Government urged to adopt ABW Spaces

A new report by real estate agency Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) titled Activity Based Working: Application to Commonwealth Government reveals that federal government departments could cut their office area footprints by 40% and make great savings by following many private sector companies adopting Activity Based Working (ABW).

It states that for organisations employing 150,000 people saves about $10 million a year on a portfolio of 100,000 square metres – equivalent to approximately 6,000 employees.

ABW concept – where employees work in assigned areas but without assigned desks – allows more efficient use of real estate when typically 40% of facilities are vacant due to annual and sick leaves or staff working off site - is not foreign to the Australian Public Service. The National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) Geelong headquarters has already adopted ABW in its new 1,950 square metre office.

JLL presented the findings of the report to a number of government departments early May, just days before the federal budget which raised the number of planned federal public servant redundancies to 16,000 from 14,500. ‘The timing is ‘unfortunate’ but many government offices had already started thinking about changes to their use of space as a result of a Financial Department policy implemented last year requiring reduction in operational density target for usable office area’, says JLL’s head of government business, James Tonkin.

It can be recalled that Australian Construction Industry Forum warned last November that corporate moves to embrace ABW were a ‘key’ risk to future net office space demand. Renovating office space to accommodate ABW not to mention the activities to prepare staff for the move - cost money in advance that many government agencies may not be able to afford, however government agencies can exercise the current real estate competition in their favour and get landlords to contribute to the cost.

The report also says that all Australian markets are currently weighted in favour of the tenant and this is expected to continue in most markets for the foreseeable future.

Companies which have embraced ABW in Australia include Corrs Chambers Westgarth and Macquarie Bank in Sydney saving these organizations’ real estate cost and improving workplace productivity.

Source: via Michael Bleby commercialrealestate.com.au