IT solutions and managed services provider Thomas Duryea Logicalis has worked with Victoria’s Cardinia Shire Council on the deployment of an Activity Based Working (ABW) solution in its new headquarters building.
The building was specifically designed, in collaboration with Thomas Duryea Logicalis, to accommodate ABW and features a centralised hub which consists of a variety of predetermined activity areas that allow employees to conduct specific tasks, such as collaborating, socialising, learning and brainstorming.
ABW is based on the notion that throughout the day, people have a number of different work activities to complete – some require high levels of concentration and others high levels of collaboration.
And through ABW, employees at Cardinia no longer have their personal work desks - instead, every employee is assigned a locker so they can pick up their physical resources and choose a work setting that suits their type of work activity.
{loadposition peter}Garry McQuillan, CEO Cardinia Shire Council, says the council thought that “the old traditional work-station model wasn’t necessarily the way of the future, and decided to move to Activity Based Working model, so that we can create a better workplace and deliver better outcomes for our ratepayers or constituents, which is the community”.
“Our main goals were to become an employer of choice, to retain staff, and to cut down on the inefficiencies associated with people working in silos. We wanted to create an environment that would foster conversations, improve collaboration, and facilitate communications, ultimately resulting in a better working environment. It was also important for us to create a strong value proposition for young people to come and join an organisation that is going to be at the forefront of the digital change that will occur over the next 10 to 15 years.
“One of the main things that attracted us to Activity Based Working was the notion of a workplace that empowers individuals to choose how they decide to work during the day. By removing the desk space, we’re not only more productive but our relationships are actually stronger.”
Under the contract, Cardinia selected Thomas Duryea Logicalis to design, develop, procure and implement core computing infrastructure for the new civic offices. The implementation of the new infrastructure included mobility, security, telephony, wifi, storage, replication and virtualisation components.
According to McQuillan moving to an ABW environment has reduced the dependence on paper and improved customer response times.
He notes that the council has recorded a 75% reduction in paper usage, which has resulted in savings of approximately $68,000 per annum and staff retention levels have also improved significantly, with people leaving the organisation dropping from 13% down to 7% in the first 12-18 months.
McQuillan also cites the council’s latest employee satisfaction survey which he says shows that:
- 91% of employees wouldn’t go back to the traditional way of working
- 96% said they feel more flexible and adaptable to change post move
- 77% find greater efficiencies (11% increase in productivity since February 2015)
- 81% use mobile technology for better outcomes
“We’ve achieved these outcomes since moving to the new building, indicating that we really are on the right path. We were the first Australian government organisation to adopt this way of working. Many other organisations are now looking to us as an example of how ABW can be successfully achieved.”