Openness, transparency and support in addressing the many health and wellbeing challenges that have emerged will be a priority. If building relationship space is going to work and provide a motivational destination and a great place to work, wellness needs to be at the forefront of our design thinking.
How and where we work, with or without technology, alone or within groups, formally or informally, will need to be communicated in the floorplate design. Different work typologies (focussed, informal, collaborative, learning, agile etc) can be broken down into three main areas providing: 1. Physical health, 2. Mental health 3. Social health. Designing an environment which fulfils the needs of these three areas will be one that produces a healthy, happy, productive and sustainable community with inclusive multi-sensory design front and centre.
A sustainable environment maximising value throughout.
A Great Place to Work
Activity Based Working (ABW)
ABW is a construct that promotes the notion that; a range of work spaces with appropriate furniture and technology should be provided to match the different tasks that our personnel are required to do, as opposed to simply providing a desk, chair and the means to carry out a task, in an allocated space. The ability for our personnel to choose to match their workspace setting according to what they are doing will enable them to do their best work. However, this is not a one-size-fits-all, as the working patterns, functional and physical needs of some personnel will need to be taken into account.
For ABW to work efficiently and effectively, four elements must be present:
1. Design
2. Sensory experience
3. Behavioural reinforcement
4. Iterative learning.
Design:
An ABW workspace is designed with a variety of space types under one roof. For space to concentrate, there will be quiet and silent workspaces close by team areas. To host a virtual meeting or phone call, suitably private and acoustic spaces will be provided to move this task away from the desk. Internal meetings can be hosted in a variety of enclosed rooms or informal settings. The key spaces required to support activity based working include: Focus, Collaboration, Meeting and Social zones.
Sensory experience:
ABW spaces need to provide occupants with explicit and implicit cues about how to use a space as a means of guiding behaviours. When there is a need to access high or low energy spaces for the type of work they’re doing, employees should be able to easily gauge which space is right for them in the moment.
Behavioural reinforcement:
With optimal ABW design and sensory cues, the space itself works best when people are aware of its expectations: being quiet in the silent work rooms, using phone boxes for calls, taking personal belongings with them to allow others use of a space.
Iterative learning:
Employees are truly empowered to adopt a new work style such as ABW when leaders fully embrace the change in mindset, combined with the design, behaviour and programming of an ever-evolving workplace. A commitment to creating a feedback loop through qualitative and quantitative data, and implementing those findings to improve the workspace, will help to ensure their ABW space will be a success.
