The world of work is changing. At the heart of this change is the concept of time, place and technology independence for employees of companies of all sizes, types and locations. But flexible working is more than just an individual “IT-Technology” initiative, a human resources policy, or a facilities management approach. Contemporary work styles like Activity Based Working (ABW) take their lead from the harmonization and optimisation of real estate utilisation, talent management, organizational culture, and technology considerations. ABW and other flexible working strategies like telework involve a broad set of influencers and decision makers across multiple areas of the business. The following diagram outlines the forces at play in the contemporary flexible working movement.

Since the start of 2013, TRA’s Intelligent Workspaces research has involved quantitative surveys and more than 100 independent analyst deep dive interviews with CxOs of organisations across ANZ, ASEAN and Japan. We have the most comprehensive and mature data and insights on the current and future direction of the world of work in the Asia Pacific region. TRA analysts have also been engaged in an advisory capacity in numerous ABW projects. Through this research we have found ABW projects typically involve the following technology changes:

The ABW Question Checklist

The following checklist of questions is not meant to be a comprehensive set of everything that an organisation needs to consider when evaluating ABW or other flexible work styles. Rather it is meant to stimulate strategic thinking about how these approaches can support your organisation’s needs, particularly from the technology side of the flexible working equation. We encourage IT leaders and CxOs involved in workplace strategy to use these questions as a starting point for establishing their own unique vision and also for evaluating the services they are getting from 3rd parties as part of an ABW project.

Phase 1: Existing Workplace Strategy Evaluation

• Have you conducted a thorough evaluation of the contribution your existing workplace strategy makes to organisational goals and how potential changes could generate new and/or more value?

  • Have you sought an independent assessment to validate your findings and/or examine additional components?

  • Have you ensured all relevant internal and external stakeholders’ opinions and needs are included?

• Could changes to your current workplace strategy allow you to achieve optimal engagement with clients?

  • Could changes allow you to expediently make changes for expected and unexpected future developments that could impact client engagement?

• Could changes to your current workplace strategy better support a long-term vision for how you expect or want employees to work in future?

  • Do you have the agility to support flexible work styles or will elements of the environment create a barrier to contemporary ways of working?

  • How does the workplace contribute to retention and recruitment efforts?

• Could changes to your existing workplace strategy improve risk management?

• Could changes to your existing workplace strategy improve individual and team productivity?

• Could changes to your workplace strategy encourage higher levels of innovation?

• Could changes to your workplace strategy assist with environmental sustainability efforts or other corporate social responsibility (CSR) mandates?

• Is your current workplace strategy offering high levels of space and technology resource utilisation?

  • How does your current workplace strategy’s financial efficiency (or cost management) compare to competitors?

  • Do you have the relevant data available to make informed financial decisions and to compare against benchmarks?

• Have you evaluated whether you are placing the appropriate level of priority on improving the workplace strategy vis-à-vis your broader organisational strategy?

  • And as compared to competitors’ efforts?

Next > ABW Project Planning and Vision Setting

Phase 2: ABW Project Planning and Vision Setting

• Have you discussed the latest developments in the best practice of contemporary workplace strategy with peers and/or noted experts?

  • Have you read recent case studies?

  • Have you read the relevant research?

• Have you undertaken tours of ABW adopters’ offices to see how it is done in person and to source ideas?

• Have you undertaken a comprehensive utilisation study of your office spaces and technology?

• Have you articulated in writing and verbally a long-term vision for your organisation’s workplace strategy and how it will be used to achieve stated goals?

  • Have you ensured the vision encompasses the needs and opinions of all relevant stakeholders?

  • Have you checked that the vision is truly unique and not borrowing too heavily from other organisation’s approaches?

  • Does the vision appropriately reflect the organisation’s desired branding and culture?

• Have you formulated a strategic plan that includes a detailed outline of the tactics and process you intend to follow and goals you are seeking to achieve as part of the vision?

  • Does the plan optimise and harmonise the four elements of your workplace: physical spaces, people and culture, technology, and processes and practices?

  • Does the plan articulate the metrics you will use to measure success, including budgetary considerations?

  • Does the plan include provisions for leveraging any future advancement in workplace strategy approaches, including analytics and technology disruption?

  • Does the project plan include steps for how you will create a narrative around the workplace strategy to leverage with internal and external stakeholders?

  Next > Optimising Spaces, People, and Process

  Phase 3: Optimising Spaces, People and Process

  • Have you implemented governance procedures for the project and consulted all relevant guidance/documentation in this area for your industry and market?

    • Have you allocated project sponsorship to an appropriate executive?

    • Have you nominated project managers / leaders?

    • Have you allocated budgets?

    • Have you nominated project champions?

