The State Of Work is about finding your place in the changing world of work, as an individual or an organisation. Each episode, we'll dive into some of the benefits and limitations we face when it comes to remote and flexible work. And take a look at how we work, how we hire and manage people, and how we live in this increasingly global workplace. The State Of Work is brought to you by Lano.io, a global employment and remote work platform.
Working in a hybrid or fully remote setup comes with many positive opportunities, but can also be challenging, especially when transitioning into a new work environment. That is why the mental health startup Likeminded is dedicated to providing mental health and wellbeing support to people in remote and hybrid setups, and provide support for leaders and their employees. Our host Sandra is talking to Likeminded Co-CEO Kimberley Breuer to hear about their mission statement, what well-being looks like in a remote or hybrid workspace, and what skills the workforce of tomorrow will need to thrive in our new world of work.
4/20/23 • 24:20
The way we work has changed tremendously over the last couple of years, and so has the way companies and their workforce interact. Heather McGowan is a keynote speaker and adviser who helps organisations and their people to get ready for the future of work. She joins from the East Coast of the US to share her insights on what companies need to do to enter the next stage of work, and make sure they are leading with compassion and authenticity, rather than pressure and punishment. Heather has worked with some of the biggest players and is doing her very best to help prepare these companies for the future of work, so we are very excited to have her on and to get to pick her brain on what needs to change for us all to succeed now, and in the future. _____________________________________ About Heather McGowan Digitization, automation, and the reduction in hand-powered creation transformed the way we work almost overnight. As we enter this new era of the future of work, referred to by keynote speaker Heather E McGowan and others as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we can let technology do what it does best and liberate humans to unleash their potential, with a focus on empowerment, ultimately creating the Organizations of Tomorrow. This liberation will make work more human, empowering people everywhere through diversity, equity and inclusion to bring their unique selves to the task of solving global challenges, innovating new ways of thinking, and transforming the way we relate to our businesses, our work, and the world. That is, if we’re ready to learn and adapt to this transition. Future-of-work expert, female keynote speaker and leading strategist Heather E McGowan has helped organizations everywhere, from start-ups to publicly traded Fortune 100 companies, in their mission to navigate this ongoing revolution. Leveraging her background in industrial design, business strategy and academia, Heather helps audiences shift the way they think about the world around them. Everywhere she goes, clients and audiences are amazed by the way she communicates incredibly complex topics in straightforward, authentic, powerful “light-bulb” moments that are both breathtaking and simple to execute. In short, in a one hour keynote, Heather helps you shift the context around which you navigate— she makes you think differently.
3/15/23 • 22:42
Rowena Hennigan is the embodiment of remote work. Having moved from her native Ireland to Zaragoza in Spain to help with her daughter’s asthma, she has since built a remote business that aims to highlight the positive opportunities remote work can bring to communities. We want to talk to her about exactly these opportunities, and how especially rural areas can benefit from the economic power behind remote work. I am also interested to hear what her essentials are for setting up a successful remote work hub, and our host Sandra most definitely wants to know what she would say to CEOs who want to move their employees back into the office and away from remote work. About Rowena Rowena Hennigan is a speaker, professor, and founder of RoRemote. Rowena is passionate about the flexibility and well-being that digital nomadism can offer individuals and families. Even before the pandemic accelerated the growth of remote work, Rowena recognized the market need for training on remote work skills. She started RoRemote, a remote skills training and consultancy company, back in 2018 and coauthored academic courses at TU Dublin on remote work skills. And in 2022, LinkedIn News named her one of the 10 Top Voices in Remote Work. Rowena currently lives in Spain with her location-independent family.
