Companies with a good culture often outperform their competitors, and according to Startups.co.uk, those with happy employees can expect a 20% increase in performance.
This, combined with other benefits, such as increased employee engagement, more innovation, teamwork, better decision-making and stronger customer relationships, means there should be no question as to whether employers should invest in building a positive culture.
Digital services company Ricoh UK employs over 2,200 people and is committed to nurturing a people-first culture in the company where all employees feel empowered to achieve fulfilment through work. The Living the Ricoh Way programme, launched in October 2021, was designed to give their employees the skills to recognise and challenge even the smallest behaviours and unconscious biases that feed into larger feelings of exclusion.
We interviewed Ricoh’s Inclusion and Wellbeing Manager, Catherine Morrell, to find out more:
Q: June marked the 19th anniversary of Ricoh’s 'SDG Action Month' can you tell us what this is and why it is so important to the business and employees?
A: Every June, Ricoh celebrates ‘Global SDGs Action Month’ to inspire and empower its employees to contribute to United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through various activities. This year, the focus has been on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), which, from a social perspective, contributes to the following SDGs:
SDG #5 Gender Equality
SDG #8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG #10 Reduced Inequalities
Ricoh's alignment with the SDGs ensures a comprehensive approach to corporate responsibility, integrating environmental, social, and economic sustainability into our core business strategies. Our Global SDGs Action Month provides a focal point for us to learn about, celebrate and contribute to a sustainable future, driving positive change on a global scale.
Q: Why is diversity and inclusion so important for you as a company?
A: DEI credentials are, of course, important when it comes to winning new business and being accountable to customers and stakeholders. But for us, it’s about much more than that.
Internally, we wanted to create a platform to engage with our people around the causes that are important to them. We believe this is key for any organisation looking to drive fulfilment through work for their employees.
Externally, we know more and more candidates care about company values and culture. DEI plays an important role in attracting talent and our positioning as an employer of choice.
Recent government reviews following events such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and COVID-19, have highlighted the need for UK workplaces to engage in addressing inequalities in the workplace and support the societal change that is so desperately needed. At Ricoh, we wanted to own this challenge. DEI has always been part of Ricoh’s DNA (our founder Kyoshi Ichimura championed a responsible, progressive and people-first approach to doing business back in 1936), so we already had a strong foundation to start addressing it proactively.
Our DEI strategy was launched in 2015 in the UK, with a dedicated DEI team to deliver on the commitments we have made.
Q: Last year, you were nominated for a D&I award for your culture programme ‘Living the Ricoh Way’, what is a culture programme and why are they beneficial to businesses?
A: Company culture is key to creating an environment where people feel they are fully included and can bring their true selves to work. It impacts every aspect of working at an organisation and is key to its success as it underpins how a business reacts to change, growth, and challenges.
For me, a culture programme is about improving and solidifying the way we live our lives at work, by setting expectations, and by bringing together our strengths so everyone is working towards the same goal in a positive way. A culture programme is usually linked closely to the company’s mission, goals, and values. At Ricoh, this is all about helping employees achieve fulfilment through work, so the alignment between the core business message and DEI is already there.
Programmes like Living the Ricoh Way can be very beneficial to organisations because they set the scene for bringing the best out in people, therefore resulting in a more inclusive, engaged, and productive workforce. In fact, I believe they are crucial to business success because creativity and innovation happen when people feel valued and respected.
Q: Can you tell me more about your specific programme, ‘Living the Ricoh Way’. Why was it created and what is involved?
A: Our business is all about creating workspaces where everyone can succeed and thrive. But simply having the right technology is not enough to create and nurture a true sense of belonging and inclusion among employees.
To fully understand the scale of our DEI challenge, we needed to build up a complete picture of our people – diversity data, inclusion sentiment and feedback. The data told us that, overall, Ricoh had a very positive culture, but it also unlocked the insights needed to nurture inclusion in small areas where this wasn’t the case.
The Living the Ricoh Way programme, launched in October 2021, has been designed to give all our people the skills to recognise and challenge even the smallest behaviours and unconscious biases that feed into larger feelings of exclusion. The programme is embedded in our learning and development programmes, and across all areas of the business through Living the Ricoh Way champions.
Q: How does your culture programme contribute to the overall wellbeing and productivity of employees?
A: While Living the Ricoh Way underpins all our activity, we have several other initiatives in place to address all aspects of what DEI stands for. Our executive sponsorship programme, affinity groups and wellbeing champions are great examples.
