The hybrid workplace transformation - HR challenges.

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Hello. My name is Nadia Harris and I'm the founder

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  of remote work advocate dot com.

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  And today I would like to share hits about the

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  hybrid workplace transformation.

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  So we basically know that hybrid is right now.

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  Really common companies are going hybrid.

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  We see it when we follow all the statistics and

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  all the trends online.

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  Well it's basically everywhere, but it's not that easy to

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  actually create or implement a hybrid work model.

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  There are many ager challenges and I happen to know

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  them because I work with different global companies that are

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  actually right now going towards the hybrid approach.

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  And I would like to share these challenges with you

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  today so that you can also think about them.

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  Um, maybe you face the same ones and try to

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  establish solutions on how to do it.

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  Right? All right.

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  So the first one is lack of equality within the

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  team. So um this is a question raised quite frequently

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  because we really want to make sure that um everybody

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  gets the same working experience.

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  So when we have people in the office and people

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  working remotely, we always ask ourselves, okay, so how can

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  we make sure that we really treat them equally, that

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  it's not this way, that oh, we see people in

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  the office, so we're going to be all right, you're

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  really working, you are my top priority.

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  The rest is remotely whatever.

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  Okay, so we have to make sure that everybody gets

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  the same approach.

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  Um and here, we need to mention one really important

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  thing, because some companies are implementing the hybrid work model,

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  meaning that they will allow their team members to work

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  from home to three times a week, and the rest

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  of team members will work from the office, or we

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  can have hybrid companies where we're going to have people

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  working in the office, some working sometimes from home, sometimes

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  from the office and some team members will be working

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  only remotely.

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  Okay, so it differs, there is no one size fits

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  all approach here.

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  So it is about designing your own hybrid workplace.

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  Um no matter how you do it, still, you must

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  absolutely consider that everybody has to be treated equally and

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  hear my hint is to follow remote first companies and

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  their practices to make sure that everybody's on the same

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  page and that everybody gets the same experience no matter

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  where they are.

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  All right.

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  Um, the next challenge is non scalable communication, have it.

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  So, I'm sure back in the day, we all remember

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  chit chats in the kitchen cafeteria during lunch, whatever.

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  Okay. And uh well, we can just connect with other

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  team members with other employees in our company.

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  So how do we do that?

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  It's part of them are right now remote.

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  Um, well, we have to engage them as well.

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  So well, in that case obviously we cannot eliminate these

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  chit chats and we will always, you know, stop walking

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  down the hallway and talk to someone.

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  But I suggest always, I always suggest creating channels on

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  our communication apps, whether it's slack or Microsoft teams, whatever

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  you have, really in your team and then, you know,

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  sometimes share some emojis may be fun stories, even if

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  you're in the office, take a picture, you know, and

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  allow others to laugh with you who are not in

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  the office right now, simple things like that make everybody

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  feel connected.

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  And obviously in terms of communication as much as synchronous

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  is the rule, which I'm sure you've heard it should

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  be implemented definitely as well in terms of business communication,

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  Alright, mastering hybrid meetings.

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  This is often raised quite frequently and I tend to

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  speak about this a lot, so how to make sure

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  that people who are not in our office, not in

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  our conference room are heard and are engaged during the

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  meeting, right?

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  We don't see them, so we just tend to yell

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  and scream and we speak first and there is someone

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  with their laptops somewhere working remotely and they're like okay,

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  never mind, I'm just not going to say something in

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  the end.

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  Um well it can't be that way, so definitely we

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  should redesign how we facilitate the meetings, stick to the

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  agenda, make sure that everybody is able to speak up,

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  okay, so try to do it this way and also

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  try to use software as much as possible to help

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  you with this hybrid meeting experience.

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  So if you can possibly make the people bigger on

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  the screen, not like, you know, you just have your

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  laptop laying next to you and everybody's talking and nobody

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  pays attention.

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  But maybe this remote worker can appear bigger.

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  Maybe on the wall.

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  Something like this is going to help.

