Activity-Based Working
A workplace strategy where employees choose from a variety of work settings designed for different tasks throughout the day, such as quiet focus areas, collaboration zones, social spaces, and individual workstations, rather than sitting at one assigned desk.
What Is Activity-Based Working?
Key Takeaways
- ✓Activity-based working (ABW) is a workplace design philosophy where employees don't have assigned desks. Instead, they move between different work settings throughout the day based on what they're doing at that moment.
- ✓ABW was formalized by Dutch consulting firm Veldhoen + Company around 2010 and is most widely adopted in the Netherlands, Australia, and Scandinavian countries.
- ✓It goes beyond hot desking. Where hot desking simply removes assigned seats, ABW redesigns the entire office to offer purpose-built zones for focus work, collaboration, phone calls, informal meetings, and social interaction.
- ✓The Leesman Index (the world's largest workplace experience database) shows that ABW environments score 17% higher on employee satisfaction than traditional open-plan offices.
- ✓ABW requires a fundamental shift in management culture: from monitoring presence and desk time to measuring output and trusting employees to manage their own workday.
Activity-based working starts with a simple idea: different tasks need different environments. Writing a report requires silence and focus. Brainstorming with three colleagues needs a whiteboard and comfortable seating. Taking a client call needs a quiet booth with a door. Having lunch with a teammate needs a casual social space. A traditional office gives you one desk for all of these activities. ABW gives you a different space for each one. Instead of sitting at Desk 47 from 9 to 5, you might start the morning in a focus pod writing a proposal, move to a collaboration table for a team workshop at 11, take a phone call in an acoustic booth at 1, and finish the afternoon at a standing desk in an open area for email and admin work. You choose where to be based on what you're doing, not based on where IT put your computer. This sounds simple. It isn't. ABW requires rethinking office layout, furniture, technology, storage, management practices, and workplace culture all at once. That's why it fails in organizations that treat it as a real estate project instead of a cultural transformation.
ABW Zone Types and Their Purpose
A well-designed ABW office includes multiple zone types. Each zone is optimized for specific activities with matching acoustics, lighting, furniture, and technology.
| Zone Type | Activity It Supports | Design Features | Typical Capacity | Noise Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Focus pods | Deep individual work, writing, analysis | Enclosed or semi-enclosed, task lighting, sound-dampening | 1 person | Very low |
| Open workstations | Email, admin tasks, routine work | Standard desks in open area, shared monitors/docks | Varies (10-50+) | Low-moderate |
| Collaboration zones | Team meetings, brainstorming, workshops | Whiteboards, large screens, flexible furniture, writeable walls | 4-10 people | Moderate-high |
| Phone booths | Private calls, video meetings, quick 1:1s | Soundproof pod with ventilation, small desk, screen | 1-2 people | Isolated |
| Social/lounge areas | Informal meetings, networking, breaks | Comfortable seating, coffee bar, natural light, warm materials | Varies | Moderate-high |
| Standing/walking areas | Short tasks, walking meetings, energy breaks | Standing desks, treadmill desks, high tables | Varies | Low-moderate |
| Library/quiet rooms | Reading, focused thinking, research | Strict silence policy, soft lighting, individual carrels | 5-15 people | Very low (silent) |
| Project rooms | Multi-day project work, war rooms | Bookable for days/weeks, pinboards, persistent whiteboards | 4-8 people | Moderate |
ABW vs Open-Plan vs Traditional Office
ABW is often confused with open-plan offices. They're fundamentally different approaches. Open-plan removes walls. ABW adds variety.
Open-plan office problems
Open-plan offices were supposed to increase collaboration. Instead, research consistently shows they decrease face-to-face interaction (by up to 73% according to a 2018 Harvard study) while increasing noise, distraction, and employee stress. Everyone sits at the same type of desk in the same type of space regardless of what they're doing. There's nowhere to take a private call. There's nowhere to escape visual and auditory distractions. Employee satisfaction and productivity both suffer.
