How the Future Works

In this episode, Eleanor and Barry Matthews meet Charlotte Gregson, UK Country Manager for Malt www.malt.com  Malt is rapidly expanding and Charlotte is responsible for growing the UK business.  Malt already has 500,000 freelancers and works with 60,000 businesses.  The discussion covers Malt’s country specific strategy, the importance of community and customer experience, the opportunities and challenges for flexible working posed by the current economic climate and of course Charlotte’s first and worst jobs! "This episode is a symbolic one as it marks the final episode of How The Future Works in its current format. Open Assembly’s two podcasts “Work” with John Winsor and “How the Future Works” with Barry and Eleanor Matthews are being combined into a single podcast titled “Transform Work.” As the title suggests the new podcast will continue to focus on how traditional work formats are being disrupted by digital platform-based open talent models and will include discussion, debate, and interviews with many of the leading thinkers involved in transforming the industry. Please note, we cannot move your subscription from this podcast to the Transform Work podcast feed.  In order to get the same great Open Talent-related content, please search and subscribe to Transform Work wherever you get your favorite podcasts."

In this episode Eleanor and Barry are joined by Colton Chorpenning; digital nomad, author and Senior Interactive Producer for Nest and Pixel at Google.  Originally from Denver, Colorado, Colton has designed a digitally nomadic lifestyle, spending half his time in Denver and travelling the world the other half. To date, he has worked in over 16 countries including Turkey, Austria, Italy, Thailand, SriLanka and India . Colton is the co-author of What The F*ck Is Next - a book he wrote with his father to help people live a life of intention. The discussion includes the Kerala Knowledge Economy Mission, Chat GPT and LLMs and the dangers of eating gummy bears in Colorado!

This episode Eleanor and Barry talk about the Trusted Talent Platform Partner survey and travel plans for work to help boost the freelancing industry in India and Saudi Arabia. Their guest is Ahva Sadeghi, CEO of Symba, a platform with a purpose — to open up the workforce by helping businesses establish remote internships, enabling them to invest in the next generation of talent, and commit to diversity and inclusion. She talks about the lightbulb moment when she realised that Symba had to exist, the benefits of a well-managed internship programme, and the importance of finding the right business partner. Find out more about Symba at symba.io.

The guest on this episode was Glen Hodgson, CEO of Free Trade Europa, a “Think Tank and Do Tank” focusing on liberalisation, free trade, innovation, transparency and the rule of law across Europe. In our conversation he explains what that means and what he predicts for 2023 in way that European governments and other bodies respond to the ongoing growth and expansion of freelancing as a valid career choice for the future of work. Eleanor and Barry also talk about all the speakers from 2022 and what 2023 has in store for Open Assembly.  

Eleanor and Barry discuss topical news including the Autumn statement from the UK chancellor and the recent happenings at Twitter. Their guests this week are Lizzie and Alex Hirst, authors of Sunday Times bestselling book Workstyle: a revolution for wellbeing, productivity and society.   Lizzie and Alex tell their stories and why they felt compelled to create a new word to describe an autonomous way of working, reorientating work to fit around your life instead of the other way around. They also describe Hoxby, the purpose-led company they have built around this philosophy and of course talk about their first jobs, worst jobs and life hacks. Find out more about them at hoxby.com and buy the book Workstyle on amazon.com or any good bookstore

Eleanor and Barry discuss the UK Government’s IR35 hokey cokey and the latest industry facts and figures from Staffing Industry Analysts, before welcoming guests, Casey McElroy and Sam Orrin from Worksome. Worksome defies classification and fits into a number of the industry’s boxes, so we explore where it fits, what makes it different and what the future holds for the company that is on a mission to reduce friction between companies and their external workforce. Find out more about them at worksome.com, on LinkedIn @worksome or search for worksome on other social platforms.  

In this episode Barry and Eleanor talk to Neil Hughes, LinkedIn Top Voice winner, prolific podcaster and all round nice chap. They talk about the extraordinary growth in podcasting, how it can be a useful tool for promotion and profile-building for freelancers and how to find enough motivation and inspiration to record every day. They also pick apart the recent changes in IR35 and what it will mean to UK freelancers if and when it is executed.

In this episode of How The Future Works, Eleanor and Barry are joined by Tanveer Mohammed UST UK’s head of Innovation.  They discuss how the open innovation model enables UST to collaborate with employees, customers and targeted groups of external experts who can all contribute to solving challenges on behalf of UST’s clients.  They discuss how UST is using open innovation to solve problems related to fraud associated with deep fakes and malicious use of AI, as well as a range of diverse client challenges. The team also discuss their plans for The Great North Run, the new PM and Tanveer’s 5x10 round

  In this episode of How The Future Works, Eleanor, and Barry meet Kal Sahota, CEO of Open Innovation platform HeroX. She explains how organisations tap into solvers from around the world to find the answers to their big conundrums. As a completely open crowd, the solvers (or Heros) compete for prize money, but as Kal explains their motivation is more about being part of something bigger and the intellectual challenge. They also discuss Barry’s recent trip to Boulder, Colorado, and Eleanor’s resulting FOMO. https://www.herox.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/Herox

In this episode of How The Future Works Eleanor and Barry meet Matt Dowling, founder of The Freelancer Club and find out more about how the expectation of work for free is a real thing in the freelance industry for creatives. Their #NOFREEWORK movement aims to put an end to that expectation and was born from Matt’s own experience of being ripped off by a client. They also discuss Upwork’s upcoming Work Without Limits event, lightbulbs going on in a family-run brewing company and possibly the best ever worst job. https://freelancerclub.net/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dowlingmatthew/ www.open-assembly.com

