Your Guide to Agile and Remote Working
Businesses are quickly transitioning to agile
and remote working. Discover how to get
the best results.
Your Guide to
Agile and Remote Working
Opportunities, challenges and effective adoption
Introduction
Businesses are quickly transitioning to agile
and remote working. Discover how to get
the best results
Introduction
Agile and remote working can ensure business continuity in the short term – and provide opportunity in the long term.
It might feel like there’s a lot of uncertainty around. But one thing you can be sure of is the need for us all to adapt and push forwards. Because if you don’t, you could fall behind.
That’s why the growth in agile and remote working is accelerating. And it’s expected to continue over the coming months and years. Right now, businesses are learning of the exceptional benefits there for the taking.
What you’ll learn in this guide:
- The opportunities of agile and remote working
- How people feel about it
- The challenges businesses are facing
- How they can meet those challenges
- What technology is out there to support businesses
- How expert assessments can drive change
What are the opportunities?
From your employees to your business processes
What are the opportunities?
Agile and remote working are not new concepts. There has long been a growing trend that was already expected to continue over the coming years.
Remote working was once the sole privilege of individuals of a certain wealth and within a limited selection of professions. But as technology – and the infrastructure around it – becomes increasingly capable and affordable, it in turn has become much more commonplace.
But why do people want to work remotely in the first place.
And what’s in it for their organisation?
The opportunity
for employees
There are a wide range of benefits to individuals who adopt agile or remote working practices.
Believe it or not, your people don’t want to work remotely just so they can watch television all day. There are benefits to productivity, job satisfaction and even health and wellbeing.
For some, it represents an opportunity to get away from a busy office environment, and focus on a specific activity or challenging issue without interruption.
For most, it represents flexibility. It enables them to find a good work/life balance so they can take care of urgent needs – such as childcare or emergencies – or perhaps to work further afield in more affordable housing.
And for others, who really embrace agile and remote working – sometimes known as ‘digital nomads’ – it represents a way of life. Often working away from the office for weeks or months at a time as they move around.
The opportunity for businesses
Implementing agile and remote working practices will benefit businesses in the short and long term.
Businesses shouldn’t see agile and remote working as a short-term departure from the norm. It is very likely that the rapid acceleration to these new working practices will have a permanent affect.
But this isn’t a bad thing. There are benefits when it comes to cost-saving on expensive office space, recruiting from a wider talent pool and protecting your business against future change.
The effective implementation of remote working now could see your business thrive for years to come and create more flexible, effective spaces.
The stats to back it up
There have been extensive studies on the benefits of agile
and remote working. Here are just some of them:
Remote working leads to increased productivity
A two-year study by Stanford University showed that home workers were a full working day more productive each week than traditional workers.
Increased employee retention
The same Stanford University research showed that home workers were 50% less likely to leave their company.
Decreased sick days and time off
Seeing as how you’re supposed to stay at home if you’re ill, remote workers are already ahead of the game, and are more unlikely to call in sick.
Reduced costs for employers
In 2018 there was an estimated $5 billion in cost savings for US companies with employees who worked remotely.
Reduced costs for workers
US remote workers themselves also save about $7000 a year on things like commuting, food, clothing and childcare.
What's your opinion
on agile and remote working?
Place your vote here
What's your opinion about agile and remote working?
Which of the current agile and remote working practices do you agree with
- Agile and remote working will become vital to your business
- The majority of your people will work remotely in the future
- The majority of your people work remotely full time
- We currently have the capability to effectively support remote working
- Our existing IT Infrastructure is able to adapt quickly
What are the challenges?
How is your organisation prevented from adopting effective agile and remote working?
What are the challenges?
Without the right technology and business approach, agile and remote working can significantly disrupt productivity and business performance.
There were already difficulties in adopting agile and remote working practices. But while the transition was gradual, existing business technology infrastructure was adequate.
Now there is a massive surge of remote working, which has stress tested capabilities and found them wanting.
