Reimagining your Workplace
We’re entering an exciting time for business, one with excellent opportunities to evolve how we work for greater commercial success
Reimagining
your Workplace
Create a smart and safe environment
to keep your business and people agile
Introduction
Why is now the perfect opportunity
to build for a better business future?
Introduction
We’re entering an exciting time for business, one with excellent opportunities to evolve how we work for greater commercial success – but there will also be new challenges.
First, there is an opportunity to support and empower your people,
as your workforce becomes more flexible and productive than ever.
Next, there is an opportunity for accelerated digital transformation,
as organisations across the country transition once more to new ways of working.
And finally, there is an opportunity to develop and build your company culture into a place where your people love to work.
It’s up to business leaders to find the right solutions to address these concerns and provide their people with a platform to achieve their best work.
What you’ll learn about in this guide:
The Voice of the People
What do your people think?
Every decision you make needs to put your people front of mind.
But first you need to understand what they actually want and need by collecting and analysing tangible qualitative and quantitative data.
But there will also be common challenges to face. Research conducted by the Institute of Workplace
and Facilities Management shows us that:
- 68% of employees will miss the face-to-face chats of office life
- 28% have experienced internet/tech issues from home
- 49% are concerned about social distancing if they return to the office
- 73% expect more flexible working options
What is the most important area of focus
for your organisation in the next 6 months?
- Enabling a smart and safe workplace
- Enhancing remote and agile working
- Investing in process automation
- Developing further cloud technology capabilities
Core thoughts
for the future
What you need to be thinking about
What you need to
be thinking about
These core concepts will be critical to future business success.
The world of business is evolving faster than ever, and it won’t be long before there is a noticeable difference in commercial success between those who grow with it and those who don’t.
Business continuity and resilience have become increasingly important and will form the foundation of your organisations ability to go from strength to strength in the future.
But there is a lot of information out there on what to look for and where to focus your attention. In this section we’ll cover off some of the key things you should be thinking about.
Agility and flexibility
Agility is a term that’s come to the forefront of business language in the past few years – and it’s easy to see why. Sometimes it feels like we’re constantly playing catch-up with new technologies, new processes and new demands.
And as more organisations adopt new agile working practices, the expectations of your own people increase. Now, business leaders need to include agility in all of their decisions. But this is a good thing.
Those who can operate in an agile and flexible way will be more successful, efficient and productive. And they’ll also be in a better place to respond effectively to disruption in the future.
Decentralisation
Remote working was on the rise long before the events of 2020,
but now this has accelerated massively as both people and businesses have attuned to new ways of working.
And there’s no going back; remote working is here to stay. Changes in attitudes mean that organisations need to accommodate a flexible workforce made up of both central and remote workers.
But how do you achieve this?
By integrating new cloud technology and automated systems and processes which are designed to support your people wherever they are
– and working with a collaborative partner to get the most out of them.
Employee experience
and wellbeing
What was already a crucial aspect of any successful business has now taken on an even more important role – the welfare of your people.
It is the role of business leaders and their HR teams to provide employees with support and reassurance. Not just about job security, but also that you are housing them in an office workspace that is safe.
And it’s not just those in the office whose welfare needs to be given careful consideration. Remote working comes with a host of challenges of its own. To be successful the home working environment needs to be safe and comfortable, ergonomically speaking, and the technology aligned to ensure security, productivity and connectivity. Organisations need to address potential issues like easy access to company documents, all the way through to the effects of reduced social interaction.
Coming back stronger
While all these challenges are very real, they’re also very exciting. Indeed, they are your friend; an opportunity to make positive changes throughout your entire organisation.
If you retain and improve the working practices you’ve implemented over the last few months, take advantage of new opportunities as the future unfolds and put your people at the forefront of all your business decisions, you’ll be on the right path for success.
But what are the main areas to focus on?
First, we’ll take a look at enabling smarter and safer workspaces
for your people.
The technology you need to reimagine
your organisation
Enabling a smart and safe workplace
Enabling smart and safe workplaces
How can you provide a smart and safe work
environment for your people?
If you’re going to adapt your business to meet future challenges, then you need to create a workplace that is both smart and safe. But what does this mean?
‘Smart’ means introducing new technologies, working practices and processes to empower your people, strengthening your business with tools that support blended and flexible working.
