‘unplanned meetings’. 27
One point to note, however, is that it is mostly interaction
across teams that benefits from ABW.28 Interactions withinteams may actually deteriorate as team members are nolonger necessarily located in the same area.29
Distractions and a lack of privacy
The almost inevitable downside of improved interaction isa decline in the ability to concentrate. Distractions, noise
and a lack of privacy are often mentioned as ABW’s main
weaknesses (although matters are worse in open-plan
offices).32, 33, 34, 35 This is somewhat surprising as the ABWconcept explicitly aims to facilitate both collaborative andindividual work. It is probable that many first-generation
ABW offices were too open. The complaints also seem torelate to people’s limited ‘switching behaviour’ (see below)
which means that people stay put at a workstation evenwhen they consider that area too noisy. The challenge istherefore not only to provide quiet spaces, but also to getpeople to use them.
Less mobile than expected
Several studies show that employees are less mobile in
ABW offices than expected, making use of only a limited
set of workplaces rather than the full range of available
options.36, 37, 38 The reasons for this are diverse. A practicalbarrier concerns the inefficiency of moving around(plugging out/in, packing/unpacking, adjusting furniture).
A psychological reason may be people’s tendency todevelop routines, such as using the same desk, as means
to manage their busy work lives.39 A social reason is thatpeople want to remain seated close to their colleagues.40
All three are valid reasons, but it is important to encourage
mobility as research shows that the more mobile people
are, the happier they are with the ABW concept.41, 42, 43
Productivity remains elusive
The impact on productivity is the holy grail of workplaceresearch: much sought after, but notoriously hard to find.
The problem is that there are many factors involved andthat the productivity of office workers is usually hard tomeasure. To deal with this, most studies limit themselvesto ‘perceived’ or ‘self-rated’ productivity. But even then, it
is difficult to reach conclusions. Some studies have foundpositive impacts, others negative ones, and some havefound zero effects.45, 46 Positive impacts are associatedwith improved communications and an increased
sense of empowerment.47 Negative impacts relate to
an increase in distractions and the extra time needed
to find a workplace.48

28

When reviewing research outcomes in relation
to ABW, it is important to look closely at what was
actually being studied. This is well illustrated bya Swedish study of office types which found that
employee satisfaction was highest in cell offices
and lowest in hot-desking offices.30 This study
is often seized on by ABW opponents in arguingthat ABW is a bad idea.31 But that may be too hasty
a conclusion. The study looked at ‘hot desking’,
which the researchers explicitly define as desk
sharing in open-plan offices—without support
spaces such as quiet rooms. So not really ABW
at all. This does not make the study any lessinteresting—it is an excellent study—but it doesmean that its outcomes should be treated withcare when discussing ABW.

The modern workplace is filled with what
researchers call ‘externally generated involuntary
distractions’ or ‘EGIDS’:44 noisy colleagues,
phone calls and people walking past. Such
distractions can be acceptable while performing
well-learnt, routine tasks, but they can hamper
people’s performance when it comes to newor complex tasks. The ABW office aims to deal
with this issue by providing spaces for bothcommunication and concentration.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTProbably healthierAs with productivity, the available research on healthis based on self-reported ratings rather than actual
measurements of people’s well-being. So, ‘hard’ data is
missing thus far. But there are some studies that indicatethat ABW offices (and cell offices) scoring higher on healththan open-plan offices.49 One explanation for this may lie
in the increased sense of personal control over the work
environment that can come with ABW. Another possible
explanation may lie in the notion that the ABW concept
promotes motion and change of posture. There is an
Australian study in which employees reported reduced
sitting time (by 14%) and increased time spent standing(11%) and walking (3%).50 It should be said, however, that
there are also studies that suggest that the concept’s
impact on sitting behaviour is marginal.51
More suitable for some jobs than for others
ABW seems to favour high-end office jobs: job types thatcome with a high level of autonomy, task diversity, mobility
and interaction. Think project managers and policy makers
rather than administrative workers or help desk employees.
Data from Leesman shows that people who have acomplex activity profile (lots of different tasks) regard ABW
as more effective than people with a simpler activity profile(little diversity in tasks).53 Dutch research points in a similar
direction, showing that satisfaction ratings are highest
among employees whose work is characterized by highlevels of interaction and autonomy.54 This makes sense
because such traits are in line with ABW’s philosophy ofself-managing employees who make their own decisions
about when and where to work.
More suitable for some people than for others
In addition to the job characteristics discussed above,
people’s personal preferences and personality traits
may play an important role in their perception of thework environment. Dutch research indicates thatpeople’s personal need for privacy (‘PNP’) is a key factor
in determining their satisfaction with ABW.55 Freely
interpreted: some people’s brains are wired in such a waythat they don’t mind the interruptions and distractions
in a ‘buzzing’ office, while others cannot concentrate
and become nervous and ultimately frustrated in suchenvironments. Not surprisingly, the latter group is morecritical of activity-based working than the first. Other
personality traits—such as degrees of introversion or
extroversion—are also likely to play a role, but there isno data available on this matter in relation to ABW.56, 57

29

MOBILE WORKERS FEEL MOST PRODUCTIVE
The data from Leesman shows that the mobile
employees in an ABW office feel more productive
than their sedentary colleagues. In their data,
Leesman distinguish between four mobility
profiles. The percentage of people who agree withthe statement that their office helps them to be
more productive is different for each profile.52
ProfileIncreased productivity
agreement

The camper / squatter
Works in a single work
setting, rarely using othersettings in the office42%

The timid traveller
Uses a single work setting,occasionally tries otherlocations within the office

55%

The intrepid explorer
Uses a single work setting,but often uses otherlocations within the office60%

The true transientMoves around. Rarely
bases him/herself in asingle location within theoffice67%

Mobile workers are happier with ABW than theirsedentary colleagues.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Reality can be messy
The ABW concept is based on particular assumptions
about user behaviour. Perhaps unsurprisingly, researchshows that those assumptions do not always obtain in
everyday office life. For example, one of ABW’s central
ideas is that of a ‘status-free’ work environment. In several
studies, however, it was observed how (some) managers
recreate private offices by systematically commandeering
small meeting rooms.58, 59 ABW’s assumption about sharing
spaces is also often challenged, as was shown in a Dutchcase study where a team ‘territorialized’ a section of theoffice by leaving papers on cabinets and decorating thewalls with posters.60 Such observations show that one
should be not naïve about the importance and difficultyof organizational change.
Success depends on execution and implementation
As mentioned earlier, ABW research comes up with manydifferent, often contrasting findings, with examples ofboth very successful and unsuccessful cases. Much
seems to depend on how the concept is executed andimplemented. This is nicely illustrated by a study carriedout by the Center for People and Buildings in which four
ABW projects of the same organization were compared,
two with very high satisfaction ratings, and two with very
low ratings. These differences were due to differences inthe design (the worst-rated projects were more open plan),the implementation process (the best-rated projects had
a lot of user involvement) and the role of management(the successful projects enjoyed strong management
commitment).61

Q&A
Wim Pullen, Director of the Center for People and Buildings
Why is workplace research relevant to practice?
First because research looks for patterns, for example
in people’s behaviour, which is relevant input for thedesign process. We try to discover the ‘laws of nature’of the work environment. Second because research
can provide a rich understanding of reality. Research isabout numbers, but also about the stories behind thosenumbers. There is a lot that can be learnt from a goodcase description.

Why is it so difficult to prove ABW’s impact on
productivity growth?
Productivity is a complex metric. It requires themeasurement of all the organization’s inputs andoutputs, both before and after the introduction of ABW.
And even then, it is difficult isolate the workplace fromother variables. It is possible, however, to use ‘perceived
productivity’ as a proxy.

In your database there are both successful andunsuccessful ABW projects. What makes the difference?
Success is very much about providing the right mixof settings that match people’s activities and their
psychological needs, facilitating both communicationand concentration. Other success factors are strong
management commitment, a balance between topdown and bottom-up decision-making, and clear
guidelines.

What is on CfPB’s research agenda for the coming years?
We want to discover more about what we call ‘Total
Benefits of Usership’ (as opposed to ‘Total Cost of
Ownership’). We already know that there are many
variables at play, but we want to know more about causal
relations and, thereby, about effective interventions.
The word ‘total’ describes our ideal of knowing it all.

30

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Change management is key
There isn’t much research available on change
management in relation to activity-based working, butmany research publications do stress its importance.62, 63,
64, 65User involvement and communication in particular are
seen as critical change management activities. A Swedish
study that compared four ABW cases noted that the twomost successful cases were characterized by long design
and implementation processes, extensive employee
involvement and clear communication about theconcept.66 The study showed that employee involvement
facilitated the employees’ mental preparation for the newwork environment and the creation, acceptance andimplementation of new workstyles.
Conclusion
The available evidence based on ABW does not provide any
simple or definitive answers about whether ABW is goodor bad.67 The overall impression, however, is that ABW canwork very well provided it is implemented and executed
properly. The concept’s strength is that it can have apositive impact on interaction, satisfaction and people’s
sense of productivity, especially when work processes arecharacterized by a high level of autonomy, mobility andinteraction. The concept’s weakness is that people mayfind it difficult to concentrate. Research also shows thatpeople are by nature more sedentary than expected and so
fail to realize the concept’s full potential. These issues must
be addressed explicitly in the design and implementation
process. Providing plentiful spaces for focus work, andencouraging people to actually use those spaces, is likely
to help.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH
The comment ‘further research is needed’ is ascientific cliché, but nonetheless true for ABW.
Despite a rapidly growing evidence base, manyquestions remain unanswered. Here are somerecommendations for further research.

Promote research
Urge organizations to evaluate their ABW effort
systematically and to share the findings.
Make sure that research is relevant topractice
Try to develop practical recommendations
on matters like sharing ratios and workplacedensities.
Make research more accessible to practice
Do not publish in scientific journals only,
but also in blogs and trade journals that areaccessible to practitioners.
Link satisfaction data to design
characteristics
Do not regard ABW as a general concept. Takea closer look and try to isolate the impact ofdesign variables such as floor sizes, sharing
ratios and workplace densities.
Go for ‘gold standard’ research
To get reliable evidence about how officeconcepts work , there is a need for somemore ‘randomized controlled trails’ (RCTs),
conducted in real-life workplace settings.68
Use a mix of methods
Combine quantitative surveys with qualitative
methods such as interviews and observational
studies to understand the ‘why’ of the researchoutcomes.
Use data from new technologies
Make use of sensors, cameras or wearable
devices to get an in-depth insight into user
behaviour (but beware of privacy issues).
Investigate the impact of process design
Do not study the concept in isolation, but also
the process behind it, looking at the duration ofprocesses, the degree of user involvement andthe role of management.

31

Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTISSUES AND HOW TO
DEAL WITH THEM
Activity-based working is a powerful concept, but it is
not without its challenges. Understandably, employees
worry about things like noise, hygiene and theavailability of sufficient numbers of workspaces. To make
ABW a success, and to convince sceptical employees,
such issues should not be glossed over, but explicitly
addressed. Below is a list of the ten biggest issues withrecommendations for how to deal with them.
Noise and distractions
As explained in the research section, one of the biggest
issues of the ABW office is that people experience
distractions and a lack of privacy, which impairs their ability
to concentrate. This need not be the case. The central ideaof ABW is to provide options for both communication andconcentration.
• Provide plentiful focus rooms and/or quiet areas so thatpeople can escape the buzz;• Provide lots of meeting areas so that conversations do
not have to take place in open work areas;• Divide the office floor into zones with different levels of
liveliness (e.g. a ‘hot’ zone for lively activities and ‘cold’zone for quiet ones, see page 69);
• Make sure that spaces have excellent acoustics (plenty ofsound absorption; sound blocking where needed);• Formulate rules for how spaces should be used (e.g. novideo meetings or loud ringtones in open work areas);• Limit ‘visual noise’ (i.e. blocking distractions inpeople’s peripheral vision by placing screens between
workstations, applying privacy film to glass partitions andlocating workstations away from busy circulation areas).
Feeling lost or disconnected
Without a personal workstation, some people may feel
uprooted, lost or disconnected from their teams. A mix of
spatial, technical and organizational strategies can be used
to mitigate those feelings and to strengthen the social ties
within teams.
• Establish ‘team zones’ or ‘anchor points’ as a first port ofcall for team members (see page 68);
• Create ‘identity spaces’ where teams and individuals
can place and display their trophies and other kindsof memorabilia (e.g. snapshots of all team members,
branding materials, etc.);

33

The use of acoustic panels will help tosoundproof the office. Acoustic panels are madeof sound-deadening materials that allow people
to have a conversation in an open work area
without immediately disturbing their co-workers.
(photo: Anna Autio)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT• Ask team members to share their schedules andcalendars, so that everyone knows where and when theircolleagues are working;• Create rules concerning people’s availability/accessibility(e.g. availability via chat during work hours);• Provide easy-to-use tools for sharing files andcommunication (video, chat, voice) and make sure thatthose tools are used;• Have set meetings and social rituals (e.g. eating lunch
together when at the office);• Pay added attention to newcomers who do not yet know
their colleagues and may have trouble—literately andfiguratively—in finding their way around the office.
Territorial behaviour
In ABW offices some users may try to claim certain
workplaces in the office as their own—for example, byleaving personal items, such as a jacket or papers, at aworkstation to signal that it is ‘theirs’ while not using it.
This is a natural tendency, but it restricts other
employees’ choice.
• Make sure that all the standard workstations are of equalquality—there is no need for competition for desksor ‘desk envy’ when everything is of the same (good)quality;• Formulate guidelines for how spaces should be used
(e.g. stating that people must clear a workstation when
they expect to be away for more than 2 hours);• Make sure that managers lead by example (and not treat
focus rooms or meeting rooms as their private office);• Make sure that switching between spaces is easy
by providing easily adjustable furniture and wirelesstechnologies;• Emphasize that clearing one’s desk is not just a matter offollowing rules, but more especially of being considerateof your colleagues;• Ask the cleaners to clear all desks at the end of the day.

THE TERRITORY ISSUE
The social psychologist Irwin Altman
theorized in the 1970s that people’s sense of
territoriality is dependent on two factors:(1) how central a place is in a person’s life, and(2) how much time a person spends there.69
He distinguished three types of territories.
Primary territory

Private places where
the owner has
exclusive rights to use
the space (e.g. a placein the home).

Secondary territory

Semi-public places
where a person
interacts withacquaintances or
peers on a regularbasis (e.g. a local pub).

Tertiary territory

Public spaces where
almost anyone isallowed temporary
access, providing theyobserve the relevant
regulations (e.g. a
public park).

The first type of territory will raise the strongest
resistance when it has to be shared, the third
one the weakest. Work areas can be seen as‘secondary territories’: places where it is niceor convenient to have a regular seat, but not a
must.

Availability of spaces
Closely related to the issue above, is anxiety about theavailability of workspaces, which may result in people
going to the office earlier so as to be able to get a goodwork spot. It happens, but there should be no need for such
behaviour. A well-designed ABW office should offer plentyof good seating possibilities, even during peak hours.
• Make sure that the sharing ratio isn’t too tight. Avoid
regular occupancy levels over 70% (see also
page 63);• Create ‘overflow areas’ to deal with peak occupancies(e.g. informal work settings in the restaurant and otherbreak areas);• Make a clear distinction between bookable spaces
and non-bookable spaces;
34

Linking workplace sensors to a smart phone
app gives employees access to live data about
which workstations are in use and which are not,so they spend less time looking for available
workstations. (photo: Mapiq)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT• Correct people who show ‘claiming behaviour’;• Establish (and enforce) a ‘clear desk’ policy;• Create visual overview in the office so people can easily
see which workspaces and focus rooms are available;• Provide employees with a ‘place finder’ app for theirphone to help them to locate available workstations.
Paper and stuff
An often-heard concern is ‘Where am I going to leave all mystuff?’ It is obvious that ABW is not going to work if people
have a lot of things to carry around. But people still havethings, such as a laptop, a mug, books and printouts ormarketing materials. There should be places where people
can store those items.
• Digitalize work processes, in so far as that hasn’t been
done already;• Organize a ‘clean up’ of filing cabinets, pedestals andstorage spaces before moving into the ABW office;• Provide employees with lockers where they can store
personal items;• Provide a cloakroom for storing clothing such as
bicycle helmets and coats;• Provide team storage where needed.

Provide employees with a basket or company
bag that they can use to carry their things whileon the move in the office. The size should be suchthat it that can easily fit into a locker.
(photo: Anna Autio)

HygieneEmployees may worry about hygiene as workstations areused by multiple persons. The Covid-19 pandemic has
exacerbated this concern. Many people dislike the idea of
unseen germs, bacteria, microbes and viruses harboured
by shared desk surfaces and peripherals such as keyboards
and mice.
• Increase cleaning frequency (e.g. extra cleaning round
during office hours to wipe down desks and keyboards);• Place a canister of disinfectant wipes and/or a bottle ofhand sanitizer on desks (NB without harmful chemicals,
preferably biodegradable);• Draw up a protocol that asks employees to keep
workspaces clear, clean and tidy;• Provide people with their own headsets, keyboards andmice (although this means that they have more stuff tocarry around);• Place hand sanitizers at strategic places (entrance, pantry,
toilets) and make sure they are regularly refilled;• In case of a virus outbreak, allow employees to book/use
workstations for an entire day. Clean and disinfect theseworkstations thoroughly at the end of the day.

Sharing workspaces means higher standards forcleaning, especially in times of virus outbreaks.

In most ABW offices employees get their own
personal locker so that everyone has a place tostore personal items (e.g. one’s laptop at the endof the day). In practice, however, not everyone
uses them, in which case a shared locker system
might be considered. (photo: Anna Autio)

35THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPTThe hassle of moving
One practical issue concerns the practicalities of switchingworkspaces over the course of a day. Each move entails
finding a spot, adjusting the furniture, clicking the laptop
into the docking station, and placing one’s stuff on the desk.
These ‘micro-inefficiencies’ cannot be avoided entirely, butthere are ways to make switching places easier.
• Provide all employees with the same laptop (type/brand)and equip all workstations with the same docking station(or at least provide the right set of cables and dongles forevery type of equipment);• Limit the number of wires/cables required (e.g. wirelesschargers for phones);• Choose furniture that can easily be adjusted to individual
preferences (without having to read a manual first);• Provide all employees with a bag or basket in which tocarry a few personal things (notebooks, favourite pens,mug);• Position focus rooms and phone booths close to open
work areas so people don’t have to walk far if they wantto switch places to make a phone call or when they needsome time to focus.
Ergonomics
People come in different sizes and with different
preferences, and they will need to adjust their chairs anddesks accordingly. Compared with ordinary office projects,
the ergonomic standards in ABW offices need to be higher.
If work settings meet the needs of the ‘outliers’, the needsof everyone else should be covered as well.
• Invest in highly adjustable, high-quality furniture(adjustable chairs, sit-stand desks);• Make sure that the height of monitors can be easilyadjusted;• Train all employees in workspace ergonomics (giving
advice about posture, but also about the importance of
movement and variation);• Make exceptions for people with special needs (e.g.
persons with allergies, light sensitivity, hearing problems,
wheelchair users, etc.);• Consider investing in ‘smart furniture’, such as desks that
automatically self-adjust to a person’s digitally stored
preferences.

36

Use furniture solutions that people can easilyadjust to their preferences. (photo: Ahrend)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 1: CONCEPT

Loss of status
For managers, ABW can create ‘status anxiety’. The
proverbial corner office is no longer there. In addition, theymust get used to managing mobile employees (managing
with their brains, instead of their eyeballs, so to speak).
Practice shows that this is not always easy. It is essential,
however, that they are ‘on board’ and lead by example.
• Provide training in change management and information
about ABW that is specifically targeted at managers;• Make managers part of, and responsible for, the change
process;• Make sure that top management is involved and actively
pushing the ideas to all management levels;• Provide sufficient bookable meeting rooms with visual
privacy, where managers can have confidential meetings(e.g. employee assessments).
Resistance to change
When introducing ABW, be prepared for a healthy doseof staff resistance. When they first hear about it, many
employees will be anxious, or even angry, about theprospect of losing ‘their’ workstation. But if properly
informed and involved, people can move from resisting
the change to accepting or even embracing it (see also
page 83).
•
•
•
•
•

Communicate extensively about the ‘why’, ‘what’ and‘how’ of the concept;
Listen seriously to and address all concerns andpractical questions employees may have;
Involve employees actively in the development of theconcept (see page 46);
Where necessary, provide training (e.g. in use of newtechnologies);
Make sure that management leads by example.

Positive
Employeeperception
Negative

State

Status Quo

Disruption

Exploration

Rebuilding

Reaction

Shock, denial

Anger, fear

AcceptanceCommitment

37

Why is losing one’s desk such a daunting
perspective, even when you know that you
will get more options in return? One likely
culprit is the psychological phenomenon of‘loss aversion’, which is encapsulated in theexpression “losses loom larger than gains.” 70
To deal with this phenomenon, it is important
to look carefully at the ‘framing’ of the ABWconcept. The new work environment has to bepresented and designed as a gain (i.e. in termsof choice and quality) rather than as a loss. This
will not solve the issue entirely, but one can takecomfort from the idea that once people havebecome used to ABW, they won’t want to lose it,for the very same reason.
Stages of acceptance
The process of accepting change is often
likened to the process of grieving, which is said
to move from denial, to anger, to bargaining andultimately to acceptance.71, 72
The analogy may seem a bit over the top (grieving
over the loss of a desk?), but it provides insight
into people’s responses to an ABW project.
People’s initial reaction is often resistance, while
actually working in the new office tends to lead toacceptance.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE

38

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSISPART 2: ANALYSIS
Before deciding whether to adopt ABW, and in what form, it is important to undertake asystematic analysis of the organization’s needs and aspirations. The purpose of such ananalysis is to assess the organization’s readiness for activity-based working and to gather
data and insights to inform the detailed development of the concept.
An additional purpose of the analysis process is to prepare the organization for change.
Analysing existing and new ways of working helps to create an awareness of how and where
the work environment can be improved. Involving users in this process is an excellent wayof creating engagement. Participative activities such as workshops and interviews can beparticularly powerful change management tools.
The overall analysis process can be split into three parts:
1 Analysing the existing situation
2 Exploring new possibilities
3 Validating new ideas
Each part comes with its own methods, which will be discussed in the following.73 Please notethat it will not always be necessary to use the full set of methods, but any project will benefit
from gathering solid data that enables informed decisions to be made.

39

Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSISANALYSING THE
EXISTING SITUATION
The aim of analysing the existing situation is to gain anunderstanding of the organization, its work processes
and its current ways of using space. How does theorganization work? What kind of culture does it have?
What kind of work settings are available and how are
they used? And where is there a need for improvement?
These questions can be answered by analysing various
kinds of organizational data as well as by simply ‘looking
and listening’.

Document analysis
A good place to start the overall analysis is to go throughalready available documentation: documents on matterslike the organization’s mission, structure, strategy, andbrand or identity. Such documents can provide an insight
into what is important to the organization and where itis heading. Also relevant is documentation relating toheadcount, although headcount data are notoriously
inaccurate (outdated or excluding external contractors),so additional data gathering may be necessary.

Outcomes• An initial understanding of the organization’s
processes, strategy and mission• Basic data on the organization’s structureand headcountWalk-throughAs the name suggests, a ‘walk-through’ is basically awalk around a building. It is a tour of the existing work
environment together with a group of users who explain
how they use it. The aim is to get an initial impression of
the organization and its work environment. What is theatmosphere like? Are workspaces crowded or empty, noisy
or quiet, messy or organized? How do users perceive thesespaces? What do they like and dislike? What would they liketo have changed, and why? Conducting such a tour is avery effective way of getting to know a lot in a short periodof time.

Outcomes• First impressions of both the organizationand the existing work environment

41

Recommendations• Beware of possible discrepancies between
how things are presented in documents andhow they are in everyday practice.
• Conduct follow-up interviews to clarify andvalidate data.

Recommendations• Prepare the walk-through. Make sure that therouting and stopping points cover all relevant
spaces. Prepare a list of discussion topics foreach stop.
• Consider turning the tour into a ‘photo safari’during which users are asked to make photos
as visual documentation of the positive andnegative aspects of their office.
• Conduct tours with different kinds of users (e.g.
employees, managers, facility manager) to get
different perspectives on the existing situation.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSIS

Workplace survey
A survey is an excellent way of gathering input from large
numbers of people. It can be used to measure people’ssatisfaction with their existing work environment, which will
help to identify areas for improvement. Surveys can also
be used to gain an insight into people’s work processes by
asking them which activities (e.g. solo work, group work,etc.) are critical to them. It is important to note, however,that a survey basically measures people’s opinions. To
be able to interpret the outcomes, survey data should be‘triangulated’ with data from interviews, workshops andoccupancy measurements.

Outcomes• Quantitative data on staff satisfaction• Quantitative insights into people’s work
processes

Spatial analysis
Analysing the existing spatial layout will provide insight into
what people are currently used to and baseline data for the
new concept. The analysis should look at the general use of
space (e.g. square metres per employee/workspace) andat the kinds of work settings that are provided in the current
situation. Ideally, you should learn three things about eachspace type: (1) the design characteristics of the space, (2)people’s satisfaction with it, and (3) the degree to which
the space is used.

Outcomes• Baseline data on the existing use of space• An understanding of what employees are
currently used to

Occupancy measurements
Occupancy measurements provide insight into the extent
to which employees use the available work settings.
Occupancy data can be gathered by using either humanobservers or digital sensors. The outcomes are key todetermining the ‘sharing ratio’ for the concept, which is
the ratio between people and workstations. The lower
the occupancy levels, the higher the potential for sharing.
When analysing the data it is important to look at both‘average occupancy’ (occupancy levels averaged overa period of time), ‘peak occupancy’ (the highest levelmeasured), and the frequency with which they occur(more on this on page 63)

Outcomes• Quantitative data on space occupancy

42

Recommendations• Check out existing survey methods, for example
from the Center for People and Buildings (www.
cfpb.nl), WPA (www.wpa.works) and Leesman(www.leesmanindex.com).
• Make sure the survey’s timing isn’t too close thatof other surveys (e.g. regular staff satisfaction
surveys).
• Critically review all survey questions beforehand(surveys tend to be too long).
• Combine the survey with interviews, occupancy
measurements and an analysis of the building’s
design in order to be able to interpret theoutcomes accurately.

