Remote: It’s about the people, not the tools
UNLEASH editor Jon Kennard talks to Remote’s Karen Falenius about future trends, leveraging a distributed workforce and why people will always be the focus.
Why You Should Care
Tools make your life easier but it's about happy people and that creates loyalty.
Get the full conversation from the expo floor at this year's show.
Amidst the energy of the expo we speak to Karen Falenius, director of international growth at Remote, about how to make the most of our new work paradigm and what themes came out of this year’s Paris show.
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Karen Falenius: …it’s been around for a while, but to be honest, it got a real boost during the pandemic, we all got a taste of it. And in that sense, Remote was in the right place at the right time, and it gave us a massive boost. Because companies and frankly also countries, they became much more open to it.
Jon Kennard: ‘Employer of Record’ is a fairly new term, which has kind of come about with the phenomenon of working from anywhere, which isn’t so much a phenomenon these days, it’s become part of ordinary life. What should companies be looking out for to find a reputable employer of record in these countries?
KF: That’s a very good question. So I would say in a nutshell, it’s all about that you own it end to end. Because I think the worst thing that could happen to you is that you have to deal with many, many third party providers. We’d make sure your people get paid, the taxes are being paid, we take care of the compliance, and we have in-house people that are the experts in each country that can advise you, but also just make sure that everything goes the way it’s supposed to go.
JK: So from your experiences of the last day and a half or so, what kind of themes, what are the topics and buzzwords that you’ve been hearing?
KF: I think I see two themes that actually really interest me personally. Diversity, and inclusion is one of them. So very happy to see that. Just on a personal note, I’m very passionate about that. I’m very glad to be part of a company where we actually have a policy about that. And we are very diverse. So I’m happy to see practice solutions in that area, I wasn’t aware of how much AI can do and analyze and help you out. So all the data points, that’s one trend that I saw.
Another trend is rewards. Recognition is also in the same area. Also, they’re big steps. I’ve seen many providers that help you out in that recognizing people. And I think especially in a remote world, it’s a very important topic.
Because working remotely, you get a lot done, but at the same time, we are still people. And we really need recognition to be motivated. And I think there’s many nice new ways of doing that. So I was super pleased to see that.
JK: Looking to next year, we’re coming towards the end of 2022. What are you seeing on the horizon? We haven’t talked much about emerging tech on UNLEASHcast yet for this show. So anything interesting that you’re seeing there?
KF: Automation is a very big topic. I mean, who wants to deal with all these payroll things, doing everything manually, and so forth. So I think anything that goes towards that is, first of all, a big trend and something that needs to be solved.
Of course, there’s also a lot that could still be even more automated, that makes it easier so that you can focus really on the people. Because that’s another big topic. I’ve seen it in many speeches, in the keynotes. It’s all about the people, it shouldn’t be about the tools.
Tools just should make your life easier and enable you but at the end of the day, it’s about happy people and that creates loyalty to the company, so it benefits all sides…
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Editorial content manager
Jon has 20 years' experience in digital journalism and more than a decade in L&D and HR publishing.
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