Keep calm and enable remote working

If we didn’t know the following beforehand, we certainly do now:

• We are in unprecedented times
• The way we go about our daily lives is changing exponentially
• We need to look after each other – we’re stronger if we pull in the same direction

All true and important – none more so than people’s welfare needing to remain the absolute priority (especially the most vulnerable within our communities).

What we should also remember is that times of difficulty bring opportunity. Take the widespread call to work from home. We all know what remote working is and the benefits it can bring – even if five days a week indefinitely was not the plan!  But how do you ensure it works for all? Does it start and end with issuing laptops, phones and access to relevant systems? How do you ensure productivity when colleagues are based in different offices or even countries?

At Ricoh, we’re fortunate to be in the business of empowering digital workplaces. This means providing people with the tools, systems and infrastructures to collaborate effectively wherever they might be. It also means helping our customers who may be struggling to keep their operations running because of hugely fluctuating workloads.

An open culture

Trust and empowerment are absolute prerequisites for an open and vibrant culture. Technology and systems are, of course, key to this. It sounds obvious but business leaders need to remember that different workers have different working styles – whether they are based in the office or not. This means there will probably be no uniform route for remote working adoption, especially within larger businesses. Here, the onus is on leaders to empower managers and their teams so they can collaborate, share ideas and bring them to fruition through the ways of working that suit them best. There is no denying that communication has never been so important. Leaders have a crucial role to play in helping their employees feel grounded and not isolated. I have certainly made sure I have many more video calls with my teams – individually and together – to maintain that closeness and, so far, it is working well.

The tools for the job

Flexible working can come in many forms through a range of enablers. This includes task management, teleconferencing, video and knowledge management tools. Even in a pre-Covid-19 world, our research showed that 74% of workers expect flexible working to be written into contracts in the future, indicating an expectance rather than preference for the right tools to be in place. My view is that employees will expect this even more post-Covid-19, whenever that may be. These times of change also serve to highlight the importance of long-term thinking and the need to choose technology that can adapt with specific requirements. While keeping this front of mind, leaders should avoid the pitfall of being blinded by short-term benefits, such as low price – which usually means low quality.

Interoperability is essential

Our research also showed that 63% of workers believe the way the world does business will change dramatically in the next 5 to 10 years. Again, bear in mind this research was conducted in a pre-Covid-19 world, so before the latest wave of significant change started to impact us all. One thing that won’t change is the preference for convenience. Open platforms and systems that are intuitive and readily available to all staff really does remove the proverbial corporate shackles.

The trick is to remember top talent is top talent wherever they are based. We all lead busy lives. Parents, in particular, appreciate the flexibility remote working offers, while a healthier work-life balance will continue to appeal to all long after we’ve conquered Covid-19.

We are truly in the age of change. This has accelerated dramatically over the past few weeks and will continue to do so as we fight this virus. The stark reality is that leaders who were reluctant to enable remote working practices have been forced to adopt home working in crisis mode. That inevitably means some decisions won’t be the right ones longer term. This serves to heighten the need for the entire business community to embrace flexibility and first-class technology to ensure survival in a rapidly changing world.