But to have an engaged and happy workforce, we shouldn’t be looking at DEI in isolation. I work with various teams across the business to ensure our employees’ experience sits at the heart of everything we do. For example, I work very closely with the rewards and benefits team to ensure people can get the right support if they’re struggling with their wellbeing. We’re looking at this as a journey from when an employee first expresses their need for help through one of our wellbeing champions, to that person actually getting the help they need through the employee assistance programme or via our benefit partners like BUP or MyEva. For me. It's all about having that long-term view and systematic approach.
We have several measurement processes in place to track our key metrics and ensure we’re on the right journey. DEI and wellbeing are key to building a resilient and agile workforce that can generate success and growth for organisations, especially if they are going through digital transformation or any other transition.
Q: To what extent do you measure the effectiveness of the programme and what results have you seen?
A: To measure the impact of the programme, key indicators are:
Employee engagement scores
Inclusion survey results where there are specific questions that relate to Living the Ricoh Way
Visible changes in culture and behaviour across target areas of the business through story sharing
Engagement with Living the Ricoh Way training
Engagement through the Living the Ricoh Way champions network
Overall, we have seen great progress. Our Living the Ricoh Way champions network grew from 20, when we launched the programme, to 74. This shows the growth and engagement with the programme, and colleagues wanting to be involved. We are hearing more stories from across the business about managing zero tolerance behaviour and feeling more comfortable to call out below-the-line behaviours.
We have also trained over 90% of our line managers on Living the Ricoh Way, and ensure all new managers have the training when they start with Ricoh.
Q: How do you ensure the programme is inclusive and considerate of the diverse needs of all your employees?
A: Support from key stakeholders is key to success for change programmes in any organisation. You also need to bring everyone on the journey with you. This can only be achieved through communication and education – if your people don’t understand the reasons behind the change, they won’t engage with you on solutions.
Before we launched the programme, we put together a strong working group to represent all parts of the business:
Inclusion and wellbeing manager – I was aligned to the programme to drive the inclusion message throughout all the programme’s activity and to make sure the key stakeholders are part of the programme, with as diverse a population as possible driving the initiatives to meet everyone’s needs
Our CEO, Glenn Griggs, sponsors the programme and as our Inclusion Executive Sponsor, makes sure the message is driven from the top, and that all employees can therefore see how important it is to the business from an inclusion perspective
Our executive sponsors for diversity strands – part of the executive sponsors remit is to support Living the Ricoh Way and advocate for their aligned diversity characteristic in the activity they do
Our wide champion network – having champions from across the business in terms of location and division means we are reflective of the population at Ricoh
We make sure our key employee voice groups such as our affinity groups, employee forum and support networks are also engaged with the programme and that Living the Ricoh Way is weaved into their activity too
Q: What challenges have you faced implementing the programme and how have you addressed them?
A: The biggest challenge we have as a business when implementing our programmes is being able to reach all our employees across the UK. We have colleagues who are office based, field based, hybrid workers and those working on customer sites. We have addressed this primarily by creating a network of champions across all divisions and locations who can make sure the programme reaches everyone.
Alignment with our marketing and communication teams has been crucial. We have a robust communication plan in place that incorporates different employee touchpoints, such as all-employee town halls, senior leadership calls, and our weekly business-wide newsletter. We work closely on content, e.g., podcasts and webinars, to make sure the message is consistent and aligned with the external activity including PR and on social channels.
Q: How does the culture programme feed into your employee value proposition?
A: Talented individuals with the right skillsets and values are not easy to come by in the current job market. Many candidates now cite the right company culture as one of their key priorities. It’s not just about the job and the work environment, they want to be working for a responsible business with a strong ESG agenda and corporate values. I know Reed has done a lot of great research on this subject, which I would encourage everyone to look up.
Last year, Ricoh released research into employee frustrations in the workplace. We found the average cost of replacing an employee stands at €10,600 across the EU – replacing top talent is clearly extremely costly, so retention should be on top of every business leader’s agenda.
Q: Any additional advice, tips or information you feel it’s important for other businesses to be aware of?
A: Before you start working on any culture change programme, it is very important to engage with all key stakeholders. You must consider who is not ‘in the room’, find the right way to include them in the process and ensure everyone has the equal opportunity to give feedback at various stages. We have made tweaks to Living the Ricoh Way programme on an ongoing basis over the last three years based on our stakeholder feedback. It really felt like the programme was one that the business had bought in to because of this.
Another tip is to make sure you keep communicating and refreshing a programme, to keep it alive and to bring everyone on the journey with you.
And lastly, don’t expect that change will happen overnight - it’s all about having the long-term view and a systematic approach that will eventually reap benefits for everyone.
If you’re looking for a talented professional to join your team, or a new career challenge, contact your nearest Reed office today.
