Hot-desking — hot or not?
Hot-desking is the practice of having unassigned desks so multiple people can use any given workstation. People turn up to work, find a desk, plug in their laptop and are ready to go. Hot-deskers can choose to work from various settings in the workplace — a traditional desk, a standing desk, a breakout space or even the staff kitchen. However, for workers in these agile environments, it means the end of the traditional cubicle containing cat photos, kids’ artwork, goldfish and favourite pot plants.
Hot-desking works well in environments where not everyone has to be in the office at the same time. However, it does require a change in office culture and the right technology and IT infrastructure to be put in place.
Reported benefits are the costefficient use of space through fewer empty desks, and increased interaction between staff. It presents a tidy and minimalist appearance and promotes equality among staff — no longer do the most senior managers have the best offices. Challenges include staff preferring to have ownership and personalisation of a space, there not being enough seats if everyone is in the office, and staff resenting disruption to the office hierarchy.
Activity-based working (ABW) is the concept of using different settings for different tasks, such as huddle spaces, quiet rooms, collaboration booths, meeting spaces or breakout areas. Often combined with hotdesking, businesses embracing ABW report an increase in productivity as individuals are able to choose a workspace that most suits the task at hand.
In 2013, ASB North Wharf on Auckland’s waterfront became the first commercial building in New Zealand to incorporate ABW principals into its design process. The North Wharf building and many of ASB’s regional centres and offices across the country use ABW. Chief financial officer Jon Raby says considerable effort was made to actively collaborate with ASB staff in the design of the then new working environment and how it would operate on a day-to-day basis.
“ABW utilises an open-plan style of working with a wide range of work settings,” says Raby. “We have 12 different designed ABW settings or stations, and staff and teams choose the work setting aligned to the activity they are undertaking.”
Teams are grouped into “neighbourhoods”. In each neighbourhood, there are a variety of high, low and medium-focus work stations and people are able to select which of these best suits the activity being worked on — the degree of focus needed, if it is a group project, and the duration of time needed — and people change work stations accordingly throughout the day.
Wireless technology and mobility devices enable ASB people to work where and with whomever suits them, based on the activity they are involved in at certain times of the day. Raby says the different collaboration areas provide greater flexibility to work with other people. “It encourages collaboration, agility and innovation. The result is a vibrant, energised and connected workplace.”
Raby says key advantages of ABW are the freedom and flexibility, and “ASB people having less formal meetings and talking to each other more in informal breakout spaces around the building. It also provides greater workspace agility — the workspace can respond to various demands quickly — and as the building acts as one big workspace, barriers to interaction are removed.”
He notes too that wireless technology and mobility devices have decreased reliance on paper.
ASB has, however, found a few challenges in ABW that have required some innovative solutions.
“ABW only works if you invest in the technology tools to support mobile, flexible and collaborative working practices, so your staff are supported to do the activities they do — and can be more agile,” says Raby. “Collaborating with ASB staff at the beginning was critical, as it made sure the ABW stations suited the day-today work activities that are carried out, and we provided the technology needed to be responsive to the way they need to work.”
Raby says ABW is reliant on consistent behaviours across all staff and teams, such as people actively considering what workstation is best for the activity they need to do. “For example, one-on-one conversations are best suited for the collaborative EAR Chairs. Or if a number of people need to discuss something as they work on it, they can sit together at a Collaboration Table. For someone who needs to really focus on something without interruption, they could use a Booth workstation.”
ASB found that ABW works best if people actually vacate a workstation if they’re going to be away from it for more than one-anda-half hours. “And we also recognised that knowing where to find people could be problematic, so we introduced an instant messaging service, where people set their location in the building, making it easier to find people when you need them.”