So, there are major organisational, administrative and technological challenges ahead. But luckily, there are actions and activities available to help you meet them, including:
- Having a defined change management approach
- Evaluating your existing IT infrastructure and employee technology
- Supporting your people with digital social interaction
- Establishing collaborative goals for everyone to work towards
- Encouraging a good work/life balance
- Ensuring everyone has access to and understanding of necessary hardware and software
And it’s not just about making sure you have the technology and organisation to provide all these quickly and at scale.
You need to introduce a learning programme that empowers your people and ensures they have the confidence and comprehension required to work effectively from home.
Empower your people
An effective learning programme is vital to business success.
As we evolve new ways of working, you need to make sure your people have the skillsets required to use new technology and meet the growing demands of your industry.
You can do this by developing and delivering an effective learning programme and promoting a learning culture within your organisation.
Plan your material, ensure that you are covering a range of learning styles to facilitate your people and start inspiring the future leaders of your organisation.
This is one of the most influential ways you will overcome the challenges of mass remote working.
How businesses
should respond
Learn about the four steps to take
How businesses
should respond
There are steps that businesses can take to create effective agile and remote working practices.
Step one: look to your technology
Think about your current IT estate. It’s probably been developed over a long period of time, with ad-hoc purchasing made to suit legacy systems or through cost-effective procurement methods.
This means that you’re unlikely to be able to support remote working at scale, no matter how much you’ve invested in the past few years. You need to perform a deep examination of what you have in place so you can identify what’s working well and where problems need addressing.
You also need to establish where business-critical processes and services can be fulfilled remotely in the future. It’s a challenge for all business leaders: can your organisation maintain business continuity with the entire workforce operating remotely? This might seem overly ambitious, but this is how you should be thinking. Digital start-ups work this way from the get-go and grow into significant multinational corporations.
Step two: make sure your employees can use your technology
It’s a common pitfall of businesses that they assume their people have a good understanding of all the software and devices they use.
While there are always people on hand in an office to help, this is much harder to provide when everyone is dotted around the country. And if someone gets stuck, they’ll become frustrated and less productive.
Offer regular support to ensure individuals know where to reach out to for help, and make sure your IT teams have everything they need to provide that help remotely.
Step three: keep your people happy
It cannot be stated strongly enough that employee health and wellbeing is a top priority for businesses when adopting agile and remote working.
And as well as providing educational, social support and encouraging a good work/life balance, you also need to maintain your company culture!
Again, technology can help. Make sure you have the right collaboration technology available to your people and take all your future technology purchasing decisions with them in mind.
Step four: enjoy the benefits of future business continuity and resilience
If you deliver agile and remote working correctly, you will maintain business continuity, and prove yourself all the stronger against future challenges.
Productivity won’t take a hit either. Indeed, it’ll most likely increase as long as you support your people with the technology and infrastructure they need, and continuously analyse and develop your processes.
What technology is out there to support you?
Empower your people
What technology is out there to support you?
There are key technology areas to focus on when supporting agile and remote working for your people.
Let’s start with digital transformation. This area is becoming even more important to consider as our workplaces themselves change from inside the office to online at home.
It’s important to take a people-first approach to digital transformation, as success relies on a detailed understanding of how your people are working with technology and within the space around them.
It’s highly recommended that you bring in a specialist partner to address this area. Ricoh work with you to gather both qualitative and quantitative insights, then implement solutions that facilitate modern ways work of working – even for agile and remote practices.
Employee devices
and support
Businesses up and down the country are facing the same common problem: they have people working from home who do not have everything they need, and they can’t go to the office to get it.
Luckily there’s a solution: Ricoh’s eShop. This online business solution offers complete support for home working, and will deliver anything from monitor stands and keyboards, to laptops with everything they need pre-installed and ready to go.
All these devices and technologies can also be provided as a service on a per user, per month basis. So, you only pay for you what you need.
Remote collaboration tools
Just like in the office, effective collaboration is key to maintaining productivity. So, for remote working, you need to create that capability through technology. But not many businesses have a plan in place to provide the tools required.