2/23/23 • 34:49
The last couple of years have been tough for many companies. The global pandemic has caused a recession and these uncertain times meant that many businesses had to have huge layoffs. But not Localyze. And in this episode, we are speaking with co-founder and CEO Hanna Marie Asmussen about how she managed to build and grow her business over the past couple of years. We are getting candid and ask her if she had any difficulties finding investors, if she is scared of failing and if in her opinion, it is more challenging for female founders to succeed. About Hanna Asmussen She is the CEO & Co-Founder of Localyze, a global mobility platform for companies and employees. With a passion for living abroad, having been an expat for 10 years and speaking 6 languages, Hanna co-founded Localyze after seeing the pain points associated with moving internationally for work. With a mission to build a borderless world, Localyze recently closed a $35 million Series B round and is expanding into the US. Listen to all our podcasts at https://www.lano.io/podcast
1/25/23 • 23:58
Matt Alder is a talent acquisition and innovation consultant, the host of the recruiting future podcast and author of 2 books on how to recruit the right talent. So who better to talk with about digitising the recruitment process? Matt shares some actionable steps you can take to set up a digital recruitment strategy and shares his thoughts on what the current technology trends are in the space. We also discuss the importance of using different digital channels such as social media or career pages to support the hiring process, and take a look at the future developments that are likely to shape the digital hiring process.
12/14/22 • 25:56
Today’s episode is all about payroll, and we have a proper expert with us to speak about this super important topic: Anita Lettink has helped thousands of HR professionals and people leaders around the world to get ready for the future of work - and that includes advising them on global payroll processes to pay an increasingly remote workforce. We are talking about how companies can choose a payroll solution that works for them, and what factors could and should influence that decision. Anita also shares how important data and data transparency especially is when it comes to payroll, and explains how to integrate such a solution into existing HR technologies.
12/7/22 • 26:55
In this episode, we are chatting to Alex van Klaveren, who is the co-founder and the CEO of Kandidate. Kandidate is an embedded recruiting company that does things a little bit differently. They send their talent partners to work as internal recruiters in their clients' businesses, to help increase the speed and the quality of the hiring process. Alex talks us through the reasons behind this unique approach and gives some very good insights into how to find out if not only a candidate, but also the hiring company is remote ready. He also shares some tips for a successful interview process and what questions are best to avoid when trying to find the right candidate.
12/1/22 • 27:51
What will life in the city centres of the world look like in the future with an increasing remote workforce? That is exactly what host Sandra is talking about with Arnaud Devigne, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Jobgether. Arnaud has some very interesting thoughts and ideas about how remote and hybrid work will affect the downtowns and CBDs around the globe, and what companies and governments can do to reinvent these spaces. They also talk about the change in company cultures and that throwing a pizza party is no longer enough to make employees come to the office.
11/24/22 • 41:01
Iwo Szapar has been working remotely pretty much for his entire professional life - and has turned his passion for new work concepts into a career. As the founder of Remote-How, he advises and trains thousands of companies on how to make remote and hybrid work work. And as the co-founder of the Remote-First Institute, he is actively working on setting global standards for remote work. He has a fascinating conversation with our host Sandra about his journey to remote work, why he believes we need global standards and what he would say to Elon Musk to convince him to go remote. We also take a look at what is next and how far remote work could go in the future.
11/17/22 • 33:41
Work environments have changed tremendously in the past couple of years, and the COVID-19 pandemic has done a fair bit to kickstart a new remote work movement. Today, employers have to rethink their benefit packages to match the new needs of employees - and that’s exactly what Lona Alia, Head of Revenue at Safetywing, is here to talk about today. She joins host Sandra from a family friendly co-working space in Portugal to discuss how Safetywing chooses which benefits to offer, how to find the right benefit strategy for globally distributed teams, and what companies can do to identify the right and the wrong types of benefits.
9/15/22 • 26:30
In this episode, we have 17 years of HR and recruiting experience coming right at you in the form of Adam Bolton, Director of Talent at Currencycloud. Adam joins from his lovely home office in Ireland to talk all things recruiting - from first building a team around him, to switching their interview process during Covid, to following a direct hiring approach in their talent strategy. He also shares how important knowing the culture of a company is for a successful hiring process, and shares some funny anecdotes about interviews gone wrong, including his own unfortunate experience with a pinstriped suit and a bubblegum on a train. Listen on for the whole story.