  • Have you determined whether you will use internal or external resources for the following:

    • Architectural plans

    • Construction

    • Interior Design

    • Workplace Consulting

    • Change Management

    • Technology

    • Audio Visual

    • Building and Environmental Systems

  • Have you evaluated your potential external suppliers or talent to ensure they are able to deliver on the goals you seek?

    • Have you set up a request for proposal / tender process as part of this project plan for the use of any external services?

    • Have you consulted the relevant outsourcing guidance or documentation for each type of external provider?

  • Have you commenced a communication program with employees that clearly outlines who will be involved in the project among the broader workforce and explicitly articulated responsibilities and time frames?

    • Do you have materials available to employees in an easily accessible location that communicate the project’s goals, processes and impacts?

    • Have you established steps for regular updates to the workforce on project progress?

  • Have you taken steps to ensure each stream of the project is working holistically and collaboratively with other streams to keep the whole project together and working towards the same vision?

  • Have you worked collaboratively with the architects and interior designers to agree on the number and type of spaces that are suitable for your organisation?

  • Have you compared the building and space design to industry best practice and benchmarks? (I.e. Looking at metrics such as floor space per employee and/or the ratio of workstations to employees)

  • Does the building and workspace design assist the organisation to achieve its goals while also creating an inspiring, safe and environmentally friendly environment in which to work?

  • Are the spaces barrier-free and accessible to all, including those with disabilities?

  • Have you considered contemporary and/or novel furniture for your workplace such as standing-only workstations or other unique designs?

  • Have you included an environmentally friendly lighting and air flow plan in the office design?

  • Have you made allowances for agile software development and DevOps IT approaches that often utilise fixed spaces in the workplace plan?

  • Have you established an approach for how official mentoring programs and ad hoc knowledge exchange between employees will be pursued in a flexible working space when employees can change seats freely?

  • Do you established policies for supporting out-of-hours events that could be held in the offices such as hackathons or charity fund raisers?

  • Have you implemented steps for assisting employees to find other people in the ABW office when nobody has a set seat and could be working from anywhere?

  • Have you established team neighbourhoods which act as staff base areas to help with retaining team spirit and providing sense of belonging?

  • Have you established communities of remote workers to offer the same sense of belonging and team spirit to teleworkers that is available to those present in the office?

  • Have you established a comprehensive change management program?

    • Does this program include training employees in any new office technology?

    • Do you have tech advocates nominated for any new or upgraded IT?

    • Does it include training for those in managerial positions in outcomes-based v “bums-on-seats” approaches?

    • Does it include immersion sessions to help employees acclimatise to new spaces and mitigate the potential for reversion into old work habits?

  • Have you identified what processes will be affected by the digitisation required when moving to ABW and/or other flexible work styles like telework?

    • In collaboration with business unit leaders and operatives, have you established steps for first optimising these processes, then automation and mobilisation?

  • Have you assessed all processes for potential inefficiencies and commenced steps for improvements during the opportune time of a workplace change like ABW?

  • Have you established policies and allocated resources for enabling tours of the ABW office for clients and other interested parties?

    • Have you implemented systems that allow you to capture data from any tours to help with client engagement (i.e. satisfaction, brand perception, purchase intent, etc) and future workplace strategy planning?

  Next > The Technology Environment

Phase 4: The Technology Environment

Connecting Everything

• Can employees (and contractors) seamlessly move around the office and remain connected to a WiFi network?

  • Have you evaluated for wireless black spots?

• Are fibre-based – or appropriate fixed-line – broadband connections available at workstations where greater bandwidth is needed?

• Do you have a policy in place for managing mobile broadband contracts?

• Have you considered and/or implemented sensors throughout the building and workspace to provide a data stream to help with building, space, environmental and workforce management?

Mobilising

• Have you provided employees with the appropriate mobile devices for their role – smartphone, tablets or laptops – to ensure they aren’t tethered to any one spot?

  • Do you have an established bring your own device policy?

  • Have you ensured they have secure access to all necessary applications and information via these mobile devices and/or do you need to invest in new mobile applications?

  • Have you optimised, digitised, automated and then mobilised your processes to ensure no lapses back into manual tasks occur?

  • Do you have universal docking stations at workstations so employees can quickly and easily work from any desk?

  • Do you have a mixture of workstations with single, double and multiple screens for employees to choose from depending on their preference and task?

• Have you considered removing all desk phones and relying solely on mobile phones?

• Have you enabled employees to access both desk- and room-based video conferencing from their mobile devices?

• Can employees seamlessly and automatically connect to any audio visual technology from their mobile devices?

• Can employees print from their mobile devices to any printer or copier?

• Do you have enough charging stations + power points for the increase in mobile devices that occurs in an ABW office?