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  And also ensure top connection because sometimes remote workers are

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  willing to say something but the connection is so bad

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  that they just really tend to give up and that's

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  what I see a lot.

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  Um Okay, the role of the office, people also asked

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  me this question a lot Nadia uh we have a

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  challenge. How should we make sure that people um come

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  back to the office they don't really want to.

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  Uh And I think it's all because of um not

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  really explaining what the role of the office is going

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  to be.

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  I think that the majority of employees, they think that

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  oh it's going to be the same as it was

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  before. The pandemic.

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  No it's not.

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  We should redesign the role of our office.

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  If we follow all those biggest companies in Silicon Valley,

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  we're going to see what they say.

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  The majority of cases that the office is going to

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  be for building relationships, it's going to be for creative

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  work, it's going to be for workshops for brainstorming for

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  connecting for team building really, you know and all the

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  deep work can be done from home or can be

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  done remotely.

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  Okay. So if you explain it this way, if you

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  design it this way then I don't think you have

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  to convince anyone to come and meet others to have

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  fun um and just have a more efficient working experience

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  um employee benefits, it's time to redesign employee benefits, fresh

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  fruit free beverages, this is something that we all know,

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  but obviously if somebody's working remotely we're not going to

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  send the fresh fruit every day, especially if someone lives

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  in a different country.

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  It's a no no.

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  Okay. So what I see a lot, it's comfort what

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  companies are doing right now.

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  They have this um solution where people can choose one

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  out of 10 benefits, for example something that you want

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  for yourself.

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  Not that there is a one size fits all, take

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  it or leave it.

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  No, but there are for example 10 15 2030 50

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  depends. I've seen many literally that people can choose what

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  they want.

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  You can choose to three benefits and that's all right,

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  so everybody takes whatever they want.

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  So we should definitely redesign it and the legal aspect

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  and the legal aspect is super broad.

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  I'll try to tell you in a nutshell.

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  So basically how can we hire remote workers based on

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  employment contracts, if we have people working in our office

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  and they get employment contracts with all benefits that come

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  with it.

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  Nice. Okay.

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  But how do we make sure that people who work

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  remotely are not just hired as freelancers, which used to

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  be the case in the past, we really don't want

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  to do that, right?

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  Um and the majority of cases, there are many reasons

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  why we don't want to, that would be a different

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  topic anyway.

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  There are solutions to it.

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  If you have questions reach out to me, I'm happy

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  to tell you work to look for them because luckily

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  there are many, what if someone wants to work from

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  another country?

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  Okay, so you have someone who is located in your

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  country, has this employment contract sometimes comes to the office,

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  sometimes works from home, Everything is cool, but you're saying

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  as a company, oh, we're going to be flexible.

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  So they'll say, oh, amazing.

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  So now I want to work from a different continent

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  maybe for two months.

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  What do we do now?

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  How should we make sure that it's all done lawfully

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  well. There are solutions to that as well.

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  That's the good news.

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  Um, and how to take care of insurance.

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  It's also a crucial aspect in order to make sure

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  that all the health and safety processes are lawful.

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  Okay. And that they care about, mm that we care

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  about our employees.

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  Um, how should we start?

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  Okay. So now when we face all these challenges and

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  probably many, many more, how should we start?

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  Well, first things first and I know many people don't

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  like the word audit, but audit is necessary.

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  Okay, audit evaluation assessment, call it as you want it.

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  But you first have to check what you need in

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  order to provide a solution.

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  So the more you evaluate all the processes of your

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  company or the procedures, all the tools or the habits,

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  the culture and everything, then you're able to come up

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  with a scalable hybrid solution.

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  So um and the other thing that you should definitely

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  do engage team members to create the change together.

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  If you tell them we're going to do it this

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  way, most probably they will be like, okay, we don't

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  really understand it.

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  We don't really know.

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  But if they feel that they participate and to change

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  themselves well, they will be definitely more enthusiastic about it.

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  Okay, so make sure that you create the change together.

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  Okay. Um that's all for today.

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  I hope that many things seem a bit more clear

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  in terms of the hybrid workplace transformation and I want

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  to thank you very much for watching.