Recommendations• When analysing the use of square metres (i.e.
per person and per workstation), make sure that
it is clear what the square metre measurement
refers to (gross floor area, net floor area,
lettable area, etc.)• Try to get accurate digital files of the existing
office floor layouts as that makes it easier toanalyse the use of space.
• Connect the spatial information (quantity,size, features) to satisfaction data (e.g. froma survey) and use data (e.g. from occupancy
measurements).

Recommendations• Measure the occupancy levels of workspaces,
meeting spaces and support spaces.
• Communicate clearly when and why theoccupancy measurements will take place andthat they are not being used to collect data on
individuals.
• Make sure that the measurement period isrepresentative (i.e. avoid holiday periods).
• Be aware that occupancy measurements
reflect current usage, based on existing
behaviours. Future use patterns may bedifferent.
• Combine occupancy measurements withinterviews in order to be able to interpretthe outcomes (i.e. why are certain spaces
intensively used or underutilized?)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSIS

Stakeholder interviews
Interviews are a good way to get ‘up close and personal’
with all the stakeholders. At the start of the process, it isa good idea to talk to the decision makers in the various
departments involved (i.e. HR, IT, FM, CRE). What do they
see as the opportunities and challenges? How can they
contribute to concept’s success? In addition, it will be
useful to interview employee representatives (e.g. fromunions or workers councils) or a cross section of employees(e.g. a manager, a policy maker, etc.) to get their perspectiveon the concept. These insights can be used as input for
both the shaping of the concept and the related change
management strategy.

Outcomes• Insight into expectations, needs and attitudesof stakeholders

Social network analysis
Social network analysis is a method for mapping andanalysing the social interactions in an organization. The
data is usually gleaned from email traffic, surveys or(wearable) sensors. The outcomes are visualized in web-like
diagrams with ‘nodes’ and ‘ties’ that show who is in touchwith whom. Such data will be relevant for organizations
keen to improve staff interaction or looking for particular
gaps that need to be filled or ‘silos’ that need to be broken
down. These kinds of insights can then be used for
decisions on team adjacencies, circulation routingsor for the location of classic meeting spots such as
coffee machines.

Outcomes• Quantitative data on interactions between
people and between teams

Recommendations• Keep the interviews focused on organizational
needs rather than people’s personal opinions.
• Consider further involvement of theinterviewees in the later stages the project(e.g. in focus groups or work groups).
• Evaluate whether the interview outcomes
converge or diverge (e.g. differences between
management and employees?).
• Consider making brief video interviews forcommunication purposes.

Recommendations• Make sure that the data (e.g. from email/social
media/GPS trackers) are anonymized before
they are analysed. Always ask users for theirconsent.
• Do not get bogged down in the (typically)
immense quantity of data. Focus on general
patterns and the interaction between groups
rather than individuals.
• Define beforehand what the purpose of theanalysis is and how it relates to the objectivesof the ABW concept.

Q&A
Siri Blakstad, Business Development Director at SINTEF
How important is it to conduct an analysis before
implementing ABW?
If your aim is to change the organization’s work
processes, analysis is of vital importance. You willneed ‘neutral facts’ for decision-making and for setting
clear objectives. Furthermore, the analysis process
is important because it helps to create an awarenessof how and where things can be improved. In thatsense, the process itself is almost as important as theoutcomes.
Which analysis activities do you regard as crucial?
Occupancy studies are very useful for getting an
understanding of how people currently use space.
Interviews and workshops are essential for discussing
present and future work practices.

To what extent should users be part of the analysis
process?
Extensively. When carrying out an analysis, you relyon the users’ knowledge. Involvement can also help tofoster user engagement—but only if it is well planned
and if it is clear to people how the outcomes will be used.
What’s the secret to successful user involvement?
First, the process needs to be owned by theorganization’s leadership—and not just the project teamor the real estate department. Second, as I mentioned
earlier, you need to be clear about the purpose of theirinvolvement. The project will suffer if you involve people
and later choose to ignore their contribution. People
are smart and appreciate honesty. So, if there is noroom for any kind of co-creation, just say so, and put theemphasis on training and learning rather than concept
development.
43

Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSISEXPLORING NEW
POSSIBILITIESThe analysis methods discussed in the earlier
section are all very much focused on describing andunderstanding the ‘as is’ situation. It is just as important,however, to discuss and investigate the possible ‘tobe’ situation by exploring new ideas and future trends.
This part of the analysis is not so much about ‘hard’numerical data, but more about ‘soft’ qualitative datasuch as ideas, inspiration and ambitions, which are justas important as numbers because they determine thenature of the concept.
Leadership workshops
To make the ABW concept relevant to an organization andits employees, it must be embedded in a wider narrative
about organizational change. It is therefore important toknow in which direction the organization is heading andto know what the top decision makers’ aspirations are.
Workshops with leadership can be used to explain what
ABW is and to discuss its relevance for the organization.
Important points for discussion are: strategic aims (whatdo they want to achieve with ABW?); the concept’s relation
to other change projects (e.g. in IT and HR); and the role ofmanagement itself (are they willing to lead by example?).

Outcomes• Definition of strategic objectives for the ABWconcept• Awareness among leadership about what ABW
is (and what is expected from them)• Management buy-in

Reference projects
Visiting the ABW projects of other organizations is
recommended when looking for new ideas and inspiration.
Other projects provide an excellent opportunity to‘look and learn’. What are the latest design solutions andtechnological tools that are available? What works andwhat not? What would these organizations have done
differently in hindsight? For employees, the additional
advantage of project visits is that they give them a very
tangible impression of how ABW offices can look andwork in practice, making the concept less abstract andless daunting.

Outcomes• Inspiration, ideas and experiences fromother projects

45

Recommendations• Make sure that the workshop is inspiring, butalso honest about possible challenges.
• Give managers a clear understanding of theirown role in the process (not just as decision
makers, but also as advocates).
• Beware of producing outcomes that are toovague or too consensus-driven to be useful.

Recommendations• Gather factual information about reference
projects (i.e. floor plans, evaluations, cost
figures).
• Make sure to have access to the right people:
not just the designers or consultants (who arelikely to be biased in favour of their own work),
but also the building’s facility manager andusers.
• Document the visit so as to be able tocommunicate the lessons learnt to the restof the organization.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSIS

Staff workshops
Engaging staff in the analysis process by means ofworkshops is a good way of creating acceptance,
ownership and enthusiasm for the concept. Workshops
can be used for two purposes. The first is to create an
informal setting where it is possible to discuss the generalidea of activity-based working with staff. The second
purpose is to explore the staff’s ideas, wishes and needs
concerning their work environment. It will, for example,
be useful to brainstorm about the types of work settings
the new office should provide and the ways in which staff
should or will use these settings in practice.

Outcomes• Staff awareness of what ABW is• A qualitative understanding of staff needs• Ideas that can serve as input for the project
brief and design development

Scenario studies
When thinking about a new work environment, it isimportant to explore how ways of working may change in
the near future. This can be done by examining different
future scenarios that are based on changes in both society
at large (e.g. the rise of AI and robotics) and the organization
itself (e.g. changes in staff demographics). The different
scenarios can then explore how such changes may affectworkplace needs. It should be noted that future scenarios
are inherently uncertain—they may never come true—but
discussing them is still productive as it helps people to thinkbeyond the status quo.

Outcomes• An understanding of possible changes thatwill affect workspace needs

46

Recommendations• Be clear about the matters on which staff’s
input is sought and how their input will be used.
• Organize dedicated workshops for different
departments/teams as needs are likely to differ.
• Keep discussions focused on functional needs
rather than personal ‘wants’.
• Hold workshops early in the process so thatoutcomes can be incorporated into the project
brief and/or design proposals.

Recommendations• Scenarios should be plausible, but not
too bland. Adding provocative or extreme
scenarios can help to sharpen people’s
thinking and their awareness of future change.
• Look at existing scenario studies before
developing one’s own. There are plenty of
scenario studies available on the Internet.
• When creating a scenario, differentiate
between fairly certain developments (e.g.
demographics) and uncertain developments(e.g. social change)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSISVALIDATINGNEW IDEAS
New ideas and concepts should be tested and validated
before they are implemented. This can be done invarious ways. Focus groups can be used to discuss
the validity of a concept with employees. The persona
method can be used in the same way, with an emphasison different user types. The spatial consequences of
the ABW concept can be tested by means of design
prototyping. Real-life testing can be done throughpilot projects.
Focus groups
A focus group is a small group of specially selected
employees who are asked to review and discuss the ABWconcept during the development and implementation
process. It is a test panel that can be used to validate theusability of ideas and particular design solutions from auser perspective. Members of a focus group are usually
selected from a cross section of the organization. An
alternative approach is to select ‘lead users’: users who area step ahead of the others. In both cases it will be importantto ‘prep’ the focus group about the nature of ABW before
they are asked to respond to it.

Outcomes• Validation of the usability and relevance ofspecific ideas and solutions

Development of personas
The persona method is a technique in which ideas can betested and developed by looking at the needs of typical,
fictional personas. Examples of such personas might bea manager, an administrative worker, or an employee in awheelchair. For each persona it is possible to develop a‘user journey’ through the new work environment. What is
the first thing they do when they enter the office? Whichspaces do they use and what do they do there? What
technologies and equipment do they use? By drawing up a
detailed description of such a user journey it is possible tovalidate the concept from the perspective of different user
types with different needs.

Outcomes• Qualitative insights into the needs of different
user types• Validation of the concept’s usability

47

Recommendations• A group size of 10 to 15 persons will usually
suffice: large enough to incorporate diverse
voices and small enough for the informal
exchange of ideas.
• Include not only enthusiasts, but also
sceptics—although all participants should havea constructive attitude.
• Ensure proper facilitation and training of the
focus group.
• Make sure that the group is not dominated bya few loud voices. Every participant should be
able to put forward his or her ideas.

Recommendations• Avoid making personas too stereotypical andsimplistic.
• Make sure that personas are grounded in reality
by using data (from interviews, workshops,
desk research) as input.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 2: ANALYSIS

Design prototyping
When discussing activity-based working it is easy to
get lost in abstract numbers about square metres andsharing ratios. To add meaning to such figures, and to test
their feasibility, it is a good idea to test different design
options early in the process. Not by means of detailed
design proposals, but with diagrammatic plans andreference images that visualize how the envisioned work
environment might look in terms of zoning, room types anddensities. This will help to validate assumptions about theneed for square metres and it will aid communication with
employees and decision makers.

Outcomes• Insight into the feasibility of ratios and sizes ofthe envisioned work settings

Pilot projects
Conducting a pilot or ‘pathfinder’ project is probably thebest way for an organization to test out the ABW concept.
Pilot projects will deliver practical lessons about both thedesign and the implementation of the concept, especiallywhen an organization is new to ABW. Moreover, a pilot
project can be used as a means of communication. It canbe a place that can be visited by employees from otherdepartments to see what ABW is and how it can work. For
pilot projects to be useful, they should be well researchedand documented. Furthermore, they need to be wellmanaged and they require resources if they are to work.

Outcomes• Practical insights for the organization-wide rollout of the ABW concept

48

Recommendations• Generate feedback about design prototypes
through focus groups and workshops.
• Keep design prototypes deliberately
diagrammatic, focused on functional
properties (‘works like …’) and not on the actual
design (‘looks like …’).
• If the design team is already on board,
make them responsible for developing theprototypes.

Recommendations• Be aware that the outcomes of a pilot project
are not always ‘scalable’.
• Set up a proper before and after evaluation of
the pilot project.
• Treat the pilot project as a real project, with asufficiently large budget to realize a realistic
and attractive solution.
• Use the pilot project as an ‘ABW showroom’ thatcan be visited by the rest of the organization.

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50

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSPART 3: PROCESS
Once an organization has decided to adopt activity-based working, it will be necessary to set
up a process for implementation. Such a process usually starts with the formulation of a broad
vision, which is then translated, step-by-step, into concrete solutions, ultimately resulting in
the new work environment. Here, this process is divided into six stages:
Stage 1
Stage 2
Stage 3
Stage 4
Stage 5
Stage 6

Envision: developing a general vision;
Define: formulating specific requirements;
Design: designing the spatial and technical environment;
Build: building the new environment and getting it ready for use;
Settle in: moving in and solving teething problems;Manage: making the concept work in practice.

These stages are not intended as a procedural straight jacket. It is crucial that the process
should be a combination of project management and change management activities. This isimportant because implementing an ABW project is not just about managing time and costs,
but equally about preparing the organization for the upcoming changes. For employees, ABW
means a break with the routine, and convenience, of having a fixed desk. Managers, for theirpart, must get used to not having a private office and learn how to manage on the basis of trust.
Such changes are not automatic. They require that people be informed, prepared and involved
at each stage of the process.
In the following we give a brief overview of the different activities in each stage.

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Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSSTAGE 1:ENVISION
When initiating an ABW project, the first step is to explore
what ABW is and what it could mean for the organization.
This can be done by reading up on the concept, visiting
projects and talking to experts. In parallel with this, it will be
useful to conduct an organizational analysis, looking at theorganization’s existing use of space and its work processes(see page 41)
At the same time it will be a good idea to put out feelers
among major stakeholders such as top management anddecision makers in the HR, IT and FM departments. What dothey think of the concept? What is on their change agenda
and how does ABW fit into that? Furthermore, it will be
useful to involve a number of ‘lead users’ (forward-looking,influential staff members) to find out their ideas concerning
ABW.
The concrete result of this stage should be an inspiring
vision for the new work environment. This vision can beformulated in broad terms, but it should be of sufficientdetail to be able to serve as input for the next stages. Whatkind of spaces will be on offer? What kind of ‘sharing ratio’should be applied? What kind ‘vibe’ should there be?
What are the associated workstyles? And what benefits
should it bring? The vision should be accompanied by abusiness case, with a preliminary indication of costs andbenefits, and a change management plan outlining how to
implement the concept.
Before moving on to the next stage, the vision will needapproval—and backing—from top management.

53

Project activities• Appoint a project team and a steeringcommittee;• Analyse the existing accommodation situation(see page 41);
• Analyse the organization’s headcount figures(see page 41);
• Gather inspiration (talk to experts, visit otherprojects, read up on the concept);• Identify and involve internal and external
experts;• Develop an overall vision;• Make a business case (e.g. based onbenchmark data from other projects);• Draw up a budget and an overall plan.
Change management activities• Select a change manager or change
management team, link to the project team;• Organize a leadership workshop about ABW(see page 45);
• Assess the organization’s cultural andtechnical readiness for the concept;• Find allies among major stakeholders (FM,CRE, IT and HR and top management);• Involve (selected) users in idea development(e.g. via interviews, workshops and focus
groups, see pages 41-48);• Communicate with staff about the formulated
vision. Avoid a ‘rumour mill’ (‘We’ll becrammed into a big open-plan office!’).
• Develop a change management plan
(activities, planning).
Deliverables• An inspiring vision for the new work
environment;• A change management plan;• A business case with a preliminary indicationof costs and benefits;• Budget and planning.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSSTAGE 2:DEFINE

MUST-HAVESNICE-TO-HAVE’S

Once the developed vision has been approved, it mustbe translated into functional requirements concerning
matters like workspace quantities, types and sizes, indoor
climate, furniture and IT equipment. To determine theserequirements, it will be necessary to delve deeper into
the organization, looking at the type of tasks employees
perform, their mobility profiles and the relations
between teams.
Ideally, employees should be actively involved in thisprocess via interviews and workshops. It will not be
possible to involve everybody, but the process should
include a cross section of people from the entire
organizational spectrum (management, administration,
HR, etc.). When done right, such involvement will resultin a greater sense of ownership and acceptance of theconcept. It is important, however, to be clear about whichaspects are non-negotiable (e.g. the sharing of workplaces)
and which aspects are open for discussion (e.g. the typeof settings that will be provided).
At this stage it will also important to start communicating
about the concept with the organization as whole. The
communications should cover both the general concept(i.e. why are we doing this?) and the practical concernsthat staff may have (e.g. What do I do with all my paper?
Will there be enough workstations?). This can be done via
townhall sessions, a project website, newsletters, a FAQ,
and/or posts on relevant social media.

Project activities• Make a detailed needs analysis (looking at
tasks, team/employee profiles, IT needs);• Refine the sharing ratio (see page 63) andworkplace quantities (see page 71);
• Define requirements for all necessary space
types (size, look & feel, furniture, etc.);• Formulate requirements for necessarychanges in IT infrastructure and equipment;• Identify any special needs (e.g. specificequipment or security);• Investigate the need for interim
accommodation (in the case of renovation
projects);• Refine and validate budget and planning.
Change management activities• Actively engage with diversity of teams andemployees via workshops (see page 46),
interviews (see page 43) and/or a survey (seepage 42);• Communicate the concept to the entire
organization (website, presentations, social
media);• Approach ‘influencers’ who are passionate
about the concept and willing to take part inthis;• Develop a FAQ that answers any questions andconcerns that employees may have;• Initiate a discussion with middle management
about their role in the new concept;• Make sure that top management is vocal
about the importance of the concept (e.g. via
a video message, taking the lead in townhall
sessions).
Deliverables• Functional brief for the required spatialchanges;• Technical brief for the IT infrastructure/equipment;• Communication material about the concept(presentation, FAQ, etc.);• Detailed budget and planning.

54

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSSTAGE 3:
DESIGN

MUST-HAVESNICE-TO-HAVE’S

In this stage, the ideas of the previous stages must be
consolidated in a design proposal in terms of spaces,materials, furnishings, equipment and practical essentials
such as power sockets and data connections.
Much of this can be left to the architect and engineers
and internal experts from the FM and IT departments, but
employees can play an active role at this stage as well—not
so much as designers, but as experts on functional quality.
They can be involved in design workshops and design
reviews to provide input, to validate design ideas and toassess the usability of the developed plans. Organizing
and facilitating such sessions takes time, but they are agood way of generating enthusiasm, creating a senseof ownership and making sure that the design will meetuser needs.
In addition, it can be useful to have a more formal
verification process in which design proposals are tested
against the requirements that have been formulated in theearlier stages. Do design proposals indeed meet all the
set requirements? It is a good idea, for example, to ask thedesign team for ‘proof’ (e.g. by means of a simulation study)
that their design will deliver the desired acoustic comfort,
as that tends to be a major problem in modern offices.
The output of this phase can include plans, models, 3D
renders, short films or VR representations of the future work
environment. All are excellent ways of communicating with
employees about what it is to come.

55

Project activities• Select a design and engineering team;• Produce a concept design (outline proposal,
design principles for the interior);• Produce a developed design (detailed floor
plans, conceptual technical solutions);• Produce a technical design (detailed
specification for all building elements/
systems);• Verify design proposals against the previously
formulated requirements and ambitions;• Initiate the selection processes for purchasing
new technologies and furniture;• Refine and validate budget and planning.
Change management activities• Engage employees in design sessions tovalidate the functionality of the developed
design solutions;• Pay special attention to middle management;
train them in change management andprovide then with an ‘ABW kit’ they can use to
inform their teams about the concept;• Communicate the design (and the ideas
behind it) via a blog, interview sessions,presentations and video clips on social media;• Update the ‘ABW FAQ’, adding more detail.
Deliverables• Functional and technical designs for the work
environment;• Information material about the design;• Definitive budget and planning.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSSTAGE 4:
BUILD
MUST-HAVESNICE-TO-HAVE’S

During this stage, the new work environment will actuallytake shape. Contractors will be putting up partitions andinstalling fixtures. Suppliers will deliver new furnitureand equipment. The architect may be making lastminute changes.
The facility management or real estate department will
have to prepare extensively at this stage to make surethat the project has a ‘soft landing’. They will need to learn
how to operate any new systems and they must develop
procedures for handling possible problems.
Employees will need to prepare for the move as well, bothpractically and mentally. This can be accomplished byappointing dedicated ‘workplace coordinators’ or ‘move
mentors’ for each team. They can inform employees
about the concept and help them plan practical activities
such as clearing out filing cabinets, the digitalizationof paper files and the packing up of remaining officeitems. They can also initiate a discussion about ‘officeetiquette’ in the new situation, such as the need for rules
or guidelines concerning issues like noise and clearing
desks before vacating.
To give employees a taste of what is coming, it will be
helpful to organize tours of the construction site and tocreate mock-ups—life-sized models of a specific sectionof the work environment (e.g. a standard workstation ora quiet room).

Project activities• Select/tender for contractors to build, supply
and install everything that is needed;• Arrange temporary accommodation for theorganization if necessary;• Manage the implementation/construction
process;• Conduct acceptance tests for all major all
systems (e.g. HVAC, booking systems, lighting,
Wi-Fi, etc.);• Make sure that the FM and/or CRE department
is well informed and capable of operatingthese systems;• Plan the moving-in day and organize the moveitself (packing, unpacking, etc.).
Change management activities• Appoint dedicated ‘change managers’ or‘move mentors’ for each team;• Prepare all levels of the organization forthe move and the new way of working in apractical sense (where to go on day one, how
to book a meeting room, where to ask for help,etc.);• Organize a clearing out of filing cabinets
to minimize paper and ‘stuff’. If necessary,
provide extra resources for digitalization;• Organize site visits so that people see thephysical changes taking place;• Create mock-ups, for example of different
kinds of workstations;• Develop rules or protocols for the newbuilding, preferably at team level;• Develop a short manual (an ‘ABW quick guide’)for the new office;• Plan a festive opening of the project.
Deliverables• A ‘turnkey’ work environment, ready foroccupancy;• A script/plan for the move-in and first day ofoccupancy;• A manual on how to use the new work
environment.

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSMUST-HAVESNICE-TO-HAVE’S

STAGE 5:SETTLE IN
This stage starts when the new environment has been
completed and the organization has moved in. It is now
that the concept must really come to life. This will not
happen automatically. Both managers and employees arelikely to need time and support to familiarize themselveswith their new surroundings and to develop new routines.
It will be important to have an ongoing conversation
about the operation of the concept in the first weeks after
moving in. It is preferable that managers play a leadingrole in this, setting a good example themselves andprepared to correct people’s behaviour if it is not in linewith the concept.
It is important to be aware that this stage is likely to beaccompanied by all sorts of practical problems. The HVAC
system may need fine-tuning, printers may not yet work
properly; there may be a delay in furniture deliveries. Such
practical problems can reflect badly on the overall concept.
To counteract this, there needs to be a central point where
employees can report any problems and these need to be
dealt with expeditiously.
This stage should end with a thorough evaluation of the
project, but not before people have been given some timeto get used it. Six months after move-in is usually a good
point in time. The evaluation can consist of a survey and/or
staff interviews. The idea is to find out where there is a needfor improving or fine-tuning the concept.

57

Project activities• Create a central point (mailbox/help desk/
ideas box) for complaints and suggestions;• Rapidly resolve reported practical problems(e.g. fine-tuning HVAC system);• Project team hands the project over to the FM/
CRE department;• Plan and organize a formal evaluation of
the project (no earlier than six months after
move-in).
Change management activities• Visit all departments and teams to see how
people are dealing with their new way ofworking, providing extra guidance and help
where needed;• Where necessary, address incorrect use of
the environment (e.g. people claiming focus
rooms as their own).
Deliverables• Project dossier with all relevant
documentation (warranties, specifications,manuals);• Protocol for reporting, resolving and providing
feedback on any practical problems that arise;• Evaluation of the concept.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE / PART 3: PROCESSSTAGE 6:MANAGE
Once the organization has settled in, the ABW concept will
ideally have become the ‘new normal’. Yet there may still
be a need to reinforce the concept at given times, making
sure that people do not relapse into old behaviours. This
reinforcement should preferably take place at a teamlevel, with managers reminding their team members of
the concept’s principles and encouraging adoption of the‘right’ way of working.
At regular intervals it will useful to conduct follow-up
evaluations. Are people still happy with their work
environment? Is there pressure on particular spacesettings? Are functional needs changing? Regularoccupancy measurements and staff satisfaction surveys
can provide useful input on these matters. It is also
important to monitor fluctuations in headcount, which may
require some fine-tuning of the sharing ratio or the type of
workplaces provided.
The responsibility for this usually lies with the facility
management department, although it might makesense to set up a dedicated workplace unit tasked withmanaging the total workplace experience by coveringand connecting all departments involved (FM, HR, IT,
general management).

58

Project activities• Monitor space utilization levels;• Monitor service requests from users;• Monitor staff satisfaction levels;• Manage workplace services (cleaning,catering, security, etc.);• Expand/adjust/maintain the officeenvironment.
Change management activities• Monitor staff behaviour and use patterns;• Guide new staff;• Provide ‘refresher courses’ where needed;• Update protocols/‘office etiquette’ where
needed.
Deliverables• Regular reports on occupancy levels andstaff satisfaction.

