Ricoh's Vision Programme

We recognise the challenges companies are finding when it comes to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I). The ITP has successful worked with organisations nationwide, developing and executing programs aimed at attracting and retaining a diverse pool of talent. Armed with the expertise, capabilities, and resources, we are ready to support you in crafting bespoke initiatives for your company to achieve its DE&I objectives.

A exemplary example among our partner companies leading the way in DE&I is Ricoh UK.

Ricoh UK has been committed to providing equal opportunities through a proactive and inclusive approach to employment. They work with experts in inclusivity and diversity to ensure they are taking the right actions to recruit in the right way. Working with groups and communities that have traditionally been at a disadvantage in the Telco sector is crucial to their approach and their collaboration with Business in the Community Opening Doors ensures they stay true to this value every day.

To keep their ambitions on track, Ricoh regularly audit, review, and evaluate progress, using data on inclusion and diversity to highlight where barriers exist and show the impact of initiatives, making appropriate changes if needed. Ricoh aims to attract, recruit, develop, promote, and retain talented professionals with diverse backgrounds that reflect the communities in which they do business. This is what they call The Ricoh Way.

We caught up with one our newest Board Member Joanna Parker, Ricoh Business Development Director to understand how The Ricoh Telco team is changing the way they hire, through the Ricoh Telco Vision programme has led to great success for their business, her customers and most importantly her team.

As a global company with customers and operations in over 200 countries and many cultures, Ricoh is already incredibly diverse. Our people speak over 30 languages, and we represent a range of races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and people with special needs. We also operate in diverse environments, as evidenced by our workforce, communities, suppliers, and partners. Ricoh has always been a place where all aspects of our employee's experience--from recruitment to retirement--are done in the atmosphere of inclusiveness and respect.

During COVID we realised how important it was to actively live the Ricoh Way as we saw many people displaced from work, young people leaving school, college and university with no clear direction, and an industry starting to lose experienced talented employees with no back up plan and a workforce not knowing how we could survive this. We also saw businesses drastically reduce overheads, reducing headcount and spend across employee led projects.

Watching this happen before our very eyes made us rethink how we should be attracting and hiring new employees from diverse backgrounds to not only give people the opportunity to retrain where needed but also to hire from a diverse talent pool. We knew that diverse teams brought more voices and perspectives, leading to innovation and creativity so why not provide this model directly to our customers at a cost-effective price. By removing existing barriers and sometimes preconceptions on who we should be hiring as Telco consultants we were able to recruit from a wider talent pool and at the same help retain key talent in employment while meeting customers financial commitments.

We called this the Ricoh Vision programme. The Ricoh Vision programme in essence is about providing our customers with a diverse workforce across Cyber, Mobile / Fixed Networks and Field Engineering who are coached, developed, supported, and empowered to reach their full potential ensuring the highest levels of productivity, engagement, and performance results from day one within a fixed budget.

Once recruited Vision candidates are equipped with the best in industry training to fulfil the needs of our customers. We train our teams using specialist and occasional tailored bespoke training courses. Classroom and “on the job” based training also ensures we achieve high standards and produce quality, consistency, and excellence from the teams. Ricoh employ a CiP/SMART model to ensure that our teams are supported and continuously trained throughout their 6 /12 /18-month engagement and everyone employed on the Vision programme is hired via a Fixed Term Employment or Apprentice contract. The great news is that after the initial onboarding time our candidates can become permanent members of our customers team or our team, helping to drive insourcing strategies and build diverse teams.

So how do we do this? To ensure we secure the best candidates we follow a rigorous selection and interview process to understand our candidates career aspirations. We’ve also been working in partnership with best-in-class industry training and specialist recruiters, to attract diverse and inclusive talent across the Ex-Military, Apprentices, Graduates / Students, people looking to retrain and reskill / upskill and career breakers wanting a new direction.

Ricoh UK has also signed up to ‘Opening Doors’ campaign launched by Business in the Community (BITC), the largest and longest established business-led membership organisation dedicated to responsible business. BITC’s latest initiative aims to create a movement of businesses committed to becoming more inclusive recruiters, opening doors to those who face barriers to work, and tapping into more diverse talent pools. 

Ricoh boasts a longstanding partnership with BITC and actively works with The Prince’s Trust to support underprivileged groups. Ricoh has also signed up to the Ban the Box campaign, Living Wage Foundation, Social Mobility Pledge, Disability Confident Committed, Mental Health at Work Commitment, and the Armed Forces Covenant, all of which have specific pledge actions that form part of Ricoh’s diversity and inclusion strategy.

It's our customers who see the real benefit from the Vision model. They are kept fully informed fully along the way. Our Business leads, Human Resources, and Resource Management teams work with our customers to select talent to support Ricoh’s customer delivery obligations and our clients future resourcing needs.

Ricoh also continue to deliver an outcome-based model ensuring accountability across training, support and accreditations, Security Clearance, Man Management, Onboarding, and integration. Our customers have dedicated point of contacts to ensure day-to-day support. Our candidates have dedicated point of contact within Ricoh, an aligned Mentor and a customer stakeholder point of engagement. 

At the end of the programme delivery cycle, or delivery milestone, Vision candidates can seamlessly transition as a permanent member of staff at no additional recruitment charge to the customer. This enables our customers to retain their talent as well as gaining individuals who understand the business culture, objectives, and values. The move-to-permanent customer model supports reduction in hiring, training and time costs associated with traditional recruitment, whilst enabling delivery.

Since the launch of Vision, we have successfully recruited for several high-profile teams across the Telco industry. The feedback received has been hugely positive.

If you want to learn more about the Ricoh Telco Vision programme, please reach out to Telcorecruitment@ricoh.co.uk.

| About Ricoh |

Ricoh is a leading provider of integrated digital services and print and imaging solutions designed to support digital transformation of workplaces, workspaces and optimise business performance. 

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh’s global operation reaches customers in approximately 200 countries and regions, supported by cultivated knowledge, technologies, and organisational capabilities nurtured over its 85-year history. In the financial year ended March 2023, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,134 billion yen (approx. 16.0 billion USD). 

It is Ricoh’s mission and vision to empower individuals to find Fulfilment through Work by understanding and transforming how people work so we can unleash their potential and creativity to realise a sustainable future.  

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.co.uk