Off Mute

Off Mute Season 2 showcased some of the brightest minds in global remote work. Enjoy this recap as we reminisce on the conversations we’ve had together.

Filipa tells us about her personal journey, from the early days starting up in Portugal to leading special projects at Remote today. Barbara and Filipa even share the secrets of how we use our own global HR product to grow and manage our international teams.

In this episode of Off Mute, Remote's Chief People Officer Barbara Matthews is joined by Joel Gascoigne, the CEO of Buffer. Buffer is one of the world’s most popular social media management platforms and an all-remote company that sets a high standard for transparency.Joel shares the story behind Buffer's pioneering decision in 2013 to become a fully distributed company, driven by values like freedom, flexibility, and exceptional customer service. He reflects on how Covid-19 accelerated remote work while also revealing the challenges many companies faced in transitioning, pointing out the differences between deliberate remote work and remote work born of necessity. He provides tangible advice on building connection, community and effective collaboration across time zones with Buffer's 80+ employees in 23 countries. Joel and Barbara also discuss how Buffer's culture of transparency enhances remote work and share examples of ways to be inclusive yet fair.We also explore how Buffer is leveraging AI, both internally to aid workflows and externally within their product to solve key customer problems like repurposing content. Joel leaves us with some amusing anecdotes about the unexpected perils of distributed work and how he solves tech failures when off the grid.

In this episode of Off Mute, Remote’s Chief People Officer Barbara Matthews speaks with Chris Priebe, CEO of Zelt, an HR software company. Chris discusses his previous career investing in tech startups and what he looks for in companies: strong teams tackling interesting markets.Chris and Barbara discuss adoption of HR tools in Europe versus the US and how regulations around things like leave and payroll make HR systems more complex in Europe. Chris shares his perspective on AI/ML in HR, and while concerned about bias in recruiting, he sees automation as freeing up HR to focus on more strategic priorities.Chris emphasizes the importance of security given the sensitive nature of employee data and preventing breaches. He talks about partnerships with companies like Remote and why point solutions will still be needed given the diversity of needs. Looking ahead, Chris predicts increased adoption of basic AI by HR leaders and discusses how distributed hiring enabled Zelt to bring in rare specialized expertise.

Joris Luijke, who led HR at companies including Squarespace, Typeform, and Atlassian, believes employee journey mapping is the future of HR. In this episode, Remote’s chief of people, Barbara Matthews, explores with Joris the employee experience within remote and distributed teams.

In this episode, our Chief People Officer, Barbara Matthews, is joined by the CEO of Syndio, Maria Colacurcio. Maria talks in depth about what equity means to her and the challenges she’s seen in her career, including the dangers of burnout when working from home and the double standards of expectations regarding workplace flexibility for men and women.

Only 12% of AI researchers are women. Artificial intelligence plays a major role in the development of distributed teams and the future of remote work — but what does that future look like with a gender bias in its foundations?In this episode, Barbara Matthews, Chief People Officer at Remote, is joined by Lauren Pasquarella Daley. Lauren is a renowned futurist exploring the future of work and the future of the worker with a passion for advocacy for women in the workplace.In the chat about the future of work, Lauren estimates that 80% of jobs will be impacted by AI. What role will this have on shaping culture and society? And what can the average person do about any of this? Lauren also shares her recent work at a symposium, which looked closely at the future of distributed teams. Her research covers how humans interact with machines; rescaling and upscaling; shifting paradigms in the workplace; and inclusive and flexible teams. We hope you enjoy the latest episode of Off Mute!

All episodes in this series are special, but this one is extra special. Remote CEO Job van der Voort meets Gusto co-founder Josh Reeves. They break down the news of a huge new partnership between their companies and discuss what this means for the future of distributed teams, remote work, and small businesses.Through the episode, you’ll hear how Josh and his housemates co-founded Gusto; how they went about disrupting the payroll space; and the challenges they faced as a company. Josh shares his thoughts on how the pandemic accelerated the remote working space and his tips on achieving success, not only for the individual but the distributed team as a whole. Josh also speaks about new uses of AI technology that can give “superpowers” to anyone willing to experiment a little.Gusto has been a success story since its inception as a payroll solution. More than 300,000 businesses already use Gusto, and with Gusto Global powered by Remote, Gusto customers now have the ability to hire, pay, and manage talent from anywhere. It’s the ultimate advantage in the new world of distributed work.To learn more about Gusto Global powered by Remote, visit the Remote blog.

