By Gareth Vaughan
ASB CEO Barbara Chapman says she won't have an office and will be joining her staff in adopting "activity based working", a version of hot desking, when the bank moves 1,500 staff into its new Auckland headquarters mid-year.
Chapman told interest.co.nz she would be participating in the switch to activity based working. Said to cut costs and boost productivity, activity based working is gaining popularity among Australian corporates and has already been adopted, in some of its offices, by ASB's parent Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The idea is that instead of having allocated seating and desktop computers, employees working under an activity based working model generally use mobile devices and sit based on the activity or project they are currently working on.
"I will not have an office in the new building," said Chapman. "We're going through a big change programme here at the moment where we're scanning our records and we're putting up new technology for our people to get us ready for that environment so when we get in there in mid-June we'll hit the ground running. I think it's really exciting."
Asked what the benefits were of activity based working Chapman said flexibility was a key one.
"People have the ability to not just be rigidly sat at their desks. If they're doing tasks and projects with different people, they can form different types of work groups, there's different types of areas for different types of meetings so it really is a very flexible, very portable work environment. And I think the collaboration that that gives you, and the nimbleness that gives you, is really significant. So I think it's going to be great for us."
She said her sense was that staff were "really excited" about it.
"I will be activity based working like everyone else," said Chapman.
ASB's set to move about 1,500 staff to its new Wynyard Quarter headquarters in Auckland mid-year from the ASB Tower on Albert Street. See more on the move here.
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