One digital asset that will become integral to your employee’s day-to-day will be the software you use for video conferencing. It’s never been more important to stay visually connected, so you need to ensure you choose a provider that is reliable and up to the task, and that your people know how to use it. Popular choices among businesses are Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex and Skype for Business.
We work with a variety of partners, take a look at our Communication Services article to learn more about how you can help your teams connect and collaborate.
Remote employee printing
It used to be so simple: one office, one set of printers. But now everyone is remote, yet they still have important contracts, orders, customer communications and reports to print. Ricoh Hybrid Mail is here to help.
It manages the wide range of ad-hoc documentation from multiple users across your business, safely and securely fulfilling print orders at scale. And everything is done centrally, so you won’t need to provide local print devices to a multitude of households. One simple software installation enables your entire workforce to individually print and mail.
Volume print distribution
Need to issue large volumes of printed material to a disparate audience? Try Ricoh’s Print&Share solution.
It enables you to create many different versions of the same document, adding different logos, Ts&Cs and other variables before they’re sent out.
It’s cost effective too, automating customisations and using the full potential of your print hardware, and simplifying distribution via email, print, fax or digital formats – all with a single click.
Document digitisation
and management
If you have the right technology and workflows in place, you can support agile and remote workers as well as if they were in the office. So, with that in mind, you should consider introducing a professional documentation management solution.
Digital scanning
One of the key areas your people will need support with while remote working is with scanning documents. And your business will want to ensure that any documents are stored securely.
Digital workflows
Moving from paper-based, more traditional ways of working to digitised methods is something businesses have been undertaking for some time. If you haven’t fully embraced this process, you may find remote working exacerbates potential problems.
Document management
As your people access your data, create new information, and move existing documentation around from multiple access points, you will need to ensure now more than ever that you have systems in place to make this as seamless and secure as possible.
Ricoh offer solutions to all these challenges and can ensure that you are set up for business success.
IT Infrastructure
and networking
Should you identify any gaps in your IT capabilities, Ricoh can support you by providing highly skilled IT professionals at short notice for any period of time through Ricoh Resource Solutions.
These experts are available almost immediately and are IR35 approved. Bring them in to help you fix issues, address security concerns or simply maintain business continuity.
Assessments,
a catalyst for change
Understand the needs of your people
Assessments, a catalyst
for change
Assessments are the perfect way to start addressing remote working technology challenges – as well as many others within your business.
As the transition to agile and remote working continues to accelerate at an ever-faster rate, the need to react now is becoming more and more vital. Especially if your business is already behind the curve.
The best approach to set you off on the right track – then get you ahead of the game – is to work with an external specialist digital transformation partner and have them carry out a detailed assessment. Ricoh provide many different assessments, tailored to different businesses and types of approach.
Digital Experience Assessment
An assessment that is designed specifically for agile and remote working is our Digital Experience Assessment.
We evaluate your technology stack from top to bottom, collect qualitative data by interviewing and surveying your people, analyse what is and isn’t working across the business, and then compile all that information into an easy-to-digest yet very detailed report.
We then create a plan of action and help your management team implement necessary changes for success. This includes working with our leading partners, such as Microsoft, to provide the most suitable technology solutions – from devices to collaboration platforms.
Consultancy will cover your current ways of working:
- How effective teams are both in and away from the workplace?
- How is employee wellbeing?
- Are team leaders managing and communicating effectively?
- How engaged do people feel?
- What can be improved now?
- What working habits will people retain as they return to the office?
And it can all be done remotely.
Our expertise will ensure you understand how to get the best return on your people and technology investment, enabling productivity and growth.
Remote Assessments
Ricoh also offer an Agile Remote Working Assessment,
which is a modified Digital Experience Assessment designed
to be completed online.
It creates a concise view of how your people and technology
are working together, where they may have constraints and issues,
and where additional support will enhance their productivity.
Qualitative and quantitative data is collected from your employees through an online questionnaire which is adapted to your business. Information is immediately collated and displayed in a dashboard for review.
Our report will give your business clear direction on how to improve productivity and get more from your remote working network.