9/8/22 • 25:29
What is better than one founder? That’s right, 2 founders! Today, we are talking with Bernat Farrero, founder of Factorial HR, as well as our very own Aurel Albrecht, founder of Lano. Both companies have a hybrid approach, meaning that they have employees working in the office as well as remotely. That is not always easy, and the two of them share how they manage their day to day business life and give some great advice on how to create a smooth transition from in-office to remote. This episode is for everyone who wants to know more about founding a hybrid or global first company, or who simply wants to get some insight scoop on how to manage a hybrid and remote business.
8/31/22 • 35:37
We are back with Paul Arnesen from Talentroo for a deep dive into global compensation. We had Paul on before, and if you haven’t listened to that episode, it’s called “How to recruit the best talent for global expansion”, so make sure to check that out. In that episode, he already mentioned the importance of a global compensation strategy, which is exactly what host Sandra and Paul talked about in their second conversation. So if you are looking into hiring remote employees, or scaling up your already existing remote workforce, this is the episode to listen to. Paul explains how companies can approach the topic of global compensation, and which strategies to choose from. He also gives some real life examples and advice on how to decide how much to pay your remote employees, while explaining the different implications global compensation can have on the national workforce of a country.
8/24/22 • 31:36
Mental health has become more and more important, especially over the last 2 years, and especially in the workplace. We need to break the stigma of asking for help when we need it, and companies need to show up to support their employee’s mental wellbeing. That is exactly what our host Sandra talked about with Eva Schneider, who is an ambassador for mental health with a special focus on workplace mental wellbeing. Her mission is to empower organizations to embed mental health into their work culture, and provide a safe space for everyone to share how they are really feeling. In this episode, she shares her own experiences when working with companies and gives some real life tips on how employers can support their workers to maintain good mental health, and not just jump the gun when their employees are already in crisis.
8/18/22 • 32:34
Let’s talk about crypto currency. It’s been the topic of conversation over the last couple of years - and it is more than fair to say that crypto is here to stay. This is also what Rodrigo Rosa believes, who joined our host Sandra from his workation in Lisbon to talk about how to implement crypto currency in your payroll. Rodrigo is the Head of Partnerships at Mode, a UK-based company that aims to make Bitcoin mainstream - and that includes enabling employers to pay their workers in crypto currency. Sandra and Rodrigo talked about the advantages and challenges of a crypto payroll, and how companies can start paying their employees in bitcoin. Rodrigo is very passionate and knowledgeable in this space, and really made it easy to understand a rather complex topic, so we hope you enjoy listening to this episode.
8/11/22 • 35:16
Katharina Hilgers founded her company relokate because she wanted to help people from all over the world to experience an easier and more personal relocation process. Launching her start up at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 certainly wasn’t easy, but she has persevered and is now 2 years and many success stories in with relokate. She joined our host Sandra from her home office in Berlin to talk about her motivation for working with and for people, how she came up with the idea for her company, and what the biggest challenges are when relocating an employee.
7/28/22 • 32:01
Martin is a people person, you can tell that right away when you start talking to him - which is why he has found his way into HR as the business unit director of Catenon, a multinational data-driven recruitment service. He joined our host Sandra from their office in Barcelona, where he lives, to talk about a phenomenon that has affected businesses all over the world: the great attrition. He explains what great attrition means and what companies can do to keep their top talent. Martin is very passionate about creating a sense of belonging and bringing back a more human approach to managing people, and hopefully we can pick his brain on this important topic some more in the future.
