Background information

Ricoh is active in both consultancy and IT related services. The Belgian division has approximately 800 employees. The company decided to act quickly with centralised coordination at the beginning of the pandemic. For some employees it was necessary to fall back onto the temporary unemployment system, others started working from home on a fulltime basis.

Content of measure

Apart from the usage of telework and temporary unemployment the company management started with regular direct digital contact with their employees via digital coffee corners. In the early phases of the pandemic a system was installed to make sure that certain heads of HR were always physically present at the office in case of questions or issues. In addition HR services commissioned their local managers to contact their employees directly.

In addition the company allowed for their employees to be tested for COVID at their head offices voluntarily and free of charge. In total 330 employees made use of this offer to be tested.

Use of measure

The entire country (800 employees).

Contents

• Health and safety
• Telework

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment	Does not apply to businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
Company / Companies	Companies

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Unknown	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Unknown
• Main level of involvement: Company level

Involvement

Involvement of social partners is unknown (not mentioned). The trade unions do however have an important role to play via the obligatory H&S committees.

Views and reactions

No public statements by social partners.

Sectors and occupations

This case is not occupation-specific.

Sources

• 01 July 2021: HR Square edition 199 (www.hrsquare.be)