Enabling a smart and safe workplace
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
To find out more, get in touch with our team of workplace consultants: workplace@ricoh.co.uk
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:
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.
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