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60

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNPART 4: DESIGNAs already noted, activity-based working is a way of working rather than a design concept. Evenso, good design is absolutely critical. All too often the success of the ABW concept is hampered
by design errors that could easily have been avoided, such as too tight sharing ratios, a lack ofplaces for making phone calls, meeting areas furnished with stylish yet uncomfortable seating,or workspaces located next to noisy pantries. There is no room here to discuss all ABW design
aspects, but the following pages will explain some of the essentials, in particular:• Sharing ratio• Zoning• Space types

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Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNSHARING RATIOOne of the most basic questions when designing an
ABW office is how many workspaces there should be.
If there are too few, people will have difficulty finding
a workspace to their liking, and quickly become
frustrated. If there are too many, people are likely tosettle at fixed positions. The key figure here is the‘sharing ratio’, which expresses the degree of sharing.
Sharing ratio = the available number of workspaces / thenumber of employees
For example: a ratio of 0.8 means 8 workplaces for every 10
employees. It is also possible to turn the ratio upside down.
In that case 0.8 becomes 1.25 (12.5 employees for every 10
workplaces), which obviously amounts to same thing. It isa simple enough metric, but only if the terms ‘workspace’and ‘employee’ have been clearly defined.
The number of workspaces
When counting workspaces, the question is whether tocount desks only or to count any place where people
can open their laptop and work? The ABW philosophy
argues for the latter, but for the sake of clarity, therecommendation is to focus on the first and to count‘proper’ workstations only (those with an ergonomic chair,a height-adjustable work surface, a monitor and daylight
access). Those are the kind of workspaces that employees
are most interested in and that still have the largest impact
on the space requirement. The many other, informal
workspaces (e.g. booths, soft seating) are relevant, but theyare ‘seats’ rather than workstations. The number of seatsis typically much larger than the number of workstations(double or even more).
The number of employees
When it comes to the number of employees, the questionis whether the figure includes external workers suchas freelancers and contractors. These groups seldomfeature in organizational charts, but they may still need aworkspace. So the recommendation is to include them,although it can be difficult to get accurate numbers forthese categories.
Another question is whether employees are counted interms of ‘heads’ or as ‘fulltime equivalents’ (FTEs). Whena headcount is used, each employee is counted as one.
With FTEs, people are counted according to their working
hours (e.g. a person working half time is counted as 0.5).
63THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGN

The advantage of using ‘heads’ is that this figure is easierto understand (‘you are sharing a desk with such and such
number of colleagues’)
What is a good ratio?
The question of what constitutes a good ratio remains.
The easy answer is that a ratio of around 0.7 tends to work
fine for most organizations. It is probably the most widelyused ratio in practice. The logic behind it is that it seldom
happens that more than 70% of the staff are in need of adesk at the same time. It is thus a safe ratio that still offers
space savings with only a small risk of desk shortages.
Risk-averse organizations may go for a ratio of 0.8, while
the more daring ones may opt for 0.6. Some organizations
even go for a ratio of 0.5 or 0.4 workspaces per employee.
Before the Covid-19 outbreak, such ratios were seen as
rather tight. But it is quite likely that working from home will
become a much more common practice. In that case, aratio of 0.5 or 0.4 workstations per person may very well be
feasible.
Using occupancy data
To be able to make an informed decision about the sharing
ratio, it is best to get a detailed insight into workspace
occupancy levels in the existing office (see page 42). The
lower the occupancy levels, the higher the potential forsharing. One should be careful, however, when interpreting
occupancy data. When average occupancy is around
40% (which it often is), there is a temptation to slash 60%of the desks. But this will result in a serious shortage ofworkstations at peak moments. So it is best to look at
average, peak and modal occupancies (the occupancy
levels that occur most frequently).

64

You don’t want people to be worried about theavailability of good workstations. It is therefore
crucial to design for the most frequently
occurring occupancy level rather than the
average level.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGN

Using employee profiles
An alternative way of determining sharing ratios is to lookpeople’s workstyles. Many organizations make a distinction
between workers who are ‘fixed’ or ‘residential’ (performing
mostly desk work in the office), ‘flexible’ (a mix of activities
in the office, including many meetings) and ‘mobile’(spending a lot of time outside the office, e.g. working fromhome or on the road). Each workstyle can be linked to adifferent sharing ratio, which can then be used to calculate
an overall ratio. The advantage of this approach is that it
focuses on people’s way of working rather just occupancy
levels. The disadvantage is that it is not always easy to getgood data on workstyles and mobility patterns.
100%
90%
80%
70%

Peak

60%

Mode

50%

Average

40%
30%
20%

Occupancy level diagram
Diagram showing workplace occupancy
levels over the course of a week. The diagram
distinguishes between workstations that areoccupied (someone working there), unoccupied(totally empty) and ‘in use but unoccupied’ (noone there, but there is still a laptop or a coathanging over a chair).

10%0%MONDAYTUESDAYWEDNESDAY

THURSDAY
Occupied

In use, but unoccupied

FRIDAY
Unoccupied

Example: Employee profiles
The sharing ratio is in this case calculated by identifying different employee
profiles and by linking these to different sharing factors.
ProfileDescription

Percentage of total
workforce

Workstation/
employee

Fixed workers

Mainly individual desk work in the office.

35%

1

Flexible workers

Diverse activity profile, often in meetings,
occasionally works at home

40%

0.5

Mobile workers

Frequently work at other locations and visit clients 10%
in the field.

0.2

Home-based workers Work two or more days a week from home

Differentiating between teams
An essential question in any ABW project is whether
the sharing ratio should be differentiated within theorganization. A finance department, for example, is likely
to have relatively high occupancy levels as many people
do desk work, while a project management department
may have low occupancy levels as people spend a lot oftime on project sites. Should such differences translate
into a different ratio? The answer depends on how stark the
difference is and how big these teams are. If, for example,
one team has an occupancy level of 70% and the other of
30%, and they occupy different floors, it will make sense
to apply different ratios. But if differences are small and if
departments can make use of each other’s spaces, it isbest to keep things simple and apply one averaged ratio.
65

5%

0.2

Overall sharing ratio

0.6

Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNZONINGAt several points in this book the importance ofoffering a diversity of settings in an ABW office has
been emphasized. However, this does not mean that an
ABW office should be a hotchpotch of different space
types. To make an ABW office work, it is important tothink carefully about how functions should be locatedin relation to one another, giving due consideration towalking distances, routings, sightlines, accessibility
and enclosure. Some functions should be clustered andopen to one another, others separated and enclosed.
The reasons for this are various. Functionally, forexample, it will be wise to separate ‘noisy’ spaces suchas kitchenettes from ‘quiet’ spaces such as work areas.
Organizationally, it may make sense to locate particular
teams together. Socially, ‘magnet functions’ like cafes
can be centralized and shared among teams to promotechance encounters. And from a security perspective,
you may want to cluster formal meeting rooms near theentrance so that visitors do not have to enter the regular
office floors.
The following pages provide an overview of the main
zoning principles that are relevant to ABW, focusing on:
1. Organizational zoning
2. Activity zoning
3. Security zoning
Detailed requirements concerning adjacencies andwalking distances between spaces can be found in
the appendix.

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNORGANIZATIONAL ZONING
Organizational zoning is about whether theorganization’s teams or units should have a fixed
position in the building or not. There are threedifferent models, each with a different degree of ‘teamownership’. The free range model is the most flexible.
The team zone model is static, but useful when you
want keep teams together. The team anchor model
is a midway solution.

Large office projects are often a mix of thesemodels. Some floors are ‘free range’ andavailable to all. Other floors (or parts of it) are
assigned to specific departments or teams.

C
B

TEAM CTEAM CATEAM BTEAM BTEAM ATEAM A + B + C
FREE RANGETEAM ANCHORSTEAM ATEAM ZONES

DEGREE OF TEAM OWNERSHIP

Free-range
In this model there are no assigned
areas whatsoever. It is the ultimate
ABW model, based on the idea that
employees and teams can best decide
for themselves where to sit. People
pick up their things from centralized
lockers and then find themselves aplace somewhere in the building.
Workplace expert Neil Usher calls it
the ‘free-range’ model.74 Its advantage
is that it is extremely flexible and thatit encourages mingling across teamboundaries. The disadvantage is thatteam members may be scattered overthe entire building, which may hindercollaboration.

Team anchors
The team anchor model is midway
solution. In this model, teams do nothave a dedicated work area, but a small‘anchor point’ where they can findtheir lockers, shared storage, teammemorabilia, and perhaps a ‘community
table’. Team members will gravitate
around these points for both practicaland social reasons. So the model helps
to keep teams together, but there are noclear borders. It is thus more fluid andflexible than the team zone model.

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Team zones
In this model, teams are assigned toa particular floor or part of it. It is notmandatory for team members to work
there, nor is it a team’s exclusive territory,
but it is like a ‘home base’ where people
can expect to find team colleagues. Thismodel’s advantage is that it keeps teams
together, which can be of particularimportance for organizations thathave adopted ‘agile working’, which is
all about teamwork (see also page 21).
The model’s disadvantage is that is lessflexible than the free-range model as
the ‘borders’ between zones have to be
redrawn when team structures or teamsizes change.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNACTIVITY ZONING
Activity zoning is about the clustering of activities
with similar characteristics so as to avoid friction
due to incompatible activities. Many ABW projects
differentiate between three zones: a focus zone,
a social zone and an interactive zone.

The interactive zone acts as a buffer between thequiet zone and the social zone. The quiet zone istypically located furthest away from the accesspoint of the office floor. So, the deeper you
venture into the office space, the quieter it gets.

SOCIAL ZONEINTERACTIVE ZONEQUIET ZONENOISE LEVEL

Social zone
This is the area where social and lively
activities can take place. Examples
might include having a cup of coffeewith colleagues, celebrating birthdays
or team achievements, or just hanging
out and taking a break. It is the area
where ‘people magnets’ like larger
meeting rooms, print/copy rooms andlockers can be located. This area will
typically be used by multiple teams, so
it is a good place to promote chanceencounters across teams.

Interactive zone
The interactive zone (sometimes also
referred to as a transitional zone) is
where all mainstream office activities
and collaborative activities can takeplace. It should not be a noisy area, butthere will be a certain ‘buzz’ as people
may be chatting, working together
or making phone calls. Workspaces
tend to be largely open. Small meetingrooms and phone booths in between
the workspaces help to reduce noiselevels.

69

Quiet zone
The quiet zone is the area where
people should be able to work in peaceand quiet. Its purpose is to facilitate
individual, concentrated work. It may
offer enclosed focus rooms and/or
open and semi-open workstations.
Users are expected to keep their
voices down and to take their phone
calls outside the quiet zone, a bit likein the reading room of a library. To
keep the area quiet, there should be
no functions that generate traffic (e.g.
no large meeting rooms) and it should
be located away from or shielded frommain circulation routes.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNSECURITY ZONING
The idea that employees should be able to use the entire
office as their workplace may need to be restricted for
security reasons. There may, for example, be teams who
are working on confidential projects that should not be
accessible or visible to others. In such cases it will benecessary to apply some degree of security zoning in
the office, making a distinction between areas that are
only accessible to specific teams or persons, areas thatare accessible to all employees, and semi-public areas
where visitors are also allowed.

Ideally the different zones should be ‘embedded’in one another, thereby increasing the level of
security with each new zone.

MUST-HAVESNICE-TO-HAVE’S

PUBLIC ZONEOPERATIONS ZONE

SEMI-PUBLIC ZONE(HIGH) SECURITY ZONESECURITY LEVEL

Public zone
This zone is accessible
to both staff and visitors.
Typically, it will be the area
right behind the entrance,with a waiting area anda reception desk wherevisitors can obtain an accesspass. Depending on the sizeof the project, there may
also be a coffee point andinformal work and meetingspots in this zone. In someprojects, the area may
include a publicly accessible
cafe and/or an exhibitionarea.

Semi-public zone
This zone is accessible tostaff and to visitors withtemporary access cards(usually via turnstiles withcard readers). This zone
often houses the conference
spaces where meetings
with visitors take place. The
company restaurant may belocated here as well, allowing
staff and visitors to havelunch or coffee together. In
some cases, this zone also
features co-work areas forexternal partners.

Operation zone
The term ‘operations
zone’ is security jargon for
the regular office floorsof a building, where theorganization’s staff carry out
their daily work activities.
Only staff will have accessto these areas, gaining
entrance via doors with card
readers. The challenge with
operations zones is to design
them in such a way that staff
can move around freely,
without too much cardswiping.

70

Security zone /High-security zone
This is a zone or space thatis accessible to specificemployees only and isoften located within theoperations zone. Examples
include spaces for teams
working on a confidential
project or for staff working
with security-sensitive data.
In some cases, there may
be even be a need for ‘highsecurity’ spaces (e.g. a crisisroom) within that zone,
which will often have somekind of biometric access
control.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNSPACE TYPESAs the adjective ‘activity based’ points out, an ABW officeshould provide work settings that match the match the kindof activities people perform—project rooms for projectwork, quiet rooms for quiet work, phone booths for phone
calls and so on. The following pages present an overview ofpossible space types, making a distinction between:• Workspaces: spaces for desk-bound/computer-related
activities;• Collaboration spaces: spaces for meetings and othertypes of interaction;• Support spaces: spaces for practical activities likeprinting and getting coffee.
Please note that the sizes75 and ratios mentioned are
only very general guidelines. The exact need for space
will differ from organisation to organisation, or evenfrom department to department. For example, an R&D
department will need a different mix of spaces than an
IT department. So, to determine what is needed, it isimportant to analyse what people do at the office. What
are the characteristics and nature of their tasks? How
many people are involved? Do activities involve the use ofparticular equipment? How are activities interrelated? Thiscan be done by conducting surveys, doing observation
studies and by simply talking to people (see page 41-48 foran overview of possible techniques).
A more detailed overview of the specifications per space
type can be found in the appendix (see page 145).

71

GETTING THE MIX RIGHTTo determine what kind of spaces areneeded, and in what quantities, it necessary
to make an analysis of people’s activities atthe office. Relevant dimensions are:
Task
complexity

The extent to which
activities are cognitively
demanding (relates to theneed for visual and auditory
privacy)Interaction

The extent to whichtasks involve face-toface interaction andcollaboration (relates tothe need for collaboration
spaces)Task
autonomy

The degree to whichtasks can be performed
independently (relates tothe need for access to/proximity of one’s team orsupervisor)

Task variation

The degree to whichpeople’s tasks differ overthe course of a day (relates
to the variation of work
settings that must be
provided)

Mobility

The degree to which
employees are mobile,
inside and outside the office(relates to the need for‘touch down’ spaces)

Equipment/
artefacts

The kind of ‘stuff’ people use
in their work, such as video
screens or white boards(relates to the provision ofthese items)

Mode

The degree to which
activities are formal orinformal (relates to the kindof ‘look and feel’ that isneeded in a space).

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNWORKSPACES
Workspaces are defined here as those spaces thatare specifically designed for desk-related activities
such as reading, researching, writing, phoning. The
main differentiator between the different kinds ofworkspaces is the degree of enclosure.

Open workstation
Workstation placed in an open area,
typically in groups of 4, 6 or 8 units.
Suitable for collaborative work andgeneral office tasks that require a
medium level of concentration. This
type will usually make up the majority ofwork settings. Make sure that they are
all of equal (good) quality so there is no
inclination to compete for a particular
workstation.

Semi-open workstation
Workstation with semi-high enclosure (amodern version of the classic cubicle),
providing a sense of visual and acoustic
privacy in the absence of floor-to-ceiling
partitions. Suitable for activities which
demand medium concentration andmedium interaction.

Focus room
Fully enclosed, sound-insulated roomthat allows people to escape the buzzof the open work area. Suitable foractivities that require concentration
and/or privacy. Ideally, the room should
be designed in such a way that it canalso be used for small meetings andphone/video calls.

Size:

4 to 6 sqm

Size:

4 to 6 sqm

Size:

6 sqm

Ratio:

4 to 6 per 10 employees

Ratio:

1 to 2 per 20 employees

Ratio:

1 to 2 per 20 employees

Position:

Close to open
workstations

Position:

Close to open
workstations

Position: Away from busy
circulation areas andsocial functions72THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGN

Study
Enclosed room with multiple
workstations, intended for ‘heads-down’work in a group setting. A getaway fromthe chat and interruptions of open work
areas. Similar to a library reading room(phone-free, muted conversations only).

Phone boothEnclosed or semi-enclosed area where
people can go when they have to makeor take a phone call or video call that
requires a degree of focus and privacy.
Can be used as a way of removing noisy
activities from open work areas.

Project room
Enclosed room with several
workstations, combined withcollaborative features such as meetingtables and whiteboards. Suitablefor project work or teamwork that isconfidential and/or demands frequentconsultation.

Size:

Dependent on # ofworkstationsSize:

2 to 4 sqm

Size:

1 per 20 to 30 employees

Dependent on # ofworkstations

1 per 50 or 100 employees

Ratio:
Position:

Close to open
workstations

Ratio:

Dependent on degree of
project work

Position:

Close to open
workstations ordeliberately away fromthem

Ratio:

Position: Close to open
workstations or centralized73

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNCOLLABORATION SPACES
As the name implies, collaboration spaces are spacesthat are explicitly designed for collaboration, suchas formal meetings, informal chats, brainstorming
sessions, one-on-one conversations, ‘stand-ups’
and other kinds of interactions.

Booth
Semi-enclosed space for small
meetings, collaboration and individual
work. Typically has high-backed seating,as in a classic diner booth, that provides
a sense of visual privacy while still being
part of the open space around it. In
some cases, booths are ceilinged.

HuddleAn open meeting space with aninformal, comfortable feel. It canfunction as a congregating point forteams or departments. Suitable for
informal discussions, relaxation or work,
should people so wish.

Stand-up space
Open or semi-enclosed space for‘stand-ups’ (a specific kind of meeting
associated with scrum/agile working).
Suitable for informal discussions andmeetings that do not require seating.
Typically features a large video screen
and/or a writeable ‘scrum board’.

Size:

5 to 8 sqm

Size:

20 to 32 sqm

Size:

Dependent on team size

Ratio:

1 to 2 per 50 workstations

Ratio:

1 per 100 workstations, or
1 per floor

Ratio:

Dependent on number of
scrum/agile teams

Position:

Close to kitchenette orother shared facilities that
attract people.

Position: Close to/inside the work
areas of the people making
use of this space

Position: Close to work and meetingareas. Can be part ofkitchenette/restaurant.

74

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGN

Small meeting room
An enclosed meeting room for two
to four persons. Suitable for small
meetings and confidential discussions.
Typically available on a first-come-firstserved basis. Can overlap/be combinedwith focus rooms to create flexibility inuse.

Medium meeting room
Conference room for planned groupmeetings with larger groups (8-12persons). Should provide wall space for
writing, brainstorming or presentations.
It can be a good idea to create meetingrooms with different ambiences fordifferent kinds of meetings.

Large meeting room
Conference room for planned groupmeetings with larger groups (≥ 14
persons), typically providing someformality and privacy. Should provide
wall space for writing, brainstorming
or presentations.

Size:

6 to 10 sqm

Size:

24-30 sqm

Size:

48 sqm or more

Ratio:

1 per 10-20 workstations

Ratio:

1 or 2 per 50 workstations,or 1 per floor/security
zone

Ratio:

Dependent on frequencyof large meetings

Position:

Close to office floor
entrance and main
circulation areas

Position: Close to open
workstations

75

Position: Centralized, usuallygrouped with otherfacilities in a conferencezoneTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGNSUPPORT SPACES
Support spaces concern the practical facilities thatprovide employees with water, food, storage, stationery
and other essentials. Because of their practical
purpose, support spaces tend to attract people, so they
can be used to influence social interaction within an
organization.

Kitchenette
Facility that gives employees easy
access to water, coffee and tea.
Sometimes it is a full kitchen withrefrigerator and microwave. Ideallydesigned as a place that encouragessocialization as it is a destination where
people run in to each other.

Locker space
Area with lockers for the storage of
personal items. It is often decided togive everyone their own personal locker,
even though shared lockers are more
efficient.

Storage (group/individual)
Space for the storage of documents orother ‘stuff’. Can be either individual orgroup storage. The need for storage isvery much dependent on the nature ofpeople’s work processes and the degreeof digitalization.

Size:

Size:

0.5 sqm per locker

Size:

Ratio:

1 locker per person or
shared lockers (e.g. for
60% of employees)

1 sqm per person(preferably less)

Ratio:

1 storage point per team/group

Position:

Close to entrance of officefloor/building, or close toteam zones/anchors

Position:

Close to workstations

6 to 15 sqm, depending on
the available facilities

Ratio:

1 per 50 employees, or 1
per floor/security zone

Position:

Close to work areas, but
beware of noise issues(people chatting, coffee
grinding)76THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 4: DESIGN

MENU

Print/copy space
Enclosed space containing a
multifunctional machine for copying,scanning and printing. May also
accommodate a shredder and officesupplies.

Lobby
Entrance area with seating for visitors
and reception desk and/or reception
screen. Provides visitors with their first
impression of the organization. Largelobbies can double as informal meetingareas when combined with a coffee
facility.

Restaurant
Facility where employees can go forlunch and in some cases breakfast anddinner as well. Can be designed andserviced in such a way that the areas
can be used as informal meeting orworkspace outside mealtimes.

Size:

5 sqm

Size:

site dependentSize

2.5 sqm per seat

Ratio:

1 per floor/security zone

Ratio:

1 per building/office unit

Ratio:

1 per building/office unit

Position:

Close to elevators, stairs
and meeting rooms

Position:

central, close to entrance

Position: Close to main circulation,away from open work
areas

77

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE

78

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORSPART 5: SUCCESS FACTORS
Throughout this guide there have been recommendations and tips for how to do things. In
this chapter, the key factors for success are summarized. Many of these are obvious, almost
clichés, but that does not diminish their importance. The challenge lies in actually applying
these success factors—and not just paying lip service.
• Analysis• Process• Design

79Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORSANALYSIS
Prior to implementing an ABW solution, it is crucial to
get an in-depth understanding of what the concept
entails and of what the organisation’s needs are. In
general, the following is recommended:
Do your research
No organization should adopt activity-based working ona whim. Decision-making should be based on a careful
study of the concept’s pros and cons and an analysisof the organization’s needs. Data on occupancy levels,
satisfaction levels and work patterns will aid informed
decision-making.
Look at both quantitative and qualitative data
As indicated above, it will be useful to gather quantitative
workplace data, but do not forget the ‘softer’ qualitative
data: people’s ideas, stories, opinions and feelings about
their work environment. Understanding these subjective
matters is essential to creating a meaningful concept.
Find out what the science says
When considering implementing ABW, expect to bechallenged. There will be no shortage of strong opinions
about the concept, both positive and negative. To keep
discussions fact-based and constructive, it will be useful tobe know what the latest scientific research has to say about
the concept.
Find strategic meaning
As part of the analysis process, look at the organization’s
mission, strategy and policies for ‘hooks’ that support therelevance of the ABW concept—for example on matterssuch as sustainability or employees’ work-life balance.
A strategic orientation will help to gain management
commitment.
Learn from others
Many organizations have already implemented the ABWconcept and thus have a lot of practical knowledge about
how the concept should be designed and implemented.
Visit such organizations, talk to the people working there,
and take advantage of their experience.

81THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORSTake a wide perspective
When carrying out an analysis of the organization, take awide perspective. Look at the physical work environment,
but also at working hours, work-from-home policies,
employee autonomy and management practices. Making
ABW part of a bigger story about flexibility and employee
empowerment will increase the chances of success.
Make the analysis part of change management
Actively involving employees in the analysis activities is an
excellent way of starting the change management process.
It is an opportunity for employees to look at their own work
environment from a fresh and critical perspective and tocreate an awareness of both its strengths and weaknesses.

Q&A
Nicola Gillen, Head of Total Workplace EMEA at Cushman & Wakefield
Is ABW for everyone?
The world of work is changing for everyone. The
drivers that impact mobility, a key principle of ABW, areimpacting work everywhere. Having the choice overwhere and how to work is for everyone. Having a varietyof spaces from which to work, inside and outside theoffice is also for everyone. Very few roles remain tiedto specific tech solutions and these will continue todiminish.
Where do you start when any client is interested in ABW?
I ask them why? Any sustainable workplace solution
needs to be based in genuine business need. Thereneeds to be a clear vision as to why this is happening
and how it will benefit their business. ABW driven frompurely from financial metrics will be difficult to sustain,
people and technology enablement are key.

What kind data do you need as input for the design/development of the concept?
A balance of data points is key; opinion based to engage
people in the process, observation based, to challenge
preconceived perceptions of space use and behaviour
based to appropriately reflect culture.
What do you consider as the most important successfactors for an ABW project?
• Led from the top;
• Clear vision—understand why we are doing this;• Routed in holistic business need—not just cost ;• Data driven;• Built upon change management—your people will
always matter most.

82THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORSPROCESSThe implementation of ABW can be a challenge. One
may have to deal with conflicting stakeholder interests,
anxieties about change and office politics. There is a riskthat projects get stranded due to insufficient support
from management or a hastily considered process. See
below for general recommendations for how to avoid
this.
Expect resistanceNo matter how bad the status quo, there will always be
resistance to changing it. This is because change costs
energy and because people fear the unknown. Resistancecannot be ‘massaged’ away entirely, but it can be mitigatedby informing people, listening to them and by winning themover and reassuring them.
Take your time
Decision makers have a tendency to underestimate thetime it takes for an organization to change its way ofworking. Change takes time, especially when there is a
big gap between the ‘as is’ and ‘to be’ situations. As a ruleof thumb, the formal change process should start a year
before the planned move into the new environment andcontinue for a year after it.
Set up a change management team
Change management is different from project
management. Make it a dedicated function or teamand select the right people for it: people with skills incommunication rather than engineering. In addition,
provide them with sufficient resources in terms people,
time, money and external support.
Take a multidisciplinary approach
Because of the multifaceted nature of workplacechange, the project should integrate the expertise fromthe organization’s HR, IT, FM, CRE and communication
departments. All these disciplines should be represented
in both the project’s steering committee and the project
team.
Involve leadership at all stages
As with any organizational change, leadership is essential.
Top management should not just take the main decisions
concerning ABW, but also be willing to play their part. Thismeans advocating the concept, demonstrating ownershipand leading by example.
83THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORS

Involve employees, within clear boundaries
Involving employees will help to create better solutions
and generate a sense of ownership. The potential risk,
however, is that employees will use the process as a means
to prevent change or that they will expostulate beyond
their own area of expertise. It is therefore crucial to be clear
about the topics on which employees’ input is sought.
Really listen to users
Involving employees (as mentioned above) only makes
sense when their input is taken seriously. If people areasked for input but not listened to, the whole idea ofuser involvement can be counterproductive. So, listen
to employees, discuss their ideas, provide them withfeedback and address their concerns.
Communicate, communicate, communicate
The entire organization should know what ABW is, how
it works, and why it is being implemented. Be aware that
employees will be primarily interested in how ABW affects
their daily work life. Do not be tempted to sugar-coat thepotential downsides. Being open and emphatic will go along way in creating acceptance.
Allow scope for criticism
Not everybody will be enthusiastic about the concept. People
will have concerns, or they may question the motivations
behind the concept (‘it’s all about cost-cutting’). Take suchfeelings seriously and address them by means of dialogue
and by providing detailed information about the concept.
Pay extra attention to middle management
Middle managers have a tough job when implementingof ABW. They must adjust their own way of working, whileat the same time helping their teams through the change
process. So they merit extra attention. Help them to growinto their change management role by organizing a training
programme early in the process and providing them withtoolkits (e.g. a quick guide to ABW).
Institute a ‘freeze period’ after move-in
After moving into the new environment, it can be useful tohave a ‘hundred-day freeze’ period. The idea is that there
should be no major changes to the concept immediately
after moving in. Practical issues obviously have to beresolved, but otherwise people should take time to getused to the new way of working.
Be brave
To a certain extent, changes must be pushed ahead. Giving
in to everybody’s wishes and trying to please all stakeholders,will result in watered-down compromise solutions that do
not work. It is important to know that when a (well-designed)
office concept is finally realized and people are working in it,
resistance tends to be replaced by acceptance.
84

Q&A
Størdal Kjersti Bjørkeng,
Market area manager at
Gottlieb Paludan Architects
ABW tends to trigger a fair amount of
employee resistance. Is that resistancejustified?
To some degree. People who haven’t
worked in an ABW office before, often
fear that it won’t work. It is a bit likebeing pregnant and hearing all thosehorror stories about what can go wrong,while most births actually work out fine.
Similarly, most ABW offices are greatplaces for work. No need for horror
stories.
Is there a magic solution for dealing withresistance?
First, make management thefrontrunners in using the new solutions.
Second, make sure that you have thetechnology and the organizational
incentives needed to support the work
process that you are trying to foster. And
third, if possible, try out the concept
in a pilot project so you can get user
feedback.
How can organizations sustain changed
behaviour?
By talking. Even after move-in, people
must continue to talk about how theywant their office to work for them. With
their manager, their colleagues, theirfacility manager. About how everyday
practice can be enhanced? It is about
continuous improvement. So, keep ontalking.
You are working in an ABW yourself. Whatis your favourite work spot?
Surprisingly, it is the ‘silent room’. It is
my favourite not because I use it often,
but because the option is always there.
For me and my colleagues, this enables
vibrancy in the rest of the office set-up, as
we know that anyone who wants silence
and individual focus has an attractive
place to go to.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORSDESIGN
Workplace design does not have a deterministic
influence on the way people work or feel, but it canpromote and facilitate new ways of working and it canhave a big impact on people’s feelings and attitude
towards the ABW concept.
Provide choice
The essence of ABW is that it provides choice. An ABW
office should thus not be open plan with a couple of focus
rooms that are always occupied. The office should offera real diversity of spaces—in terms of privacy, size andambience—that matches the diversity of preferences
and activities of its users.
Don’t compromise on quality
Providing fewer workplaces should be offset by providing
better workplaces. Better means better design in terms ofergonomics, indoor climate, aesthetics and functionality.
The ABW concept is already efficient in terms of space
usage, so there should be no need to go for the cheapest
design solutions.
Focus on focus work
The main complaint in modern offices is that people cannot
focus due to interruptions and distractions. It is therefore
important to create ample work areas where people canwork in peace and quiet: small focus rooms, library-likestudy areas and ‘hideouts’ scattered throughout thebuilding where people can have a quiet moment.
Create excellent acoustics
Related to the above, is the recommendation to create
excellent acoustics in the office. Acoustics are easily
overlooked in the design process because it is somethingthat cannot be seen. The recommendation is to formulate
explicit acoustic requirements (i.e. for speech privacy,
reverb times, sound insulation) and to test whether design
proposals actually meet these requirements.
Create a human scale
Give large office floors a human scale by breaking themdown into smaller parts. Some degree of openness
and overview is needed to be able to spot colleagues
and available seating, but the office should not present
as a sea of desks. Consider creating clusters of 10 to 16
workstations, with focus rooms and meeting areas acting
as buffers between different clusters.
85

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 5: SUCCESS FACTORS

Make people feel at home
ABW offices sometimes feel like furniture showrooms withclean desks and designer furniture. To make ABW offices
less sterile and more welcoming, consider the use of soft
fabrics and rugs, a diversity of furniture solutions, plants,
and cabinets or wall space where teams can place photos
and other paraphernalia.
Provide IT perfection
The whole ABW concept is built on the idea that technology
makes people ‘footloose’. So make sure that it does.
Invest in lightweight but powerful laptops, plentiful
power sockets, seamless networks, workstations withdouble screens, standardized docking stations, intuitive
collaboration tools and an excellent helpdesk.
Avoid design gimmicks
ABW office interiors often incorporate playful design
features intended to convey the notion that the new
office is more casual and ‘cooler’ than the old one. Thereis a certain relevance in that, but don’t overdo it. Design
gimmicks such as slides and beanbags quickly lose theirgloss and become unused obstructions.
Keep it clean
The Covid-19 outbreak has pushed hygiene to the forefrontof employee concerns. In terms of design, this means thatyou should avoid closely-packed open-plan work areas.
Furthermore, workplace design should allow for easycleaning. Think of easy-to-clean finishes and furniture,and ready access to cleaning/disinfecting wipes and handsanitizers.

Q&A
Primo Orpilla, Principal, Studio O+A
Mies van Rohe said ‘God is in the details’. Does that also
apply to workplace design?
Design intent is more effective when done well. So yes,
it is in the detail. Have a good concept, execute it well,and people’s experience will be more compelling. You
don’t want this experience to be influenced negatively
by arbitrary design features or poor detailing.
ABW offices feature a lot of social spaces. How do you
design a successful social space?
Social spaces should be carefully considered in theirplacement in relation to the flow of people. The numberof these spaces is important as well, as you want tomaintain a degree of specialness. And then there
are practicalities such as devices for charging andwhiteboards to make sure that spaces are useful.

Noise and a lack of privacy are frequently heard
complaints. How do you deal with that?
This issue seems to vary between companies andgenerations. Younger workers have a different senseof what is appropriate than older workers, also in termsof ‘visual noise’ (movement in one’s peripheral vision).
Workplace design can help here, providing different
places for individuals with different work habits, so thateverybody can find a suitable workspace.
Do desks still matter in contemporary office design?
Yes, but we should probably redefine the desk. Work canbe done in many postures or places in the office. So thedesk can take many different forms.. It can be a place forsitting or for standing; a classic workstation, but also a
coffee table or a tablet arm on a lounge chair.
86THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE

88

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEPART 6: EXAMPLES
To demonstrate how ABW can work in practice, this part of the publication describes several
real-life projects. Each project description is based on interviews with people who have been
responsible for the implementation process and, in most cases, with some of the users.
The cases differ in terms of size, location and type of organization. Given their diversity, it isnotable how similar their experiences with ABW have been. In all cases, change management
was critical for ABW success, as was the need to engage with users and to address theirpractical concerns.
• Ministry of Finance British Colombia (Vancouver, Canada)• West Dunbartonshire Council (Dumbarton, Scotland)• Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment (Helsinki, Finland)• State Treasury and Patent office (Helsinki, Finland)• Public Services and Procurement Canada (Montreal, Canada)• Danish Building and Property Agency (Copenhagen, Denmark)• Government office De Knoop (Utrecht, the Netherlands)• Ofgem (London, United Kingdom)• City of Hardenberg (Hardenberg, the Netherlands)• LAIKA (Copenhagen, Denmark)• Robeco (Rotterdam, the Netherlands)• Rabobank (Eindhoven, the Netherlands)• Danone (Hoofddorp, the Netherlands)

89THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
The office’s break area is big and flexible
enough to accommodate all the staff for themonthly staff meetings. (photo: James Alfred)90

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESMINISTRY OF FINANCE,TAX AUDITING DEPARTMENT(VANCOUVER, CANADA)

For the Government of British Columbia, the Ministryof Finance Tax Auditing Department was an obvious
candidate for the implementation of a flexible workplaceconcept. In their existing office, all the department’s
employees had a personal workstation even though manyof them spent the better part of their working hours outsideof the office—conducting tax audits, attending meetings
and, in some cases, working from home. So when thedepartment had to move to a new building, a decision
was made to lease fewer square metres in favour of better
space utilization and an improved workplace.
The new office was designed according the government’s‘Leading Workplace Strategies’ initiative (LWS), which aims
to replace the traditional ‘one worker, one desk’ approachwith more flexible solutions. The strategy is the brainchild of
the government’s Workplace Strategies and Planning team,which is headed by Robert Macdonald. Robert explains therationale behind the strategy: “We wanted to respond to thechanges around us. Changes in demographics, changes incitizens’ needs and the rapid advancement in technology.
There is a greater demand for flexibility, mobility and choicefor employees, and the office environment should reflect
that.”USERMINISTRY OF
FINANCE, TAX
AUDITING
DEPARTMENT

Property agency

Government of
BC, Real Property
Division

DesignGovernment of BC,
Real Property
Division

Completion

2016

Total floor area

1013 sqm(usable area)

Total # of employees

128

Total # ofworkstations

83

Sharing ratio

0.65 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

7.9 sqm (usable area)

Area/workstation

12.2 sqm(usable area)

At 900 Howe Street, the LWS principles translated into a1000 sqm office floor—significantly smaller than the 1300
sqm at their previous location. All the open workstations
are located along the building’s facade, allowing everyone
to have access to natural light and outside views. In the
inner areas of the floor, there are meeting rooms, quiet
rooms, privacy rooms and enclosed offices. There is alsoa spacious break area that serves as the floor’s social
meeting point and gives access to adjacent meetingrooms.
In total, the floor provides 83 workstations for 128
employees. However, not all workstations are shared.
91

A work lounge with soft seating and a bar table.
The latter has proved particularly popular.
(photo: James Alfred)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESOf the total workstations, 31 are ‘resident workplaces’ thatare assigned to employees who spend the majority of theirtime at the office or, in some cases, employees who require
special equipment or have special needs. This makes thisproject an interesting contrast to other the projects in thisguide, which do not provide any assigned seating.
The provision of resident workstations is a deliberatechoice, says Robert. “Arguably, we may be less radical,
or more cautious, than other organizations. But when we
started the LWS initiative, it was decided that we would
take an incremental approach. We persuade our clients by
sharing the many benefits, but do not force the concept
upon them.” A more top-down approach would probably
have resulted in a higher uptake of the concept, but Robert
notes that there are advantages to this approach. “We
go for evolution rather than revolution. It increases the
chances of employee buy-in and success. If there is a lot of
resistance, or a lack of management commitment, projects
can fail and then the whole initiative gets a bad name.”

Lounge area near the floor’s entrance and close
to the lockers. (photo: James Alfred)

The incremental approach has nevertheless kept
Robert and his team busy. The LWS concept has been
implemented in 30 projects, and another 30 projects are
currently under way. “Our ideas are gaining momentum,”says Robert. “The more people that work this way, theeasier it becomes to convince others.” When asked about
their main challenges, Robert explains: “You have probably
heard this before, but some managers believe that they areentitled to an enclosed office and so it becomes difficult for
us when we start reducing the number of dedicated offices
to create an alternative of shared enclosed spaces.”
The 900 Howe Street project features four enclosed
offices, but they are small and located close to thebuilding’s core. Russell Treloar and Andrew Lisson,colleagues of Robert Macdonald, explain that in theearlier office, around 20% per cent of workstations were
Q&A
Various employees
What do you like best about this new way of working?
We love the open collaboration hubs as it has introduced
a new form of support for collaboration, meetings andstand-ups. We are also pleased that we now have a space
where we can host our monthly full staff meeting.
What aspect could be improved?
Nothing really. But, if given the choice, some of us still
have a desire to have more private offices and morelarger boardrooms. The leadership manages the spacein the spirit it was designed for, but if new management
were to come in there is a fear this could alter thecurrent, flexible culture.

How often do you change places in the office?
On a daily basis. Some of us enjoy going to the same
spots, but not a rigid way—moving elsewhere if thosespots are taken. Overall, however, we like having
various options for space to work in and utilize thedifferent collaboration, quiet rooms and privacy rooms
frequently throughout a day.
What is your favourite workspace within the office?
The network bars! The bar height tables are some of
the most sought-after spaces. There is also a special
appreciation for quiet rooms and privacy rooms where
heads-down work and meetings can occur more
frequently. The most loved space, however, is theopen area soft seating space that has views to broader
Vancouver—it feels like a private lounge.

92

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

enclosed offices and the rest were cubicles. “It was a
typical government office. A set-up that no longer matches
people’s activities. People do not need only large meetingrooms and cubicles, but places where they can take Skypecalls, have informal chats, collaborate in small groups or dosolo work when needed.”
The
Leading Workplace Strategies programmeaims to020moffer all of these elements, and Robert is confident that
more and more projects will look like this one. “By providing
a diversity of spaces, we are nudging people into moremobile workstyles. Furthermore, we see that remote
working and flexible work hours are not only becoming
more common but sought after. The necessary tools, suchas smart phones and laptops, are mainstream these days.
All this makes flexible working an obvious choice.”

00

20
20m

A classic office floor plan with a central core. All the open workstations arelocated around the floor’s perimeter while support spaces, such as small
meeting rooms, enclosed offices and storage are located towards thebuilding’s core.
93

The floor’s largest meeting room, which can be
opened up towards the break area via two large
sliding doors. (photo: James Alfred)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
The building’s three floors are wrapped aroundan atrium which forms the heart of the building.
The atrium provides breakout space, gathering
space, touchdown stations and informal
workspaces. (photo: Jim Stephenson)

94

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESWEST DUNBARTONSHIRECOUNCIL(DUMBARTON, SCOTLAND)

The new West Dunbartonshire council office stands inthe heart of the Scottish town of Dumbarton, on Church
Street. Approaching the building, the first thing you see isa beautifully restored Gothic facade, which suggests thatthe council has moved into a historical building. However,
only the facade is historical. Behind it lies a completely
new building with three storeys of office space that meet
all the latest standards and feature a highly contemporary
workplace concept.
The council decided to build this new office because its old
building—a typical 1960s concrete office block, located on
the outskirts of the town—was dated, shabby and too large
for their requirements. Another major driver for the project
was the possibility of moving to the town’s centre. Like
many other towns, Dumbarton is suffering from a decline inhigh street retail. Relocating the council’s Dumbarton office
to the town centre was seen as a way of both supporting
economic development and maximizing the benefits of
the initiative. The relocation brings over 700 employees,
plus visitors, to the town centre, which means a lot of newlife and activity. In line with this idea, the new council office
deliberately lacks a canteen. The aim was to motivate
employees to go out to buy their lunch from local shops
and cafes, thereby supporting the local economy, and thisseems to be working. Dumbarton now features three newcafes and a new supermarket has applied for planningpermission for an adjacent site.
The business case for the project was helped by the factthat the council decided to implement an activity-based
workplace concept. This reduced the need for spaceby more than half as the concept provides only 5 to 6
workstations for every 10 employees. This sharing ratio isbased on the council’s previous experiences with ABW andthe fact that many of the council’s employees are mobile—‘out and about’, engaging with the local community, or
attending meetings at the council’s other offices.
95

USER

WEST
DUNBARTONSHIRECOUNCIL

AdviserScottish Futures
Trust

DesignKeppieCompletion2018

Total floor area

4216 sqm(net internal area)

Total # of employees

755 (or 630 as FTE or
Full time Equivalent)

Total # ofworkstations

366

Sharing ratio

0.48 workstations
per employee or 0.58
workstations per FTE

Area/employee

5.58 sqm per
employee/6.69 sqm
per FTE

Area/workstation

11.5 sqm(net internal area)

The council’s protocol states that “vacant desks
and spaces can be used by anyone and are notexclusive to the assigned team. Visiting staff
and colleagues should always be made to feel
welcome.” (photo: Jim Stephenson)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESThis makes the sharing of workstations easier. Working fromhome is another factor, but it was not an explicit motivation
for the project. The council prefers to emphasize the notionof working in a workspace that suits the task at hand, which
could be anywhere: their own activity-based workspace,at home, in another council office, at the library, in a cafeor some other place that suits their needs.
A formal evaluation of the project is not yet available, but
anecdotal evidence suggests that the new workplaceconcept is a success. This is not surprising as the WestDunbartonshire Council has been developing its smarterworking concept (known as ‘Workplace of the Future’)for some time. Back in 2012 the council undertook apathfinder project on the top floor of their previous buildingin Dumbarton to explore the potential of activity-based
working. Since then, the council has refined the concept
and its delivery via six other projects. So many employees
had already experienced this new way of working before
moving to the new Dumbarton office. Another positive
factor was the council’s extensive change management
programme (called Focus, Engage and Deliver), which
informed employees about the proposed changes
via events, workshops, FAQs, issue logs, newsletters,
and information boards and gave employees plentyof opportunities to provide input and influence theirworkplace design.

EMPLOYEE PROFILES
To calculate the required number ofworkstations per team, a distinction was madebetween three employee profiles.
ProfileDescription

Fixed Worker

Primarily works ata single base or
location 80-100% of
the time.

Flexible worker

Able to work at
different/ multiple
locations andout of the office
approx. 50%.
Occasionally works
at home 1-2 days
per week or directly
home to external
appointments.

Mobile worker

Able to work at homeor travel directlyfrom home to otherlocations and client
visits out in the field.
Out of the office60-80% of the time.

The role of the council’s chief executive, Joyce White, wascrucial for the success of the change process as well. She
was very supportive of the concept and works within the
open-plan workspace, just like the rest of the organization.
In one of the case study videos for the project, she states,“I don’t need to sit behind a big desk in a room with the door
closed,” clearly implying that others don’t need that either.

The building provides employees with a range ofwork settings, including breakout acoustic sofas,
touchdown stations and access to quiet rooms.
(photo: Jim Stephenson)

Q&A
Louise Hastings , Human Resource Business Partner
What do you like best about this new way of working?
I like that it’s open and encourages people to talk—we can see
each other and go over and chat rather than sending an email andthis is helping us build better relationships. I like the openness
and natural light of the building. We have a place to go for lunch
now and we eat together as a team which has really helped withteam dynamics.
What aspect could be improved?
There isn’t much that could be improved. The quiet booths can bebusy so a few more would be useful, particularly for my role, but I
find ways to work around it.

How often do you change places in the office?
We have team zones, so I tend to change desk a couple of times a
week. We have daily 10-minute meetings at 10am every day so thebreakout spaces work well for that and I also use the atrium andquiet rooms regularly.
What is your favourite workspace within the office?
The desks mostly have screens but there are some banks of desksthat are more like tables with display screens, but no barriers.
They are my favourite as they provide a big open space, it’s easy
to talk to colleagues and different people tend to sit here.

96THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

020mw Dumbarton

Meeting rooms with large monitors and audio equipment for presentationsand video conferencing. The acoustic tiles on the wall help to create
pleasant acoustics. (photo: Jim Stephenson)

00

20
20m

aatti

m ipsum do

The building features a simple floor plan with large areas for workstations.
Meeting rooms and informal seating are clustered in the narrow part of thefloor. TheLore
civic space, where the council meetings are held, is located at
the front of the building.

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
Each part of the building features a small
kitchenette which is designed for breaks andinformal meetings. The space is located rightnext to the lockers where employees pick up
their personal items when they enter the office.
(photo: Jaakko Lukumaa)

98THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESMINISTRY OF ECONOMICAFFAIRS AND EMPLOYMENT(HELSINKI, FINLAND)The Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment
has gone from occupying four buildings in 2008, to twobuildings in 2015, to just one building today. Kari Klemm,
the ministry’s head of general administration, explains how
this happened: “In 2008, we were spread over multiple
buildings because we had merged with other government
departments. Over the years, however, our headcount was
reduced, so we needed less space. And then activity-based
working came along, which further reduced the need forspace.” Ultimately the entire ministry was able to fit into
one building. Kari: “For which we are grateful as it makes
collaboration easier and allows for synergies.”
The ministry is housed in a neoclassical Empire-stylebuilding in Helsinki’s inner city, close to all the otherministries and only a few steps away from the Government
Palace. Before the ministry could move in, the building had
to undergo a major renovation under the watchful eye of
the Finnish Heritage Agency. Major investments were madein the building’s technical services to create a comfortableindoor climate. Security was another aspect that required amajor upgrade. For the rest, the historical building lent itself
surprisingly well to activity-based working. The building’s
structure, with narrow floors and a lot of load-bearing walls,
did not allow for large open spaces, but that was fine withthe ministry because that was exactly what they wanted to
avoid. The building’s large rooms could be turned into work
areas with 4 to 16 workstations. Smaller rooms could be
used as quiet rooms, meeting spaces and support spaces
such as copy rooms. The building’s finest rooms, withpainted ceilings and stucco ornaments, were fitted out asconference rooms and a cafeteria so they could be enjoyedby all.
Unlike many other ABW projects, the building does notfeature specific team zones or team neighbourhoods. Kari:“Everyone can sit everywhere, which makes sense because
our idea was to increase collaboration and to break down
99

USER

MINISTRY OF
ECONOMICAFFAIRS ANDEMPLOYMENTProperty Agency

Senate Properties

DesignLaatio Architects

Completion2018

Total floor area

5396 sqm(lettable area)

Total # of employees

391

Total # of workstations

329

Sharing ratio

0.84 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

13.8 sqm(lettable area)

Area/workstation

16.4 sqm(lettable area)

Open work area. The filing cabinets have been
kept low to maintain sightlines. The number ofcabinets was drastically reduced before move-in.
(photo: Jaakko Lukumaa)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

the barriers between different teams. In practice, however,teams tend to flock together in the same part of thebuilding, usually close to where their lockers are. But wehaven’t formalized that in the floor plan.”
Adapting to the ABW concept went fairly smoothly as
many employees had already experienced activity-based
working in their previous office building. Even so, Kari notes:“The implementation process required a lot of talking. We
have many lawyers working in the ministry—I am one
myself—and we like peace and quiet. So there wereconcerns about that. The good thing was that there werelots of opportunities to discuss those concerns.” Part ofthis dialogue was conducted by special ‘move mentors’
from the ministry’s HR unit who were attached to eachdepartment. These mentors helped to prepare thedepartments for the move, and they talked with employees
about how the concept would work in practice.
What surprised Kari was that people’s concerns related topracticalities rather than the overall concept. “We spent
a lot of time talking about mundane things such as thenumber of toilets, the quality of the coffee machines andthe possibilities for storing winter clothing.” Smiling, headds, “Sometimes, I really had to remind people that thebigger goal was collaboration and that we needed to talkabout that as well.”The other ministries of the Finnish state are likely to take akeen interest in the project, as they will also have to adopt
the concept at some point. The responsibility for thislies with Senate Properties, the government’s real estateorganization, and their internal client, the Prime Minister’s
office. Pertti Siekkinen from Senate Properties says: “Thetrigger for activity-based working comes from the Ministryof Finance’s 2015 decision to reduce the government’s realestate expenses by around 20%.” He stresses, however,that the concept is not just about costs, but also aboutmodernizing government. Heikki Hovi, Ministerial Adviserand Head of Unit at the Prime Minister’s office, has the samemessage. “It is about improving collaboration between
different parts of government, about the digitalization ofwork processes, and about creating attractive workplaces
for today’s and tomorrow’s civil servants.”

Just outside the formal meeting rooms there issoft seating where employees can have theirpre- and post-meeting chats. (photo: Jaakko
Lukumaa)

The building’s finest historical rooms havebeen transformed into meeting rooms that areavailable to all. (photo: Jaakko Lukumaa)

Informal seating and moveable whiteboardsin the work areas are intended to facilitate
collaboration. (photo: Jaakko Lukumaa)

Q&A
Vivi Markkanen, Assistant at the Ministry’s Human Resources and Administration Unit.
What do you like best about this new way of working?
It is easy, practical, and modern. I have all I need.

How often do you change places in the office?
About twice a week, I try to stay near my colleagues.

What aspect could be improved?
I wouldn’t change anything because personally I am
satisfied.

What is your favourite workspace within the office?
The cafeteria. It is a very beautiful place withchandeliers.
100THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESHeikki acknowledges that it will be a challenging process.
“Some people have been working in the same way, on
the same spot, with the same view, in the same chair fortwenty years. Hesitancy is thus understandable. So wemust talk to people, listen to their concerns, and deal withthose concerns”. He warns, however, that all that talking
and listening should not result in compromise solutions.
“Employees can provide meaningful input on many things,
but the overall concept should remain intact.” His advice toother organizations wanting to implement activity-based
working: “Choose the boldest option. Be brave!”
20m

00

20m
20

Lore

m ipsum donaatti0lor sit amet, consectetuer adipi

The old building’s structure, with its thick walls and narrow floors, lent itself
surprisingly well to the ABW concept, allowing the creation of small work
areas with 4 to 16 workstations.

ncouver101

The staff cafeteria is housed in the building’s
most magnificent room. (photo: Jaakko
Lukumaa)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
Workstations are designed to provide comfort
for everybody. This means adjustable chairs,
sit-stand desks, two computer monitors andfelt screens that provide a degree of visual andacoustic privacy. (photo: Anna Autio)

102

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESSTATE TREASURY AND
THE PATENT AND
REGISTRATION OFFICE(HELSINKI, FINLAND)

Ideas about workplace design change over time and Mikko
Kangaspunta has witnessed several of these changes.
Mikko is financial director at the State Treasury and heand his organization are accommodated in a 1980s officeblock on the edge of Helsinki’s city centre. “When I started
working here, in the 1990s, it was a typical government
office in which most people had private offices. After acouple of years, however, it was decided to remove allwalls and to create open offices. The aim was to improve
communications, but employees were not too happy with
it. People complained about noise and a lack of privacy.
And now, we have activity-based working. There aredifferent kinds of workplaces and we are free to choose
where we work.”
According to Mikko this latest change is for the better.
“Coming from an open office, it is surely an improvement.
We still have open spaces, but they are combinedwith rooms where we can take phone calls and work inconcentration.” Asked about the most positive aspect of
the new concept, Mikko points to the improved interaction
with colleagues. “It is refreshing. You can sit next to different
people every day, instead of always the same ones.”

