Prepress
Hybrid working – connecting staff to let the work flow
Thursday 26. August 2021 - The increase in employees working from home is one of the consequences of the pandemic that has been most talked about. Sometimes celebrated, sometimes criticised. But, inescapably, a hugely prominent corporate phenomenon of the last 18 months.
By Craig Lewis, Head of Enterprise Printing, Ricoh Europe
In 2020 the number of Europeans working from home more than doubled from 5% to 12.3% according to Eurostat figures.
The sudden and swift switch to enforced working from home has prompted many to consider what continuing balance they can create between home and office.
McKinsey reports that 20 to 25 percent of the workforces in advanced countries could work from home between three and five days a week.
Ricohs own research has found that a quarter of employees would consider a job move to somewhere better equipped for remote working.
So, it is no surprise that a survey by Personio and Opiium found that in Great Britain and Ireland 40% of employees are thinking of leaving their jobs.
Our research found just 35% of employers fully trust employees working remotely. This was despite the fact that only 19% say that productivity had decreased since their workers transitioned to remote working.
What some employers are yet to fully understand is how hybrid workers, whether working in the office or at home, can be supported equally in terms of optimising their connectivity to vital print and document workflows to improve:
Business continuity by allowing workers anywhere to print centrally, create customer communications and access critical information in response to customer service requests.
Productivity, thanks to users sending documents to be printed centrally, and removing the expense of providing desktop printers to home workers.
Customer experience by allowing staff to create and send customer communications by print or email from any location, and automatically archive online to ensure future recall.
Mailing processes across the organisation by centralising the printing or digitising of mail to reduce postage costs and staff resources.
Faster workflow processes to simplify off site transactions, speeding up the automation of delivery notes, completing online forms, and initiating fast and secure invoicing or communications, all from a handheld device.
Collectively these solutions support flexible and responsive hybrid working practices and we are seeing many organisations, with or without a Print Room, taking the opportunity to ensure critical document workflows are not compromised whether staff are in the office or at home.