Impact: The final step on the Pathway to Productive People


In his recent spending review statement, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid outlined his intent to place UK productivity at the top of the political agenda for the coming year.

Outlining the continuing productivity problems inherent in the UK, the chancellor indicated an intent to address regional inconsistency, creating economic growth in government-backed institutions and a renewed focus on exports. What he failed to address was the potential benefit for the UK economy if businesses drive their own productivity improvement.

Girl exercising by doing impact aerobics highlighting The Pathway to Productive people

Last year, Ricoh conducted a research project alongside Oxford Economics that explored the potential size of the prize for UK businesses willing to address productivity challenges in four specific areas of operations: people, process, workspace and technology. The result was unveiled in our whitepaper on ‘The Economy of People’ where a projection totalled a potential impact of £36.8m.

The main challenge to realising this benefit, is in understanding how to catalyse change internally. To address this, we’ve introduced The Pathway to Productive people – three papers designed to help businesses understand the practical steps that can be taken on the journey to greater productivity.

In our findings, it’s encouraging to note that the vast majority of CEOs (77%) believe that technology infrastructure will be the biggest factor impacting productivity. Conversely, 87% of CFOs, 84% of CIOs and 86% of CHROs all believe that infrastructure can result in greater impact on business performance.

Listening drives change. But for this to make a lasting impact, organisations need to listen to their staff and take urgent action. This is why the third and final step in The Pathway to Productive people is about the impact of change with workstyle innovation and the benefits which this can bring.

UK business has always led the way in driving change under its own steam – Download our latest report to see what changes you can make and more importantly, to learn about the inevitable consequence of that change – impact.


Phil Keoghan
phil.keoghan@ricoh.co.uk

Chief Executive Officer of Ricoh Northern Europe

Read all articles by Phil Keoghan