7/21/22 • 19:10
Paul Arnesen founded Talentroo in 2019, an independent recruitment agency that also works as a strategic human resource partner – and is a proud remote-first company. Paul and his team contract people from all over the world and support their clients in finding not only the right candidate, but also the right human resource approach for each employee. Paul joined host Sandra from his sunny office in Italy to talk about what led him to start Talentroo, from initially conducting recorded interviews for businesses, to starting his own recruitment agency. He also shared some insights about Talentroo’s vetting process for candidates and the important topic of global compensation, before giving some food for thought about what the future of work has to offer.
7/14/22 • 38:50
Not only employees and businesses had to adapt to the new state of work that the pandemic has brought on. HR software providers also had to take a step back and see what really matters to their customers in a new working environment. Sabrina Fiorin from German HR software company kiwiHR explained how they go about implementing new features to their product, and how important it is for them to have an active exchange with their clients about what would make their life’s easier. Sabrina also shared some inside scoops about the unique challenges companies are facing today, and gave her thoughts on what the biggest trends and developments are in the human resource space.
7/7/22 • 21:13
Remote work has become a new normal for many companies and employees alike. Especially with the hit of the COVID-19 pandemic, employers started exploring new ways of working with their team, and we have seen an incredible uptake in remote work positions. Sarah Hawley has been an advocate of remote work for many years, and has founded the world’s first ever remote work marketplace with Growmotely in 2020. She is incredibly passionate about the freedom and the opportunities remote work brings about. In her chat with host Sandra, she talks about what drives her to do the work she does, how she managed the transition from an in-office company to a fully remote business, and how establishing open and transparent communication has helped her and her team to build an amazing company culture and spirit.
6/29/22 • 47:58
Successful recruitment has a positive influence on employee satisfaction, productivity and retention. But with the global pandemic disrupting many traditional in-person recruitment events, and so recruiters and hiring managers are embracing bespoke service providers to help them recruit for more complex positions, especially those that now require a unique remote-work skillset. For candidates, the once upwardly mobile are seeking more remote positions, with many companies and agencies now conducting the entire recruitment and onboarding process online. Joining Maddie on this episode of The State Of Work is Moritz Drerup, the co-founder and managing partner of 42matches, a Berlin-based tech recruitment platform that matches global talent with European startups. Listen to Morris and Maddie as they discuss the current and future states of recruitment and why it’s so important to build and hire based on a culture of trust.
11/16/21 • 31:08
About Richard Arundel As COO of Kenjo, HR software for European SMB, Francesco Carbone strongly believes in the potential of HR to bring about positive change in the workplace and within employees. He is passionate about studying what truly drives people and business and believes that the real impact happens at work. Francesco has more than 14 years of professional experience in various international technology companies such as LOVOO, PaulCamper (travel start-up) and the Innovation Hub. He has been involved in their development and growth and has extensive experience in successfully placing innovative start-ups in the market. His speciality is corporate culture and organizational development.
11/1/21 • 34:03
It’s another episode of Success Stories on The State Of Work, where host Maddie Duke chats to individuals about their experiences working remotely or in distributed teams. This week’s guest is Nicole Gottselig, senior content marketing manager at Uberall, a global SaaS provider that offers digital location marketing solutions to their clients. Nicole is also an experienced mindfulness meditator and she speaks to Maddie about her journey in mindfulness meditation practice and and how she’s been facilitating in-person, remote, and hybrid meditation program to her colleagues at Uberall, resulting in an increase of happiness and wellbeing.
10/25/21 • 19:53
Global companies are facing a tech skills shortage, leaving a gap in the market for expert bespoke companies to connect job opportunities with a global talent pool. In the past, software developers have been lured by glamorous tech hubs such as Silicon Valley, but they’ve also been known as the original remote workers. So just how has the global pandemic changed the job marketplace for developers? And are more opting for relocation packages or are they seeking more remote work opportunities? And aside from financial perks, just whats sorts of benefits and company values are appealing to senior developers? Remotely Works is a software development talent marketplace where US-based software companies can hire great, pre-vetted software engineers that work remotely from their home countries in Latin America. Remotely’s founding members originated at Olapic, where they built a 130-person strong team in Latin America, ranging from engineering to marketing, account management, finance, and support. They use their expertise to help companies build and manage great remote teams fast. Pau joins Maddie today on The State Of Work to discuss the recruitment vetting process, increased cultural awareness when hiring candidates and the importance of company values and future trends for attracting and hiring top global developers.