While ‘safe’ means addressing the anxiety that your people may currently be feeling. Delivering a consistent employee experience no matter where they are. Adapting your workspaces to prioritise wellbeing without compromising that experience. And integrating new technology such as contactless apps to help protect your people.
What solutions are
available to support
a reimagined workplace?
When you begin to look at the technology you can implement
to build increased flexibility and agility into your reimagined workplace, make sure you take these key areas into consideration:
Visitor management
If people visit your business, you’ll need to make sure you implement
processes that will allow them to do so safely – while still delivering an exceptional customer experience.
From health and safety regulations, to security, GDPR compliance to the ability to gain visitor insights from a dashboard, you’ll need the solutions in place to represent your brand, effectively manage the process and guide your visitors.
Not just for visitors, but for employees, solutions may include thermal imaging cameras to detect abnormal body temperatures and safeguard access into your workplace. As well as hand sanitisation with digital displays to ensure hygiene standards, give peace of mind and mitigate risks.
Dynamic communication solutions
With clear communication and guidance of paramount importance, you’ll need intelligent digital signage supported by printed signage solutions that give you control and consistency over your brand presence, announcements and notifications in real time, across multiple locations, 24/7.
This should also include wayfinding, space-management, as well as room and desk booking solutions to enable effective management of people within your building and the ability to show live occupancy.
Smart workplace solutions
You’ll also need to manage your space, maintain social distancing, monitor sanitisation and allow for track and trace protocols. Look for a solution that uses sensors, real-time data and insight to deliver this as effectively as possible.
Have you considered your approach for facilities such as bathrooms, print rooms and communal areas? Do you know how you will manage access to your workplaces via lifts, staircases and narrow corridors?
Start with how your employees and visitors need to, and would like to use the space and take guidance on the right solutions to support you.
Also ensure that your people and visitors can make online bookings flexibly with a workplace app, even before they arrive, whether that’s booking a desk, a room or a service such as catering.
Smart rooms
Combine physical meeting rooms, furniture and Audio Visual (AV) equipment with video conferencing technology and complete project management tools – all in a setup that works for your people and your business. A vital tool for a flexible workforce allowing effective collaboration between remote and on-site working.
Collaboration pods are an option to consider, offering private, acoustically optimised, low power consumption spaces that may help you to better plan your space and meeting options for your people.
Workplace intelligence
How do you ensure you’re underpinning the decisions you make with the right information? Make sure you have the right tools in place to collect the unique data relevant to your workplace.
This utilisation data can be accessed by leveraging technologies such as:
- Desk sensors
- Ceiling sensors
- Door sensors
- Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags
These tools provide your business with important real time analytics and enable fact based decision making. You’ll also understand your people. their needs and habits far better.
Smart lockers
Have you considered the options for management of IT, consumables , accessories and assets, around the office or even in a warehouse environment?
Smart lockers will automatically manage items at strategic locations, conveniently placed around your facilities. They provide a wealth of options to manage, distribute, store and track all of this within your organisation more efficiently and with less contact:
IT Inventory & PPE lockers
Efficiently manage the storage and contactless distribution of IT, consumables, accessories and PPE throughout your business with the option for 24/7 pick-up and integration with your Support Desk.
Offer secure self-service access to items with automated pick up and drop off, giving your business secure accountability for reusable assets, IT inventory and consumables. Benefit from the flexibility to set rules around who or which roles can access which items.
Asset Management Lockers
Ideal for warehouse and distribution operations, you can dramatically improve the safety and efficiency of the distribution and storage of hand-held devices at the start and end of shifts. Eliminate the manual management of check-in and check-out processes to ensure your people can be productive faster.
How it works
To implement these elements a step by step approach allows your business to know exactly where to start and how to build an agile, flexible and resilient workplace for the future - no matter your starting point.
Our approach:
Our solutions and partners
With a comprehensive portfolio of solutions and partners we’ll provide you with the right technology solutions to allow you to reimagine your workplace.
Benefit from integration across systems and experts on hand to assist you with the implementation, roll out and review of the tools you need:
Collaborate with a partner for greater success
Thankfully, you aren’t alone; there are organisations
out there with the expertise to help you quickly and effectively create a smarter and safer workspace.
We have vast amounts of experience in delivering these solutions: from innovations that help your people stay productive while social distancing, to devices and programmes that can be accessed easily and securely from multiple locations.
