The Future is Remote w/ Kenneth Hellem

In a special crossover episode titled "Transforming Teams," Kenneth Hellem from "The Future is Hybrid" and Anna Rex from "The Remote Lab" join forces to explore the challenges and opportunities of transitioning teams from traditional office settings to thriving hybrid and remote work environments. The Remote Lab Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/05DvkeJqkkYsCqPfSXDK2G?si=5ca1c1a6b3fb4766 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-rex-838b3a2/ About The Remote Lab and Anna Rex The Remote Lab is a knowledge node within the future of work, and work in collaboration with research institutes, public and private companies to increase the body of knowledge within the field of the future of work. Anna Rex, an analyst at the Remote Lab, is passionate about is passionate about any and all emerging paradigms in how we organize work, and what that might mean for individuals, organizations and societies. As the host of The Remote Lab Podcast, Anna shares her insights, experiences, and interviews with experts in the field, to help professionals and businesses navigate the world of remote work with ease. Find more reports and insights on remotelab.io Episode Highlights Kenneth, the Head of Hybrid at Beleco, believes that living the remote experience and sharing its benefits are crucial for a successful hybrid and remote work environment. Anna Rex, a fellow remote work enthusiast, echoes these sentiments and emphasizes the importance of exploring the human side of remote work. Together, Kenneth and Anna discuss the unique role of a head of remote, agreeing that it requires a delicate balance of people management, HR, enablement, operations, leadership, and finance. For larger organizations, top leadership buy-in is essential to ensure the head of remote can manage this complex matrix of components effectively. With HR becoming a more strategic component in organizations, the head of remote plays a vital role in marrying theories of economics and psychology to create successful hybrid work environments. During the podcast, Kenneth and Anna explore the challenges of change and remote work, emphasizing the need for individuals to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Kenneth shares an insightful quote, "If you can't define why you're going remote or going hybrid, you're never gonna succeed." Anna Rex adds that understanding the underlying human component of problems is essential before attempting to solve them. The focus should not only be on productivity increases but on the personal benefits of remote work as well. Both Kenneth and Anna believe that as more people live and share the benefits of remote work, a playbook of best practices will emerge to help companies tackle the unique challenges they face. In the meantime, organizations need to find their own way to create flexible and intentional hybrid work environments. Listen or Watch To learn more about Kenneth Hellem, Anna Rex, and their insights on transforming teams for hybrid and remote work success, tune into the special crossover episode titled "Transforming Teams" and don't forget to follow Kenneth and Anna on LinkedIn for more insights, tips, and thought-provoking discussions on the future of work.

In this podcast episode of "The Future is Hybrid," host Kenneth Hellem welcomes Job van der Voort, CEO and co-founder of Remote.com - a platform for managing distributed teams. Job has been a remote work pioneer for over a decade and has a wealth of experience to share. Van der Voort shares his experience building a remote-first company, discusses the benefits of remote work, and the challenges of transitioning from in-office to hybrid. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jobvo/ Summary of the podcast: Van der Voort talks about his background and how his experience working remotely for GitLab inspired him to start Remote.com. He discusses the importance of building trust and communication in a remote team and how he and his team manage to maintain a strong company culture without physical office spaces. Job believes that the greatest benefit of remote work is that it gives people more freedom. "You are not actively making people's life worse by restricting their freedom," he says. "If you do work that doesn't necessitate being physically in a particular location, requiring people to do so means that you are restricting their freedom, freedom in time, but also their freedom in space. They can't live in the location that they want to live in. They have to live close to an office. They are not fully in control of their time because they have to commute. That is very rigid." Having different groups of people (remote vs. in-office) creates a multi-class system and is not effective. Van der Voort also shares his insights on the future of work and the shift towards remote and hybrid work models. He emphasizes the importance of leadership buy-in and setting clear expectations when transitioning to a remote or hybrid model. Throughout the conversation, Van der Voort stresses the importance of flexibility and autonomy for employees and the need for companies to adapt to the changing work landscape in order to attract and retain top talent. There is no good reason for a company to require employees to work from an office if the work doesn't necessitate physical presence. Remote work has become increasingly popular in recent years, and Remote.com has been at the forefront of this trend. However, building a remote company from scratch is easier than transitioning an existing company to remote work. About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast) Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/ #TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #JobvanderVoort #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #Remote.com #WorkCulture #HybridCulture