In this episode of How The Future Works Eleanor and Barry discuss the role of Change Management and Training in scaling the adoption of Open Talent in businesses of all sizes.  They are joined by Kelvin Wetherill the founder and CEO of NerdApp (now called Supportwave) and they discuss the term “skill sourcing” and how well it fits what they do in matching tech experts with demand from consumers and businesses in as little as 30 seconds using a digital app.  They also discuss UK politics, record-breaking temperatures, and Meerlust wine.   https://supportwave.com/   https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelvin-wetherill-8a013554/?originalSubdomain=uk   https://open-assembly.com/  

In this episode Eleanor and Barry discuss why and how governments want to attract and develop freelance talent.  They discuss the top destinations for freelancers, the incentives that many governments are offering to attract successful freelancers and the investment many countries are making in developing their own local experts to freelance globally using digital platforms.  They are joined by Dr. Rochelle Haynes, founder and CEO of Crowdpotential and an accomplished academic, speaker, author and lecturer on gig working, HR and the implications of an increasingly mobile, digital and global population. www.crowdpotential.co.uk www.open-assembly.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/drrochellehaynes/

In this episode Barry and Eleanor discuss the talent challenges in the healthcare industry; the huge number of vacancies at a time when the demand for specialist skills is larger than ever and growing each year. They are joined by Melissa Morris the founder and CEO of Lantum.  Lantum is a platform tackling healthcare’s most painful and expensive problem – workforce management.  Lantum provides a workforce scheduling platform which gives clinicians control over their working patterns and connects organisations to flexible workers able to fill vacancies and as a result helps to transform the way healthcare professionals schedule their time enabling them to focus on their clinical expertise. www.lantum.com www.open-assembly.com

Eleanor and Barry are joined by Akhil Seth the head of UST’s Open Talent Centre of Excellence.  They discuss the importance of a COE when starting an open talent programme, the role of the COE in establishing relationships with talent platforms and the many functions of a COE in everything from sourcing and interviewing freelance talent, through to ensuring secure systems access, insurance and IP protection – they also have a really fun conversation with an incredibly bright and articulate young professional www.ust.com www.open-assembly.com    

Barry and Eleanor are joined by the charming, erudite and ebullient Albert Azis-Clauson the CEO of Underpinned.  Underpinned have been helping people prepare for the future of work since 2018 – they specifically help people to commercialise their skills and turn their passions into businesses – and over the last 4 years they have helped to prepare 50,000 people for the future of work.  Barry, Eleanor and Albert discuss the importance of relationships, the role of talent marketplaces, the future of work, the importance of focus and why everyone should work hard and be kind – it’s a conversation not to be missed www.underpinned.com www.open-assembly.com

In this special episode, Barry and Eleanor are joined by their good friend and new colleague Dyan Finkhousen to celebrate Dyan joining the Open Assembly team as Chief Strategy Officer.  Dyan joins the team to help realise the Open Assembly vison of creating the operating system for open talent.  Dyan has an incredible career including positions as GE’s Global Director of Open Innovation and Advanced Manufacturing, and Founder of GE GeniusLink and GE Fuse.  Dyan and the team discuss how Open Assembly started, her vision for an open talent future, her interest outside of work and her ability to thrive on very little sleep! https://open-assembly.com/about/team

In this episode Eleanor and Barry are joined by Adam Morehead from Topcoder, arguably the best community building platform in the industry.  Topcoder have built a unique community of 1.7 million of the world’s best technologists.  Over the past 20 years they have placed community building at the core of their offering.  They combine regular virtual events with an annual in person event for the top performers in the community.  The Topcoder Open has become the equivalent of the Olympics of engineering!  This week the team also discuss lessons learned from Rishad Tobaccowala,  Stephen Bartlett, Elizabeth Daily’s How to Fail Podcast and Jay Shetty’s book Think Like a Monk. www.topcoder.com www.open-assembly.com

In this episode, Barry and Eleanor discuss the pros and cons of being a digital nomad, how frustrating it is to try and work without a mobile phone.  BT’s £30m investment in Distributed.co and the rapidly expanding use of Open Talent in the UK.  Their special topic is the use of student talent and how students are being used to provide skills and capacity to businesses, through talent platforms. They are joined by Jeffery Moss the founder and CEO of Parker Dewey.  Parker Dewey offer “micro internships” for students to showcase their skills and potential while also getting paid and providing employers with skills and the chance to get to know student talent who might go on to longer term internships or full time future roles. Links: www.parkerdewey.com www.open-assembly.com

In this episode, Barry and Eleanor talk about the Great Resignation, Tang Ping, and how workers around the world are changing the way they think about work and approach work-life balance. They also look at the ongoing trend towards freelancing and open talent and how governments are reacting. They are joined this time by Elinor Hamilton, freelance voice artist, entrepreneur, ultra-runner, mother-figure-to-many, and voice of the underground. She talks about how voice artists find work and how brands and companies find their voice and tells the story that sparked her own award-winning podcast Tales from the Tannoy. Find out more here: Website: https://www.sayerhamilton.com/ Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/tales-from-the-tannoy/id1507189945

In this bonus episode, Eleanor and Barry are joined by Tom Matthews who has reviewed and catalogued each of the 2021 podcast episodes and the trio discuss the guests, the themes, the answers to the 5 x 10 questions and have a general review of the year.  They remember their favourite answers and the topics that resonated the most, as well as looking ahead to How The Future Works in 2022