In this episode of Off Mute, Kandi Gongora, Chief Transformation and People Officer at the Goodway Group, talks candidly about the remote-first strategy driving the Goodway Group’s success. Something must be working well: on three occasions, the company has been recognized by AdAge as the best place to work among companies with more than 200 employees. 

Not all companies hiring remotely know how to keep those remote teams connected. If your team is distributed across countries and time zones, how do you ensure culture isn’t lost in translation?In this episode, HiBob COO Ze’ev Rozov joins the show to discuss how to keep your people at the center of your growth. As one of the top HR software companies in the global market, HiBob was named one of the best inventions of the year by Time in 2022. In this conversation with Remote CEO Job van der Voort, Ze’ev talks about the impact of Gen Z in the workforce; how to empower women in tech; better ways to measure productivity on remote teams; and how to create more flexible organizations. Ze’ev and Job also look to the future to discuss how AI is changing the world of global HR.

Through the work of Na’amal, Lorraine Charles helps prepare refugees for the global workforce.Since its founding in 2019, Na’amal connects displaced people to potential employers, partnering with leading organizations to support people who have been displaced by hardship through skills training, mentorship, and remote work placement opportunities. Labeling herself as a “reluctant entrepreneur,” Lorraine’s background is in academic research. She remains a research associate at the Centre for Business Research at the University of Cambridge, and today she combines her expertise of refugee education and employment with a particular focus on digital work. In this episode, she shares with Job the many challenges Na’amal and the people they work with have to overcome to ensure refugees can work remotely. She explains how shifting demographics in Europe, Africa, and beyond make refugee hiring the logical decision for employers seeking to recruit. And she reflects on contrasting European attitudes to refugees in the wake of the Ukraine crisis. Lorraine also makes a passionate pitch for employers to work with her to recruit interns as an opportunity to trial potential talent. For any employers interested, you can find Na’amal at naamal.org or contact Lorraine directly through LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorraine-charles.

When it comes to digital nomadism, Sam Matthew has walked the walk. Today, he heads the legal team at OnDeck, a platform for entrepreneurs with a fully distributed workforce. Before that, he was general counsel for Remote Year, a company that facilitates travel for those working remotely. In this role, Sam witnessed many of the challenges of facilitating the employment of digital nomads firsthand: he himself worked across 20+ countries in a three year period, linking up with other Remote Year employees in Latin America, Europe, and Asia along the way.  Here he shares with Job some of the key lessons he took from his travels, including the different approaches one can take toward tourist visas and work permits. He explains how countries across the world will have very different approaches to digital nomads, from some that are creating laws to encourage nomadism to others that legally oppose the practice.The conversation also turns to the legal difficulties companies can run into when hiring abroad, from complying with health and safety regulations to discovering the difficulties of terminating a contract. 

In the debut episode of Off Mute, Job speaks to one of the world’s top experts in remote employment law, Tara Vasdani. As the principal lawyer and founder of Remote Law Canada, Tara specializes in employment law, with a particular focus on remote working. She aims to show how proper corporate policies can facilitate remote work and digital nomadism, highlighting what companies need to know before hiring remotely. In this conversation, Job and Tara discuss how digital nomadism provides unique legal challenges for employers, including tax codes, information security, or health and safety compliance. They discuss the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on law, ushering in a new era of “Zoom court” in Canada. And Tara recalls becoming the first Canadian lawyer to serve a statement of claim through Instagram! 

Remote CEO Job van der Voort introduces the newest podcast in remote and distributed work: Off Mute. For startups, Fortune 500 firms, and everyone in between, this show tackles the hard questions about compliance, HR, finance, operations, and legal challenges that come with remote work.

SafetyWing CEO Sondre Rasch joins the show to talk about the challenges of offering benefits to contractors around the world and to discuss his philosophies on remote work leadership.

This week, Ellen Pao (CEO of Project Include) and McKensie Mack (CEO of MMG) join Remote CEO Job van der Voort to discuss their new report on harassment in remote workplaces and share strategies for companies to create welcoming remote environments for all.

Sarah Aviram, Fortune 500 HR expert and author of Remotivation, joins the show this week to share her story of working remotely around the world and her advice on how companies and remote employees can get more from the new way of working.

In this episode of Remote Talks, Hopin's head of remote Jonathan Killeen joins the show to talk about his new role and the future of the events industry.

Allison Barr Allen, co-founder and COO of Fast, joins the show this week to talk about Fast Flex, hybrid remote workplaces, and how to create more inclusive workplaces from the top down.

Tigran Sloyan, CEO of CodeSignal, joins the show this week to break down the biases of traditional hiring processes and provide insights on how to measure the performance of talent teams more effectively.