USER

STATE TREASURY
AND PATENT OFFICE

Property agency

Senate Properties

DesignKVA Architects

Completion2018

Total floor area

10,813 sqm(lettable area)

Total # of employees

725

Total # ofworkstations

508

Sharing ratio

0.7 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

14.9 sqm(lettable area)

Area/workstation

21.3 sqm(lettable area)

The decision to adopt activity-based working coincidedwith a reduction in headcount, which meant that the State
Treasury needed only two of the building’s five office floors.
Another state tenant was sought, which turned out to be
the Finnish Patent and Registration Office. This organization
had previously been located in the inner city, but their lease
was expiring, and they were looking for a new location
because the government’s real estate strategy stipulates
that only ministries can be located in Helsinki’s central‘government campus’.
The two cohabiting state organizations share a reception, afloor with conference rooms and a staff restaurant. TypicallyFinnish, there is also a shared rooftop sauna, although it
is hardly ever used these days. There are plans for more
103

The building’s canteen is shared by the two
tenants as are the conference centre and therooftop sauna. (photo: Anna Autio)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

sharing, says Mikko. “We are currently discussing whether
we can co-locate our IT units. Putting them together
creates possibilities for knowledge sharing. It makes sense
because we are using the same infrastructure. But we havedifferent systems so there are a lot of things that need to besorted out.”
Like the State Treasury, the Patent and Registration Officehas adopted activity-based working. They did so withsome misgivings, however. In their old office, all the staff
had either a private room or a shared room. They weren’t
looking forward to saying goodbye to that, fearing a noisy
environment where they would not be able to do their job
well. But there wasn’t really much choice as activity-based
working is standard policy within the Finnish government.
The concept must be applied to any new office project,
whether people like it or not. It turned out, however, thatthe concept wasn’t as bad as people feared. After a brief
period of familiarization, the Patent and Registration
Office’s employees proved to be quite happy with their
new office. The areas with ‘no talking’ rules work well andthere has been a lot of praise for the acoustics. Anotherfavourable factor was the Patent Office’s decision to update
its remote working guidelines, which now allow staff towork remotely for up to three days a week.
All this is reflected in the satisfaction scores of the regularstaff surveys conducted within the government. Scores
have improved for both organizations. Mikko says, “Ourscores [at the State Treasury] were already good, butsince the renovation they have even gotten a bit better.”He reflects that activity-based working has become the‘new normal’ for people. “People adjust. The concept
isn’t as shocking as people think beforehand.” He warns,
however, that it is important to keep an eye on how theconcept works in everyday practice. “You have to avoid
the behaviour of a few individuals having negative
consequences for the whole group. We had, for example,
some colleagues who were rather loud. In such cases, youhave to be straightforward and explain to your colleagues
that they have to behave differently.” He adds: “People
usually understand. We all want to work in a pleasantenvironment.”

104

Places to ‘chill out’, designed for taking a break orchatting with colleagues (photo: Anna Autio).

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

020m

The space allowance per employee dropped to well below thegovernment’s 18 m2 limit. Yet it was still possible to create plenty ofadditional facilities, such as informal meeting areas. (photo: Anna Autio).

lsinki00

20m
20Like many continental European offices, the building has a narrow floor planthat admits copious daylight. Desk clusters are limited to two to four desks,interspersed with various more informal work settings.

ntreal105

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESIn the open work areas there are small pods
for phone calls and video conferencing. The
pods are ventilated and echo-free. Sound
insulation ensures that colleagues nearby are
not disturbed. (photo: Stéphane Dubé)

106

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESPUBLIC SERVICES AND
PROCUREMENT CANADA(MONTREAL, CANADA)The Montreal office of PSPC (Public Services andProcurement Canada) is on the same floor as before, but
its work environment and working practices have changed
radically. Before renovation, many of the staff worked indreary, beige-coloured cubicles. Executives had enclosed
private offices. Daylight and outside views were for the
lucky few. It was an office that looked crowded, with lotsof partitions and filing cabinets, even though many of thedesks were unoccupied during the day.
Now the office is largely open and filled with light. Alongthe facade there are workstations, benches, phonebooths and ‘cocoons’. Closer to the building’s core are thesemi-enclosed and closed spaces: reflection rooms andcollaboration spaces. All these settings are available to all
employees regardless of their departmental or hierarchicalposition. The overall impression is one of variety andspaciousness, which is remarkable since the total floorarea has shrunk by over forty per cent.
France Vigneault, the project’s cultural change leader,
explains how these changes came about: “The idea for aconcept came in 2015, when we got a new director general.
One of his first tasks concerned the renewal of our officelease, and he decided that we should go for ‘hoteling’, as hecalled it at that time, which rapidly evolved to activity-based
working.” France adds: “This idea was met with scepticism
within the organization. Even so, the decision was taken.”
It was not a blunt top-down process, however. There were
small townhall meetings of fifty employees at a time, wheremanagement explained the idea and staff could posequestions and air their concerns. Furthermore, aroundsixty employees participated in twelve working sessions
to analyse work processes and the use of paper andequipment. Their findings were translated into a project
brief which served as the basis for the design process.

107

USER

PUBLIC SERVICES
AND PROCUREMENTCANADA (PSPC)

Property agency

Public Services andProcurement Canada(PSPC)

DesignPSPC & Aedifica

Completion2018

Total floor area

4845 sqm(usable floor area)

Total # of employees

400

Total # ofworkstations

322

Sharing ratio

0.8 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

12 sqm/employee(usable floor area)

Area/workstation

15 sqm/workstation(usable floor area)

Small meeting rooms with fully glazed
partitions are available on a ‘first come, firstserved’ basis. Larger meeting rooms haveto be booked. (photo: Stéphane Dubé)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

During the project, staff and management were informed
via presentations about the proposed design solutions.
In these sessions, staff could put forward their own ideas,
many of which were integrated into the concept. According
to France, the active involvement of staff and managers
was a critical success factor: “Loss of personal space canbe very confusing for employees. To help them regain asense of control, you have to turn people from spectators
into players. That may sound like a change management
cliché, but the trick is to put people in the action.”
One of the interesting decisions that came out of thosesessions was that there would be no ‘house rules’
concerning to use of the work environment. France: “We
are all adults, right? So instead of making a long list of rules,
we emphasized the importance of basic values such as
courtesy, communication, respect and awareness of one’s
own and each other’s needs.”

Informal meeting area located away from thework floor to avoid disturbing colleagues. (photo:
Stéphane Dubé)

Evaluations of the project confirm its success. The firstsurvey was conducted three months after move-in and it
showed that over eighty per cent of the staff preferred thenew office over the old one. A second survey, six months
later, showed even better results, with high satisfaction
scores on all the aspects that were covered in the survey(noise level, air quality, availability of quiet rooms, etc.).
Only one aspect, that of workplace personalization, wasunsurprisingly, rated lower than before.
The PSPC Montreal project is now a leading example
in the wider roll-out of the workplace concept (nowcalled ‘GCworkplace’) within the Canadian government.
Michael DeKelver, workplace strategist at PSPC, explains:“The GCworkplace concept will become the program
vision and guideline, so it must be applied in any major
office project”. But this is not always easy, Michael notes.
“Change is happening, but we still meet managers who

Q&A
Liette Brisebois, Administrative Assistant
What do you like best about this new way of working?
The flexibility of adapting where you want to work
according to what you need to accomplish. It reminds
me of a university library; there are quiet areas, noisierones, and collaborative spaces for both informal andformal meetings. There is a space for whatever yourneed may be.

How often do you change places in the office?
Every day! I typically make sure I sit in the general area
where my team is; however, I choose spots according to
my mood or the tasks I need to get done. For example, if
I have a lot of deadlines and I need to crunch down, I willtake one of the individual meeting rooms or booths.

What aspect could be improved?
Not much, as it is really well designed. In terms ofadapting to the space however, I think it would be helpful
for new employees to have a go-to colleague who canfamiliarize them with the technology and the different
spaces. The technology and open space can make you
feel vulnerable at first, so having a ‘buddy’ would relieve
some of the stress that comes with a new job.

What is your favourite workspace within the office?
I love this one little cosy, collaborative space, where
there are only two chairs and a light dimmer. Since
there is no door, you don’t feel isolated, yet you have theprivacy of an independent room. I go there for a lot of myphone calls and one-on-one video meetings.

108

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

desperately want to hold on to their private office. And
there is always a minority that simply does not want tochange, no matter what the change is.” A practical obstacleis that the technology isn’t always ready, with some partsof government still working with bulky PCs and landline
phones. Michael stresses therefore the importance of amultidisciplinary approach. “Activity-based working is notjust about property. To make the concept work, we need IT,
IM, HR and Security on board as well. They need to invest in
new tools and work practices. It is a shared business case.”
Workstations feature two computer screens,allowing employees to view or work with multiple
applications or documents simultaneously.
(photo: Stéphane Dubé)
0

20m

00

20
20m

ontrealThe building has a deep floor plan, which makes it difficult to provide
daylight and outside views in all work settings. To deal with this, all open
workstations are located along the facade, while facilities for temporary use(i.e. meeting rooms, kitchenette, informal areas) are located towards thecentre of the floor.

ew Dumbarton

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
The office floors offer a row of small meeting
spaces, each with its own kind of furnishing:a conference table, lounge seating or a hightable with bar stools. (photo: Niels Nygaard)

110THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESDANISH BUILDING AND
PROPERTY AGENCY(COPENHAGEN, DENMARK)The Danish Building and Property agency has just moved
into its new activity-based office in the Nexus buildingin Copenhagen. The project is so new that it is still in its‘hundred-day freeze’ period. Michelle Schlippe-Steffensen
from the Building and Property Agency explains: “In thefirst hundred days after move-in we don’t want to makeany major changes. Activity-based working is new for us.
People have to get used to it. We want to give it some time.”
In the meantime, employees can send in suggestions
for improvement by email or drop them in the ideas box.
Michelle: “All suggestions will be considered. Practicalconcerns, like complaints about cleaning or missing toilet
paper, are solved straight away.”
Michelle was project leader for the implementation of the
ABW concept and is eager to make it a success. “Being aproperty organization, we should be leading in the efficientuse of space. We should eat our own medicine, so to say.”
The other two reasons for ABW were a wish to reduce costs
and to improve collaboration. “We are now occupying
two floors instead of three. This saved us a lot of money.
Moreover, it means that we are closer together, whichmakes it easier to see and meet colleagues.”
The project’s interior is very Scandinavian in its expression.
It is open and filled with daylight. The finishes are in whiteor timber. Michelle notes that some of her colleagues
would have liked more colour. “The interior is viewed as a
bit sterile, but the possibilities for making changes werelimited by the fact that we wanted to re-use the furniturefrom our previous office.” In line with the ABW philosophy,
the office provides employees with different kinds of work
settings: social areas, open workstations, small meetingrooms and quiet areas. Michelle: “Interestingly enough, thequiet areas are not very much in demand. We have createdthem because our staff said they would need them. But
practice shows that people rarely seek total quietness forlonger periods of time.” The informal meeting area on the
111

USER

DANISH BUILDINGAND PROPERTYAGENCY

Property agency

Danish Building andProperty Agency

DesignArkitema/Danish
Building andProperty Agency

Completion

2019

Total floor area

3000 sqm(lettable area)

Total # of employees

230

Total # ofworkstations

168

Sharing ratio

0.7 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

13 sqm (lettable area)

Area/workstation

17.8 sqm(lettable area)

The building’s ground floor houses a canteen,
cafe and conference centre that are shared by
the building’s five tenants. (photo: Niels Nygaard)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

lower floor is not much used either. Michelle: “The softseating is right next to the workstations, so people probably
feel too exposed there. We are going to add bookshelves
as a way of shielding.” Otherwise, all spaces are well used.
The standard workstations and the small meeting rooms
in particular are popular. Michelle: “It can be a bit hectic
around eight in the morning, when everyone comes in andseeks a workstation. But once people are in, many have toattend meetings, and things get quieter.”
The project has not been formally evaluated yet, but
Michelle observed that there are differences between
functions. “For our administrative workers, who mostly dodesk work, the change seems to be the hardest. In contrast,
our project managers quickly took to the concept, as
they were already used to mobile working.” For Michelle,
the project’s most important lesson is to pay attention
to change management. “Ideally, the chiefs are the ones
who promote the concept and lead by example. But someof them find that difficult. I would have liked to have moretime to prepare them for this role, but it is was a very rushed
project with a timeline of only six months.”
Soon, the ‘hundred-day freeze’ period will be over. That
will be the moment to evaluate the concept and see
where it can be improved, in terms of both design andimplementation. Ultimately, the ambition is to inspire
all ministries and government agencies with this office.
Michelle: “Many departments view the concept as radical,
but we have already inspired organizations around
Denmark to consider ABW.” She adds, “In this building, weare the only ones who went for full ABW. The other fourtenants thought it was safer to go for open-plan offices.” It isa decision that puzzles Michelle. “I think that choice is to bepreferred over a personal desk, especially when that desk isplaced in a noisy open-plan office.”

The office floors are open towards the atrium.
Thanks to high levels of sound absorption, thisproduces a light background ‘buzz’. (photo: Niels
Nygaard)

One of the floors has a small library that can also
be used as an informal meeting spot. (photo:
Niels Nygaard)

Q&A
Tania Lorich, FM innovation, communication and UX manager,
Center for Facility Management
What do you like best about this new way of working?
More interaction with colleagues outside of my team.
And the possibility to choose from different kind of work
spaces, with sofas, phone booths and flex rooms.

How often do you change places in the office?
I change desk daily, but usually sit in the same two areas.
When I arrive at the office, I just sit at whatever desk isstill free.

What aspect could be improved?
More scope for conversational activities. My team used
to have work-related discussions at their office desks,
which now disturbs the other colleagues.

What is your favourite workspace within the office?
A specific so-called focus area, with two screens, close
to a window and with a mix of colleagues.

112

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESAs might be expected from a Danish office, it features classic Arne
Jacobsen furniture. (photo: Niels Nygaard)

penhagen

00

20m
20

The building has compact office floors (approx. 80 workstations per
floor unit). Workspaces are located around a central core which houses a
kitchenette, toilets and storage. A central atrium ensures that all spaces
have access to daylight.

lsinki113

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
The old building and the new addition
are united via a large atrium that features
glass-walled elevators, open stairs andbalconies (photo: Lucas van der Wee)

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

GOVERNMENT OFFICE‘DE KNOOP’(UTRECHT, NETHERLANDS)

In its earlier life, the government building ‘De Knoop’ served
as the headquarters of the Royal Netherlands Army. As
one might expect from such a facility, it was no-nonsensebuilding. It featured a heavy concrete construction, dark
corridors, low ceilings and immovable brick partitions. Notvery fancy, but robust. These days, however, the buildingis spacious, open and filled with light. It is no longer
populated by uniformed army staff, but by civil servants incasual business attire, who can be found engaging
in brainstorming sessions in the building’s conference
centre, sipping cappuccinos in the ground floor GrandCafe, or tapping away on their laptops at one or other ofthe building’s many flexible workstations.
The transformation of the building was carried out via
a public-private partnership (PPP), in which the Dutch
government acted as the commissioning client, while aselected consortium of market parties (called ‘R creators’)
was responsible for the design, financing and constructionof the project. The same consortium is responsible forthe building’s maintenance and operation for a periodof 20 years.
The government’s original ambition was to turn the building
into a generic government hub, available to any departmentof the Dutch central government but with the Dutch Tax
Office as privileged user. In reality, the Dutch Tax office is thebuilding’s main occupant. Bram van Wijk is the Tax Office’contract manager for the project and he has been involvedin the project from its inception. He explains: “The building isdesigned according to government standards. This means
that, in principle, any civil servant can work here. But we are
the key tenant and we are using almost the entire building,including the general areas. This is because of the building’s
central location and because a number of headquarter
staff are located here. It is an extremely popular venue formeetings and many of the attendees then stay on to work
here. So there isn’t much room for anyone else.”
115

USER

DUTCH TAX OFFICE

Property agency

Dutch Central
Government Real
Estate Agency

DesignCepezed andFokkema & Partners

Completion2018

Total floor area

30,078 sqm (netinternal area, incl.
conference centre)

Total # of employees

1700 (excl.
conference centre
visitors)

Total # ofworkstations

1063

Sharing ratio

0.6 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

17.7 sqm (netinternal area, incl.
conference centre)

Area/workstation

28.3 sqm (netinternal area, incl.
conference centre)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

The building’s office floors are fitted out according to theprinciples of activity-based working (ABW). For the Tax
Office, this is by no means a new concept. Bram: “We havebeen working with the ABW concept for over a decadeand we have a lot expertise with how it works.” Even so,
this project presented some challenges. “We discoveredthat the ABW concept works fine for most, but not for all,”Bram remarks, referring to the Dutch anti-fraud agency thatoccupies four of the building’s twelve floors. “The anti-fraud
agency is different from other departments because theirwork is highly confidential. Some of their investigators have
literally piles of paper evidence on their desks. Furthermore,some of investigators need locks on their rooms because
the material they work with is so sensitive. These are issues
that do not sit well with the ABW concept.”
This perception was reflected in project’s evaluation, which
was conducted nine months after move-in.76 The evaluation
data showed that anti-fraud agency employees are lesshappy with the concept than the building’s other users. For
example: only 13% of the anti-fraud agency respondents
rated the comfort of workstations as satisfactory, while inother departments over 70% of the staff were satisfied oreven very satisfied with this aspect. Bram: “The results showthat you have to keep a close eye on specialized needs.
In retrospect, I think that project would have benefited
from more user involvement. Working with a standardized
concept is fine, but you still need to engage with users to
get a good understanding of their needs, and to give thema sense of ownership.”In response to the evaluation, Bram and his colleagues
are planning to make several improvements to the work
environment. But because it is a PPP-project this will require
agreement from the consortium that is maintaining andoperating the building. Bram: “That sounds cumbersome,but I am actually quite glad of it. The consortium looks
closely at both the financial and functional impact of any
change we want to make. They do this because the PPP
contract contains strict performance criteria on workplacequality. Changes to the building’s layout are therefore
closely scrutinized for their impact on things like acoustics
and air quality. That takes a bit more time, but it ensures that
we get a good solution rather than just a quick fix.”

116

The building’s interior includes several ‘biophilic’
elements such as green walls. Other healthrelated features are the building’s naturalventilation system and the use of CO2 detection
in meeting rooms. (photo: Lucas van der Wee).

The building’s interior has been completelytransformed, but its concrete structure,complete with its characteristic octagonal
columns, is still there and visible.
(photo: Lucas van der Wee)

Around 20% of the building’s workspaces are
explicitly designed to facilitate communication.
They include collaboration rooms, lounge-likesettings and booths like those pictured in thisphoto. (photo: Lucas van der Wee)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

There are plenty of attractive meeting rooms available in the building. In the
project evaluation, however, users stated that they would like to have more
screens, smart boards and/or whiteboards in these spaces. (photo: Lucasvan der Wee)00

The office floors feature a mix of open and enclosed workplaces. The
numbers of the various space types were based on the government’s
generic workplace standards.
117

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20m

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
On the Ofgem floor there is a café called ‘The
Deck’. It is a formal part of the Ofgem office, but
it is available to all the building’s users. (photo:
Hufton+Crow)

118THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

OFGEM(LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM)

London’s Canary Wharf is best known as a financial district,
populated by bankers and other business people. However,
now that the British government has opened a large hub
in the area, the district’s population mix is becoming morediverse. This project is part of a bigger shake-up of the UK’s
civil service, which will reduce the number of governmentbuildings from 800 to around 200 by 2030, with the aimof reducing costs and increasing synergies between
departments. In this instance, this meant moving around6000 civil servants from their old, often cramped, offices inWhitehall—London’s traditional government district—to a
newly fitted-out, modern office building in Canary Wharf.
One of the relocated departments is Ofgem, the British
government’s energy watchdog. Ofgem is an interestingcase because it is one of the front runners in thegovernment’s drive towards ‘smart working’—an umbrellaterm for a wide range of flexible working practices,
including remote working and activity-based working in theoffice. Kim Pivett, Ofgem’s manager for building services,says: “We are one of the first to have fully implemented
the government’s smart working policy, but ultimately theentire government will have to work this way. That meansthat there is a lot of interest in how we are doing this. We
have already shown around more than 50 departments.”
What visitors get to see is a brand-new, light, modern
work environment where there is an almost palpable
sense of energy. When walking around, you see people
chatting, laughing, having phone conversations, andworking on their computers at large work benches. In
between the work areas, there are semi-open collaboration
spaces where groups of people can be seen drawing on
whiteboards and holding video meetings via large screens.
In other words, a lot of buzz and activity, but there arealso small quiet rooms for those who do not want to be
disturbed by the sight and sounds of their colleagues.

119

USER

OFGEM

Property agency

Government
Property Agency

DesignAECOM

Completion2018

Total floor area

4899 sqm(net internal area,excl. central
facilities)

Total # of employees

750 (target is 800)

Total # ofworkstations

495

Sharing ratio

0.66 workstation/
employee(target is 0.6)

Area/employee

6.5 sqm(net internal area;target is 6.0)

Area/workstation

9.9 sqm(net internal area)

The building’s restaurant, doubling as a spacefor meetings, working, town hall sessions andpresentations. (photo: Hufton+Crow)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

Kim explains that the floor features a total of 495
workstations for about 750 employees. That sounds
crowded, but according to Kim that isn’t the case: “Thegovernment’s standard is 6 workstations for every 10
employees. We are still a bit above that. I am actuallylooking for a team to join us.” Kim’s colleague Warren
Bentley, the site and business continuity manager, adds:“We know that we can add an extra 100 or so users because
we are closely tracking the office’s occupancy levels.
All workstations and meeting rooms are equipped withsensors that give us live data about how busy or quiet theoffice is.”The same technology allows staff to get an overview
of where they can find a spot to work. Near the floor’s
entrance there is a large digital screen showing whichworkstations are available. Warren explains: “Workstations
get a green dot, signalling that they are available, when they
haven’t been occupied for more than 90 minutes. So, whenworking at a desk, you can go somewhere else without
immediately ‘losing’ it. But, if you plan to be away for morethan 90 minutes, you have to clear your desk.”

Informal, non-bookable, touch-down space with
Dock views, located in the shared part of thebuilding (photo: Hufton+Crow)

There has not been a formal evaluation of the project, but it
seems to function well. Kim says that the new technology inparticular—everyone works on a Microsoft Surface Pro—ishighly appreciated by the staff. “With the move, we alsochanged all the technology: laptops and smart phones foreveryone, fewer printers and advanced video screens in
all the collaboration spaces.” Nicola Gray, business partnerfor HR at Ofgem, adds: “Our staff is fairly young. They like,and expect, advanced technologies and the flexibility thatcomes with it.”

Q&A
S. Corbett, Project Co-ordinator
What do you like best about this new way of working?
I could not say there is a single thing. I like the fact itis one large area and not split up into several floors. I
frequently run across colleagues that I have worked
with on other projects and we always smile at each otherwhen we pass by. I also benefit from the agile spaces andthat I can sit in other areas—handy when I need to finish
off something without interruptions. WFH [working from
home, ed.] is also great as I still feel connected to theoffice via Skype and recently solved a problem without
having to come in.

What aspect could be improved?
Speakers’ Corner [one of the floor’s collaboration
spaces, ed.] would benefit from soundproofing. I
understand this is being looked at.
How often do you change places in the office?
Two or three times a week depending on the work I am
doing.
What is your favourite work space within the office?
I like the Deck [the coffee area, right at the floor’s
entrance, ed.]. It is a reasonably quiet area and givesme the opportunity to meet with friends and havediscussions.

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

As in any project, there have also been some grumbles.
Nicola explains that the change of location raised a lot ofconcern. “Some of the staff were very much against themove to Canary Wharf. They even threatened to quit theirjob.” But that didn’t happen. Nicola: “The move went handin-hand with the implementation of the smart working
concept. Some of the people that were very much against
the move, are now very happy because the smart working
concept helps them to manage their busy work and family
lives.” She concludes: “So, the move is quite a success.
Even for those that were against it.”

1180

800

1200

2200

A Meet & Greet bench that is part of the sharedconference area, suitable for informal gatherings
before and after meetings (photo: Hufton+Crow)0

The floor’s open work areas feature large workbenches, often with roomfor eight persons. In the middle of the floor, there are enclosed rooms forquiet work and small meetings. The circular space in the top left corneris completely flexible and can be used for workshops, presentations andtown hall sessions.
121

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0

20m

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
Earlier, the building’s coffee corners wereopen towards the atrium, which caused noiseproblems as the sounds of chatting people
easily transferred from lower to higher floors
and vice versa. Now, the coffee corners are
acoustically enclosed and located away fromthe atrium. (photo: Royal HaskingDHV)

122

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESCITY OF HARDENBERG(THE NETHERLANDS)

Hardenberg, a small town in the east of the Netherlands,
has a striking town hall. The building, which was completed
in 2012, has a compact, rounded shape and a yellow, goldlike facade with an irregular window pattern. When the sun
shines, the quirky building looks like a glittering jewel box—
although the locals have also likened it to a pineapple anda beehive.
From a functional point of view, the beehive metaphor is agood one as with several hundred people working there,
the building does indeed ‘buzz’ with activity. In fact, until
recently, many employees felt that there was too much‘buzz’ and complained about the noise and distractionsin the largely open work areas.
In 2017, the city embarked on a refurbishment project toimprove the acoustics and to solve several other practicalissues. The direct trigger for the project was the desire
to add a further 80 employees to the building’s existing
320 users. In terms of capacity, the building could easily
accommodate these extra users, but all stakeholders
agreed that for this to work, the overall work environment
would need to be significantly improved.
The engineering firm Royal HaskoningDHV was brought
in to explore how this could be done. Its consultant, Niek
Janssen, explains: “To accommodate the extra users, it was
decided to make better use of the available space, aiming
at a sharing ratio of 0.7 workstation per FTE, instead ofexisting 1.0 workstation per FTE.” He explains that a ratio of
0.7 is quite normal in the Netherlands, especially for public
sector organizations where a lot of people work part-time,
resulting in relatively low occupancy levels.
Niek stresses, however, that the operation was not justabout intensifying the use of space. “Based on extensive
talks with staff, management and the workers’ council,
we made several changes to the mix of work settings.
123

USER

CITY OFHARDENBERG

Property agency

Royal HaskoningDHV

DesignArchitecten Cie/OTH
Architects (original
building) and RoyalHaskoningDHV(modifications)

Completion2012 (original
building) 2017
(modifications)

Total floor area

2,370 sqm (usable
floor area, officeareas only)

Total # of employees

400 full-time
equivalents (FTEs)

Total # ofworkstations

280 (desks; final
situation)

Sharing ratio

0.7 workstation/
fulltime equivalent

Area/employee

5.9 sqm (usable floorarea, office areas
only)

Area/workstation

8.5 sqm (usable floorarea, office areas
only)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

We created extra project spaces, extra ‘touchdown’
workplaces and extra meeting rooms. We also looked into
how the building’s indoor gardens and the restaurant could
be used more effectively as temporary places for work,
meetings and phone calls.”
And, obviously, there was the challenge of the building’s
acoustics, which happens to be Niek’s key area of expertise.
He explains: “This building has several special features thatstrongly influence the acoustic qualities. For example, it has
no suspended ceilings. It is all bare concrete, which looks
good and helps to regulate the temperature level, but such
hard surfaces reflect the sounds that people produce.”
Furthermore, the building’s shape plays a role. “For energy
saving purposes, the architects had created a circularfloor plan, but this also facilitates the propagation ofsound along the curved external wall. In addition, that wall
inclines inwards, which promotes the reflection of sound.
It enhances the ‘whispering’ effect—an effect you mightknow from the ‘whispering gallery’ in the dome of St Paul’sCathedral in London.”