• Do you have back up mobile devices on hand for when device failure or loss occurs?

• Do you have mobile management and security solutions in place?

The Paper Trail

• Have you undergone an independent assessment of your print, document and archival/paper storage environments to understand how you can become less-paper reliant?

• Have you reduced the amount of paper you need to store on each desk and in archival/storage spaces? o Have you consolidated your printer and copier device fleet to push the user-to-device ratio closer to 1:25?

• Do you have an advanced form of managed print service (MPS) or the equivalent managed internally that continuously improves the print and document environment while offering process optimisation?

• Have you implemented follow me printing to let employees pick up printed documents from any copier or printer?

  • Is this integrated into other systems such as building access and HR systems?

• Do you have a clean desk policy and have you implemented an appropriate change management program to help employees adjust?

  • Have you considered steps for allowing employees to personalise their work environment while maintaining the clean desk approach?

Software and Security

• Have you implemented IP telephony with phone number mobility to allow employees to work from any workstation at any time and still be contactable?

• Do you have a flexible and scalable unified communications solution in place to allow employees and clients to communicate with each other in the channel of their choice?

• Have you evaluated whether your collaboration tools are sufficient for an ABW office where employees have time, place and technology independence (i.e. anywhere, anytime and any device working)?

• Have you implemented collaboration tools for in-person sharing and editing of documents/information?

• Have you mobilised all relevant software so that employees and clients can access the applications and information they need when they need it?

• Do you have a social business strategy in place that incorporates enterprise-grade tools?

  • Have you considered using a social solution as a means to enable information sharing and ideas generation in addition to supporting projects or teams?

• Is your office productivity suite scalable and accessible on any device, anytime, anywhere?

  • Have you considered a cloud-based option for office productivity and evaluated the legal and privacy ramifications of locating data in such services versus the potential benefits?

  • Do you have a workplace (and/or HR) analytics strategy with appropriate solutions implemented?

    • Is this strategy integrated into the organisations overall analytics or business information approach?

  • Have you upgraded your security strategy and tools for an ABW environment where employees have time, place and technology independence?

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    • Has this been assessed and tested by an independent 3rd party?

  Beyond your average IT

  • Are you deploying digital displays (or kiosks) throughout the office to share organisation developments and information, or to provide updates on their rights and responsibilities?

    • Have you considered gamifying this kind of information sharing to boost participation?

  • Do you have the appropriate types of space management solutions that let employees book the spaces they need when they need them (e.g. touch panels outside meeting rooms) or adjust environmental settings?

  • Have you implemented or decided on whether you need:

    • Projectors, Smart Boards, Large screen displays, or Touch screen displays (e.g. Microsoft Surface Table) in meeting rooms and other spaces?

    • Sound and recording systems?

    • Entertainment systems (e.g. gaming consoles)?

    • Connected vending machines in eating areas?

    • Payment systems in the building, such as NFC- or mobile-wallet-based payments?

    • Noise cancelling technology for open areas?

    • New building management and environmental systems?

    • New or renovated data centre facilities?

    • Energy management and reporting solutions?

    • Smart Card Passes / NFC Access Control Tools?

    • Video surveillance technology (e.g. CCTV)?

    • Wearable computing devices and associated solutions?

    • Sensor-based systems that monitor and track a given activity within spaces? (e.g. sensors in workspace chairs that indicate how long an employee has been sitting in the one position).

    • Robot or drone technology for given tasks? (e.g. transporting heavy objects)

    • 3D Printing capabilities?

    • Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistants?

  • Do you have a plan for how you will evaluate and integrate existing leading edge tech and future developments that can be adopted either as space, employee or customer related tools?

  • Do you have or need a “show case” area that highlights the organisation’s offerings (e.g. “retail store, branch or meeting room of the future” type spaces)?

  Services

  • Have you considered reimagining the IT Help Desk to make it more proactive and advocacy based?

  • Have you considered implementing a physical help desk where employees can drop in to receive help in person (i.e. like an Apple Store Genius Bar)?

  • Are you existing external ICT providers able to support your long-term ABW strategy?

  Phase 5: Ongoing Optimisation

  • Have you conducted or planned a series of post occupancy surveys to be run at nominated frequencies to investigate employee and client perceptions and opinions on the new ABW offices?

    • Are you prepared to make changes to your ABW strategy based off the findings of these surveys?

  • Have you scheduled or conducted post technology rollout surveys to investigate whether IT investments are paying dividends with end users or if additional changes are required?

  • Have you scheduled or conducted periodic reviews of the ABW strategy and ensured that all relevant stakeholders are able to contribute?

  • Have you built the concept of agility into the strategy to allow for future changes whether this is in headcount, M&A or divestitures, or other ad hoc needs?