What is hybrid working?

Let’s start with the basics. There are different types of hybrid working including:

1. Every employee has complete flexibility to work at will on-site or remotely

2. Every employee has a designated rota of on-site and remote days

3. Some employees work fully on-site, some employees work fully remote

4. Some employees have flexibility, some work full-time in one location

There could even be other permutations but none of the options are right or wrong. Depending on your sector, your core services and the size of your organisation, any of them could apply to you. You might already know which of these setups will suit you best.

But like any large scale project, the first step is to consider the perspectives of your key stakeholders and your people, finding out what they need to communicate and collaborate effectively. You can then build a business case that gathers all the data, resources and insights and the potential ROI of switching to a hybrid working model.

The three factors you need to consider when talking to stakeholders

Depending on where your stakeholders sit within the business, three arguments are likely to be raised: productivity, staffing and culture. These core principles were introduced by Mark Mortensen, an associate professor in organisational behaviour, following hundreds of hours of interviews with business leaders in 2021.

Keeping these principles at the forefront of your mind will ensure you’re well equipped going into conversations with key stakeholders, helping you develop a critical standpoint on the different needs and perspectives within your organisation.

1. Productivity

Some argue that working side-by-side in an office allows for seamless communication. While others may say their team has been even more productive in remote working conditions where they can manage their schedule and be free of office distractions. Whichever side of the debate you’re on, hybrid working clearly impacts collaboration.

This conversation is particularly relevant for your colleagues in operations tasked with identifying the optimal form of working arrangements to ensure your organisation delivers on its promises.

2. Staffing

The question of a great resignation proves that some employees will quit if not granted some flexibility. It also stands to reason that companies who don’t offer this will be at a disadvantage when attracting and retaining quality talent. Ensuring this factor is taken into account is an important objective for HR.

3. Culture

There are widely differing opinions on whether it’s possible to communicate company cultural beliefs and behaviours in a remote world and how to best do so. As culture is often implicitly understood, this argument is difficult to substantiate.

The important takeaway is that hybrid working shouldn’t erode the culture that has made your organisation what it is and actively seek ways to support it. Your hybrid working model should also build a culture of trust, where management trusts employees to stay engaged and productive from remote locations.

What are the operational benefits of hybrid working? 

To make hybrid a true success, you need robust technology to ensure your business and your people can achieve what is required from any location. As a result of implementing this technology, you stand to optimise efficiency. To define success, you need to explore what a positive outcome looks like for you, whether that be gains in productivity, business growth or staff retention.

Communication and collaboration tools can remove everyday friction and enable your teams to connect, collaborate and create seamlessly wherever they are. By replicating the ease of jumping on a video call remotely in an in office environment you can make the office a destination again, where employees can come together to collaborate and seek inspiration. And when meetings run smoothly, applications work reliably, and collaboration is frictionless, your business is more productive and, in turn, more competitive.

To power these applications, you will need infrastructure to carry and store the communication traffic as well as the cybersecurity measures to protect you from network breaches. Putting all this in place requires expertise from a trusted partner. The agility and flexibility these types of solutions provide will substantially accelerate the digital transformation of your organisation.

By identifying the positive impact of the technology investments you could make to support your hybrid working model, you can impress your stakeholders most concerned with productivity and culture.

What are the people benefits of hybrid working? 

It has been widely accepted that hybrid working has several people benefits, including increased morale and employee engagement, employee retention and an enhanced talent pool.

It also empowers organisations to become more diverse and inclusive by enabling access to talented individuals who may have previously been unable to apply, due to inflexible set working hours or locations. This can only be positive, leading to diverse views and experiences which can generate creativity and productivity.

Surveying UK businesses on their remote working practices, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has also revealed the following stats which support long-term flexible or hybrid working models. Not only do these statistics show a positive outlook for employees it also shows gains for employers. By putting people at the centre of decision making, it improves overall outcomes and user adoption.

• 46% of employees believe they have seen increased wellbeing simply for having greater flexibility of their working hours.
• 34% of the respondents believe that flexible working leads to the creation of new ways in which to collaborate via IT.
• 33% felt that there was a reduction in distractions.¹

Ricoh can help you enable hybrid working 

As an organisation, we see hybrid working as the keystone to unlocking human potential, innovation and productivity. We work with organisations to implement successful hybrid working models, and we also grant our own people flexible-first hybrid working arrangements. Explore our digital workspace solutions.