10/19/21 • 41:14
About Christina Christina helps aspiring freelancers and business owners change their lives with remote work. She’s worked as a freelancer and helped dozens of brands in multiple continents grow their online presence through digital marketing and growth strategy. After years of working as a freelancer, Christina chased a more purposeful route and took the leap to help others pursue their freelancing careers and be able to live a location-independent life. In January, she launched Rise Remotely – an e-commerce storefront of online education to help people to go remote or work better remotely.
10/11/21 • 21:21
Flexible work empowers companies, employees and freelancers to optimize their creativity and productivity by allowing workers to choose surroundings that best align with their daily tasks. The last two years have seen an accelerated shift to remote work but this doesn’t always mean working from home or locking yourself into one coworking space contract is the most suitable option. Enter: independesk. Serial entrepreneur and founder Karsten Kossatz is driven to change the world and create solutions that change our lives for the better. He founded independesk to utilize existing office infrastructure to be able to offer co-working solutions and for freelancers and remote workers to be able to find an on-demand flexible desk in their neighbourhoods. With the vision to make the working world more user centered, independesk has helped facilitate flexible and community-driven co-working, networking, and the opportunity to select from a variety of offices, coworking spaces, agencies and ateliers in which to work from. This allows independesk’s users to take full control over their optimal working environments and to differentiate between their private and professional lives. Karsten joins Maddie today on The State Of Work to discuss how flexible work is evolving, why an optimal space matters for creativity, focus, and productivity as well as some advice for other early stage startup founders.
10/5/21 • 37:57
About Fernando Fernando D’Imperio is a data engineer living and working in São Paulo, Brazil. Fernando has a degree in environmental engineering and an MBA in Business Analytics and Big Data. Previously at Monsanto and SumUp—as well as running his own electronic waste recycling company—Fernando is honing his profound curiosity, problem solving skills and passion for data by working remotely (and loving it) as a Data Engineer for Lano.
9/27/21 • 18:45
With Denis Barnard, Director at HRmeansbusiness Ltd. Denis is an industry veteran, with over 30 years experience in HR and payroll and also 20 years experience as a remote worker. He heads up HRmeansbusiness and GreenRiver Technology, is a partner at All Remotely, and is also a published author As technology accelerates to include automation and AI, what does it mean for the current state of payroll? How are companies shortlisting from many providers on offer and how are these providers up-to-date with the ever evolving iterations of remote and distributed teams? Join Maddie and Denis for a discussion about the current state of payroll, how to choose the right provider and what challenges lie ahead for both employers and employees as technology continues to accelerate.
9/21/21 • 45:15
Sibylle Greindl has years of experience as a freelance journalist and now lends her writing and storytelling skills as Head of Acquisition at Accountable, a Fintech mobile/web app that helps freelancers with tax and financial issues in Europe.
9/14/21 • 13:16
With Jenny Jung and Anna Löw, co-founders of MindTheLeader. What does it mean to lead during disruptive and transformative times? What kind of soft skills do today’s leaders need and where can leaders (particularly HR managers) turn to for support? On today’s episode of The State Of Work, Maddie is joined by MindTheLeader co-founders Jenny Jung and Anna Löw. Jenny and Anna started MindTheLeader to help companies to become successful and resilient organizations and to provide leaders with a range of services including organizational development, training, and systemic coaching. Join the conversation as they discuss the role of the organization as a complex living organism, the role of the coach in leadership training, and just what people leaders need in their toolboxes in order to best support their organization and teams.
9/7/21 • 43:39