The building does not feature a traditional
suspended ceiling, but acoustic panels withlighting fixtures in them. The use of such panels
allows for ‘concrete core activation’, whichmeans that the thermal mass of the building’s
concrete structure is used to regulate the indoor
climate. (photo: Royal HaskoningDHV)

Some of the acoustic problems had to do with theway spaces were positioned in relation to one another.
Niek: “People were bothered by sounds coming fromneighbouring departments and from social meeting
points, such as the coffee corners in the atrium. The atrium
is open to all floors, so sounds are easily transferred fromlower to higher floors and vice versa.”
To deal with these issues, Niek and his team opted for an
approach of ‘elimination’ and ‘compartmentalization’: thecoffee corners were removed from the atrium (elimination)
and at their new location they were acoustically enclosed(compartmentalization). Furthermore, it was decided toacoustically compartmentalize the office floors. Acoustic
walls or elements were placed at regular intervals in order
to limit the transmission of sound over long distances andthe propagation of sound along the external wall. To retain
the transparency of the interior, the wall elements were

Partitions divide the open plan office into
smaller parts. The lower part of the partition
consists of sound absorbing panels. The upper
part is glazed, which helps to maintain a senseof openness and allows daylight to penetrate
the inner parts of the building. (photo: RoyalHaskoningDHV)

Q&A
Luc Luijben, Associate Manager Spatial Planning department
What do you like best about this new way of working?
I like the openness, the transparency and the longinternal views combined with ample space forconcentrated working.
What aspect could be improved?
The nice double-storey winter gardens could be better
incorporated into the work concept.
How often do you change places in the office?
When I work here, in the Town Hall, I am highly mobile,working in a different room at every opportunity. But

overall, people’s mobility differs per type of department.
Also personal preferences play a large role. Our urban
design staff, for example, like to have a lot of wall surface
on which to display drawings so that they can discuss
new plans. So they prefer to be in a specific place in theoffice.
What is your favourite workspace within the office?
The best place for me to work is a place where I am incontact with my immediate colleagues—the people withwhom I work every day. So I prefer to sit within my own
familiar group of work colleagues.
124THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

made of glass. Niek: “An unconventional, yet intentional
solution in terms of acoustics”. He adds: “You catch twobirds with one stone: dividing the open work floor into
smaller units while maintaining transparency.”
Initial measurements and reactions from employees showthat the acoustic comfort has improved considerably. Niek:“Our measurements have shown that the transmission ofnoise along the external wall and throughout the space
has been greatly reduced, and the same is true for the‘distraction distance’. In laymen’s terms this simply meansa quieter work environment, with fewer distractions andimproved concentration—which will surely contribute to abetter workplace experience for the staff working here.”

The building’s ground floor locates all the public
and semi-public functions such as the counterswhere people can pick up their passport or
driving license. (photo: Royal HaskoningDHV)

The building has a circular floorplan with aninward inclining façade. This facilitates the
propagation of sound. The solve this issue,
additional panels have been placed against the
façade. (photo: Royal HaskoningDHV)

00

20m
20

The building’s floors have a circular shape. This leads to a favourable ratio
between floor space and façade surface, which helps to reduce heat loss.
It also leads to shorter walking distances (when compared to a traditional
corridor type of floorplan), which allows for easy interaction within theorganization.
125

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESLAIKA’s main work area. As is usual in Denmark,
all workstations are sit-stand desks.
(photo: Kristian Ridder-Nielsen)

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THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

LAIKA(COPENHAGEN, DENMARK)

Architecture studios are not obvious candidates for activitybased working (ABW). Typically, there is a too much ‘stuff’
involved in the work process (material samples, sketches,models, photos) for staff to be truly mobile. But for Danish
architecture firm LAIKA there was no other option than
ABW. As Lene Becker, the firm’s founder, explains: “We
are doing a lot of workplace projects and we are always
pushing our clients to explore flexible, shared workplace
options. It would have been weird not to do that ourselves.
We must eat our own dog food, so to speak. Fortunately, wereally like the taste of it!”.
This “dog food” (an apt metaphor since the company isnamed after the famed Russian astronaut-dog) comes inthe shape of an elegantly designed office in an old tobacco
plant in Copenhagen. The building is in the city’s northwest district, an area that has for long been characterized
by social housing and small businesses, but which is now
slowly transforming into a creative hotspot. Lene: “Ourold office was in an historical building in Copenhagen’s
inner city. Very cosy, with lots of small rooms and steep
stairs, but we were growing, and we needed more space.
Furthermore, I sensed that it was time for a change ofscenery. Copenhagen’s inner city is charming, but perhaps
a bit too staid. It was time for something edgier.”
LAIKA’s new office is a combination of raw, industrial
elements and highly sophisticated fittings and furnishings,
as might be expected from an architecture firm. It is
not overly designed however. It comes with a touch of‘hygge’—the famed Danish concept of cosiness. The colour
palette is warm, there are comfortable chairs, the lighting
is intimate and the (excellent) coffee is served in rustic
ceramic mugs. Lene: “We aimed for a very welcoming,
inviting place. Staff should feel at home. And the same goesfor our clients and other people that we work with. They
should feel free to grab an empty desk and work here, side
by side with our staff.”
127

USER

LAIKA

Property agency

LAIKA

Design

LAIKA

Completion

2019

Total floor area

450 sqm(usable floor area)

Total # of employees

25

Total # ofworkstations

16

Sharing ratio

0.64 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

18 sqm(usable floor area)

Area/workstation

28 sqm(usable floor area)

The neon sign says ‘Space Matters’, which is theslogan under which LAIKA has been working
for over 10 years. The slogan represents thecompany’s core belief that well-designed spaces
can have a large impact on people’s well-being
and behaviour. (photo: Kristian Ridder-Nielsen)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESLAIKA’s office is relatively small when compared with theother cases in this book, yet it manages to offer a diversityof work settings. There are different kinds of workstations
and different kinds of meeting spots, and there is a‘materials library’ in the middle of the floor, with a large table
where designers can pore over material samples and large
drawings. There is also a quiet room—which is not reallya room, but a space with thick curtains around it. Lene:“Quiet rooms normally have walls to keep distractions out.
But we found out that curtains work just as well, while also
adding the benefit of flexibility. The only prerequisite is arule that stipulates that the people working there should not
be disturbed.” “Unless there is a fire obviously,” she adds,
smiling.
All the workstations in the office are shared. There are
16 desks for 25 people and Lene thinks that there is still
plenty of space to grow. She wants to emphasize howeverthat hot-desking is not central to her thinking. “We are
not religious about desk sharing. Over the years, I havenoticed that there are three kinds of people. Those who are
immediately enthusiastic about the concept. Those whoare a bit cautious. And then there are those few who almost
literally dissolve into tears when hearing about the concept.
I think that there should be room for those people as well,especially since it is often a minority.”
She continues: “The most important thing is to look at
people’s actual needs, making a distinction between
collaboration and concentration. These needs relate
to people’s daily tasks, but also to how their brains are
wired. Sometimes people need social stimuli, sometimes
quietness, and at other times something different
altogether, like a walk outside.”

LAIKA’s quiet space has been created with theuse of curtains. The rule is that people who sit
there should not be disturbed. (photo: Kristian
Ridder-Nielsen)

The sample room is located in the middle of theoffice. The large work table is frequently used
for design discussions. (photo: Kristian RidderNielsen)

LAIKA’s new office aims to satisfy these different needs,
but Lene does not consider the office as finished yet. “Forus, this office is both a workspace and a laboratory. We are
testing out different kinds of furniture solutions and spatial
typologies. We learn every day, which is for the benefit ofboth our clients and ourselves.”

Q&A
Benedikte Møller, CFO
What do you like best about this way of working?
Flexibility: being able to choose a workplace in relation
to the kind of work that I am doing, and in relation to thepeople with whom I have to work.

How often do you change places in the office?
Several times a day. My movement in the office is mostly
governed by my communication needs, moving when I
need to have a dialogue with another colleague.

What aspect could be improved?
My own behaviour, not forgetting to switch places whenmy needs change.

What is your favourite workspace within the office?
The “Fly-inn” space. This is a space where I can sit andwork, while still being accessible for my colleagues.
Sitting there signals that it is OK to disturb me, which I
think creates a good dynamic and provides excellent
conditions for dialogue.
128

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

Various kinds of meeting spots around the office allow for quick, informal
meetings. (photo: Kristian Ridder-Nielsen)

0

20

0

20m

LAIKA’s office is relatively small when compared with the other cases in thisbook, yet it manages to offer a diversity of work settings.
129

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
Robeco’s departments are spread overseven office floors. Each department has its
own designated work area to make sure thatteam members can easily collaborate. The
investment teams sit on the fourth floor, whichis the centre of the office. (photo: Horizon
Photoworks)

130

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESROBECO(ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS)

Robeco is an international asset management firm with
its head office based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The
company occupies the first seven floors of a high-riselocated right next to Rotterdam’s futuristic central train
station. The building’s facade consists of large areas ofglass (‘urban windows’ as the architect calls them) that offer
passers-by a view of what is going on inside the building.
Robeco’s purchasing specialist Sjoerd Hoedemaekers
explains that visibility—alongside other factors such as
costs, sustainability and accessibility—was a major reason
why they chose this building. “We did not want to belocated in a sealed fortress. It may sound like a cliché, but
openness and transparency are important to us.”This commitment to openness is also evident in the interior.
All the work areas in the building are open. A full-heightatrium, topped by a glazed roof, connects all the floors.
The aesthetics could be described as corporate, but also
as warm and friendly. White desks are neatly arrangedon grey or beige carpets. Social areas are dotted withdesigner furniture and modern art. Natural elements
such as bamboo flooring and plants add a human touch.
Sjoerd remarks: “We asked for ‘understated chic’ and thearchitects have been successful in delivering this.”
In terms of functionality, too, the building works as it should.
Sjoerd: “Our earlier building was a high-rise with small floors
and people tend to stay on their own floors. So, people
were sending one other emails instead of meeting faceto-face. Here, we see much more of one other.” One thebest decisions according to Sjoerd was to provide only one
coffee corner per floor. “It’s a simple but effective strategy.
There are around 140 people on each floor, and they all goto the same spot to get their coffee. This means they get tosee a lot of different colleagues and not just the membersof their own team.”

131

USER

ROBECO

Property agency-

DesignFokkema & Partners(interior) andArchitecten Cie(building)Completion

2016

Total floor area

16,042 sqm(usable floor area)

Total # of employees

850 (approx.)

Total # ofworkstations

766 (desks, excl.
phone booths or
touchdown spots)

Sharing ratio

0.9 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

18.9 sqm(usable floor area)

Area/workstation

20.9 sqm(usable floor area)

Meeting rooms are frequently used for phone
calls. Robeco is considering adding dedicatedphone rooms for this purpose. (photo: Horizon
Photoworks)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESKarin Jansen of Fokkema and Partners, who designed thebuilding, adds that the coffee corners were deliberately
located next to the open staircases. “They are part of theoffice’s central routing that starts at the entrance, thenmoves along all office floors, and ends up at the bar androof terrace on the 7th floor. The routing provides maximum
possibilities for chance encounters.”
The office provides around 8 desks for every 10 employees.
A tighter ratio would be possible, but according to Sjoerd
this ratio works very well. “It means that there are always
plenty of desks to choose from. Moreover, it means thatpeople don’t have to clear their desks every time they
go to a meeting.” Although people do have to clear theirdesk before they go home: “If security finds any stuff onyour desk at the end of the day, they will remove it and you
will have to collect it from them. That’s also for security
purposes.”
According to a recent evaluation of the project, there aresome aspects that can be improved. One of the main
issues is a lack of dedicated places for phone calls. Sjoerd:“Currently, people are having phone conversations incorners and in meeting rooms. There are not many places
to go if you need to make a quick private call or if you don’t
want to disturb your colleagues with your call.” A related
observation is that the meeting rooms are not being used
as intended. “Our six-person meeting rooms are mostly
used for one-on-one meetings. So, it might be that we will
make some changes to the mix of settings.”

Although this photo suggests otherwise, theopen meeting spots that are located right next
workstations are not used very often. They offer
little acoustic privacy and people don’t want
to disturb their colleagues. (photo: Horizon
Photoworks)

There are different kinds of meeting rooms
to choose from. There are rooms with normal
meeting chairs, with bar stools (as in this photo)and there are rooms for ‘standing meetings’,
with no seating at all. The latter kind is Sjoerd’sfavourite as it encourages short but efficientmeetings. (photo: Horizon Photoworks)

Q&A
Emiel van Nielen, Manager IT Delivery Professional Services
What do you like best about this new way of working?
I have three scrum teams under my wing, and they are
to a large extent ‘self-steering’. It is a way of working
that is facilitated by the office concept as the teams
can choose their own ‘project spots’. Where they work
depends on their tasks, their meeting schedules,
the presence or absence of team members, thecollaboration with business counterparts, and so on.
Their mobility is helped by the fact that we have a cleandesk policy and plenty of lockers and cabinets to store
our things.
What aspect could be improved?
At peak moments there can be a shortage ofworkstations. In such an instance, we have to improvise
and negotiate with other teams. It may be that a teammember has to find a spot elsewhere in the building,which is not very practical. But this only happens once amonth or so.

How often do you change places in the office?
Daily. Our scrum teams differ in size and they may sit atdifferent locations in the building at different moments.
This creates a sense of dynamism, but it can be difficult
to keep overview of all teams. But not all teams in theorganization are that ‘adventurous’. Some of themalways sit in the same place. That’s what works for them,or it may be that they work with confidential data.
What is your favourite workspace within the office?
The meeting point zone on the first floor. It is a place
where you can work in relative peace without having toshield yourself from disturbances. Another thing I like
about that area is that you often get to meet colleagues
from abroad who are visiting the office, so you get asense of the international scale on which we operate.

132

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESIn the coming period, Sjoerd and his colleagues will take acloser look at how this can be done. “We are looking very
carefully at the evaluation outcomes because we want
our staff to be happy with their working environment. As in
any other organization, our success is dependent on thepeople working here. There are many different reasons why
people work here but the flexibility on offer is especiallyhighly valued.” He adds that he himself works one day a
week from home. “It’s great. I have small kids and it allows
me to eat lunch with them.” However, one day a week isenough for him: “I don’t want to be disconnected from myteam, and we shouldn’t forget that, as the whole idea of
this office is to increase collaboration and facilitate a goodworking culture.”

The architects have subtly integrated the many
staff lockers into the design. (photo: Horizon
Photoworks)00

The office floors measure 33 by 82 metres, what is unusually large by Dutch
standards. To bring daylight into these spaces, the architects created alarge atrium in the middle and several small ones along the facade. Openstaircases have been used to connect the floors.
133

20
20m

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESOpen spaces with large screens are the places
where the Rabobank’s teams can conduct their‘stand-ups’ (also known as the ‘daily scrum’).
The idea is that such meetings are short andinformal. The main purpose is to keep theteam connected and informed about the tasks
ahead before they start their working day.
(photo: Christiaan de Bruijne)

134THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESRABOBANK(EINDHOVEN, THE NETHERLANDS)The Dutch Rabobank has always been a pioneer in the
adoption of new ways of working. The bank had alreadystarted to develop a flexible work style back in 2007. ‘Rabo
Unplugged’ followed all the core principles of activitybased working (ABW): unassigned workstations, a diversityof work settings, advanced IT tools, and a results-oriented
way of managing people. In many ways, the Unplugged
concept was a success. It was rolled out on a voluntarybasis, but it was soon embraced by over 90% of theorganization and staff evaluations showed high satisfactionlevels.
Even so, the bank is now moving on to a new concept. Ten
years after its inception, the Unplugged concept is being
replaced by what the Rabobank calls ‘FOCUS working’.
Laurens van Gilst, programme manager at the Rabobank,explains: “Focus working is our term for what is commonly
known as ‘agile working’. Basically, it means that we all
work in small teams—or ‘squads’ as we call them—that
focus on the development of specific products or projects.
It is a work style that is very collaborative, with shortdevelopment cycles, aimed at continuous improvement.
It is low on hierarchy and high on team autonomy, which isintended to speed up decision making.”

USER

RABOBANKAdviceCBRE

DesignOTH Architects(interior) andUNStudio (building)Completion

2017

Total floor area

Approx. 25,000 sqm(lettable floor area)

Total # of employees

Approx. 2285

Total # ofworkstations

1600 (desks)

Sharing ratio

0.7 workstation/
employee

Area/employee

Approx. 11 sqm(lettable floor area)

Area/workstation

15.6 sqm(lettable floor area)

Laurens explains that this way of working is not necessarily
incompatible with activity-based working, but there is a
crucial difference: “ABW is all about the individual. The
basic assumption is that each employee should be able todecide individually when, with whom, and where to work. In
contrast, agile working is all about the team. Teams should
be tight-knit and seated close together to allow everyday
collaboration and quick feedback loops.”
The Rabobank’s switch in thinking is visible in the designof its Eindhoven office. This highly sustainable, 25,000
square metre (lettable floor area) building was completed
in 2017. The original design brief was based on the135

The architects used felt—produced fromrecycled PET bottles—in wall finishes and desk
panels for the purpose sound absorption. (photo:
Christiaan de Bruijne)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

Unplugged concept, but the brief changed during courseof the project, which is visible in the outcome. Laurens
characterized the building’s space planning as a hybrid of
ABW and agile. All the facilities and support spaces in thebuilding are shared, but teams have their own designatedspaces. Other typical agile elements are the scrum boards
and open meeting spaces where staff can congregate forquick and informal ‘stand-up’ meetings.”
A practical consequence of the agile way of working is thatthe bank needs more space than before. Laurens: “TheUnplugged concept was based on a ratio of 7 workstations
for every 10 employees—which makes sense if you assume
that people can work wherever they like. But with agile
working, you will lose some efficiency because teams needto sit together and they spend more time in the office.”
Ferdinand van Dam is partner at OTH Architects, the firmthat was responsible for the building’s interior design.
Reflecting on the project, he says: “The good thing about
this building is that it has large floorplates compared withtraditional Dutch office buildings, while there is still plenty of
daylight access because of the atrium. To connect the large
floors, we added open staircases, which make it easier forthe staff to move between different parts of the building
and creates a sense of unity. In addition, the stairs stimulate
movement as they ‘nudge’ people to walk through thebuilding rather than using the elevators.”
The advantage of the building’s large floorplates is thatthey offer a lot of flexibility in terms of fit-out. This is crucial
according to Ferdinand: “Some user needs are timeless—such as the need for daylight and good acoustics—whileother things are in constant flux. Think of changing needs inrelation to group sizes and technologies. Our challenge is tocreate work environments that can adapt to such changes.”
Also Laurens stresses the importance of flexibility: “Ourcurrent focus is on agile working, but, for sure, that willchange too. As they say, change is the only constant.” His
ideal office building would be like a gym. “In a gym, you
only have to pull down equipment from the ceiling, or put
up a net, to change the functionality of the space entirely.
It is maximum flexibility, with very limited effort. It would
be great if office buildings could be ‘future proofed’ in thesame way.”

Teams sit at blocks of 6 to 8 desks to ensure easycollaboration. Laurens van Gilst notes that in theirnewer offices, teams not only get their own teambase, but also the possibility to express theirteam identity by means posters or other kinds ofartefacts. (photo: Christiaan de Bruijne)

The building’s ground floor is designed to act
as a city square, where employees from thedifferent ‘neighbourhoods’ on the office floors
can congregate for common events and use
shared facilities such as the restaurant. (photo:
Christiaan de Bruijne)

Open staircases connect the different floors andstimulate people to take the stairs rather than theelevator. (photo: Christiaan de Bruijne)

136THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

Small phone booths take the noise disturbanceof phone calls away from the open-plan office,while also offering employees a place for private
phone calls. (photo: Christiaan de Bruijne)

The workstations located right next to the atrium are highly visible toanyone looking up from the atrium. The architects were therefore careful
to select a desk that would look good from all sides, including from below.
(photo: Christiaan de Bruijne)

By Dutch standards, the office floors are unusually large. The enclosed
spaces (meeting rooms, focus rooms) are positioned so as to break up
the large floor plates into smaller areas. The stairs in the atrium wereadded to improve connections between the different floors.
137

00

20m
20

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES
The building’s atrium features a large green
wall. It is a functional feature that helps maintaina healthy indoor climate. Just as important,however, is its symbolic function in expressing
Danone’s commitment to sustainability. (photo:Sebastian van Damme)

138THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLESDANONE(HOOFDDORP, THE NETHERLANDS)

Danone’s new global head office in the Netherlands, whichhouses their Specialized Nutrition business and their global
Cycles & Procurement function, is called ‘Danone Place
Amsterdam’. When entering the atrium of this building,one of the first things you see is a large wall covered in
air-purifying plants, which stretches the full height of
the atrium. It is the largest of its kind in Europe and is ofparticular relevance to Danone, says Nick van der Kloor,
who is HR Site manager of Danone Place Amsterdam. “We
are a food company with a strong focus on health andsustainability. Our vision is ‘One Planet, One Health’. So,
quite obviously, we wanted to create a building that would
positively contribute to both the environment and the wellbeing of our staff.”
This ambition manifests itself in various ways. The company
restaurant serves healthy, fresh and sustainably produced
food only. A large garden encourages exercise and outdoor
activities. Attractively designed staircases promote theuse of stairs rather than lifts. The building’s materials wereselected on strict health and sustainability criteria. Sensors
keep track of the quality of the indoor climate. Solar panelson the building’s roof help to reduce the building’s CO2
footprint. The building was certified as ‘LEED Gold’ for its
sustainability and as ‘WELL Gold’ for its focus on staff wellbeing.
A tour of the building suggests that it is very well used. On
the ground floor, people are using the café lounge and therestaurant as informal meeting places—there is chatterin English, French and Dutch. On the first floor, there arepeople coming and going from the large meetings rooms.
On the office floors, things are quieter, but there is no lackof people there either. Almost all desks are occupied. Also
many informal work spots are in use—people are tappingaway on their laptops at large rounded ‘touchdown’ tables
and at the bar-like balustrade of the atrium.

139

USER

DANONE

Property agency

Cushman &Wakefield

DesignPowerhouse(building) and DZAP
(interior)

Completion

2019

Total floor area

8,350 sqm
(lettable floor area)

Total # of employees

850 (plus daily
approx. 70 visiting
staff from otherlocations)

Total # ofworkstations

260 (desks, excl.
touchdown spaces/
focus rooms)

Sharing ratio

0.3 (desks, excl.
touchdown spaces/
focus rooms)

Area/employee

9.8 sqm(lettable floor area)

Area/workstation

32 sqm(lettable floor area)

The round tables are intended as touchdown
workspaces. They can be used as ‘overflow
spaces’ during peak occupancy. (photo: Dimitri
Valentijn)

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

The overall impression is one of dynamism and energy. Nicksays: “That’s what we aimed for. Earlier, we were spread overtwo buildings and people hardly knew each other. Here,
there is much more interaction.” He adds, however, that thebuilding is a bit too crowded at the moment. “The building
offers lots of work spots, but the number of desks is actuallyquite limited. There are 260 desks for around 850 people.
This shouldn’t be a problem as our staff travel a lot and,
when they are here, they spend a lot of time in meetings.
Even so, there is high demand for desk space.”
One of the reasons for this is that there are more peopleusing the building than expected. “We did extensive
calculations before move-in, but we have just been througha major organizational transformation,” says Nick. “Someteams got smaller, others bigger, and we need to adapt tothat.” The other issue is that the building has proved to bevery popular among Danone staff from other locations.
“We have state-of-the-art facilities, and we are only one
train stop away from the airport. This makes this building a
popular destination. Every day, we have around 70 people
from other locations working here. That is a good thing,but it adds to a sense of crowding.”
To deal with this, Nick and his colleagues are planning tofine-tune the concept. They will start with an extensive
post-occupancy evaluation (POE) to get a better ideaof the staff’s workplace experience. Nick: “We havebeen here for several months now, so it is a good time toevaluate. We will do a staff survey and we will take a close
look at our occupancy data.” The occupancy data comefrom the building’s advanced occupancy measurement
system. Each desk is equipped with a sensor that glows
red when occupied. It glows green when the desk has
been empty for more than 50 minutes. All the meetingrooms are equipped with sensors as well. Nick: “We havealready noticed that our desks have high occupancy levels,
while the meeting rooms are underutilized, so there areopportunities for optimization.”
Nick also plans to put additional effort into the behaviouralside of the workplace concept. “We had a year to prepare
staff for the move to this new building. During that time,
we did some really great stuff to promote a new way ofworking. But new people are constantly coming into theorganization and we have to make sure that everybody is on
board. My work as HR Site manager has only just begun.”

140

The seats around the atrium have proved to be a
popular spot for work, informal chats and phone
calls. (photo: Sebastian van Damme)

The wide staircase on the ground floor can beused as seating for large events involving thewhole company. (photo: Stijn Poelstra)THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE /PART 6: EXAMPLES

Outside lunch hours, the ground floor café and restaurant are used as
informal meeting spaces. (photo: Maurice Heesen)00Each office floor features four zones (‘neighbourhoods’) where specificteams have their base. The work areas are located away from the atrium
where all the traffic is. The small meeting rooms and focus booths act asbuffers between these spaces.
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Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEPART 7: APPENDICES
Specifications per space type
More information
Interviewees
References

143Intentionallyblank pageTHE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDESPECIFICATIONS PER SPACE TYPE

This appendix provides detailed requirements for thedifferent kinds of spaces that can be created in an ABW
office. The requirements cover everything from sizes andquantities, to adjacencies and acoustics. The definitions
used for the various requirements can be found on page
155.