Hybrid working may seem ubiquitous, but by its very nature, it is rewriting the rules of the workplace. It is important to understand all the perspectives around you to lead change within your organisation in a positive way. If you are the person in your business pushing the hybrid working agenda, we can help you formalise your plans by introducing you to innovative digital workspace solutions and through discovery with our expert digital consultants, contact our team to find out more.

Or discover our on-demand webinars, giving you the latest advice and guidance from industry experts to help you to navigate the changing business landscape.

1. https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/flexible-working-lessons-from-pandemic-report_tcm18-92644.pdf

The post Building a business case for hybrid working appeared first on Insights.

Many forward-thinking organisations are looking to the future and working on plans to facilitate growth. Yet to make mission-critical decisions in a challenging world, leaders with a growth mindset need a clear financial picture. Without a real-time view of their cash position, investment decisions are difficult to make. A manual accounts payable process cannot provide CFOs with this vital information in real-time.

Automating the accounts payable process will not just provide immediate access to cash visibility, forecasting, and reporting. It will also transform what has historically been a very manual, time-consuming business administration process. 

Staying competitive in this new economic environment requires smart practices in all areas, even the unobvious ones. This is where our automated accounts payable system comes in.

Where’s the real value in accounts payable? 

Most likely you have a dedicated accounts payable function or employees who take care of this process. It is their job to receive purchase orders, delivery notes, invoices, process payments, and remittances. In some organisations, this all still exists on paper with records kept in messy in-trays and bulging filing cabinets.

Neither of these approaches provides you with a real-time view of what’s really going on in your business and an actual cash position that you can rely on getting, anytime you need it. And this is exactly what’s required if your business is to make better quality investments, see better ROI on those investments and make better savings.

What can Ricoh’s automated accounts payable system offer you?

Investing in a robust and resilient accounts payable system now will unlock massive value within your business. Helping you to scale up your internal operations for a robust future. And if the quantum leaps made in digitisation recently have proven anything; transformation doesn’t take as long as we may think.

Within each step towards digital accounts payable, there are also opportunities to save money, time, and resources. Costly mistakes and miscalculations are the last things any growing business needs. Especially if a slip-up leads to an easily avoidable risk.

Complete visibility for your executives 

Automated accounts payable revolutionises cash visibility, forecasting, and reporting. Users are given access to a dashboard, which offers a real-time view of their cash position, allowing leaders to make high-level business decisions with all the knowledge at their fingertips.

The system implements seamlessly with business operations within a few weeks at no delay – a big selling point for your C-Suite. Finance teams are also trained ahead of the system going live, giving the right people immediate value.

All-around cost saving

Investing in an automated system means a lower cost across the lifetime of your business. There may be an upfront price to pay, but in the future, it will cut processing time and labour requirements. We found our system makes the process twice as fast, from 48 hours plus to under 24 hours.

Having a system in place can also empower accounting staff to focus more on strategic business goals and cost-saving activities. Which can only stimulate growth and fill individuals within your organisation.

Streamlined remote working

Suppose your accounting team has been fighting a losing battle with paper-based remote working. In that case, our secure cloud-based solution can offer you flexibility and continuity, no matter where your team members are based. And let’s be honest, it seems unlikely that we’ll be 100% office-based ever again.

As the system uses self-learning technology it also automates live feeds and batch approvals, easing workloads for your team. Task lists, notifications, and recorded version control also make the process faster and easier to manage from multiple locations. Keeping the entire team updated and on task.

The technology 

Our process automation allows you to digitally receive and process invoices and purchase orders with complete efficiency. With a powerful search function for instant retrieval of information when needed regardless of the source. The technology makes it possible for everyone to access the exact version of the same document anytime and anywhere.

The self-learning data input also means the system is able to auto-extract and populate invoice data. Therefore, it can be indexed against its original purchase order. No scrolling through endless records, no scope for human error, and certainly no need for staples.

And it doesn’t stop there if the system works well in your accounting department. You can also consider integrating the same solution to other departments within your organisation. In manufacturing, and especially sales, this technology provides huge potential for growth.

Integrating automated accounts payable into your business

We’re confident our solution can help a range of sectors. But we don’t operate with a one-size-fits-all approach. We tailor the solution to you and put together a package that fits your needs.

Once we have the solution in place. Our team will provide training to all who require the use and visibility of the system. And if issues and queries pop up, there will be reliable, and reachable after-sales care on hand.

Find out more 

Are you ready to ramp up those processes that are ‘done that way, because they’ve always been done that way?’

The gap between those keeping up and those falling behind is growing. It’s time to match your internal operations with your external growth ambitions.

Use our ROI calculator and find out what this means to you

The post Why automating accounts payable should be your next strategic goal appeared first on Insights.