Listen to Kenneth Hellem in conversation with Florian Jacques, CEO of Midstay. He founded a music festival in Belgium that reached 20k+ festival goers at the age of 23. He has traveled the world to work with startup founders and helped them reach their business goals with innovative user experiences. San Francisco, New York, Australia, Barcelona, SEA... are some of the places where he has worked closely with Executives to help them design their products. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/florian-jacques/ Summary of the Podcast: Midstay is a company that provides team retreats for businesses struggling to communicate their company culture. They offer certified local concierges to manage the retreats and provide local knowledge. Midstay has seen success in their B2B services, with over 250 requests and 27 companies in negotiation. The Importance of Retreats: Companies are investing in retreats to bring employees together for team bonding, annual planning, onboarding, and rewards. The goal of the retreat should be established first to plan activities and bookings accordingly. Retreats create intentional employee experiences and memories, which are important for retention and attracting Gen Z workers. Companies are willing to invest in retreats multiple times a year, especially as they reduce real estate costs. Planning a retreat is a big job and companies should consider reaching out for help. Midstay is a solution for any companies that are willing to bring their team together, boost company culture, and reduce turnover. Companies invest in team retreats as an important investment in building company culture and reducing turnover. About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast) Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/ #TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #FlorianJacques #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #OfficeRetreat #WorkCulture #HybridCulture #RetreatForTheCompanies

Dave Cairns, Office Futurist, Senior VP at CBRE, and self proclaimed Homad. Dave started off his career out of university as a professional poker player where he was ranked as one of the top 100 online tournament players in the world for a time. Along with his outstanding team, he focuses on working with high-growth companies in the tech sector, Space as a Service Operators (#SPaaS) and also with landlords representing each of them on their office leasing needs (which are increasingly becoming “non-traditional”). LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-cairns-5644a233/ Summary of the Podcast: In this podcast episode, sponsored by Beleco, commercial real estate agent Dave Cairns discusses his belief that remote work will not kill cities but will instead reinvent them. Cairns coined the term "Homad" to describe his second coming as a digital nomad, living in a place he loves while still being able to work remotely. He believes that remote work allows him to live his best life by choosing where he wants to be and still being able to work with companies globally. Cairns sees a huge opportunity for the commercial real estate industry to play in the middle space between going to the central office or staying at home. He believes that technology will help nudge us in the right direction in terms of how we co-locate with one another productively. The landscape for what's available in terms of office spaces is poised to change greatly towards branded spaces that are managed and serviced by operators, which comes with a huge opportunity to buy space in many permutations of on-demand. Cairns thinks that this shift can also shift culture for companies to unbundle how people come together. About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast) Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/ #TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #DaveCairns #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #OfficeFuturist #LinkedInInfluencer #HybridCulture

Listen to Kenneth Hellem in conversation with Jordan Carroll, the rockstar of the remote. Jordan Carroll, The Remote Job Coach is also the author of the book “Remote for Life. How to find a flexible job and fast forward to freedom” Check his book here - https://www.amazon.com/Remote-Life-Flexible-Forward-Freedom-ebook/dp/B0BKLX9P6D You can also listen to him on his YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/@JordanCarroll More about Jordan: Jordan Carroll has worked remotely, consistently, upwards of 8 years for: ↳ A global Fortune 50 tech company with over 400k employees (IBM) ↳ A fully distributed, remote-first travel company with 150 employees (Remote Year) ↳ Multiple other startups with a range of 2-50 employees as well as my own businesses Website: https://theremotejobcoach.com/ Show Credit Sources: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hc3csM8YdxE https://www.kenneth-hellem.com/ikigai https://runningremote.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-sellhorn/ About Kenneth Hellem (Host of The Future is Hybrid Podcast) Having lived and worked in 8 countries and led distributed teams across multiple time zones, Ken has come to realize that the future is remote. When companies no longer have to hire within a 60-minute commute radius, a world of opportunity opens up. You can now hire the best regardless of where they work, and your people can have the flexibility and freedom to work when and where they prefer. He is on a mission to advocate and educate. To help companies and individuals embrace this brave new world. And, of course, have a little fun along the way. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hellem/ Website: https://www.kenneth-hellem.com/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5f1SO9rBLFONKhzUmVdfZ3?si=49fee0a3d3eb467e&nd=1 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thefutureisremote4533/videos #TheFutureisHybrid #TheFutureisRemote #KennethHellem #JordanCarroll #Spotify #Podcast #Remote #TheRemoteCoach #RemoteRockstar #HybridCulture