How ABW solves open-plan failures
ABW addresses every major open-plan complaint. Need quiet? Go to the focus pod or library. Need to collaborate? Move to the collaboration zone. Need a private call? Step into a phone booth. The key difference is choice. Open-plan gives employees no choice about their work environment. ABW gives them multiple options and trusts them to pick the right one for each task. It's not about removing all desks. It's about providing the right environment for every type of work.
How to Implement Activity-Based Working
ABW implementation is a multi-phase project that touches workplace design, technology, management practices, and organizational culture. Rushing it is the most common cause of failure.
Phase 1: Workplace analysis (2-3 months)
Before redesigning anything, understand how people actually work. Conduct activity analysis surveys asking employees what percentage of their time they spend on focused work, collaboration, phone calls, informal meetings, and other activities. Use occupancy sensors to measure how current spaces are used. Interview team leaders about work patterns. This data drives the zone mix: if 40% of work is focused individual work, 40% of your ABW space should support that.
Phase 2: Design and build (3-6 months)
Work with workplace architects who specialize in ABW (Veldhoen, Gensler, M Moser are experienced firms). Design zones based on the activity analysis data. Pay special attention to acoustics, because noise is the number one killer of ABW environments. Use sound masking, acoustic panels, enclosed phone booths, and zone separation to prevent noise bleed between areas. Every zone should be clearly identifiable through visual cues: different furniture, flooring, lighting, and signage.
Phase 3: Change management (ongoing)
This is where most ABW projects fail. You can build the most beautiful ABW office and it won't work if employees don't change their behavior. People naturally gravitate to the same spot every day. ABW requires them to actively choose based on their task. Run workshops explaining the concept. Create "ABW ambassadors" on each team. Have managers model the behavior by using different zones themselves. Expect 3-6 months for behavior change to take root.
Evidence for ABW Effectiveness
ABW has been studied extensively, particularly in the Netherlands and Australia where adoption is highest. The evidence is generally positive but comes with important caveats.
What the research shows
The Leesman Index, which has assessed over 900,000 employee responses globally, consistently shows ABW environments outperform traditional offices on satisfaction (+17%), perceived productivity (+12%), and sense of pride in the workplace (+21%). A 2023 study by the University of Melbourne found that ABW workers reported higher levels of autonomy and job control, which are strong predictors of both engagement and well-being. Veldhoen + Company's own data from 200+ ABW implementations shows average space reductions of 30% without decreasing available workpoints.
When ABW doesn't work
ABW performs poorly when organizations skip change management, when acoustic design is inadequate (noise complaints are the top issue), when there aren't enough focus spaces relative to collaborative spaces, or when management still expects employees to be visible at a desk from 9 to 5. ABW also struggles in highly hierarchical cultures where senior leaders insist on private offices while everyone else shares space. The most successful ABW implementations apply the same rules to everyone, including executives.
Activity-Based Working Statistics [2026]
Research-backed data on the adoption and impact of activity-based working designs globally.
ABW Cost Considerations
ABW requires significant upfront investment. Understanding the full cost picture helps build a realistic business case.
Upfront costs
Redesigning an office for ABW typically costs $150-$300 per square foot (compared to $50-$100 for a standard renovation). The premium comes from acoustic treatment, diverse furniture types, technology integration (sensors, booking systems, digital signage), and professional design fees. A 50,000-sqft ABW conversion for 500 employees might cost $7.5M-$15M. Phone booths alone cost $5,000-$15,000 each, and a well-designed ABW office needs one for every 8-12 employees.
Ongoing savings
The payback comes from reduced real estate. If ABW lets you reduce your footprint by 30%, and your annual rent is $50/sqft on 50,000 sqft, that's $750,000/year in rent savings alone. Add utility reductions, lower maintenance costs, and the productivity and retention benefits, and most ABW investments pay back within 3-5 years. Companies that time their ABW conversion with a lease renewal or office relocation capture the biggest savings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ABW the same as hot desking?
Does ABW work for every type of organization?
How do you handle storage in an ABW office?
What if employees just pick one zone and never move?
How much does ABW cost to implement?
Written by Adithyan RK