And we don’t just provide products and services. We can help you gain data and insights from across your business to make more informed decisions about what your organisation needs. Install any devices or programmes you require. And train your people in how to use them effectively.
Empowering your remote workers
Empowering your
remote workers
How can you transform your business to empower
both office and remote workers?
No matter what industry your business is part of, it is likely that your workforce is set to become much more flexible.
Both your organisation and people may have already adopted new ways of working, and most will have become accustomed to their new routines and practices – many will even prefer it.
So, as your business move forwards once more, your people will expect to be able to choose whether they return to the office or not. And if business leaders are to be successful, they’ll need to integrate the tools and processes to make things work for everyone.
Collaborate with a partner for greater success
Sourcing, introducing and integrating the right remote working solutions might seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be.
Take advantage of the vast experience of a collaborative, people-first partner like Ricoh. We will work alongside you through the whole process – from assessing your current capabilities and identifying needs, to finding and delivering the right solutions and training your people to use them effectively.
Introducing
process automation
Introducing process automation
How can you use technology to free up your people to do their best work – wherever they are?
One of the major challenges facing business leaders moving forwards is to both maintain productivity and ensure that business-critical processes continue to be carried out effectively.
Can someone who is working remotely still perform necessary tasks quickly and effectively? Through process automation solutions, they won’t need to carry them out at all – and neither will those who do return to the office.
And automation doesn’t just remove risk either. You’ll be speeding up tedious tasks and enabling your people to focus their efforts on more enjoyable, important and profitable opportunities.
Collaborate with a partner for greater success
As with all aspects of digital transformation, especially if your business is trying to adapt quickly and at scale to industry-wide changes, working with a partner is the best way to guarantee success.
We have a long history of working collaboratively with businesses to plan, develop and integrate a wide range of process automation solutions – from cloud technology and document storage right through to e-invoicing and secure documentation.
Integrating
with the cloud
Integrating with the cloud
Cloud technology plays a pivotal role in digital transformation. Make sure your business takes advantage.
Gone are the days when we relied purely on physical products. Or at least, they should be.
Cloud technology allows us to do away with printed documents, invoices and customer data, strip back the number of devices taking up valuable space and work just as effectively from home as if we were in the office – if the tech is integrated properly.
Meanwhile, a business that uses cloud technology will also find it much easier to remain agile through periods of further change, accelerate their digital transformation projects and empower their IT teams to support a more flexible workforce.
Collaborate with a partner for greater success
Due to the ever-evolving nature of cloud technologies, it might seem like there are a lot of options out there.
That’s why we recommend working with a collaborative partner – like Ricoh – to first perform an assessment of your organisation’s exact needs.
We’ll help you gain both qualitative and quantitative data from within your business, analyse what solutions will work best for you when integrating cloud technology for digital transformation, and then help you and your people make the most out of what you choose.
Connecting your remote workers to central print services
Connecting remote workers to central print services
As organisations look to a blended approach between the office and home, now is the time to consider how you can connect your remote workers to your central services such as printing, mailing and existing document workflows. It’s vital for organisations to have the ability to provide centralised print services to avoid uncontrolled external print costs, ensure security and utilise internal print capacity. This is an ideal opportunity to develop your business resilience strategy and target overall cost of printing, with the potential to cross charge internal users.
Ensuring your organisation has the foundations in place to build on the resources you have and drive efficiencies whilst at the same time supporting your people with the tools they need.
Collaborate with a partner for greater success
Whether it is submitting print jobs to a central print facility, or providing a hybrid mail solution that allows home workers to create printed or digital customer mail at home – Ricoh are helping many organisations like yours to connect their home workers to services and tools they need to maintain vital business activity – while also improving print costs and business processes.
We’ll help you understand the options open to your teams, and support you through every step of the implementation to make sure you build a flexible, agile and resilient foundation for the future.
Your next step
Now you know more about the opportunities to reimagine your
workplace and the importance of starting with your people,
you may want to consider the options open to you.
If you are keen to identify where your organisation stands and what your people think , we recommend your request our Voice of the
People consultancy.
This consultancy will enable you to make decisions with your people front of mind. By allowing you to understand what they actually want and need by collecting and analysing tangible qualitative and quantitative data.
Request your consultancy
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