Entrepreneurs talking business during the COVID-19 virus
Angelique Slob is Future of Work Catalyst and with her company Hello Monday she co-creates smart working, next-generation organizations.
How is she handling business in these uncertain times?
What measures are you currently taking?
I don’t really take extra measures. Since I accommodate clients from all over the world and I have embraced technology and new ways of working, I work remotely and I don’t have an office.
How do you handle your supply chain?
I don’t have a supply chain since I don’t work with physical products
How do you arrange everything with your staff?
I don’t have employees, however I work closely with several partners and associates, and we already collaborated fully online.
What opportunities do you see at the moment?
To be honest, I feel I have been preparing for this moment for over 15 years.
As an HR executive I was a huge advocate of The New Way of Working, a movement aimed at creating companies where people can work where and when they want while being managed solely on results. My Master thesis from my Organizational Sociology was also related to this subject, and in 2018 I started Hello Monday as a dedicated brand to offer consultancy services in this area.
While smartworking is the most effective way for most tech and innovative companies, real change is hard to realize for many companies. And now it suddenly has become very, very urgent.
I see great opportunities now many companies has been forced to rethink the way they work, and now many employees will shift their priorities. Also, I hope that companies will understand that we need to rethink work in a more sustainable way, not only will that give them the best results, but it will also be better for people and planet.
For now, I have developed two programs to help companies with to maintain business continuity and ensure employee commitment and well-being during this situation, but also how organizations can maximise the opportunities of remote and more flexible working, and reimagining ways of working within the new world.
Positive thought to conclude with:
Of course, this is a difficult and uncertain time. However, I belief that this crisis is a catalyst to a more sustainable future.
We will have changed our beliefs and paradigms once this is over, adapting to our new reality and we will rethink the way we live.
For work, we will change our paradigm. Not only presence vs remote, but also time vs results. We will understand that it IS possible to work together as a distributed team and stay connected, and that will open up endless new possibilities for us, especially for women.
We will break down the “male working paradigm” and we can get to amazing results if we just focus on delivering these, and we will not spend our energy commuting, or in meetings that didn’t add a lot of value.
We will have to spend fewer hours “working” and more hours “playing” – thus increasing our creativity and coming up with better results. We will have better work/life integration, we can manage our own energy and focus on our professional development.
I think the time for real change has come – to come together to create a better world for us all.