WORKSPACES
Open workstation
Semi-open workstation
Phone booth
Focus room
Project roomStudy

The requirements are rather detailed in recognition of
the fact that design details can have a critical impact
on people’s workplace experience. All too often highflying office projects fail to deliver on common-sense
matters such as good acoustics, the avoidance of glare
on computer screens and easy-to-reach power sockets.
Having a clear set of requirements, combined withsystematic design verification, will help to avoid suchproblems.

COLLABORATION SPACES
Booth
HuddleStand-up space
Small meeting room (2-4 pers.)
Medium meeting room (8-12 pers.)
Large meeting room (> 14 pers.)
SUPPORT SPACES
Kitchenette
Locker space
Storage space
Print/copy space
Entrance/lobby
Restaurant
Primary circulation

It is important to note that the requirements presented
here are generic guidelines only—they should not be
copy-pasted into your situation. To create a successful
work environment, the requirements need to be tailoredto the specific needs of an organization. A softwareorganization will for example have different needs from asales organization, requiring a different mix of spaces anddifferent kinds of technologies.
Local culture and regulations must also be taken into
consideration. In Norway, for example, the minimum
workplace size is seven square metres, while this bookmentions a size of five square metres. It is thus essential tocheck whether the requirements are in line with a country’s
health and safety regulations and building codes.
Furthermore, it is important to consider the client’s
ambition level and budget. The indoor climate
requirements presented in this book represent a ‘standard’quality level in terms of comfort. Depending on the typeof project, it is possible to set both higher and lower
standards.

145

1 person

Collaborative, open
Interactive zone

Capacity

Ambiance
Activity zone

≤ 0.5 s≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB

Acoustic comfort
Reverberation time (T30)

Background noise (LA eq)
Noise from MEP (LA eq)≥ 500 lux
≤ 19 (-)≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 K≥1 %Required
Required (from a sitting
position)≥ 5 m2Usable floor area

Visual comfort
Illuminance
Unified Glare Rating (UGR)
Colour rendering
Light colour temperature
Daylight factor
Solar shading
Outside View

4 to 6 per 10 employees• Brief collaboration• Generic computer work
• Impromptu conversations

OPEN WORKSTATION
Workstation placed in an
open area, typically in groups
of 4, 6 or 8 units. Suitablefor collaborative work andgeneral office tasks that
require a medium level ofconcentration.

Standard properties
Quantity

Activities to be facilitated

WORKSPACES≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≤ 0.5 s≥ 500 lux
≤ 19 (-)≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 K≥1 %Required
RequiredPrivate, quiet
Quiet zone

1 person≥ 5 m2

1 to 2 per 20 employees• Generic computer work
• Individual focus work

SEMI-OPEN WORKSTATION
Workstation with semi-highenclosure (a modern version of
the classic cubicle), providing
a sense of visual and acoustic
privacy in the absence of floorto-ceiling partitions. Suitable
for activities which demand
medium concentration andmedium interaction. In termsof specifications essentiallythe same as an open
workstation, but with panel
screening.

≤ 0.7 s (apply acoustic
absorption to at least one
vertical surface. A band of
approx. 1m at the height of the
speaker)≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

Transitional, focusedInteractive zone

1 person≥ 2 m2 (4 m2 if room has to beusable for 2 persons)

1 per 20 to 30 employees• Phone calls• Video calls

PHONE BOOTH
Enclosed or semi-enclosed
area where people can go
when they need to make ortake a phone call or video
call that requires a degreeof focus and privacy. Can beused as a way of removing
noisy activities from open
work areas.

• Generic computer work
• Teamwork/collaboration

PROJECT ROOM
Enclosed room with several
workstations, combinedwith collaborative features
such as meeting tables andwhiteboards. Suitable forproject work or teamworkthat is confidential and/or demands frequentconsultation.

≤ 0.7 s (apply acoustic
absorption to at least one
vertical surface. A band of
approx. 1m at the height of the
speaker)≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≤ 0.7 s≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 K≥1 %Required
Required

Dependent on degree of
project work
≥ 6 m2 (can be smaller if the
4 m2 per workstation.
room is only used by one
Dependent on number of
person at the time)workstations
2 persons (one person
Dependent on typical size ofworking, plus one visitor in the project teams
case of a small meeting)
Quiet, private
Collaborative, workshop-like
Quiet zone (can be positioned Interactive zone
in such a way that it acts as abuffer between the interactive
zone and the quiet zone)

1 per 10 employees• 1:1 Meetings• Individual focus work
• Phone calls• Video calls

FOCUS ROOM
Fully enclosed, soundinsulated room that allows
people to escape the buzz ofthe open work area. Suitable
for activities that requireconcentration and/or privacy.
Ideally, the room should bedesigned in such a way thatit can also be used for small
meetings and phone/video
calls.

≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≤ 0.7 s≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 K≥1 %Required
RequiredCalm, scholarly
Quiet zone

4 m2 per workstation.
Dependent on number ofworkstations
Variable

1 per 50 or 100 employees• Individual focus work

STUDY
Enclosed room with multiple
workstations, intended for‘heads-down’ work in a groupsetting. A getaway from thechat and interruptions of open
work areas. Similar to a libraryreading room (phone-free,
muted conversations only).

Elements to be placed

Ventilation rate average

Air quality
CO2 level

Thermal comfort
Predicted Percentage
Dissatisfied (PPD)
Operative temperature wintermin.
Operative temperature wintermax.
Operative temperaturesummer min.
Operative temperaturesummer max.
Relative humidity
Operable windows

Sound insulation (R’w)
towards circulation spaces
Sound insulation (R’w)
towards functional spaces
Sound insulation (R’w)
towards sanitary spaces
Impact noise insulation (LnTA)
Distraction distance (rD)≥ 23 oC≤ 26 oC≤ 60 %
Preferred (dependent on
location)≥ 23 oC≤ 26 oC≤ 60 %
Preferred (dependent on
location)• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 3x Power outlet (preferably
incorporated in desk)• 1x USB outlet (preferably
incorporated in desk)• 2x Data outlet (preferably
incorporated in desk)• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Sit-stand desk
• 1x Ergonomic task chair• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 3x Power outlet (preferably
incorporated in desk)• 1x USB outlet (preferably
incorporated in desk)• 2x Data outlet (preferably
incorporated in desk)• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Sit-stand desk
• 1x Ergonomic task chair• 1x Acoustic desk separation
panel (providing visual/
acoustic privacy on all sides)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 24 oC≤ 24 oC≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≥ 20 oC≤ 59 dBn/a≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 20 oC≥ 45 dB≥ 45 dB< 10 %≥ 40 dB≥ 40 dB< 10 %≥ 30 dB≥ 30 dB• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Power outlet• 2x USB outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 40 dB≥ 30 dB• 1x Demountable partition- glazed (users shouldbe able to see whether aroom is available or not).
Furthermore, the use ofglass.
• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 3x Power outlet• 1x USB outlet• 1x Data outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Height-adjustable work
surface• 1x Ergonomic task chair≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 40 dB≥ 30 dB• 1x Demountable partition- glazed (users shouldbe able to see whether aroom is available or not).
Furthermore, the use ofglass.
• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 3x Power outlet per
workstation• 1x USB outlet per workstation• 2x Data outlet per
workstation• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Ergonomic task chair per
workstation• 1x Whiteboard (does nothave to be a furniture item.
Can also be another kind of
writable/tackable surface,for example a wall with awhiteboard paint finish)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Preferred (dependent on
location)≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 45 dB≥ 40 dB• 1x Demountable partition- glazed (users shouldbe able to see whether aroom is available or not).
Furthermore, the use ofglass.
• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 3x Power outlet per
workstation• 1x USB outlet per workstation• 2x Data outlet per
workstation• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Large reading/study table• 1x Ergonomic task chair per
workstation≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Preferred (dependent on
location)≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 40 dB≥ 30 dBAdjacencies

Equipment to be placed

WORKSPACES• Small meeting room (2-4pers.) (≤ 10 m)• Stand-up space (≤ 25 m)• Kitchenette (≤ 50 m)• Print/copy space (≤ 50 m)• Storage space (≤ 25 m)• Focus room (≤ 10 m)• Phone booth (≤ 10 m)• 1x Adjustable monitor arm• 1x Computer monitor(preferably 2x)• 1x Docking station

OPEN WORKSTATION• Kitchenette (≤ 50 m)• 1x Adjustable monitor arm• 1x Computer monitor(preferably 2x)• 1x Docking station

SEMI-OPEN WORKSTATION• Open workstation (≤ 10 m)• 1x Computer monitor(optional, useful for video
calls)

PHONE BOOTH

Open workstation (≤ 10 m)• 1x Computer monitor• 1x Docking station

FOCUS ROOM

• Kitchenette (≤ 50 m)• 1x Computer monitor per
workstation• 1x Docking station per
workstation• 1x Large screen (positioned
in such a way that it is visible
from all workstations)

PROJECT ROOM

• 1x Computer monitor per
workstation• 1x Docking station per
workstation

STUDY≥ 8 m2

4 personsInformal, friendly
Social zone

≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

Usable floor area

Capacity
Ambiance
Activity zone

Visual comfort
Illuminance
Unified Glare Rating (UGR)
Colour rendering
Light colour temperature
Daylight factor
Solar shading
Outside View

≤ 0.5 s (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a work
area)
Background noise (LA eq)≤ 40 dB (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a work
area)
Noise from MEP (LA eq)≤ 35 dB (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a work
area)Sound insulation (R’w) towards n/acirculation spaces
Sound insulation (R’w) towards n/afunctional spaces

Acoustic comfort
Reverberation time (T30)

1 to 2 per 50 workstations≤ 0.5 s (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a workarea)
≤ 40 dB (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a workarea)
≤ 35 dB (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a work
area)
n/a
n/a

n/a

≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

Dependent on number of
scrum/agile teams
Dependent on team size. Min.
2 m2 per person
Dependent on team size
Collaborative, high-energy
Interactive zone

• Stand-up meetings• Team meetings≤ 35 dB≥ 35 dB≤ 35 dB≥ 35 dB≥ 45 dB≤ 40 dB≤ 40 dB≥ 45 dB≤ 0.7 s≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Preferred

8 - 12 persons
Formal, inviting
Social zone

1 or 2 per 50 workstations, or 1
per floor/security zone
≥ 24 m2• Team meetings• Video conferencing

MEDIUM MEETING ROOM
(8-12 PERS.)
Conference room for plannedgroup meetings with midsized groups (8-12 persons).
Should provide wall spacefor writing, brainstorming orpresentations. It can be a goodidea to create meeting rooms
with different ambiances fordifferent kinds of meetings.

≤ 0.7 s≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

4 personsInformal, inviting
Interactive zone

≥ 6 m2

1 per 10 to 20 workstations• 1:1 Meetings• Video calls

SMALL MEETING ROOM (2-4
PERS.)
Open or semi-enclosed space An enclosed meeting roomfor ‘stand-ups’ (a specific kind for two to four persons.
of meeting associated with
Suitable for small meetings
scrum/agile working). Suitable and confidential discussions.
for informal discussions andTypically available on ameetings that do not require
first-come, first-served basis.
seating. Typically features a
Can overlap/be combined
large video screen and/or awith focus rooms to create
writable ‘scrum board’.
flexibility in use.

STAND-UP SPACE≤ 0.5 s (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a workarea)
≤ 40 dB (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a workarea)
≤ 35 dB (based on theassumption that there is an
open connection with a work
area)
n/a

≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

10 persons
Collaborative, informal
Social zone

1 per 100 workstations or 1
per floor≥ 20 m2• Hanging out/taking a break• Team meetings

An open meeting space withan informal, comfortable
feel. It can function as acongregating point for teams
or departments. Suitablefor informal discussions,relaxation or work, should
people so wish.

Semi-enclosed space forsmall meetings, collaborationand individual work. Typicallyhas high backed seating, as
in a classic diner booth, thatprovides a sense of visual
privacy while still being partof the open space around it.
In some cases, booths can beceilinged.

• 1:1 Meetings• Generic computer work
• Phone calls

HUDDLE

BOOTH

Standard properties
Quantity

Activities to be facilitated

COLLABORATION SPACES≥ 45 dB≥ 35 dB≤ 35 dB≤ 40 dB≤ 0.7 s≥ 500 lux
≤ 19
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Preferred

14 persons or more
Formal, inviting
Social zone

Dependent on frequency oflarge meetings≥ 48 m2• Formal meetings• Team meetings• Video conferencing

LARGE MEETING ROOM (>14
PERS.)
Conference room forplanned group meetings
with larger groups (> 14
persons), typically providing
some formality and privacy.
Should provide wall spacefor writing, brainstorming orpresentations.

BOOTH

Elements to be placed

Ventilation rate average

Air quality
CO2 level

Thermal comfort
Predicted Percentage
Dissatisfied (PPD)
Operative temperature wintermin.
Operative temperature wintermax.
Operative temperaturesummer min.
Operative temperaturesummer max.
Relative humidity
Operable windows≤ 24 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 26 oC≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 24 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 26 oC≤ 60 %
Not required• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 2x Power outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 10x Power outlet• 1x Data outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 10x Seat (soft seating)• 1x Whiteboard (does nothave to be a furniture item.
Can also be another kind of
writable/tackable surface,for example a wall with awhiteboard paint finish)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2n/a≥ 20 oC≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2n/a< 10 %• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 4x Power outlet• 1x Data outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Touchscreen booking
system (next to the space’s
entrance, part of smart officesystem)• 1x Scrum board (optional,
dependent on how teams
work)• 1x Whiteboard (does nothave to be a furniture item.
Can also be another kind of
writable/tackable surface(e.g. a wall with a whiteboard
paint finish)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2n/a≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %

n/a
n/a

n/a
n/a

≥ 20 oC

n/a

STAND-UP SPACEn/a

HUDDLE< 10 %

Sound insulation (R’w) towards n/asanitary spaces
Impact noise insulation (LnTA) n/a
Distraction distance (rD)n/a

COLLABORATION SPACES• 1x Demountable partition glazed (users should be able
to see whether a room isavailable or not.
• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 4x Power outlet• 1x Data outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Conference table• 4x Conference chair• 1x Privacy film or curtain(should be possible toprovide a degree of visual
privacy in case of sensitive or
confidential meetings)• 1x Whiteboard (does nothave to be a furniture item.
Can also be another kind of
writable/tackable surface,for example a wall with awhiteboard paint finish)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB• 1x Demountable partition glazed (users should be able
to see whether a room isavailable or not.
• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 12x Power outlet• 1x Data outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Conference table• 12x Conference chair• 1x Privacy film or curtain(should be possible toprovide a degree of visual
privacy in case of sensitive or
confidential meetings)• 1x Whiteboard (does nothave to be a furniture item.
Can also be another kind of
writable/tackable surface,for example a wall with awhiteboard paint finish)• 1x Touchscreen booking
system≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Preferred (dependent on
location)≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB

SMALL MEETING ROOM (2-4 MEDIUM MEETING ROOMPERS.)(8-12 PERS.)• 1x Demountable partition glazed (users should be able
to see whether a room isavailable or not.
• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 14x Power outlet• 1x Data outlet• 1x Occupancy sensor• 1x Conference table(preferably a table systemthat can be reconfigured
to create different kindsof meeting settings (cafe,
classroom, conference)• 14x Conference chair• 1x Privacy film or curtain(should be possible toprovide a degree of visual
privacy in case of sensitive or
confidential meetings)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 60 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Preferred (dependent on
location)≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 10 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dBLARGE MEETING ROOM (>14
PERS.)

Adjacencies

Equipment to be placed• Kitchenette (≤ 25 m)• 1x Large screen (optional)• Kitchenette (≤ 25 m)• 1x Large screen• Open workstation (≤ 25 m)• 1x Large screen• Open workstation (≤ 10 m)• 1x Large screen• Kitchenette (≤ 25 m)• 1x Large screen• Kitchenette (≤ 25 m)• Entrance/lobby (≤ 25 m)• 1x Large screen• 1x Whiteboard (does nothave to be a furniture item.
Can also be another kind of
writable/tackable surface,for example a wall with awhiteboard paint finish)• 1x Touchscreen booking
system≥ 6 m2

4 persons (standing)Relaxing, inviting

Social zone

≥ 500 lux
≤ 22
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required≤1s≤ 50 dB≤ 45 dB

Capacity

Ambiance

Activity zone

Visual comfort
Illuminance
Unified Glare Rating (UGR)
Colour rendering
Light colour temperature
Daylight factor
Solar shading
Outside View

Acoustic comfort
Reverberation time (T30)
Background noise (LA eq)
Noise from MEP (LA eq)

1 per 50 employees, or 1 per
floor/security zone

• Getting coffee or a snack• Hanging out/taking a break• Impromptu conversations• Recycling

KITCHENETTE
Facility that gives employees
easy access to water, coffee
and tea. Sometimes it is a full
kitchen with refrigerator andmicrowave. Ideally designed
as a place that encouragessocialization as it is a
destination where people run
in to each other.

Usable floor area

Standard properties
Quantity

Activities to be facilitated

SUPPORT SPACES≤1s≤ 45 dB≤ 40 dB≥ 300 lux
≤ 22
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

Social zone

Functionaln/a

0.5 m2 per locker

1 per floor/security zone

• Storing personal items

LOCKER SPACEArea with lockers for the
storage of personal items.
Organizations often decideto give everyone their own
personal locker, even thoughshared lockers are more
efficient• Paper-based work (printing/scanning/shredding)• Storing office supplies

PRINT/COPY SPACE
Enclosed space containing
a multifunctional machinefor copying, scanningand printing. May also
accommodate a shredder andoffice supplies.

n/a
n/a
n/a

≥ 300 lux
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
Not required

Interactive zone

Functionaln/a

1 m2 per person, preferably
less (depending on degree ofdigitalization)≤1s≤ 45 dB≤ 40 dB≥ 300 lux
≤ 22
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

Social zone

Functional

3 persons (standing)≥ 5 m2

1 storage point per team/group 1 per floor/security zone

• Storing team items

STORAGE SPACESpace for the storage of
documents or other ‘stuff’. Can
be either individual or group
storage. The need for storageis very much dependent on
the nature of people’s work
processes and the degree ofdigitalization.

≤1s≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≥ 300 lux
≤ 22
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 Kn/an/a
Not required

Social zone

Dependent on size location.
Think of receptionist/host(s)plus waiting visitors
Welcoming, understatedrefinement

Dependent on required
capacity

1 per office unit or building• Visitor reception/registration• Waiting• Taking phone calls(receptionist)• Handing out security passes(receptionist)

ENTRANCE/LOBBY
Entrance area with seating for
visitors and reception desk
and/or reception screen.
Provides visitors with theirfirst impression of theorganization. Large lobbies
can double as informal
meeting areas when combinedwith a coffee facility.

≤ 0.9 s≤ 40 dB≤ 35 dB≥ 300 lux
≤ 22
≥ 80 %
3000 K - 4000 K
n/a
Not required
Required

1 (in larger buildings, therestaurant facility may beshared with other tenants)
Dependent on number ofoccupants and food service.
Typically, 2.5 m2 per seat.
Should also be big enough for
all-hands group meetings.
Dependent on sizeorganization and location (i.e.
presence of nearby eateries)
Should be different fromthe workspaces: more
informal, quietly ‘buzzing’ andcomfortable
Social zone

• All-hands meetings• Brief collaboration• Generic computer work
• Getting coffee or a snack• Hanging out/taking a break• Having lunch• Impromptu conversations

RESTAURANT
Facility where employees
can go for lunch and in somecases breakfast and dinneras well. Can be designed andserviced in such a way that theareas can be used as informal
meeting or workspace outside
mealtimes.

Elements to be placed

Ventilation rate average

Air quality
CO2 level

Thermal comfort
Predicted Percentage
Dissatisfied (PPD)
Operative temperature wintermin.
Operative temperature wintermax.
Operative temperaturesummer min.
Operative temperaturesummer max.
Relative humidity
Operable windows

Sound insulation (R’w)
towards circulation spaces
Sound insulation (R’w)
towards functional spaces
Sound insulation (R’w)
towards sanitary spaces
Impact noise insulation (LnTA)
Distraction distance (rD)≥ 20 oC≤ 27 oC≤ 60 %
Not required≥ 22 oC≤ 27 oC≤ 70 %
Not required• 1x Floor finish - splash
resistant• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Water tap - cold
• 1x Water tap - warm
• 4x Power outlet (sufficientfor equipment)• 1x Coffee machine• 1x Counter space• 1x Cupboard• 1x Dishwasher• 1x Microwave• 1x Recycling unit
• 1x Refrigerator• 1x Sink• 1x Water cooler• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Locker per person(consider shared lockers,
for example for 60% of
employees, as they are notalways used efficienctly)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2n/a≤ 25 oC≤ 25 oC≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2n/a≥ 19 oC≤ 59 dBn/a≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 19 oC≥ 45 dB≥ 45 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 50 dB< 15 %≥ 30 dB≥ 30 dB• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Filing cabinet for every
2-8 workstations (typically
1 metre of shelf space perperson, but dependent on
degree of digitalization ofwork processes)

n/a

n/a

≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 27 oC≥ 22 oC≤ 25 oC≥ 19 oC

n/a

n/a
n/a

n/a

n/a

n/a

• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 4x Power outlet (dependent
on placed equipment)• 2x Data outlet (dependent on
placed equipment)• 1x Table - for collating/gathering paper• 1x Cabinet for office supplies≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2n/a≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 27 oC≥ 22 oC≤ 25 oC≥ 19 oC

n/a≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 45 dB≥ 30 dB• 1x Floor finish - soundabsorbing• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• 10x Power outlet (dependent
on number of seats)• 2x Data outlet (at receptiondesk)• 1x Reception desk
• 1x Soft seating (dependent
on expected number ofvisitors/waiting time)• 1x Coat closet (could be awalk-in closet, dependingon the expected number ofvisitors)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 25 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 27 oC≥ 22 oC≤ 25 oC≥ 19 oC< 15 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 40 dB≥ 30 dB• 1x Floor finish - splash
resistant• 1x Ceiling finish - soundabsorbing• (tbd)x Water tap - cold(dependent on equipment)• (tbd)x Water tap - warm
(dependent on equipment)• (tbd)x Occupancy sensor(seating area)• (tbd)x Cafe table (dependent
on capacity. Can be a mix ofclassic cafe tables, picnic
tables, bench tables)• (tbd)x Cafe seating(dependent on capacity. Can
be a mix of cafe chairs, barstools, booths)• (tbd)x Professional kitchenequipment (the exact needfor equipment-such as
ovens, cold/hot storage,
sinks- is dependent on
the scope/menu of therestaurant)≤ 550 ppm above outside
ppm CO2≥ 25 m3 fresh air/hour/person≤ 60 %
Not required≤ 26 oC≥ 23 oC≤ 24 oC≥ 20 oC< 20 %≤ 59 dBn/a≥ 45 dB≥ 45 dB≥ 30 dBAdjacencies

Equipment to be placed

SUPPORT SPACES• Booth (≤ 25 m)• Huddle (≤ 25 m)• Medium meeting room(≤ 25 m)• Large meeting room (≤ 25 m)• Open/semi-open
workstation (≤ 50 m)• Project room (≤ 50 m)• Entrance/lobby (≤ 25 m)

1x Large screen (optional)

KITCHENETTE• Entrance/lobby (≤ 10 m)

LOCKER SPACEOpen workstation (≤ 25 m)

STORAGE SPACE• Open workstation (≤ 50 m)• 1x Multifunctional printer• 1x Plotter (optional)• 1x Shredder (optional)

PRINT/COPY SPACERESTAURANT• Large meeting room (≤ 25 m)• Kitchenette (≤ 25 m)• Entrance/lobby (≤ 10 m)• Restaurant (≤ 25 m)• Entrance/lobby (≤ 25 m

• 1x Adjustable monitor arm• 1x Large screen (or more,(at reception desk)
dependent on the size of• 1x Computer (at reception
the space)desk)• 1x Computer monitor(at reception desk)• 1x Digital concierge(optional)• 1x Large screen (ene targetedat guests who are waiting(e.g. showing news) and one
targeted at staff (showing
available workspaces onfloor plan)

ENTRANCE/LOBBYREQUIREMENT DEFINITIONSStandard properties
Quantity

The number of spaces that are required in a particular part of the building/project

Usable floor area

The floor area needed/available for user activities, calculated as the gross floorarea, minus the floor areas taken up by lobbies, enclosed machinery rooms on theroof, stairs and escalators, mechanical and electrical services, lifts, columns, ducts,
and risers.

Capacity

The maximum number of people who can comfortably occupy a space. To be used
for calculations concerning indoor climate (i.e. ventilation)

Ambiance

Keywords for the kind of atmosphere that has to be created in a space.

Activity zone

Placement on floor plan according to the kind of activity that is taking place.

Activities

The user activities or processes that have to be facilitated/accommodated in a
space

Visual comfort
Illumination

Light level on work surface, as defined in EN 12464-1

Unified Glare Rating (UGR)

As defined in EN 12464-1

Colour rendering

As defined in EN 12464-1

Light colour temperature

As defined in EN 12464-1

Daylight factor

Defined as the ratio of the daylight level inside a space to the daylight level outside.
Formula: DF = (Ei / Eo) x 100%

Solar shading

A form of solar control that protects users against overheating and glare on hot or
sunny days. It can also provide privacy.

Outside view

To be understood as the view a user has from a sitting position. Users should be
able to get a sense of the weather conditions outside. Ideally there should be a viewof natural elements and/or traffic or other kinds of activity.

Acoustic comfort
Reverberation time (T30)

As defined in ISO 3382-2. To be measured in a furnished but unoccupied room.

Background noise (LA eq)

Background noise level including ambient noise. To be used to determine soundinsulation of the facade/building envelope

Noise from MEP (LA eq)

As defined in ISO 16032

Sound insulation (R’w) towards circulation spaces

As defined in ISO 16283‐1

Sound insulation (R’w) towards functional spaces

As defined in ISO 16283‐1

Sound insulation (R’w) towards sanitary spaces

As defined in ISO 16283‐1

Impact noise insulation (LnTA)As defined in ISO 16283‐2

Distraction distance (rD)

As defined in ISO 3382-3

Thermal comfort
Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD)As defined in ISO 7730

Operative temperature winter min./max.

