Empowering hybrid retail and manufacturing employees with enhanced meeting space solutions

This age of hybrid and borderless work has changed team dynamics, shifting traditional office meetings to a more flexible approach that empowers staff members to work, collaborate, and communicate from anywhere.

According to a report from the ADP Research Institute, 67% of workers say they feel more empowered to take advantage of flexible working arrangements at their companies.¹

As retailers and manufacturers offer work-from-anywhere models, these businesses must be able to engage and enable their people. The question is, how? One way is by equipping employees with innovative workplace technology to remain productive while efficiently collaborating and connecting with team members, vendors, and suppliers from any location.

A recent survey indicates that 87% of workers who are offered at least some remote work embrace the opportunity and spend an average of three days a week working from home.² Hybrid work relies heavily upon video, and 62% of remote workers prefer to be on camera during video calls.³

Collaboration technology must evolve, making conventional conference rooms and devices a thing of the past. Today's employees require multifunctional, integrated, and secured solutions designed to enhance anytime, anywhere virtual collaboration — increasing the demand for meeting space solutions.

What are meeting space solutions?

Meeting space solutions are future-forward, end-to-end solutions that employ powerful, integrated technology. Video conferencing, Interactive Flat Panel Displays (IFPDs), and other enhancements allow for seamless collaboration, creating more engaging experiences for in-person and virtual meetings.

These solutions also offer the flexibility to configure meeting spaces based on operational, employee, and client needs. Flexible meeting rooms are ideal for retailers and manufacturing organizations looking for more efficient use of workspaces while reducing their real estate footprint.

But how can meeting space solutions benefit retailers and manufacturers as they work to redefine the employee experience? Here are three examples.

1. Level up your virtual meetings

Whether your marketing team strategizes seasonal offers or the R&D team is brainstorming the latest update for your drones, team members need intuitive collaboration tools.

Video meetings can be effective for presentations and discussions. However, when your team requires more intense collaboration, like working on a document or revising the same presentation simultaneously, you may need alternatives like collaborative digital whiteboards or interactive flat panel displays (IFPD).

IFPDs offer your hybrid workforce sophisticated yet easy-to-use cooperative tools that empower team members, vendors, suppliers, and clients to come together as if they're face-to-face. These smart devices help maximize meetings and engage everyone by enabling them to conveniently review marketing plans, brainstorm strategies, securely share employee or customer information, conduct visually captivating presentations, and more.

2. Make your meetings more secure

Many consumer-grade video conferencing programs might be convenient or offer instant, hassle-free enrollment, but they might be missing an essential component — enterprise-grade security. Regardless of the size of your organization, virtual collaboration often involves sharing confidential data and files, so you must secure your workplace technology and mitigate the risk of data leakage, loss, or breach.

Meeting space solutions offer audiovisual technology that provides a secured infrastructure for your valuable data. End-to-end encryption can protect sensitive information by preventing unauthorized users from accessing your platform.

3. Optimize on-site meeting spaces — your way

Envoy's 2022 Return to Workplace Report states that "63% of employees say flexibility would make them feel more empowered. Nearly half agree that having the freedom to split time between the workplace and home, and the flexibility to choose which days to come in, is just as important as traditional benefits like matching 401(k)s and paid time off."⁴

Knowing employees favor the idea of flexible, hybrid work creates opportunities for retailers and manufacturers to reduce their office real estate or reconfigure current spaces for different purposes.

Meeting space solutions include access to analytics tools that provide insights into room usage – enabling decision-makers to pivot quickly. Real-time data shows insight into space utilization and future planning for more cost-efficient use of resources.

Redefine the future of work for your retail or manufacturing organization

The need for meeting space solutions continues growing with the adoption of hybrid and borderless models. Retailers and manufacturers must redefine their approach to technology and create a modern infrastructure to facilitate better collaboration and communication that enhances client and employee experience.

Regardless of your size, Ricoh can help with scalable meeting solutions tailored to your needs.