As defined in ISO 7730

Operative temperature summer min./max.

As defined in ISO 7730

Relative humidity

The water vapour density of air compared to the water vapour density for saturated
air at the same temperature and pressure.

Operable windows

To be understood as a window with an operable part of at least 0.5 m2

Air quality
CO2 level

Indicator of indoor air quality. If outside level ppm is unknown choose 400 ppm.

Ventilation rate average

As defined in EN 16798-3

Elements to be placed
Elements

Equipment to be placed
Equipment

Adjacencies
Distance

Tangible construction parts of elements that need to be placed in a space. Can be
furniture, building elements (e.g. partitions), mechanical elements (e.g. water tap)
and/or electrical outlets (e.g. power or data outlet).

Equipment needed by the users a space. Typically organized by the IT departmentof the organization and not within the scope of the design/construction project.

The walking distance to spaces that need to be adjacent/in close proximity to a
space

155

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEMORE INFORMATIONThis publication is an introduction to activity-based working. Thereis obviously much more to learn about the topic. Below, you will findan overview of the most important books, websites, conferences andjournals where you can find more inspiration and information.
WEBSITES:
Workplace insight https://
workplaceinsight.net/
All things workplace. Excellent overview
of news, opinions and research.
Workdesign Magazine - https://
workdesign.com/
Tips and trends in workplace design
Office snapshots https://
officesnapshots.com/
Large collection of photos of workplace
projects, sorted by type.
Research Design Connections https://
researchdesignconnections.com/
Summaries of scientific studies on the
topic of design and behaviour.
JOURNALS/MAGAZINES:
Work&Place https://workandplace.com/
Magazine about workplace
management. Attractive mix of opinion
and research.
Journal of Corporate Real Estatehttps://www.emeraldinsight.com/
journal/jcre
Academic journal about the user-sideof real estate. Often features workplaceresearch.
Journal of Facilities Management https://www.emeraldinsight.com/loi/jfm
Similar to above.
Facilities https://www.emeraldinsight.
com/loi/f
Also similar to above.
OnOffice https://www.
onofficemagazine.com
Commercial magazine on workplacedesign targeted at architecture anddesign community.
Office et Culture http://www.office-etculture.fr/
Excellent magazine on workplace design(only available in French).
CONFERENCES / EVENTSThe transdisciplinary workplaceresearch (TWR) network http://www.
twrnetwork.org/
Academic conference aimed at bothscientists and practitioners.
Workplace Trends https://
workplacetrends.com/
Conference on workplace trends.
Presentations often research-based.
Worktech http://www.unwired.eu.com/
Conference on workspace design andworkplace technologies.

World Workplace https://worldworkplace.ifma.org/
Big commercial event on workplaces andfacility management, organized by IFMA.
Neocon https://www.neocon.com
Yearly office furniture event in Chicago
where manufacturers showcase their
new products and their take on the latest
trends.
Orgatec https://www.orgatec.com
The European equivalent of Neocon.
Biennial office furniture event for the
workplace industry in Cologne, Germany
BOOKS:WORKPLACE HISTORY/ CONTEXT
Saval, N. (2014). Cubed: A secret historyof the workplace. Anchor Books. A well
written, well researched, often funny,history of the office and office work.
Haigh, G. (2012). The office: ahardworking history. Melbourne
University Publishing.
A comprehensive history of the office
filled with references to popular culture.
Van Meel, J. (2015). Workplaces today.
Centre for Facilities Management.
A kaleidoscopic, highly visual survey ofthe contemporary work environment
WORKPLACE DESIGN
Becker, F. D., & Steele, F. (1995).
Workplace by design: Mapping the highperformance workscape. Jossey-Bass.
A classic, still relevant. One of the first to
explain the concept of activity-based
working.
Clements-Croome, D. (ed.). (2006).
Creating the productive workplace.
Taylor & Francis.
458 pages of research writing on how
workplace design affects people’s
performance.
Gillen, N. (2019). Future Office: Nextgeneration workplace design. RIBA
Publishing.
A comprehensive review of what the
future of the office may look like.
Myerson, J., & Bichard, J. A. (2016). New
demographics new workspace: Officedesign for the changing workforce.
Routledge.
Addresses the impact of changing
demographics on workplace design

156

Usher, N. (2018). The Elemental
Workplace. LID Publishing.
Explains the essential qualities that each
workplace should have. Well written, freeof buzzwords
Van Meel, J., Martens, Y., & van Ree,
H. J. (2010). Planning office spaces.
Laurence King.
Practical overview of different workspace
types and their requirements.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change.
Harvard business press. Probably
the most cited book on change
management.
Harvard Business Review (2011). HBR’s
10 Must Reads on Change Management.
Harvard Business Press
An easy introduction to change
management literature.
Hiatt, J. (2006). ADKAR: a model forchange in business, government, and ourcommunity. Prosci.
Popular change management book.
Much used in North America.
FACILITY / REAL ESTATEMANAGEMENT
Jensen, P. A., & van der Voordt, T.
(Eds.) (2016). Facilities Management andCorporate Real Estate Management as
Value Drivers. Routledge.
Comprehensive academic work thatinvestigates the added value of FM andCRE.
BRIEFING / PROGRAMMING
Van Meel, J. and K.B. Stordal (2018),
Briefing for Buildings. ICOP Books.
Practical guide on how to develop andformulate requirements for projects.
RESEARCH METHODS
Oseland, N., & Hayden, S. (2007). How
well does your office work? BCO Guide
to Post-Occupancy Evaluation. British
Council for Offices.
This publication explains how you canevaluate your workplace concept in asystematic way.
Augustin, S., & Coleman, C. (2012).
The designer’s guide to doing research:
Applying knowledge to inform design.
John Wiley & Sons.
A comprehensive handbook about
research methods for practitioners.

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEINTERVIEWEES

The following people have been interviewed for this publication.
- Andrew Lisson (Workplace Planner at British Colombia PublicService Agency)		
- Benedikte Møller (CFO at LAIKA)- Bram van Wijk (Contract manager at the Dutch Tax Office)- Emiel van Nielen (Manager IT Delivery Professional Services, Robeco)- Ferdinand van Dam (Partner at OTH Architects)- France Vigneault (Change Manager at Public Services andProcurement Canada)- Heikki Hovi (Ministerial Adviser and Head of Unit at the Finnish Prime
Minister’s office)- Jeremy Myerson (Director WORKTECH Academy)- John Worthington (Co-founder DEGW, Collaborative urbanist)- Kari Klemm (Head of general administration at the Finnish Ministryof Economic Affairs and Employment)- Kate Guthrie (Smarter Working Programme Director at the Government
Property Agency, UK)- Kim Pivett (Head of Building Services, Ofgem)- Kjersti Størdal Bjørkeng (Chief consultant at Gottlieb Paludan
Architects)- Laurens van Gilst (Program manager at Rabobank)- Liette Brisebois (Administrative Assistant at Public Services andProcurement Canada)- Lene Becker (Director and founder at/of LAIKA)- Luc Luijben (Associate Manager Spatial Planning department at theCity of Hardenberg)- Michael DeKelver (Workplace Strategist at Public Services andProcurement Canada)- Michelle Schlippe-Steffensen (Executive Assistant at the Danish
Building and Property Agency)- Mikko Kangaspunta (Financial director at the Finnish State Treasury)- Nick van der Kloor (HR Site manager Danone Place, at Danone)- Nicola Gillen (Head of Total Workplace EMEA at Cushman & Wakefield)- Nicola Gray (Business partner for HR at Ofgem)- Niek Janssen (Consultant acoustics, stage technology & building
physics at Royal HaskoningDHV)- Pertti Siekkinen (Change Management Specialist at Senate Properties
Finland)- Primo Orpilla (Principal Studio O+A)
- Reeta Cagnani (Workplace Design Specialist at Senate Properties
Finland)- Robert Macdonald (Director of Workplace Strategies and Planning at
British Colombia Public Service Agency)- Russell Treloar (Team Leader Workplace Strategies and Planning at
British Colombia Public Service Agency)- S. Corbett (Project Co-ordinator at Ofgem)- Shona Adam (Workplace Change Adviser at the Scottish Futures Trust)- Siri Blakstad (Business Development Director at SINTEF)- Sjoerd Hoedemaekers (Purchasing specialist at Robeco)- Stephen Aird (Senior Associate Director at the Scottish Futures Trust)- Tania Lorich (Manager at the Danish Building and Property Agency)- Vivi Markkanen (Assistant at the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs
and Employment)- Warren Bentley (Site and Business Continuity Manager at Ofgem)- Wim Pullen (Director of the Center for People and Buildings)

157

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDEREFERENCES

1

Meel, J. van (2015). Workplaces Today. ICOP Books.

2

Allen, T. J., & Gerstberger, P. G. (1973). ‘A field experiment to improve
communications in a product engineering department: The
nonterritorial office’. Human Factors, 15(5), 487-498.

25 Engelen, L., Chau, J., Young, S., Mackey, M., Jeyapalan, D., &Bauman, A. (2018). Is activity-based working impacting health,work performance and perceptions? A systematic review. Building
Research & Information, 1-12.

3

Meel, J, van (2015). Workplaces Today. ICOP Books.

4

Becker, F. D. (1982). The successful office: How to create a workspacethat’s right for you. Addison-Wesley.

5

Stone, P. J., & Luchetti, R. (1985). ‘Your office is where you are’.
Harvard Business Review, 63(2), 102-117.

6

Nathan, M., & Doyle, J. (2002). The State of the Office: The politics
and geography of working space. Industrial Society.

7

Veldhoen, E. (2004). The art of working. Sdu Uitgevers.

8

Duffy, F., & Powell, K. (1997). The new office. Conran Octopus.

9

Nathan, M., & Doyle, J. (2002). The State of the Office: The politics
and geography of working space. Industrial Society.

27 Leesman. (2017). The rise and rise of activity-based working:Reshaping the physical, virtual and behavioural workspace. London:
Leesman. Retrieved from http://www.leesmanindex.com/The_
Rise_and_Rise_of_Activity_Based_Working_Research_book.pdf
28 Montanari, A., Mascolo, C., Sailer, K., & Nawaz, S. (2017). ‘Detecting
emerging activity-based working traits through wearable
technology’. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile,
Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 1(3), 86.
29 Kim, J., Candido, C., Thomas, L., & de Dear, R. (2016). ‘Desk
ownership in the workplace: The effect of non-territorial working
on employee workplace satisfaction, perceived productivity andhealth’. Building and Environment, 103, 203-214.

10 Rogers, E. M. (2010). Diffusion of innovations. Simon and Schuster.
11

NKB. 1978. Structure for Building Regulations, The Nordic
Committee on Building Regulations (NKB), Report No. 34,
Stockholm

30 Bodin Danielsson, C., & Theorell, T. (2019). Office employees’
perception of workspace contribution: A gender and office design
perspective. Environment and Behavior, 51(9-10), 995-1026.

12 Essec Business School (2018), Mon bureau de demain, http://
workplace-management.essec.edu/mon-bureau-de-demain/
mon-bureau-de-demain-iii

31 Bakke, Jan Vilhelm (2019). ‘Statsbyggs og Purenets nye veileder om
kontorarbeidsplasser’. Universiteitsavisa. Retrieved from: https://www.universitetsavisa.no/ytring/2019/10/09/Statsbyggs-ogPurenets-nye-veileder-om-kontorarbeidsplasser-20127973.ece

13 Cloud Booking (2018), Employee experience, the next stage ofevolution, https://cloudbooking.com/wp-content/uploads/
Cloudbooking-White-Paper-Employee-Experience-%E2%80%93The-Next-Stage-of-the-Evolution.pdf

32 Seddigh, A., Berntson, E., Danielson, C. B., & Westerlund, H. (2014).
‘Concentration requirements modify the effect of office type on
indicators of health and performance’. Journal of environmental
psychology, 38, 167-174.

14 Gallup, Inc. (2017). State of the American Workplace.
15 International Workplace Group (2019), The IWG global workspacesurvey - Welcome to Generation Flex – the employee power shift.

33 Haapakangas, A., Hallman, D. M., Mathiassen, S. E., & Jahncke,
H. (2018). ‘Self-rated productivity and employee well-being in
activity-based offices: the role of environmental perceptions andworkspace use’. Building and Environment, 145, 115-124.

16 Rolfö, L., Eklund, J., & Jahncke, H. (2018). ‘Perceptions of
performance and satisfaction after relocation to an activity-based
office’. Ergonomics, 61(5), 644-657.
17

34 Ten Brummelhuis, L. L., Bakker, A. B., Hetland, J., & Keulemans,
L. (2012). Do new ways of working foster work engagement?
Psicothema, 24(1), 113–120.

Candido, C., Zhang, J., Kim, J., deDear, R., Thomas, L. E., Strapasson,
P., & Joko, C. (2016, January). ‘Impact of workspace layout on
occupant satisfaction, perceived health and productivity’. In:
Proceedings of 9th Windsor Conference: Making Comfort Relevant.
Network for Comfort and Energy Use in Buildings.

35 Rolfö, L. V. (2018). ‘Relocation to an activity-based flexible office:
Design processes and outcomes’. Applied Ergonomics, 73, 141-150.

18 Appel-Meulenbroek, R., Groenen, P., & Janssen, I. (2011). ‘An enduser’s perspective on activity-based office concepts’. Journal of
Corporate Real Estate, 13(2), 122-135.

36 Hoendervanger, J. G., De Been, I., Van Yperen, N. W., Mobach,M. P., & Albers, C. J. (2016). ‘Flexibility in use: Switching behaviourand satisfaction in activity-based work environments’. Journal of
Corporate Real Estate, 18(1), 48-62.

19 De Been, I., & Beijer, M. (2014). ‘The influence of office type on
satisfaction and perceived productivity support’. Journal of
Facilities Management, 12(2), 142-157.

37 Fauconneau-Dufresne, S., Jemine, G., Pichault, F., & Rondeaux,G. (2018). ‘Beyond flexibility: confronting normative and lived
spaces of New Ways of Working’. Proceedings of the 8thOrganizations, Artifacts & Practices Conference. June 2018,
Amsterdam

20 Danielsson, C. B., & Bodin, L. (2008). ‘Office type in relation to
health, well-being, and job satisfaction among employees’.
Environment and Behavior, 40(5), 636-668.
21 Benchmark data from 2019 from the Center for People andBuildings. Please note: benchmark measurements that are notdirectly related to the workplace concept (e.g. the accessibilityof the building or its architectural expression) have not been
included in this table. Source: https://www.cfpb.nl/media/uploads/
file/20190328%20-%20Websitetekst%20CfPB%20Benchmark%20
2019%20herzien.pdf (Dutch)
22 Pullen, W. (2014). ‘Age, office type, job satisfaction andperformance’. Work&Place, 3(2), 2014.
23 Leesman. (2017). The rise and rise of activity-based working:Reshaping the physical, virtual and behavioural workspace. London:
Leesman. Retrieved from http://www.leesmanindex.com/The_
Rise_and_Rise_of_Activity_Based_Working_Research_book.pdf
24 Ibid

26 De Been, I., Beijer, M., & Den Hollander, D. (2015, June). ‘How to copewith dilemmas in activity-based work environments-results fromuser-centred research’. In Conference paper 14th EuroFM Research
Symposium. EuroFM research papers (1-10).

38 Montanari, A., Mascolo, C., Sailer, K., & Nawaz, S. (2017). ‘Detecting
emerging activity-based working traits through wearable
technology’. Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile,
Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies, 1(3), 86.
39 Wessels, C. (2017). Flexible Working Practices: How Employees
Can Reap the Benefits for Engagement and Performance (Doctoral
dissertation, Erasmus Research Institute of Management)
40 Hoendervanger, J. G., De Been, I., Van Yperen, N. W., Mobach,M. P., & Albers, C. J. (2016). ‘Flexibility in use: Switching behaviourand satisfaction in activity-based work environments’. Journal of
Corporate Real Estate, 18(1), 48-62.
41 Leesman. (2017). The rise and rise of activity-based working:Reshaping the physical, virtual and behavioural workspace. London:
Leesman. Retrieved from http://www.leesmanindex.com/The_
Rise_and_Rise_of_Activity_Based_Working_Research_book.pdf

158

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDE

42 Van Heck, E., van Baalen, P., van der Meulen, N., & van Oosterhout,M. (2012). ‘Achieving High Performance in a Mobile and Green
Workplace: Lessons from Microsoft Netherlands’. MIS Quarterly
Executive, 11(4).

62 Skogland, M. A. C. (2017). ‘The mindset of activity-based working’.
Journal of Facilities Management, 15(1), 62-75.
63 Appel-Meulenbroek, R., Groenen, P., & Janssen, I. (2011). ‘An enduser’s perspective on activity-based office concepts’. Journal of
Corporate Real Estate, 13(2), 122-135.

43 Skogland, M. A. C. (2017). ‘The mindset of activity-based working’.
Journal of Facilities Management, 15(1), 62-75.
44 Van der Meulen, D. (2016). The Distance Dilemma: the effect of
flexible working practices on performance in the digital workplace(Doctoral dissertation, Erasmus Research Institute of Management).
45 Engelen, L., Chau, J., Young, S., Mackey, M., Jeyapalan, D., &Bauman, A. (2018). ‘Is activity-based working impacting health,work performance and perceptions? A systematic review’. Building
Research & Information, 1-12.

64 Rolfö, L. V. (2018). ‘Relocation to an activity-based flexible office:
Design processes and outcomes’. Applied Ergonomics, 73, 141-150.
65 Laframboise, D., Nelson, R. L., & Schmaltz, J. (2002). ‘Managing
resistance to change in workplace accommodation projects’.
Journal of Facilities Management, 1(4), 306-321.
66 Rolfö, L. (2018). Activity-based Flexible Office work environments:
Design and implementation processes and outcomes (Doctoral
dissertation, KTH Royal Institute of Technology).

46 Wessels, C. (2017). Flexible Working Practices: How Employees
Can Reap the Benefits for Engagement and Performance (Doctoral
dissertation, Erasmus Research Institute of Management)

67 Gjerland, A., Søiland, E., & Thuen, F. (2019). Office concepts:
A scoping review. Building and Environment, 163, 106294.
68 Ibid.

47 Rolfö, L. V. (2018). ‘Relocation to an activity-based flexible office:
Design processes and outcomes’. Applied Ergonomics, 73, 141-150.

69 Altman, I. (1975). The Environment and Social Behavior: Privacy,
Personal Space, Territory, and Crowding. Brooks/Cole Publishers

48 Rolfö, L., Eklund, J., & Jahncke, H. (2018). ‘Perceptions of
performance and satisfaction after relocation to an activity-based
office’. Ergonomics, 61(5), 644-657.

70 Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1979). ‘Prospect theory: An analysis ofdecision under risk’. Econometrica, 47, 263-291.

49 Danielsson, C. B., & Bodin, L. (2008). ‘Office type in relation to
health, well-being, and job satisfaction among employees’.
Environment and Behavior, 40(5), 636-668.

71 Laframboise, D., Nelson, R. L., & Schmaltz, J. (2002). ‘Managing
resistance to change in workplace accommodation projects’.
Journal of Facilities Management, 1(4), 306-321.

50 Foley, B., Engelen, L., Gale, J., Bauman, A., & Mackey, M. (2016).
‘Sedentary behaviour and musculoskeletal discomfort are reduced
when office workers trial an activity-based work environment’.
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 58(9), 924931.

72 Kubler-Ross, E. (1969). On Death and Dying: What the Dying Have to
Teach Doctors, Nurses, Clergy, and Their Own Families. Macmillan

51 Hallman, D. M., Mathiassen, S. E., & Jahncke, H. (2018). Sitting
patterns after relocation to activity-based offices: A controlled
study of a natural intervention. Preventive medicine, 111, 384-390.
52 Leesman. (2017). The rise and rise of activity-based working:Reshaping the physical, virtual and behavioural workspace. London:
Leesman. Retrieved from http://www.leesmanindex.com/The_
Rise_and_Rise_of_Activity_Based_Working_Research_book.pdf
53 Ibid73 This description of the different methods is based on: Van Meel,J. and K.B. Stordal (2018), Briefing for Buildings. ICOP Books.
74 Usher, N. (2018). All the workstyles we ever loved. http://
workessence.com/alltheworkstyleswehaveeverloved/
75 All sizes refer to usable floor area, i.e. the area that is directly needed
for the space’s intended function, excluding circulation and any
space occupied by partitions or other construction elements.
76 Center for People and Buildings (2019), Evaluation government
office ‘De Knoop’. Measuring experience and occupancy. Internalreport.

54 Hoendervanger, J. G., Ernst, A. F., Albers, C. J., Mobach, M. P., & Van
Yperen, N. W. (2018). ‘Individual differences in satisfaction withactivity-based work environments’. PloS one, 13(3), e0193878.
55 Hoendervanger, J. G., Van Yperen, N. W., Mobach, M. P., & Albers,
C. J. (2019). Perceived fit in activity-based work environments
and its impact on satisfaction and performance. Journal ofEnvironmental Psychology, 65, 101339.
56 Oseland, N. (2009). The impact of psychological needs on officedesign. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 11(4), 244-254.
57 Cain, S. (2013). Quiet: The power of introverts in a world that can’t
stop talking. Broadway Books.
58 Fauconneau-Dufresne, S., Jemine, G., Pichault, F., & Rondeaux,G. (2018). ‘Beyond flexibility: confronting normative and lived
spaces of New Ways of Working’. Proceedings of the 8thOrganizations, Artifacts & Practices (OAP) Conference, June 20-22,
2018, Amsterdam
59 Brunia, S., De Been, I., & van der Voordt, T. J. (2016).
‘Accommodating new ways of working: lessons from best practices
and worst cases’. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 18(1), 30-47.
60 Kingma, S. (2018). New ways of working (NWW): workspaceand cultural change in virtualizing organizations. Culture andOrganization, 1-24.
61 Brunia, S., De Been, I., & van der Voordt, T. J. (2016).
‘Accommodating new ways of working: lessons from best practices
and worst cases’. Journal of Corporate Real Estate, 18(1), 30-47.

159

THE ACTIVITY-BASED WORKING PRACTICE GUIDECOLOPHON© Juriaan van MeelAll rights reserved. No part of thispublication may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means,
without prior permission of the author.
Credits
Initiative and intial funding: PuRE-net
Text: Juriaan van Meel
Text indoor climate requirements: Bas Peeters,
Douwe de Jong and Lenny Mennen
Book design: Sander Boon
Copy-editing: Robyn Dalziel
Print: Pantheon drukkers

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Juriaan van Meel (MSc, PhD) is an acknowledged expert in the field ofconstruction briefing and workplace design. Juriaan is co-founder/
developer of BriefBuilder (www.briefbuilder.com) and partner at theconsultancy firm ICOP (www.icop.nl). Juriaan has worked extensively
with briefing and workplace design in the Netherlands, the US,
Scandinavia and the Middle East. In addition to his consultancy projects,
Juriaan has taught and lectured at various technical universities. He has(co)authored several books, including ‘Planning Office Spaces’ (2010),‘Workplaces Today’ (2015) and ‘Briefing for Buildings’ (2018).

Photo credits spreads
Page 10-11: Anna Autio
Page 38-39: Trond Isaksen
Page 50-51: Trond Isaksen
Page 60-61: Hufton + Crow
Page 78-79: Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Page 88-89: Niels Nygaard
Floor plan edits: Carolien Euser
ISBN/EAN: 9789082347920

160

ABOUT THE SPONSORS

PuRE-net
PuRE-net (The Public Real Estate Network) is a European organization for
national real estate agencies and ministries responsible for public realestate across Europe. The network offers executives and specialists the
chance to network and exchange knowledge and experience in relation
to the management of public real estate and construction. The purposeof the association is to provide a frame of reference for its members andto promote and develop the good and responsible administration and useof public real estate. PuRE-net aims to provide the European public realestate community with effective and continuous leadership in mattersof common interest. PuRE-net encourages discussions regarding issues
impacting public real estate management both within and outside the
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More information:
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Public Real Estate Network

BriefBuilder
BriefBuilder is a powerful, award-winning tool for requirements
management in construction projects. The tool helps clients and theirlogo icop zwart / pms 3005
design teams to define and verify the quality they want from a project.
Requirements are captured in a very systematic way and integrated
seamlessly into the BIM models of the design team. BriefBuilder has provenits value in numerous projects across the world, ranging from schools andoffice buildings to hospitals and lab facilities.
More information:
https://www.briefbuilder.com
Royal HaskoningDHVRoyal HaskoningDHV is a leading consultancy that works across sectors
to deliver on the ambition of enhancing society together. Our team of
workplace specialists know that an ideal workplace inspires employees tocreate and succeed; embodies our client’s values and embraces their KPIs;
and is nimble enough to balance the needs of now with future change. We
work with clients around the world to imagine, budget, design and deliver
dynamic office spaces—ranging from cities and agencies to establishedfinancial institutions with global portfolios and cutting edge technology
leaders. Our 138-year track record is a testament to our passion forcontributing to a better society and improving people’s lives.
More information:
https://www.royalhaskoningdhv.com

What is the perfect workplace? Sometimes all you want are four walls
and a door. At other times, a collaborative space, or a comfy sofa ina coffee lounge. The concept of activity-based working (ABW) aims
to deliver all of this and more. Instead of providing employees withjust one, fixed workstation, ABW offers a diversity of work settingsfor different kinds of activities. The concept can deliver both costsavings and improvements in organizational performance and staff
well-being—but only when implemented and executed properly. This
guide explains how. In clear language, it describes what ABW is, how it
works, how it can be implemented, and what the main success factors
are. Packed with recommendations and examples, the publication is a
must-read for all those who are interested in activity-based working.
‘This book is a great help to the numerous organizations thatwant to dig into the world of activity-based working’
Wim Pullen, director of the Center for People and Buildings‘The most comprehensive review of activity-based working
ever. Excellent read!’
Dr Kerstin Sailer and Ros Pomeroy, founders of Brainybirdz‘One of the best guides (if not the only one) I have seen about
activity-based working’
Lionela Riccobelli, Workplace Strategy and ChangeManagement Consultant at JLL‘A great and very usable book for everyone whowants to have a better understanding ofactivity-based working’Eelco Voogd, CEO of WPA
logo icop zwart / pms 3005

Public Real Estate Network
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